All The Pieces (Pieces of Lies 3) (2 page)

Ahhh, Tess. The best friend.

She eyed me again and then Weston, shaking her head furiously. “Not. Fucking. Possible.”

“Believe it,” I said. “Now move it Red, we have business here.” I snapped my head towards her, already annoyed by her interference. This was taking too long as it was. I had to get into that room. I stepped forward. Tess held out her arms on each side of her body, blocking the entrance like a gate. I stopped right in front of her face and stared into those fiery brown eyes. My whole body was beginning to feel the effects of all my built-up fury and I was finding it difficult to hold back from grabbing this girl and throwing her out of our way. I didn’t want to hurt one of Lenorah’s friends, but if it meant getting to Len faster, then I would have to make an exception.

“Believe it Tess,” piped up Weston. “We are the guys. Now c’mon, let us into the room. We need to talk to Norah. It’s really important.”

This time Weston stepped forward too. I could sense he was getting quickly frustrated with Tess being such a road block. Tess huffed loudly. “You two,” she raised her voice now, “cannot go into this room. Now leave.”

This was getting ridiculous. Why was this girl suddenly acting like she was stopping us from seeing a crime scene? What was going on behind that door? Then I realized, something felt off. Really fucking off.

“Something’s wrong with Norah isn’t it? That’s why you won’t let us in, right?” Weston had noticed Tess’s urgency and clued into the same thinking. We both surged forward towards Tess, who continued to try and be a barrier against the door.

“I’ll repeat myself again. You two — cannot go in there. Now make a call or whatever you have to do, and find someone else to come deal with this. Better yet, give me your cell and put her Dad on. I will explain.”

I saw Weston’s feet shuffling. He was worried as well. Tess was hiding something behind that door, something she clearly didn’t want us to see. My eyes darted to Weston’s, whose head was motioning towards Tess’s arms. As if our minds were both thinking alike, Weston yelled to me, “Grab her arms!”

Tess tried to sidestep my movements as I reached towards one of her arms, but she was too slow. She swung back, trying to push her body up against the frame to stop Clint from getting to the door, but I quickly seized one of her arms, then the other, and swung them so they were both behind her back, my own hands clamped tightly around them, planting her in one spot so she was unable to move.

“Quick now, go in!” I yelled at Weston, having seized Tess.

I didn’t have to tell Clint twice. He threw his weight against the door and turned the knob to force himself in. With his strength, it didn’t take much before I heard the door swing open from behind Tess’s body. I felt Tess shudder as she attempted to wriggle free from my grip.

“Stop Clint! Don’t!” she screamed at him, but he didn’t listen.

Suddenly I heard Weston gasp as he stepped inside the room. He froze after two steps, not going any further. Something had brought him to a grated standstill. My head emerged from behind Tess, trying to see what had stopped Weston the way it did. I could barely see past Weston’s body so I let go off Tess, who squeaked a bit as I released her, but she quickly turned to go into the room, following me as fast as she could. I raced in and stood next to Weston, also suddenly having an immobilizing ability to go any further than two steps. We could see her now — Lenorah, and I understood now why Tess had tried to keep us from getting in.

Well...God damn.

This is bad.

24 hours ago.

I couldn’t get the way Norah looked at me last night while we were making love, out of my head. We had spent yesterday afternoon in the throes of some very exciting role-play, but last night we reached a whole new level of intimacy. It was raw, exposed, and as she lay beneath me, keeping her eyes glued to mine, she cried. Norah has never cried during sex before. She’s screamed my name a million times over, but never cried. It felt like every wall she had instilled in her skin was ripped down and she allowed herself to be really vulnerable. There was no question that since we got together, the intensity and love we had for each other continued to grow, but last night was different. Norah was different. She was looking at me in a whole new way. Something had changed.

And then there was, the
pause
.

Norah stilled during our love making, reached up to my face, stroked my cheek, and said, “Josh, I think, no, I mean I know...”

Then she paused, and didn’t finish what she was going to say, leaving me to wonder what she meant. Know? Know what? Could it be possible she knew about...?

I was too petrified to ask if she knew about I did to Clint and Samuel. And if she did, would she still marry me? The truth about what I instigated had been on the tip of my tongue since I followed through with my plan six months ago. I didn’t regret what I did to those guys. I fought hard to get the love of my life and didn’t regret any of the seconds I’ve had with her, but I slowly realized I owed Norah the truth. She deserved the fairy tale and I had taken that away from her. I wanted to feel as if our love was pure from this day onwards, and I knew I couldn’t marry her without first telling her everything. I would probably lose her, I could almost bet on it, but I needed to expose my dark side too. My love for Norah was unconditional. The only hope I held onto was that maybe she felt the same kind of unconditional love for me and could move past my lie.

Maybe she will forgive me?

Maybe she won’t.

I was pacing back and forth as I waited for Norah to emerge from the bathroom. I really thought I could ignore the feelings, the guilt nipping at my heart every minute of every day, but with the way she looked at me now, with her future, with belief it was from real true destiny and emotion, I couldn’t hide from the lie any longer. I finally had her, all of her, but now I couldn’t look at her without seeing their faces. Clint and Samuel. It was like their spirits sat on each of my shoulders, weighing me down, both laughing at me and taunting me that she’ll find out someday soon and go back to them. I could admit it; that was part of the reason I had kept it a secret so long.

