One Lipstick, Nine Lies, Zero People On My Side Chapter 02

One Lipstick, Nine Lies, Zero People On My Side Chapter 02

“I thought you were still angry about the hospital complaint,” Leonie said. “I didn’t think you’d come.”

She slipped her arm through mine before I could pull away.

“Please don’t blame my family. They were scared for me, and everything got blown out of proportion. Come inside. I’ll introduce you, and we can clear this whole thing up.”

She led me back into Harborwake House as though we were friends.

“Everyone, look who I found!”

Every face in the room turned toward us.

The smiles vanished from Stellan, Iona, and Orson’s faces.

Leonie either didn’t notice or chose not to.

“This is Iona, my closest friend. She works in psychiatry at Aureline University Medical Center. You two must have crossed paths.”

Iona’s gaze flickered before she forced a polite smile.

“Dr. Hollowell. Nice to meet you.”

Her tone was so distant, anyone listening would have thought we had never met.

Leonie moved on, pulling me toward my brother.

“And this is Orson, an old friend from college. He’s the idiot attorney who helped my family file that complaint against you.”

She gave his arm a playful slap.

“I already chewed him out for it, so don’t hold it against him.”

Orson looked at me, his face tight with guilt.

“Sabine…”

His voice was swallowed by the noise around us.

Leonie didn’t hear him.

She brought me to Stellan last.

The second she reached him, she leaned into his chest, and his arm settled around her waist as naturally as if it had always belonged there.

“And this is my husband—”

“Stellan Dacre,” I cut in with a smile. “Owner of Harborwake House.”

Leonie froze.

Her eyes moved from Stellan to me.

“How do you know that? Have you two met before?”

Stellan’s stare sharpened into a warning.

I held his gaze.

“He’s my fiancé.”

The room went quiet.

“We’ve been together for seven years. Until this morning, we were planning our wedding.”

Leonie’s smile disappeared.

I glanced around the restaurant.

“He also gave me the controlling interest in Harborwake House for my twenty-sixth birthday. Did he forget to mention that?”

Years ago, I had sat beside the window and told Stellan I wished I could look out at the water every day.

The next morning, he handed me the ownership papers.

Six months ago, he claimed Dacre Hospitality Group was struggling and needed the restaurant as collateral for new financing. I signed my stake back to him without hesitation.

Now I knew the company had never been the problem.

It had been another lie.

“What are you talking about?” Leonie’s eyes filled with tears as she turned to Stellan. “We got married a year ago. How could he be your fiancé?”

For the first time that day, Stellan looked panicked.

“Leonie, let me explain.”

Not Sabine.

Leonie.

I was the one he had betrayed for years, yet she was the only person he rushed to reassure.

Something inside me went completely still.

Then I laughed.

“He has a surgical scar above his left hip,” I said. “He got it four years ago when he stepped between me and an angry patient’s relative.”

Stellan’s jaw tightened.

“The silver St. Jude medal he wears came from Morrowlight Chapel. I gave it to him before his last cardiac procedure.”

Leonie’s face drained of color.

I looked straight at her.

“So yes. You’re the woman he was hiding from me.”

“Enough, Sabine!”

All three of them spoke at once.

Stellan pulled Leonie closer as she began to shake.

His eyes turned cold.

“She didn’t know about you. Whatever you want to say, say it to me. Leave her out of it.”

Iona stepped forward.

“Stellan stopped loving you a long time ago. What he has with Leonie is real.”

Orson finally found the nerve to look me in the eye.

“Sabine, you know the truth now. Just let them go.”

“Leonie nearly died giving birth to his child. You can’t come in here and destroy their family because you’re angry.”

Each word landed harder than the last.

My eyes burned, but I refused to cry in front of them.

“So that made it okay to destroy my career?”

My voice shook despite my effort to control it.

“You helped her family turn a minor medical incident into an investigation. You stood by while her security guard broke my wrist.”

No one answered.

I looked at Leonie, then at the three people who had spent months convincing me I was paranoid.

“She was sleeping with my fiancé, and every one of you helped him hide it.”

My throat tightened.

“What part of that am I getting wrong?”

Before the words were even out, a glass of ice water came pouring down over my head.

Water soaked my hair and ran down my face, taking the last of the warmth in me with it.

“Wake up, Sabine.”

Her voice cut through the silent room.

“You’re the one he left. Not Leonie.”