Descent (Black Heart Romance presents Heaven & Hell)

obnoxious, intrusive friend.
I don’t like when there are factors that I can’t control in play, but I’m also keenly aware that if
Nick kills her for his own reasons now, I am fucked. There will be no convincing Hallie I wasn’t
behind it, so now…
Now I have to lie to her.
I don’t enjoy lying. The truth makes everything far less complicated, but given the complexities
of her relationship with Charity, I have to move carefully or risk damaging Hallie’s heart. I have two
different hands I can play, and I have to play a different one for each of them, but Charity’s a wild
card. I don’t know her well enough to know how she will react when I play my hand at her table.
Hallie is sad when I get home. I hate it. She looks up at me with big blue eyes brimming with
accusations.
“Is it true?” she asks simply.
I sigh and take a seat at the table where she sits listlessly, her drawing abandoned. “In some
ways. I wasn’t entirely honest about a couple of things, but I didn’t lie to you, I just… didn’t think the
whole truth was necessary or helpful, so I didn’t share it.”
Then I explain what I can.
I expect she might be hurt when she hears that I had more ammunition to blackmail her with that I
hadn’t used, but she actually doesn’t seem that surprised. She nods and says that makes sense—she
wasn’t sure how I got the deed so fast.
She asks if I had anything to do with Ross being arrested, and I tell her yes.
Jackson’s death? Yes again. I didn’t like the way he treated her, and I was greedy for the
memories he had of her that I didn’t.
To be honest, I think I would have had him killed just so I could have his phone. I don’t tell her
that part.
I could tell her about the clones at that point, but I don’t. She already knows I watch her in the
house. I don’t want her to know that I can even see what she gets up to on her phone. Then she’ll feel
she has nowhere that’s even remotely safe from me, and while that’s true, there’s no benefit to her
knowing it.
I want access to all of her, every part. Whether she’s playing that stupid game that makes her
click a million things for no real reason, or texting a friend, I want all of it.
People tend to have a thing about privacy, though. I don’t think she would understand.
She asks if I’m sorry, and I tell her the truth.
No. No, I’m not.
I only hurt people who had no qualms about hurting her. She might not be the kind of person who