Lying Hearts

by Kelli Callahan

  My parents and I were fine. I wasn’t the kind of person to dwell on something I didn’t know much about. The guy who called himself my father, he wasn’t my father. He was a psycho, even if he was right, but I could understand why my parents never said a word about it. It was a horrible past, a terrible family, to be a part of.

  I took my mom’s advice and didn’t take the money. I donated it instead. Bad things had happened when someone had the Hampton fortune, and I didn’t know if I was superstitious, but after everything that happened, I wasn’t taking risks. I wiped my hands cleans of the millions of dollars.

  Things were starting to fall into place now. The boutique was doing well, and Oliver moved into the apartment upstairs, which really helped out when I was in a pinch.

  I placed the veil on top of my head as I looked in the mirror, thinking back over this past year, and grinned. Life had thrown me a wicked curveball, but we all made it out alive, even my father. He got to ring the bell when he hit remission, and now, he was going to walk me down the aisle.

  Well, the front yard.

  I was marrying Easton Moore underneath the Oaktree, where we first said our vows when we were ten years old. It felt right. To begin under the oak tree all over again.

  “You look beautiful,” London said in her burgundy bridesmaid dress. It was strapless and hugged her body like a glove. Her hair was up; the bright red tendrils were twisted in an elegant design with daises inserted in her hair.

  Last year there was snow on the ground; this year, autumn felt more like spring. It made no sense, but I didn’t want to be cold, so I wouldn’t complain.

  Oliver was my bridesman. He wore a burgundy suit with a beige tie. He looked dashing, his words, not mine. My friends flanked each side of me, and Oliver took his phone out and snapped a few pictures of us in the mirror.

  “I always knew this day would come,” Oliver said. “You and Easton were meant to be.”

  I knew that. I just denied it for far too long.

  “Oh, Star,” my dad said from the doorway, his eyes watering as I twirled around in my princess gown. My wedding gown was strapless, hugged my torso until the tulle flared from my hips, and fell to the ground. “You are beautiful.”

  “Thank you,” I said, reaching for his hand. “Ready?”

  “To give you away? Never, my sweet, sweet Star. Never.”

  I looped my hand through his arm, and Oliver and London walked in front of me and went down the stairs first. The house I grew up in had looked the same for years. The stairs we were walking down had the same carpet on it for the last fifteen years. The walls had the same photos. Happiness built this home, and I was proud to get married here under the oak tree that started it all.

  The sun blinded me when I stepped outside and it heated my shoulders, but once my eyes adjusted, I saw Easton waiting under the oak tree with his brothers behind him. London and Ethan shared a look, but Ethan glanced away. Just because it was my wedding day didn’t mean I didn’t notice things.

  Easton choked up when he saw me and took me from my father greedily and laid a kiss on me before the minister could say a word.

  “You can’t kiss the bride yet!” Ezra yelled. “Everyone knows that.”

  “I’ll kiss my bride whenever I damn well want,” Easton said, cupping my face with his palms.

  “Say your vows, and then you can kiss your bride,” the minister chuckled, and Easton huffed in annoyance.

  Luckily, we weren’t the kind of people to have a long ceremony.

  “I, Easton Moore, promise to be the bestest friend to you, Luna Nightingale. Forever and ever. Nothing will ever tear us apart. I love you more than chocolate milk. Okay, your turn. You go.” He tugged one of my curls, and my heart melted when he recited the same words to me from when we were ten. “Forever and ever, Luna.”

  Forever and ever, Easton Moore.

  The End

  Kiss My Boss

  Lucy

  There were a million things I thought I would never see or do. Space? I was a secretary, not an astronaut. President of the United States? My career trajectory didn’t go that high. I couldn’t even go a single day without using my hands to count. It was a bad habit I was scolded for when I was a child but never managed to overcome it.

  Those were reasonable expectations and limitations.

  It was just life. It was how it was. Logical, just like me.

  What I never thought I’d see— something completely illogical— was my boyfriend of ten years holding another woman in his arms.

  In. My. Bed.

  The same bed we slept together in every single night since college. He didn’t even see me. I stood in the doorway, holding take-out in my hand from our favorite diner and a bottle of wine, watching him fuck her in a way he never fucked me. Hard, hand around her throat, and plowing into her like he wasn’t worried about causing her pain. My eyes were glued to him, unable to look away from the scene in front of me. It was like a car wreck. I knew I should look away, but the shock made me wonder if what I saw was real.

  The girl was a brunette, of course. He always made comments about that—like I should change my hair color at his whim because we were together. I never thought it was a deal breaker.

  Our bed smacked against the wall, and both of them were grunting like wild animals. He had sweat on his back, so they had been going at it for a while now. Why did I notice that? It was the last thing I should have been focused on.

  “Fuck yeah, you like that, bitch?” He sneered at her, and I flinched because I never wanted to be spoken to like that.

