“I don’t want to talk to you about my baby. And how the hell did you know?” Perspiration soaks my back as the sun beats down. I need to leave, sit down. I hate feeling vulnerable, and now I’m exposed.
“This one time, I was waiting for you. We usually visit the cafe around the corner from your place on Tuesdays,” burbles Lily. I do. Every week. Alone. “You went somewhere with Dylan instead, and I was curious.”
“You followed me?” I bite back.
“I was upset you didn’t keep our meeting, and I wanted to talk to you. You went to the doctors. I know there are a few different specialists in the building, but one’s an obstetrician. You both looked so happy. I just knew you were pregnant. So exciting!”
There’s no dangerous edge to her voice, anger at my carrying Dylan’s baby, but something’s off here. “Lily, you need to leave me alone. I will go to the police.”
“Sky, what’s wrong?”
I stare at Lily, the pretty, ordinary looking girl whose open face suggests she could never hurt anyone. The type of girl everyone meets and loves. When I met her before today, she was different. Hints of delusion, asking me to say hi to Dylan when she’d been partially responsible for his overdose, but this? This isn’t sane.
“I’m sorry about thinking Dylan’s mine. I guess I always hoped he come back to me. It was tough when he married somebody else.” Her eyes brim with tears. “I hated you for taking him, but I think I’m okay with it now.”
Think? “Ithink you should leave before I do something I’ll regret.”
She screws her face up. “Pregnancy hormones, they suck, huh? I remember feeling the same.”
The words come from my mouth before my brain can leap and make the connection. “You have a baby?”
“See, that’s one of the reasons I warned you about Dylan. He uses people and—”
I clamp my hands over my ears. “I’m not doing this again, Lily. I don’t want to see you or hear your lies. Do not say what I think you’re about to.”
Her tearing blue eyes fix on mine, unwavering as she waits for me to take my hands away. “He made me give the baby away.”
“Stop!” I yell. “Just fucking stop there! You need help, Lily. First the rape and now this bullshit?”
“He’s a liar!” she shouts back. “He never told you! Did you know he came to see me after the tour was cancelled? How he asked me to leave him alone but promised he’d always care for me? He comes to see me sometimes, Sky.” She places a hand on her chest. “Dylan and me have a connection, Sky. A really special connection.”
The bile swirls in my stomach and threatens to push up, an all too familiar feeling after weeks suffering morning sickness.
I can’t.
I won’t.
Lily has completely lost her mind, and she’s trying to take my sanity with her.
Without another word, I turn on my heel and stride away, gripping my bag, as if it will keep the tipping world upright.
“Sky!” she calls after me. “Now we have a connection too!”
Every step I take, I expect to hear Lily’s soft footsteps behind, but when I brave glancing back, she’s resting against my car still. I’ve risked enough. I can’t stay near her.
The PR company’s cool office building is a sanctuary and relief after the weather and woman outside, and I rush across the polished tiles to the elevator as the glass doors swish out the London day. Climbing inside, I watch the front doors warily in case psycho bitch follows me. As the metal elevator doors close, there’s no sign of her.
I whip my phone from my pocket and hit speed dial. Before he even has a chance to speak, I’m on him. “Dylan. Get the fuck here. Now.”
“What’s happening? Where? Are you at the hospital?” His voice rises, but not as high a mine is about to.
“No, I just saw Tina.” I take a deep breath. “And Lily.”
“Lily? Where? What did she do?”
I bite back my frustration. “Come here. Now. We need to talk.”
The elevator lurches still and I step out onto the third floor.
“Are you okay?” asks Dylan, stupid question of the day.
“No, I am not fucking okay.” My low voice and language silences him.
Months of peace between us; the only arguments minor and resolved in hours, and now this.
I said she wouldn’t win, but Lily’s having a fucking good try.