Read Lie to Me (Sexual Misconduct Volume III) for Free Online Page B

mid-fifties—light-brown shoulder-length hair, minor wrinkles around her gray eyes. Nothing like Xander’s color-fluctuating irises. He must’ve inherited a combination of his parents’ eyes, because they were quite unique.
    “ Avery,” she greeted me cautiously as she stepped back and let me into the house. “Come. I was just about to have some coffee.”
    She shut the door , and I followed her through the foyer, down a long hallway, and into the kitchen. I sat at the table next to the window looking out onto a huge garden.
    “ Cream and sugar in your coffee, right?”
    I turned to her and our eyes met. “I don’t want any coffee, Susan.”
    “ How about tea?” She picked up a tea kettle.
    “ No.”
    “Oh, I have these fantastic muffins from the café in town.” She picked up a basket of baked goods and put it in the middle of the table.
    “ Susan…” I ran a hand through my hair in frustration. “I’m not here to have breakfast. I think we both know why I’m here.”
    She stood over the table, staring at me. I gestured to the seat on the opposite end, and she sat. Our gazes locked, but we remained silent. The conversation we needed to have hung in the air, but I was almost afraid to have it. I didn’t want to lose Susan in my life, but I knew her taking care of me had never been about me.
    “ So all these years—everything you did for me—it was all about Xander.” My tone was a raspy whisper, totally unrecognizable to me.
    “ No,” she proclaimed as she tried to reach out for my hand but seemed to second-guess her decision, pulling them back into her lap.
    “ Don’t lie to me, Susan. Not anymore.”
    She sighed. “It was never about Xander. It was always about taking care of a little girl who lost everything. The first time I saw you was at your parents’ funeral.”
    I tried to remember seeing Susan there, but I couldn’t. The whole day had been a blur to me. A lot of strangers—people I’d never met a day in my life—encroaching on my good-bye to my parents.
    “ I asked around, trying to find out where you were going and who was taking you in. It wasn’t long before I discovered you were going to be put into the system. I needed to be able to keep an eye on you, make sure you were safe, so I lied to you.”
    I clenched down on my jaw. I didn ’t come here to get angry, but that’s what I felt at the moment. “If you were so concerned with my safety, why didn’t you take me in? You live in this palatial home and had more than enough resources to make it happen.”
    Her gaze lowered to the table, and her shoulders slumped a bit. After a few quiet minutes, she spoke without meeting my demanding gaze. “I know you came here for honesty.”
    “ So give it to me. You owe me that much.” I folded my hands on the table and waited.
    She looked up at me. “Honestly, I wanted to help you, but I couldn’t bring you here because I needed to protect my son and my husband.”
    “ That’s bullshit.” She flinched because she was like a mother to me, and I’d never spoken that way to her. I was also shocked at the venom in my voice, but I couldn’t hold it back. “How would taking me in hurt them?”
    “ Xander was so mentally broken after that accident I knew if he found out about you, it would be the last straw. He would’ve turned himself in, and Jonathan had already covered up the whole accident. Bringing you here would’ve put all that in jeopardy. If anyone found out that the mayor—who was up for the senate seat at the time—covered up his son’s role in an accident that ended in three deaths…” She sighed. “I know all this sounds selfish, but at the time, I was just trying to protect everyone involved.”
    I shook my head. “I trusted you.”
    “ I know.”
    “ You helped me grieve. You made me go see that doctor for my panic attacks. If it hadn’t been for your nudging me into going, I wouldn’t be a psychiatrist now. I wanted to help people the way Dr. Adams