Chapter 26
Mia stood just inside the doorway, her eyes locked on Jeremy. He remained still, his hands hovering at his sides like he didn’t know what to do with them.
Mia moved a hand to her hip. “Say something. What’s going on?”
He drew in a deep breath, opened his mouth, and then closed it, an expression of anguish crossing his face. He looked at me as if begging for help.
He didn’t deserve my help, but Mia did.
“For starters, his name isn’t Simon Sullivan,” I said. “It’s Jeremy Shepherd.”
She threw her hands in the air, head shaking. “Shepherd? As in the Jeremy Shepherd, Christian’s brother?”
He nodded. “Mia, I can explain.”
She turned toward me, as if hoping I’d tell her this was some kind of misunderstanding.
I remained quiet.
Jeremy needed to answer for himself.
“You lied to me,” she said.
Jeremy took a step toward her. “It wasn’t my intention to deceive you. I never meant for it to go this far.”
“Don’t,” she snapped, holding up a hand. “Don’t come any closer.”
He took a step back. “All right, I won’t.”
“I need to understand something,” she said, her voice gaining strength now. “Every conversation we’ve had. Every message and moment we shared. Was any of it real?”
“How I feel about you now … it’s real, Mia. That’s the truth.”
She huffed a laugh. “What would you know about the truth?”
“I know I made a mistake—”
“A mistake? You lied about who you are. That’s not a mistake, Jeremy. That’s a choice.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“It’s easy. You start by saying, ‘Hi, I’m Jeremy, Christian’s brother.’”
“When I first met you, I panicked.”
“Why?”
“After my brother died, I was at his house, looking through some of his things. I found a drawer full of photos of the two of you, and I asked my mom who you were.”
“If you had bothered to be in his life, you would have known about me, but you didn’t.”
“My relationship with Christian was complicated,” he said. “There are a lot of things from our past I’m guessing you don’t know about.”
“None of it matters now, though, does it?”
“What I’m trying to say is, my mom told me about your relationship with Christian. She said you hadn’t kept in touch since the breakup, and I get it. Seems like he put you through a lot.”
She rolled her eyes. “You have no idea.”
“I wanted to meet you, to get to know the woman who meant so much to him. But I wasn’t sure you’d give me the time of day, so I came up with a plan. And yeah, now I see that it wasn’t a good one.”
“You manipulated me. I feel used, like I was an idiot to believe anything you’ve ever said.”
“I just wanted the chance to get to know you.”
“I can’t believe you showed up at a conference you had no business attending. You pretended to be someone else. You inserted yourself into my life under false pretenses.”
“I was going to tell you,” he insisted. “I just needed time.”
“When? After you decided I cared about you enough to overlook the fact that you’ve been lying to me since the day we met?”
He looked at me as though hoping I would step in, but there was nothing I could say to undo what he’d done. And even if there were, I wouldn’t have.
Mia began pacing the room, running a hand through her hair. “I can’t believe I let you into my house.”
“I was worried about you. When you told me someone might be trying to harm you, I—”
“Stop it!” she said. “Just stop.”
“I’m sorry, Mia. I’m so sorry.”
Emotion got the best of her, and she blinked away tears, trying her best to hold it together. “You sound just like him, just like Christian. He was obsessive and overbearing, convinced that his feelings were more important than boundaries.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it? Because from where I’m standing, it feels spot on.”
“I am not my brother.”
“No,” she said. “You’re worse. At least he didn’t pretend to be someone else to get close to me.”
That did it.
Jeremy’s shoulders sagged, and his gaze dropped to the floor as he sank back down on the bed.
“If I could do it all over, I would have been honest with you from the start. I didn’t think it through.
I just, I wanted to know you. And then I developed feelings, and I didn’t know how to fix things without losing you. ”
“Too late. You’ve already lost me.”
“Please, just give me another chance. Let me prove to you that what I feel is real, that I’m real, and that what we have means so much to me.”
“You don’t get another chance to rewrite the narrative.” A tear slid down her cheek, and she flicked it away. “I trusted you. Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to let anyone in after everything that’s happened?”
“I know, and I hate myself for it.”
“Good. You should.”
For a moment, no one spoke.
The room felt smaller somehow, the air heavier.
Then Mia turned.
Without another word, she opened the door and stepped outside.
“Mia, wait!” Jeremy shouted, pushing himself back to his feet.
The door slammed behind her, the sound echoing through the room.
He moved for the door, reaching for the handle, ready to go after her. He pulled it open, and as I was about to stop him, I hesitated. Whitlock was on the other side, his hand resting against the doorframe like he’d been there long enough to hear the tail end of the conversation.
“Hello,” Whitlock said, glancing at Jeremy. “Seems you’ve gotten yourself in a bit of trouble.”
Jeremy blinked, caught off guard. “I’m not sure what you think you heard, but it isn’t any of your business, old man.”
“That’s where you would be wrong.”
“Who are you?”
“Name’s Whitlock. I’m a detective with the San Luis Obispo Police Department. And this, young man, is where your evening takes a bit of a turn.”
Jeremy’s jaw tightened. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You impersonated someone, inserted yourself into an active investigation, and neglected to mention a few key details about who you are. That qualifies as a person of interest. And now the two of us … well, we’re about to have ourselves a little chat.”
Jeremy glanced at me, like he was beginning to put things together.
Whitlock continued, his tone still light, though serious. “Georgiana was kind enough to send me a text message to give me a heads-up about your situation. I thought I’d stop by, see what all the fuss was about for myself.”
“Georgiana and Mia know the truth,” Jeremy said. “Everything is out in the open now.”
“Good to know. In that case, I suppose you won’t have any trouble repeating it down at the station.”
Jeremy stared at Whitlock like he was trying to determine whether the request was optional. Whitlock’s expression made it clear it wasn’t.
“Let’s go,” Whitlock said.
For a moment, Jeremy looked like he might resist. Then he grabbed his wallet and his phone, and he stepped outside.
Whitlock fell into step beside him. I remained in the room for a bit longer, listening to the fading sound of their footsteps, thinking about Mia, what she must be going through, and the fact the case had just taken another sharp turn.