Silent Run

warily.
    â€œNo.” He shot her an indefinable look. “Because I can’t have that discussion and drive. We’re going to leave it alone until we get Caitlyn back."
    Jake’s voice was tight. She knew he wanted to have it out with her, to get the answers to all the questions he had about why and how she’d left him, but he was right: They couldn’t have this discussion while racing through LA traffic.
    â€œOne thing I do want to know,” he said. “Who exactly is trying to kill you? I assume it’s one of the Harvard guys."
    â€œVictor Pennington. Do you want me to tell you what happened in Chicago?” She figured that part of the story would be less personally upsetting to him, and he needed to know the danger they were up against.
    â€œGo on,” he said, his gaze on the road.
    It was easier when he wasn’t looking at her. “You already know some of it. My real name is Jessica Holt. When I was twenty years old, Teresa and I decided to drive across country one summer. We were headed to New York to meet up with Catherine, but our car broke down in Chicago. We didn’t have any money to fix it, but we were young and had no roots, no families to worry about us, so we got jobs and lived in a shelter for a couple of weeks until we had enough money to get an apartment. It was a dump, but it was something. I got a temp job working in a law office. Victor Pennington was one of their clients. He came into the office one day and he invited everyone, all the secretaries and clerks and attorneys, to a party at his art gallery. I thought I was Cinderella, and I’d just gotten an invitation to the best ball in town."
    She paused for breath. When Jake didn’t comment, she continued. “Victor and his friends were handsome, smart, rich blue bloods, everything I wasn’t. They’d all gone to Harvard. One of their grandfathers was a state senator. Another was a billionaire. When Victor asked me out, I couldn’t believe my luck. I thought he lived in this beautiful world, a world I’d never thought I could belong to. For a while it was great. He wined and dined me; he swept me off my feet. He told me I was beautiful and desirable and that he’d never met anyone like me.” She’d been so stupid, so easy to manipulate.
    â€œTeresa didn’t like Chicago and decided to go home. After that it was just Victor and me and this fairy-tale romance I thought we were having.” She inhaled, knowing she had to confess another sin. “I told Victor a story about myself that wasn’t true. Teresa and I played this game on our trip that whenever we hit a new city we’d be someone different. I know it probably sounds crazy, but our childhood lives were filled with a lot of crap, and playing ‘let’s pretend to be someone else’ always made us feel better. With Victor I was the disowned granddaughter of a rich Texas oil man. That’s why I was working in the law office. I said it was just a temporary thing. My grandfather wanted me to learn to appreciate the money that I’d be coming into with my trust fund."
    Jake’s eyebrow shot up in disbelief, and he gave her another amazed look. “You lied to him, too. Do you ever tell the truth?"
    â€œThe truth is hard to live with sometimes. You wouldn’t understand, Jake. You didn’t grow up like I did."
    â€œThat’s an excuse?"
    â€œNo, but when I met Victor I was barely out of my teens. I knew if I told him who I really was, he’d walk away. In the beginning it was just a way to be Cinderella for a night. But once I started the lies I couldn’t stop them, and then I didn’t really want to stop, because I was falling in love. Victor seemed to feel the same way. He called me all the time. He bought me pretty clothes and paid for me to get my hair cut and have manicures and pedicures and days at the spa. I’d never had anyone care so much about me. I thought for sure I’d wake up any second. Then the unthinkable happened. Victor asked me to marry him. He gave me a huge diamond ring. He took me to the bridal salon to pick out my dress."
    â€œThat was the memory you had earlier,” Jake said. “Did you marry him?"
    â€œNo. A few days after that I found him in bed with another woman. My little fairy tale came to an abrupt end. I tried to break things off, but he begged me to reconsider. He told me that it was a mistake and