“Well, the jokes on her,” she said. “I don’t have any money. I got this trip on a major discount and had to save up for several months just to afford it.”
“That does happen from time to time,” I said. “But the instances are very few and far in between.”
“Charlotte is very good at what she does,” Dallas said.
I sat forward, tenting my fingers together. “We understand this may be a lot to take in. You didn’t ask for any of this, and I’m truly sorry you fell onto her web of lies.”
Cassidy threw herself back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling for several minutes. In a way, we were all victims of Charlotte’s schemes. At least Cassidy had a way out. I just hoped she would choose me to come with her.
13
CASSIDY
I stared at the ceiling for the longest time, processing everything the men had shared with me regarding Charlotte. And a part of me was still struggling with believing my own freaking ears.
No matter how many times I replayed everything over in my head, I was no closer to making sense of it all than I was before. Damn it all. This was going to be a long night.
And here, I thought my life was starting to take a turn for the better, for once. That was all up until Xander showed up. His rotten appearance should have been my first clue.
What was it about me? I must have had something inside me that acted like a magnet for the worst people ever. And I always seemed to buy into their charms at first. I would have thought I had something horrible inside me that attracted all the wrong people, but I highly doubted my students would look up to me with their angelic smiles every single day if that was the case.
Kids like my students… the purest of innocence… they would never smile on someone who was rotten at the core. So, I refused to believe something inside me was dead or rotten. I would have much rather believed I attracted all the wrong people for other, more fixable reasons.
And despite everything that had happened so far—never mind how much complete and total sense it made—I was having a hard time accepting what I was told about the woman I had met when I first arrived. It was just too damn hard to make the two images match up. The one I saw when we first met and the one the men knew so well.
The two faces of Charlotte.
I doubted these men would share such things with me if it was some sort of play.
I believed them. Why? I wasn’t entirely positive yet. But I highly doubted these men would make up stories as a ploy to get in my pants… especially after having already been in them. There was just something about them and their insistence in my life that gave me a reason to trust them and take them at their word.
And I couldn’t shake the whole concept that I was duped by a woman who had fooled me into thinking we were friends. I truly believed Charlotte and I had built a connection. I believed we were the same in so many things.
Apparently, it was only a “me” thing. And the reality of it all was she was only out for my non-existent money. Where I found a friend, she found dollar signs. So maybe there was a connection for her. It just had nothing to do with me.
And that hurt.
Realization hit me like a bolt of lightning.
I sucked in a breath as I was reminded again of the reading. Maxine had told me about a woman who was all about money. Thinking about the similarities between the card and the woman. I could almost swap out the older woman for Charlotte and it would be the same.
“What is it?” Malachi asked with a raised eyebrow.
I clamped my mouth shut and then shook my head. “Nothing. I remembered something, is all.”
“What?” Dallas said, moving to sit on the corner of the bed. “Did you forget to turn off the coffee pot when you left?”
“No,” I said and sat up, growing frustrated. “Never mind.”
“I don’t know about you,” Dallas said and checked a pretend watch on his wrist, “but I think the ex-got a clue.”
I shook my head. “Don’t be fooled simply because he hasn’t come back yet. That doesn’t mean he won’t.”
I ran my fingers through my hair and leaned onto my knees as my mind cycled through all the new information I was given. There was a lot. And I wasn’t sure if the slight throbbing that entered my temple was from the days events or a combination of everything.
“Everything okay?” Steele asked.
“I can’t believe it,” I said. “I thought Charlotte was a friend. And don’t even start me on my ex. How he found me, I will never know.”