-TO BE TAKEN DOWN-
Katy Thomas is best known for her booming bakery shop, Katy Cakes, that has desserts as sweet as she.
Her new neighbor, Gage Rivers, is best known for being bitter and closed off from others.
The only thing they really have in com...
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Not even my worst nightmares could create something so horrible. That's how I knew that, despite my wishes, this was real. Mr. Phillips, or rather Ray, was here standing near the doorway holding a liquor bottle, two cups, and a completely surprised expression aimed directly at me. In an act of desperation, I scanned his features to try and find some sort of evidence that it wasn't him. That the man that I had known for so long wasn't a traitor, but I couldn't. Even if he was dressed differently, it was still him. It was really him.
"I'm so glad that you were able to make it on time today," my father said to the older man across the room. "When you told me you might be arriving late I was worried."
Mr. Phillips seemed to only half register that my father was talking to him until a moment later he tore his eyes from me to look at his superior with a muted expression.
"Uh . . . yes. Sorry about that. Holiday traffic is beginning to pick up."
"It usually does around this time. But no worries. You are here now. Please," father gestured to the front of his desk, "set your things down and have a seat somewhere."
I don't know if my father caught Mr. Phillips' hesitation like I did as he walked further inside the room. I could practically feel the discomfort rolling off of him. He was completely avoiding eye contact now as he walked past me to place the liquor bottle on the oak desk along with the two glasses. After he was finished he said, "If you don't mind I'll remain standing. It was a long drive, you know."
"Of course," Papa flashed a somewhat sincere smile. "If that is what you prefer."
"It is."
But I knew that was a lie. The only other spot available for him to sit in the room was next to me. Instead, he resorted to standing next to my father with his eyes locked on the fireplace and away from me. His stance, his posture, his expression, everything was to distance himself from me. Although I should say that his behavior didn't hurt me, it did. So much. He was my friend only days ago. And now we were strangers.
Why?
"Now that all that is established, Alexandria," I stiffened in my chair, "allow me to introduce you to one of my closest friends these past eight years, Ray Clarke, although you probably know him by a different name," my father introduced a little too happily. "Ray is a former investigator, and a good one at that. However, he gave up that lifestyle a while back . . . until I persuaded him otherwise."
I watched the investigators reaction as my father spoke hoping to see some sort of denial, but he never once spoke up or dismissed any claim. His silence broke off my pieces of my heart as it only confirmed my father's words.
Don't cry, I willed myself. Not here.
"I honestly had no idea that hiring him would go so well," Papa continued. "I only asked him to watch you from afar, but you changed all that when you were almost instantly drawn to him. I guess you just couldn't help but be pulled in by your desire to help the unfortunate."
