Chapter 26 — The Rabid Dog #3
She left the office and walked down the dark hallway to the living room.
She stopped in the middle of the room, facing the elevator doors.
She waited.
The elevator mechanism hummed. A soft ping announced its arrival.
The doors opened.
Ethan stepped out.
He didn’t look like a man who’d just choked someone. He looked tired. He’d run his hand through his hair, leaving it disheveled. When he saw Maya standing there in the shadows, he stopped.
They stared at each other across the vastness of the living room. The air conditioning blew cold between them.
“You saw,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
“I saw,” Maya replied. Her voice was strangely calm, devoid of emotion. “And I heard.”
Ethan took a step forward, then stopped, as if there were an invisible barrier ten feet from her.
“He was hallucinating, Maya. You saw the state he was in. He was high. Paranoid.”
“He seemed pretty certain about what he was saying,” Maya said. “About the credit. About the plan.”
“That’s what losers do,” Ethan said, his voice gaining strength, persuasion kicking in.
He was good at this. He sold illusions for a living.
“They rewrite history so they’re not the villains.
He can’t accept that he lost you through incompetence, so he invents a conspiracy where he’s the victim of some evil genius. ”
He walked to the bar. He needed to do something with his hands. He poured a glass of water, not alcohol. His hands trembled slightly.
“Half a million dollars, Ethan,” Maya said. She didn’t move. “He was right about that. Why did you give him that much credit?”
Ethan turned, glass in hand.
“Because that’s my business. The casino extends credit to high rollers. He was winning at first. He seemed to have funds. By the time we realized he didn’t… it was too late.”
It was a lie.
Maya knew. She could feel the lie in the air, like the smell of a gas leak. Ethan Vance never made miscalculations. He never extended credit without collateral. He knew the price of everything.
“You knew who he was,” she said. “You said you saw us at the restaurant.”
“I saw you,” he corrected gently. He began walking toward her. “I saw you suffering. I didn’t know his name. I didn’t know his story. I only knew he didn’t deserve you.”
He stopped in front of her. He set the glass on the coffee table and reached out to her.
“Maya… that man down there… he’s a rabid dog. He’s frothing at the mouth. He’d say anything to hurt me, because he knows I have what he threw away.”
He took her hands. His were cold. Hers were freezing.
“Don’t let his poison in here,” Ethan pleaded. He looked into her eyes with desperate intensity. “Don’t let him destroy what we’ve built. He already took years from your life. Don’t give him another minute.”
It was convincing. It was seductive. The idea that Kyle was just a vengeful liar was comforting. It was the easy way out.
Maya looked at his hands holding hers. Strong hands. Hands that protected. Hands that manipulated.
“What did you say to him?” she asked.
Ethan blinked.
“What?”
“When you held him. You whispered something. He froze. What did you say to make him stop?”
Ethan hesitated. Just a fraction of a second. A glitch in the perfect performance.
“I told him that if he spoke your name one more time, I’d rip his tongue out.”
Lie.
Another lie.
Maya felt the weight of the lie. She didn’t know what he’d actually said, but she knew it wasn’t that. It had been something more specific. Something that touched on a fear or a truth only Kyle and Ethan shared.
But she didn’t confront him. Not now. Not when he was in damage control mode, ready to spin any story to keep her.
If she confronted him now, he’d deny it. He’d shut down.
She needed proof.
She needed to know if the setup was real.
“He scared me,” Maya said, softening her voice, letting her body relax slightly, pretending to accept the explanation. “Seeing him like that…”
Ethan let out a sigh of relief. He pulled her into a hug, wrapping his arms around her tightly, burying his face in her hair.
“I know. I’m sorry you had to see that. I should have stopped it sooner.”
He held her as if she might disappear.
“It’s over,” he whispered. “He’s gone. He’ll never get near you again.”
Maya hugged him back. She felt his heart pounding against her chest. Beating too fast. The heart of a man who’d just narrowly escaped being discovered.
“I believe you,” she lied.
The lie tasted bitter in her mouth, but it was necessary.
Ethan kissed the top of her head.
“Let’s get some sleep. It’s been a long night.”
He guided her to the bedroom.
As they walked, Maya’s eyes went to the office door. The door that held the files. The door that held the truth.
Kyle had planted the doubt. Ethan had watered it with lies.
Now Maya knew what she had to do. She couldn’t live in gilded ignorance anymore. She had to open Pandora’s box.
She’d wait for him to fall asleep. And then she’d start digging. Because if Ethan Vance had planned every second of her downfall, she needed to know if his love was the only real thing in the wreckage… or if it was the biggest lie of all.