“Tell me you didn’t just wake me up because somebody stole your lipstick.”
“I need you to listen carefully.”
He did.
When I finished explaining, the joking disappeared from his voice.
“I’m coming upstairs.”
“Don’t confront them.”
“Olivia—”
“Please. If she knows we suspect her, she’ll change her story before we have the chance to understand what she’s done.”
Ryan exhaled sharply.
“I swear, if that woman has been messing with your head—”
“I need you to protect me, not avenge me.”
There was a long silence.
Then he said, “All right. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
At 3:32, Chloe arrived carrying a suitcase, two coffees, and the expression of a woman who had been waiting years for someone to give her a legitimate reason to dislike Vanessa.
“I always knew something was off about her,” she announced.
“Chloe.”
“What? I said off. I didn’t say criminal.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
