The Unlikely Ally's Vengeance

gineering Consultant. Below it was a phone number. He had left without a word, a silent ghost who had delive

n, a bouquet of cheap, wilting carnations in his hand. He wore a

been so worried. I called and called, I went to your

ing but cold, hard revulsion. I could see the mechanics of his performance now-

id, my voice e

ch making my skin crawl. "She told me about... about the baby." He squeezed my hand, a parody of comf

The lie was so ef

loving girl who had walked into that club was gone, burned away by the truth.

lips into a semblance of a

ing a twin pregnancy, were still in my purse. I had told the doctors it was a single pregnancy, a lie of omission. Mark thought he had lost one

his shoulders relaxing. He thought

he said, reaching into hi

necklace. It was a gaudy, gold-plated thing with a clumsily cut piece of glass me

said, my voice a perfect

with himself. "I

w the weight of real gold, the fire of a real diamond. This was a cheap, hollow f