Closer (Completed) Dark Romance

Chapter 35

"What?"

"You heard me clearly," she asserted, fixing a loose hair behind her ear. "Why your sister moved away, why Nancy's shop was bought out, why you couldn't get a job — it was all because of Henry's doing."

"You're lying," I accused. I refused to believe her. Her sweet, wicked eyes transformed into leering, almost sinister ones right at the moment I said those words.

"You think you know Henry so well when sadly ... you don't know one thing about him. Did you know that he calls me every night? Did you know that while he's busy, or away on business, he comes to my place? He tells me these things. Henry trusts me."

This wasn't true. It couldn't be true.

She was just saying this out of jealousy.

Henry wouldn't do this to me. He was trying. He promised he would never lie. He promised he would never hurt me again. Henry wouldn't ...

Would he?

"Oh dear, I've said too much," she said. She glanced at her gold watch. "I think that's enough for today. One more secret out of me and you might actually cry. I'll take my leave now."

Henry's friend grabbed her bag and stood on her three-inch heels. Her height now surpassed mine. She confidently slipped on her pair of sunglasses and walked away, but before she got too far out of reach, she whirled around. "Until next time, Ally."

The sound of my text tone displaced me from my petrified state. It was Henry saying he would see me in five minutes.

But for some reason, I panicked and hurried out of the building. As soon as I was out of the hotel's sight, I texted him that I couldn't make it because of an emergency at work.

I didn't go back to Henry's house immediately after work. I didn't want to confront him about this yet. I didn't know how to bring it up.

But in reality, I was afraid to.

What if everything Vivian revealed was true? What if Henry had done all those things? I didn't know if I could bare seeing Henry confirmed the truth himself.

As soon as my shift ended, I found myself driving in the direction of old places in my memories. First, I stopped at Nancy's old shop. It was no longer a floral shop, but a small antique shop with a new owner. After the shop, I unconsciously drove to my sister's old house. I parked my car a few houses down, seeing another family had already moved in by the two new cars there. By the size of them, there was definitely a big family inhabiting the house.

I rested my forehead against the steering wheel as Vivian's words lingered in my mind, replaying over and over. "Why your sister moved away, why Nancy's shop was bought out, why you couldn't get a job — it was all because of Henry's doing."

Henry promised he would never lie to me again. He promised he would never hurt me again either.

I needed to trust him. I needed to be more skeptical of Vivian's words. She lied to me before so why should I believe her now when I hadn't consulted with Henry.

But just as I gained the confidence to trust Henry, the watch that I found hidden in his closet flashed in my head. That would explain why he still had it. Because Henry planned everything out. It only made sense for him to still have his watch and he kept it a secret from me.

—————

For the next two days, Henry was never around the house, but this time around, he would inform me ahead — either due to new projects or late meetings.

Nevertheless, the conversation with Vivian exasperated me. I couldn't bring myself to accept her words, but the more I tried to suppress it, the more the truth became visible. Henry had deceived me before. I needed to talk with him. I needed to clear this up because having misunderstandings between us is the last thing I wanted. Hopefully, he would come back tonight. If he didn't, I'd have no problem in going to see him in his office.