“What does that mean?” I looked at him with wide eyes.

“You don’t want to know. You should go back to your room now.” And with that, he stepped out of the stall, leaving me alone and vulnerable. I was no closer to knowing anything. All I knew now was that I was capable of making bad decisions. Very, very bad decisions.

Chapter 4

I walked back to my room in tears. I felt like a part of my soul had been torn out of my body. I decided to go back to the study to try to call Katie again. I needed to hear her voice. She was someone familiar and trustworthy, and I needed that right now. I felt like I was in a pit with snakes and dragons and I didn’t know if either side was good. I looked around to see if I was being followed this time. I thought it was strange that Greyson had seen me go into the study and hadn’t asked me why I had gone in. It was also strange that he had come to find me and had been following me. He’d never said why. I opened the door to the study slowly and walked in. What did it all mean? Why had Greyson come to find me? David had made it clear that I shouldn’t expect to see Greyson until tomorrow. What did it mean that he had come to find me this evening?

I hurried to the desk and picked up the phone. I dialed the numbers quickly and held my breath. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get through the night without sobbing my eyes out if I didn’t get to talk to Katie.

“Hello?” Her voice sounded tired, but I didn’t care.

“It’s me.” I whispered into the phone.

“Meg!” she screeched, and my heart warmed as I smiled. How I loved Katie! She was more than my best friend – she was like my sister. “What is going on? Where are you?”

“I’m still at the club.” I spoke into the phone softly and looked around the room, paranoid that someone was spying on me somehow.

“Why are you whispering?” She sounded concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Look, I need to ask you something. Where is Brandon?”

“Brandon, honey. Meg’s on the phone!” Katie sounded loved up as she whispered to Brandon and I wanted to shout at her. I heard him saying something to her, but I couldn’t quite hear what he was saying.

“Katie!” I said her name, loudly this time.

“Yes, Meg?” This time, she sounded confused.

“Can you get away from Brandon for a moment?”

“Yeah? Why?”

“I need to talk to you. And I need to make sure that Brandon isn’t around.”

“Oh my God, what’s going on?” Katie sounded slightly panicked. “Hold on, Meg. Brandon, I need to talk to her first.”

“What’s going on, Katie?”

“Brandon, she needs to tell me something.” Katie’s voice was sharp and I could hear something akin to fear in her tone. “What’s it about, Meg?”

“Katie, I told you I didn’t want Brandon to know.”

“We don’t have secrets.” Katie’s voice was petulant and I wanted to scream. She hadn’t seen the man in seven years and already she was taking his side over mine.

“Tell him I know about his ‘college fiancée’ Maria.” I spouted out.

“Maria?” Katie sounded confused. “How did you hear about that?”

“You know about Maria?” It was my turn to be confused.

“Didn’t I tell you? He was only dating her because her dad used to work for him. I told you that Maria and Matt and Will are all related, right?”

“Wait, what? Are you talking about the new Maria, or his college fiancée Maria?”

“Why would I be talking about his college fiancée?” Katie sounded confused, and then I heard her gasp.

“Meg.” Brandon’s voice was smooth and firm as he spoke into the phone. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“How are you making this call?”

“What are you talking about?” I feigned ignorance.

“You need to leave the club right now, Meg. I told you that you shouldn’t be there.”

“How did you know that, Brandon?”

“What do you mean?”

“Does Katie know that you started the club?”

He was silent on the other side and so I continued. “Does Katie know the truth about Maria? Does she even know that you’re planning on coming here tomorrow?”

“Meg, you don’t understand,” he pleaded. “Please.”

“Please what?” I screeched. “You and Greyson are freaks.”

“You don’t understand.” He sighed. “Greyson isn’t like most men.”

“What does that mean?” I sat down on the chair. I couldn’t stop myself from gripping the phone tightly. I wanted to know more about Greyson, even if it was from Brandon.

“What is going on, Brandon?” Katie’s voice was loud and she sounded angry. I knew that she had finally figured out that there was more going on here than met the eye.

“Meg, I have to tell you that whatever you heard, it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t know.” His voice was bleak.

“But you lied about...”

“We were both heartbroken when she died.” He whispered and then the phone disconnected. I sat there feeling numb and whispered into the dead phone. “But you lied about dating Maria in college.” It was obvious to me now that Brandon had snatched the phone from Katie because he’d been worried about a much bigger problem. Maria was dead? And was his Maria also Nancy’s Maria? How had she died? What role had Greyson and Brandon played in her death? My mind was bursting with questions and for the first time, I was scared. Really and truly scared. I didn’t want to leave the study to go back to the room. I didn’t want to see Nancy or David, I didn’t want to see Frank and Elizabeth, and most of all, I didn’t want to see Greyson. My heart ached as I thought about him and the way I had given myself to him so easily. At the time, it had seemed natural. Our attraction was great, but a part of me had thought that there was something else there. Some deeper magnetism that couldn’t be explained, but had been felt as soon as we met. But I knew I was fooling myself. Greyson was just a sexy, older man who had filled me with lust, and I had succumbed like a two-bit whore. I jumped up and put the phone back on its charger. “Stop it, Meg.” I muttered angrily at myself. I hated it when I grew self-deprecating, which I was prone to do when things didn’t go well in my life. I was not going to allow myself to feel cheap just because I had slept with Greyson Twining. I was a woman, a twenty-first-century woman, and if I wanted to sleep with a man because his very glance made my panties wet, then I wasn’t going to ridicule or beat myself up for it. I could be my own worst enemy sometimes. I exited the room and looked down the corridor before deciding which way to go. I wasn’t sure if I should try to explore what was going on or if I should just go back to the room.