The Price of Deception, A Broken Man

the air from my lungs. A sharp, twisting pain sta

with his shoulder as he walked past. "The rich folks are

pe, for something to disprove what I' d just heard. Th

ere sh

tomb." Liam had his arms wrapped around Sophia from behind, his chin resting on her s

rained sound. She turned in his arms and kissed him. It wasn't the gentle, tired kisses sh

him. With me, she

so intense I thought my ribs would crack. This was the real Sophia. The woman I had l

e looked directly at the security camera in the corner of the room

him from its view. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him deeper into th

e employees s

"Heard she was obsessed with him since high schoo

The pieces clicked into pl

d to take a deep breath, to calm the frantic beating of my heart, but

r's voice barked again, this time right

the monitor, from the empty space where sh

oice in my head screamed. My Soph

inst the crushing reality. She loves me. Her mom

ed, and the door to the p

, bathed in the bright, unf

nt, happy, and c

of my self-deception, crumbled into dust. The truth stood right in f