Page 150 of Everything After

The jerky way she shook her head warned me she was stalling for time to think up an excuse. “I-I… well, I guess I wanted to extract the truth,” she mumbled.

“Extract? What the fuck, Sienna? What truth? Are we talking about the same thing,” I asked to fuck with her.

“About Lily and Cody. I heard the argument between you and Cody.”

“All of it? Do you know what went on before I challenged him that day?”

“It didn’t take much to know what you were accusing him of,” she suggested.

“Didn’t it?” I challenged as I tried to keep my temper in check. “What do you think you know?”

“Same as you, that Lily and Cody had an affair.”

“And you know this from that argument in my home? The home that Lily welcomed you into even though she’s wary of you. Come to think of it, why is she cautious in the first place?”

Sienna shrugged. “I know what I heard. You told Cody to keep his hands off your wife,” she replied, ignoring my point about Lily.

“Yes, on stage, Sienna. I’d gotten tired of him pawing my wife in the name of performing. Did you ask Cody about the argument?”

“No,” she frowned, looking guilty.

“Why not? He owed you nothing. He might have told you the truth.”

“He asked me out a few times and we hit it off. I wanted to make sure that the thing between him and Lily was done before I became tangled in a relationship.”

“So, you thought contacting this influencer and putting that rumor out there, it would do what? Scare Lily off? Break up their fictional affair?”

Kara came into the house and dropped her car keys on the console table. “What’s going on? I can hear you two outside in the street.”

“Are you going to tell her, or shall I?” I asked, nodding toward Kara.

Sienna cast a nervous glance toward Kara and then back to me, but she stayed silent.

“Alright, I’ll tell her. That shit about Cody and Lily having an affair. Guess who started it?”

Kara’s eyes darkened and she stared Sienna down. “You? Sienna? Why the hell would you do something like that?”

“I’ll leave her to explain. Meanwhile, you’re going to be outed for this. Do you realize people are still questioning who the daddy is?” Sienna stood quietly and appeared too shocked to cry. “I’d sue you, but it would mean Gary’s house would be taken away. If it wasn’t for your brother…” I huffed out a breath as the doorbell rang.

Kara went to answer, and Oscar appeared at the door. “Boss?”

“Take my cell phone and call Joanne, tell her to send the press to this address,” I said, handing my device over to him.

“Wait. Don’t do this,” Sienna begged.

“No. I won’t allow people to think my wife has been less than faithful toward me for another minute. You’re going to tell the press what you did or I’m taking this house.”

“You can’t—” she began to protest.

“Watch me,” I threatened in a menacing tone. Sienna grabbed her coat and tried to leave the house, but Kara stood in front of her.

“Stop, Sienna. You can’t run away from this. I’m so disappointed in you. Alfie’s been good to me. I’m alive because of him. How could you do this to him. Gary would be ashamed of you.”

“I-I?—”

Kara held up her hand. “I don’t want to hear it.”

Oscar reappeared at the door. “Done,” he informed me, handing me my phone back.