Chapter 78
The smell of fresh coffee greets me the moment I step into the building. For once, it’s comforting instead of bitter. I swipe my badge, hear the familiar click of the security gate, and tell myself today will just be normal and ordinary.
The receptionist lifts her head from her computer and smiles. “Morning, Sierra p>
“Morning,” I return, forcing a small smile. My voice is steady, even though my chest still feels heavy from nights of restless sleep.
The lab floor is quieter than usual when I arrive. A few of the lights haven’t been switched on yet, leaving half the space in shadow. I breathe in the sterile scent of disinfectant and paper, set my bag down by my station, and switch on my computer. The screen hums to life, throwing a pale blue glow over the stack of reports I left unfinished yesterday.
Numbers and graphs spill across the pages, demanding attention. I bury myself in them, jotting small notes in the margins. For a while, the silence is soothing. The rhythm of work has always been a refuge. There’s something about order, about data, about facts that don’t shift, lie or manipulate.
It’s been a week and a half since that dinner, and no matter how hard I try to push it from my mind, the thoughts keep circling back. Like Lilly said, it’s all in the past, but I can’t shake it. If Chloe could lie about me not wanting to see her kids, then what else did she lie about? What else did she twist, making me believe something that was never true?
I won’t lie, she’s done plenty of shitty things over the years. But I never once thought she’d go as far as lying to me. I always believed she was only manipulating Noah, never me. But what if I was just as much a pawn? What if she was pulling my strings too?
The thought sends a sharp wave of anger down my spine. For years, I thought Noah was the blind one. That he was too lovestruck to see the kind of person she really was. But now I’m starting to wonder if I’ve been just as blind. Maybe even worse.
I’m not saying Noah ever liked me; that much was clear long before Chloe. He made it obvious. But the way she lied… it doesn’t sit right. It feels deliberate, like she wanted me nowhere near her kids. Nowhere near Noah.
But why? Noah loved her. He worshiped the ground she walked on. If he didn’t have a problem with me seeing the kids, then why would she? Why would she go out of her way to keep us apart? 1
‘Unless she knew something I didn’t. Unless she was hiding something from both of us. The thought chills me to the bone because if that’s true, then everything I believed about Chloe… about Noah… about all of us… has been a lie from the very beginning.
“Long night p>
I almost jump out of my seat.
I glance up to see Carl leaning against my desk, clutching his coffee like it’s the only thing keeping him alive.
“Aren’t they all?” I reply, shaking those thoughts, suppressing them. Maybe I am just overthinking things.
He chuckles, pushes off the edge, and disappears toward his corner of the lab. The brief exchange leaves a faint warmth in my chest. Moments like this, light and unburdened, are rare nowadays. Sometimes I feel like my life has turned into one of those dramatic novels I read about. 1
I take another sip of my own coffee and flip a page, but my focus splinters. My pen stops halfway through a note when an image flashes behind my eyes: Noah.
I haven’t seen him since the dinner, but I also can’t stop thinking about him, the twins or the lies I said freely at dinner. I’ve been in a state of constant anxiety since that dinner. I’m afraid of things blowing up in my face, but more than that I’m afraid that my intuition about the past might just be right.