  She seemed to love it because she leaned up on her forearms and bit his lips.

  “Yes, Daddy. Just like that. Harder. More!” She groaned like she was in the middle of a porn movie. Her pleasure didn’t even sound real.

  And Daddy? I would have called him that—if he asked. Hearing it on her lips sent a shiver of disgust through me. The bottle of wine dropped from my hand, and it landed on the floor; the sound of it shattering didn’t even break the shocked daze I found myself in. Red wine soaked my feet, and the dark green glass flew everywhere. It almost cut my feet. I don’t even know if I would have noticed it if it did.

  “Oh my god! Brian!” The porn star in my bed pushed my boyfriend off and covered herself up with my blanket.

  Brian’s head snapped in my direction, and the color drained from his face as he pulled out of her, his cock wet, and rolled off the bed. “Lucy! I can explain, okay? Baby, listen—”

  “Baby!?” The sex doll gave him a confused stare. “You said you were single!”

  “I’d offer to introduce myself, but I know exactly where your hand has been. I’m Lucy. Brian’s girlfriend of ten years.”

  “Ten…” Her eyes rounded, and her hand flies to her mouth. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry!”

  She started to cry, big messy tears, and the only thing I could think about was how I needed to change the sheets again. Actually, I’d burn them.

  “She’s nothing, baby. I promise. Listen to me,” Brian wrapped the sheet around his waist and walked around the bed, his cock was hard, and I could see through the white sheet that he wasn’t wearing a condom with this girl. “Janette,” he turned to the girl he had been having sex with. “Wait.” He tried to keep her from leaving by reaching out to her, but she got out of bed and bent down for her clothes.

  His attempt to grab her arm resulted in her yanking it away. “You’re an asshole,” she said, tugging on her shirt. She had tears in her eyes, but it didn’t exactly break my heart.

  I was obviously in shock. Still trying to process what I was seeing. The fact that he was in our bed with another woman—not even bothering to use protection.

  “I can’t believe you. You liar! I don’t mean anything? After you’ve been fucking me for six months, Brian. Six!”

  Having sex without protection was our thing. We were each other’s first. We were supposed to be each other’s last.

  “Six?” The word left my lips on
an exhaled breath. I glanced around the apartment and noticed how all of my things were put away and only his were out. I usually worked until midnight on Wednesdays. So this was what he did. “Get out,” I finally managed to say. I pointed toward the door, and my temper started to catch up with me as my chest rose and fell in rapid breathes from the effort of trying to hold myself together. “Get the fuck out!” I screamed. “Get out of my fucking apartment!” I threw his cologne at him, and the woman took the opportunity to dash out the door, only in panties and a t-shirt.

  He dodged the cologne and held up his hands to try and placate me. “Baby, it wasn’t what it looked like.”

  I grabbed the lamp and tossed it at him next. The bulb broke as soon as it hit the floor. “So, you weren’t fucking her?” I threw the Rolex watch his father got him and it slammed against the wall, right behind his head. “You’re a real piece of shit!”

  “You know I love you. It’s just been always you. You know? I slipped okay. I made a mistake—” He took a step closer.

  “No.” I grabbed my jewelry box, lifted it above my head, and grunted when I slung it through the air.

  “Lucy! Oh my god!” The wooden box hit his foot, and he collapsed to the bed, groaning and holding his toes in pain.

  Good. I hope I broke them!

  “—I love you.” His words came out as a whine. “I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you.”

  I pressed my palms to my eyes when they started to burn. I’m going to cry. It was all catching up with me now. “You never loved me. You have been cheating on me for how long?”

  He didn’t say anything.

  “How long!”

  “A few years,” he mumbled, tightening the sheet around his waist.

  A laugh that could only be described as disbelief expelled from my lungs. “A few years?” A million scenarios played in my head. Did he have sex with all of them without a condom? How many women? I had to get tested now. It had been a few months since we last had sex, but I never thought he would do this to me. I never thought he was so cruel. “Get out. I never want to see you again.”

  “Muffin,” he used the pet name he gave me ten years ago on our first date because I had muffin on the side of my mouth. “Please—”

  “You don’t ever get to call me that again. Get out.”

  He held his arms out for me, and tears swam in his eyes. The nerve of him! “I said leave!” My voice broke, and he slowly took his keys in hand, gathered his wallet, and stepped over the mess of glass on the floor. “We need to talk about this. We will talk once things calm down. I don’t care how I need to fix this, but I will. I love you. It’s always been you. I fucked up.”

  “You’re only sorry because you got caught,” I whispered as he stood next to me. I didn’t look at him. I kept my eyes forward, hating the warmth coming from his body right now. Hating how I smelled the sweat and sex in the air. “I never want to see you again, Brian.” A tear rolled down my face, and I stepped forward, my boots crunching on the glass. I needed to get away from him.

