Second Lies (The Second Life Series) by Jessica Cruz Read Free Book Online Page B

that I couldn’t risk feeling right now.
    As I exhaled, I stomped up the stairs and met Wes in the bedroom.  He was standing shirtless and wet with his towel wrapped around his waist.  I glared at him.  Anger was boiling hot on my skin.  As soon as he saw me, the smile left his face, fading into oblivion.  I didn’t say a word.
    He cursed. “Fuck…you know.”

Chapter 5
     
     
    “How did you find out?” Wes ran a hand through his wet hair.  Fear struck in his eyes.  He was being careful with his words.  Who knew what else he was hiding?
    “Is that really the important thing right now?” I screamed.  Adriana was weak.  She was emotional.  If she was here now, she’d probably curl up into a ball and cry this out, but that wasn’t me.  Just like at Lux, I transformed into Jersey whenever I needed to be strong, fearless, unbreakable. “What the fuck were you thinking?  My business is my business!  What gives you any right to go to Darth with this?  You know what he’s done to my mother!”
    “I was trying to protect you,” he said in a much lighter voice.  His skin was so pale.  His voice wavered when he spoke.  He didn’t make much eye contact with me, and he was so stiff.  He was a classic liar. “I told Dennis about Lux because I didn’t want this haunting you in the future.  You said you were done with that life, so what does it matter if I had him cover it up?  In the future, you’ll thank me.  You’ll see it was for the better if you ever want to make anything of yourself.”
    “Don’t fucking lie to me,” my heart pounded in my chest.
    Everything I saw in Wes was gone.  Every kiss meant nothing.  Every fuck was just a fuck.  I should have seen this coming though.  He kept rejecting me in the beginning.  He didn’t want to sleep with a stripper, and with the help of Dennis Darth, he could rewrite history so he wouldn’t be dating one either.  As far as I was concerned, he was lying about our whole relationship, so in essence, everything meant nothing.  There was no use mourning over something that never existed.
    I screamed at him, “This had nothing to do with my feelings!  What you did was selfish, all for personal gain.  This is your last chance to tell me the truth before I walk out that door, and never look back.  You have nothing else to lose, Wes…because I’m already gone.  You mine as well tell me.”
    The tension was thick in the air.  We were both frozen in time, staring, memorizing every last detail of this moment.  Wes was the first to break.  He walked towards me and reached for my hand.  I flinched away.  All I wanted was the truth.  All I wanted was to know what I was dealing with.  My women’s intuition told me he was keeping something from me all along.  Now that I knew what, I needed to figure out the extreme and handle it.
    “Adriana, I was worried about you.  I was trying to help,” he groaned and slammed his hand down on the end table. “Don’t do this!  Don’t leave me over this shit!”
    “Are you going to tell me the whole truth?” I didn’t move a muscle.  I was stone, giving away nothing.
    “You already have your truth,” he spat. “I was protecting you .  I was protecting us .  With Dennis’s campaign, people will eventually start digging.  Think about your mom and dad and Nick.  Do you want your face plastered on a newspaper as Darth’s stripper stepdaughter?  I bought my way out of that misery and embarrassment while there was still a chance.”
    His words sliced into me like a knife.  That was all the confirmation I needed.  Whether or not he admitted this was about himself, he said it straight out.  This all had to do with embarrassment.  At the end of the day, that’s what he was, embarrassed by me.  Just like Dennis, if he could create his perfect mate with money and lies, he’d do it, and there was one thing I was absolutely sure of…I’d never end up with anyone who was even remotely like