“Lewis knows that the fault belongs with me,” I said.
Lewis’s eyes swept to hers. I could read the desperation there. And he didn’t even know what she knew yet. “He used you again, Natalie. Manipulated you into this.”
Natalie huffed when I cut off her response, “It’s too hard to recognize that she wants me and not you? You didn’t see that all along?”
Lewis’s voice dropped low, full of venom. He pointed his finger at me. “I will fucking kill you for this.”
“We both know you won’t do it. I have enough on you, too.”
“Would you both shut up?” Natalie finally cried. “This isn’t about your little friend feud. This shit is about the fact that you lied to me,” she accused Lewis.
“Natalie, I haven’t lied to you,” Lewis said in the most obnoxiously placating tone.
I snorted. “Like hell you haven’t.”
“Shut your fucking mouth, Kensington, before I fucking throw you out of this room.”
Natalie ignored us both. “You lied to me. You didn’t just get me the money and arrange for me to come to New York. You kept a fucking file on me, Lewis!”
Lewis stilled. His eyes widened in shock. “How?”
“And you don’t even deny it.”
Check-and-mate.
Natalie
38
“Natalie, I…I don’t even know where you heard that.”
“Heard it?” I snarled. “Oh no, I didn’t hear it, Lewis. I saw it. I saw the whole goddamn thing. You bought my building. And took pictures of me. You spied on me.” I glared at him with all my pent-up fury. “And then you read my books. The one thing I told you that you could never do, you went behind my back and did anyway.”
“There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for that file,” he said calmly.
He stepped forward as if he was going to reach out for me, but I drew back. Closer to Penn, but not touching him. Far enough back to draw a line of demarcation.
His eyes narrowed at that step. “But you would have heard that if you’d talked to me. If you’d just come to me with these concerns. But no, you ran to him.”
“I didn’t run to anyone. I was presented with facts,” I spat. “And was able to interpret that you did all of these things and lied about them. There’s nothing for you to explain.”
I still couldn’t even believe how this day had shifted. Seeing that file had broken me. Taken the last innocent piece of my soul and crushed it under the weight of the Upper East Side. Because there were no depths that these people wouldn’t stoop to. There was nothing they wouldn’t do to get what they wanted. They would lie, cheat, and steal for what they thought belonged to them.
And when it had hit me, I’d fallen apart.
I wasn’t back together yet. I was still scattered on the floor. But I would not stand here and allow these men to fight over me. I would not allow them to mock and goad each other for another chance at drawing blood. Not when the real culprit hadn’t owned up to his faults. When he didn’t even know what had happened that pushed me straight into Penn’s arms.
While I knew that I probably shouldn’t have done that, I didn’t regret it. I couldn’t regret it.
“I can’t believe that you just cheated on me, and you have the audacity to call me a liar,” Lewis said. He stood taller, indignant.
“You are a liar,” Penn spat.
“Don’t,” I warned him.
“Natalie,” Lewis said with a shake of his head, “I loved you. I love you. I just…can’t even believe that you would do this to me. After everything I’ve done for you. Everything was for your benefit.”
“You keep saying that, but I don’t think it means what you think it does,” I said.
His eyes narrowed. What did he think, that I’d hear him say he loved me and cower and beg forgiveness? I didn’t need forgiveness for what I’d done.
“And I didn’t cheat on you,” I told him plainly. “We were over the minute I found out about that fucking file.”
Lewis shook his head. All high and mighty. “This is disgusting.”
“You can’t even talk about it, can you? You haven’t given me your supposed reasonable explanation because there is no explanation for your behavior. You can blame me for what happened with Penn, but at least I own up to it. We were together because there’s no possible way that I would ever be with someone who did what you did to me.”
“I’m the one who has been there for you and helped you. I’ve done everything I can for you to be happy.”
I almost laughed at how pathetic it sounded. But I could see his anger burning hot again, and the last thing I wanted was for another fight to break out. “Don’t try to spin this shit. That’s what you always do. I gave you the opportunity to come clean, and you held back everything. Everything!”