  “Lucy—”

  “−−−Are you stupid? I said leave,” I shouted, pushing him against his chest. He stumbled backwards and out the door, his hand flew to the sheet hanging on his hips when he threatened to fall, and I slammed the door in his face. I locked the handle, the deadbolt, and the chain. I turned around and slid down the wood and finally let go and cry.

  Heavy sobs wracked my body to the point where I couldn’t breathe. I thought about all the memories we shared, all the laughs, all the times he told me he loved me, and everything was a lie. My first love was nothing but lies.

  The wine was still spreading, the puddle expanding as if it had a mind of its own. It got closer to me. Sadness replaced my anger again. I stood, wiped the tears off my face, and marched to the bed. Forcing my hands between the mattress and the box spring, I squatted and used my raged fueled muscles to lift.

  Well, I tried to lift, but wow, I did not remember mattresses being this heavy. I grunted, trying again, but all I ended up doing was sliding it over. Sniffling, I wiped my cheek against my shirt and unzipped my purse, grabbing my phone and called my brother Logan.

  It rang four times, and for a split second, I didn’t think he was going to answer. “Hey, sis. What’s up?” the voice I depend on the most comforts me instantly, but the pain from the person I loved more than life still lingered.

  “Logan.”

  “What’s wrong?” He was alert, and I heard his truck starting in the background. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”

  “He cheated on me,” I sobbed, holding my hand over my heart to keep it from shattering into a billion pieces. “I saw it, Logan. In the bed. In our bed.”

  “That piece of shit. I’m going to kill him.” Logan’s deadly tone made me shiver, and I knew he meant what he said. He never liked Brian. He always told me to break up with him and get away, that I could do better.

  I took what he said with a grain of salt because Brian and I had been together for so long, I didn’t want to put effort into someone else. Brian was never perfect; none of us are, but to cheat? I guess Logan had been right all along. He called it. Logan said years ago that Brian was going to hurt me. I asked how he knew, and all he said was, “I can see it in his eyes.”

  At the time, I shrugged it off because I didn’t know what that meant.

  I do now.

  “Can you come help me get the mattress and blankets out of my apartment? I don’t want them here. I don’t want to be here. I can’t think.”

  Is this all a dream? Maybe I’m living a nightmare, and I will wake up soon.

  Logan stood in the doorway, and that’s when I noticed I had the phone to my ear still from when he hung up a few minutes ago. He took a quick look around, scanning the place to make sure I was safe before he ran to me and took me into a strong hug. “It’s okay. I got you, Lucy. It’s okay.” He kissed my forehead, and the tenderness from my brother only made me cry harder. I felt so pathetic for crying. Brian wasn’t worth the tears, but the betrayal I felt went so deep.

  “Come on, let’s get this mattress out of here and then we will go back to my place, watch movies and drink some beer.”

  “I just want to get some sleep,” I said and got on the other side of the mattress as Logan lifted it up. Once it was on its side, we slid it through the wine, and the white material got stained red. Logan dropped the tailgate and lifted the mattress onto the bed of his truck.

  “How about we set this on fire first? What do you say?” He stretched a free hand out to me and waited for me to take it. “Me and you, Luce. I’ll always have you.”

  Ever since our parents died when I was sixteen and Logan was eighteen, he took care of me. We had grown together, and he had become my best friend. I didn’t know what I’d do without him. A life without Brian I’d be able to get used to. A life without Logan?

  There wouldn’t be one.

  “A bonfire sounds nice.”

  “I’ll let you do the honors then,” he said.

  Ten minutes later, we pulled up to an empty plot of land where partiers frequently came, and Logan poured lighter fluid all over the mattress and blankets. I lit a match and watched the flame burn the stick for a moment before tossing it onto the ruined pile of memories.

  Just like that, my previous life was going up in smoke and fire. I just hoped my heart could be reborn from the ashes.

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  About the Author

  Kelli writes billionaires, bad boys, and alpha protectors that are hot-as-sin and filthy to the core. If you want to stay up to date with all things Kelli, sign up to her mailings list here.

  Also by Kelli Callahan

  Alway The Enemy

  Kiss My Boss

  Daddy’s
Kilted Friend

  My Enemy’s Daddy

  Fire and Desire

  My Ex-Boyfriend’s Daddy

  Hatefully Yours

  Her Secret Santa

  Devious Intentions

  Once Upon A Daddy

  Secret Indiscretions

  Forbidden Kiss

  Obsessed With A Daddy

  Indebted To A Daddy

  Beast Daddy

  My Bully’s Daddy

  Interview With A Daddy

  Daddy’s Best Friend

  Best Friend’s Daddy

  Distinguished Daddy

  Caged By Them

  Ravaged By Them

  Broken By Them

  Ruined By Them

  Taken By Them

  Surrender To Them Box Set