Page 124 of To the Chase

She pushed up on her elbow, a line carving between her eyebrows. “That sounds serious.”

I exhaled slowly then dove in headfirst. “Sam told me something today I would like you to clear up if you can. He said he’d paid you to give me attention when we first met. Is that true?”

Bea didn’t move. Not away from me or closer. She froze above me, except the line between her brows that deepened into a bottomless crevice.

I reached for her face, cupping it carefully. “I believe what we have now is real. You know that, right? I’m not asking because I doubt you. I’m asking because I want the truth from you. Always.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“No.” I frowned. “Why would you think I’m joking?”

Hermouth fell into anO. “Because youknowthis, Tore. I texted you everything the last day we were together, and you replied. You. Replied! Said it was okay. How could you forget that?”

I stared back at her, stunned.

I had no earthly idea what she was talking about.

Chapter Forty-six

Bea

Ijumpedoutofbed and pulled on my pajama shorts and top. This absolutely wasn’t the kind of conversation one had while naked.

When I turned back around, Salvatore had put on a pair of shorts and was sitting with his back to the headboard, a perplexed look on his face.

“Beatrice, I need you to explain what you mean. When did I reply?”

I held up a hand. “Hold on. I’ll show you.”

I had a bad habit of never deleting text threads, even those with people I never planned to speak to again. I still had the few Tore and I had exchanged when we’d first met.

Bringing up our thread, I scrolled to the beginning, stopping on the screenshot I’d sent to him after he’d left me in his hotel room.

“Here.” I handed him my phone. “It had taken me a few hours to work up the nerve to tell you. I thought you’d never speak to me again once you found out, but I hadn’t been able to keep it from you. I’d thought…I’d thought we were starting something real, and I didn’t want this hanging over us.”

Hestudied the screen, his brow furrowed. I pointed to the reply he’d sent.

“See? You said you understood and appreciated my honesty. Youknowabout the money, Sal. You know I returned what I could. If I could go back and never accept it in the first place, I would. It was stupid, and I was desperate, but it was a mistake. I only took it because I already thought you were so, so cute and wanted to flirt with you anyway. But I already told you that, so I don’t understand why you’re bringing it up now.” My throat suddenly grew tight, and my eyes began to burn. “Tonight was so perfect. I mean, I thought it was. Maybe you didn’t. Maybe you’re regretting telling the kids about us. If that’s the case, we can slow down—”

His hand shot out, gripping the side of my neck. “I didn’t send this text.”

My mouth came to a screeching halt. “What do you mean? You see it right here with your own eyes. You definitely sent that text.”

“No. I didn’t see this.” His thumb hovered over the time stamp on his reply. “This says it was sent at 5:17 p.m. My sister was being taken off life support at that time. I don’t know where my phone even was, but I wasn’t reading or sending texts.”

“What?” I exhaled every ounce of my righteous indignation. “Then who—?”

He let go of me to grab his phone and tapped on our messages, scrolling back to the beginning. Buried deep under my confusion, I was pleased he’d kept our text chain like I had.

He turned the screen to me. “I haven’t deleted anything, but I don’t have a text from you. Or a screenshot. And you can see I never replied.”

I didn’t have to look very close to see he was right. The texts I’d sent and received weren’t there.

I lifted my eyes to his. “What’s going on, baby?”

He shook his head. “Sam was the one who told me about the money.”

“It was five hundred dollars. Back then, that meant a lot to me.”