But I had no idea it would hit me like this after last night. The guilt was finally overtaking my ability to ignore it. I didn’t think it would slowly make me crumble into telling her what I did on this day; our wedding day. But if we were to be married it had to be because of the truth.
ALL
of the truth. I had been selfish in keeping her because of that manipulation for far too long. If she told me to leave, I would beg her to give me one more chance and show her she could trust me again. I would fight for her again, and again, and again to win her back, but next time, it would be because of my own actions, and not from her thinking the worst of others.

I pressed my mouth up against the bathroom door and knocked gently, speaking into the wood. “Norah, are you ready? There is something important I need to discuss with you. Please, can you come out now?”

The door was immediately pulled open, and my mouth dropped. It was one of those moments that felt like everything I had done in my life had lead to this second. It was now bookmarked in my brain. Solidified as symbolic. The realization of our love. Its story. Its history. Its purpose. That nothing mattered except Norah and my heart that beat in my chest for her. I wanted to drop to my knees and worship at her feet, but I didn’t because I couldn’t feel my feet. My body felt like it was floating and had lifted off the ground. It was dizzying and uplifting. It was complete euphoria for my eyes.

I silently said a prayer to my parents in the hope they were with us today and that they could give me the strength not to back out of what I was going to do, because right now, seeing her dressed like this for me, was every dream I had imagined and every wish I ever made.

I composed my confusion and doubt that I wanted desperately to ignore and bury inside myself, and pushed it aside so I could focus and gaze at my fiancé, Norah. Lenorah Simona Rossi. She looked breathtaking. She was wearing a clingy yet flowing ivory gown that skimmed like air on her skin from the top of her body to her ankles. It draped ever so slightly around her breasts and as she turned around to show me the back, my jaw dropped yet again as I saw a captivating expanse of exposed skin. The dress was backless. The most beautiful part though was her hair. It was cascading in loose tendrils all around her shoulders, in soft dreamy waves, and she had this tiny intricate wreath of black and ivory pearls that ran around her forehead. When she turned to face me, I instantly drew her body into mine, trying to find a word that could accurately express her stunning ethereal beauty and the emotion I felt by her being in my hold.

“You like?” she mumbled against my chest. I could feel her mouth smiling from my reaction to how she looked. I pulled her gently off my chest so I could take in the magic that was her face.

“You look angelic Norah. You are the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on. I love you so much.”

Her eyes ran up and down from my black slacks to my ivory long-sleeved buttoned-up dress shirt. “You’re looking pretty dapper yourself Joshua.” She then buried her head into the crook of my neck, and stayed there for a minute. I pulled her off my shoulder to study her emotions. When her eyes finally met mine, I could see they were tinged pink, and her face was flushed. She had been crying. Again. That wasn’t a good sign. Something was off.

“Norah, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

She smiled at me and nodded. “I’m just really overwhelmed with emotions, and happy that this is finally happening for us. I want this, more than ever now. I knew our love would be unstoppable, and now I
know
it’s going to be with us forever.”

I swallowed, guilt nipping at me again. That was it. I couldn’t let her think this was from fate or destiny or from our paths finally aligning as one. She needed to know me, the true me, and I had to take the consequences of my actions. I had to be a real man, one with integrity and strength. No more games, no more lies; nothing except me and all my faults. Norah had a darkness which moved in sync with her light, and now, she was about to discover that I also had a darkness that rivaled hers. I believed it was part of what made us soul mates though. It was a combination of imperfection that made us perfect for each other.

“Norah,” I began, trying to sound soft and as if I wasn’t about to break her heart. “There is something I need to tell you.”

Her eyebrows shot up, surprised. “You do? Well it’s funny you say that, because there is something I need to say to you too.”

I swallowed. “Me first, alright?” She nodded and allowed me to guide her to our bed where she sat down. I knelt down in front of her as she rested back on her palms on the bed. God, she looked like an angel from this angle as she sat in the sunlight that streamed in from a nearby open window. I was hoping with all my heart that what I was about to tell her, wouldn’t make this angel fall.

“Please just promise me you’ll hear me out before you do or say anything, okay. Please.” My voice was already desperately pleading.

A concerned look swept over her face. She pushed herself up from her palms and sat looking above and then down at me. “You are really scaring me now Josh. What’s the matter? What’s  wrong?”

I took a deep, courageous breath and placed my hands on her thighs. The material was so soft as it sat on her skin. I could feel her body tensing as she waited for me to go on. She was already preparing herself. A normal defense mechanism that I knew all too well. It was probably a good thing she was starting to withdraw because I wasn’t sure how this would go down. I took another quick breath and found her big brown eyes with my own. I was sure my eyes were the color of scared green, if there was such a shade.

“Norah, there is something you need to know about us. About how we got together.”

She cocked her head to one side, her mouth going from a smile to a hard line. “What are you talking about Josh? I know how we got together. I was there, remember?”

She looked really confused, and rightfully so. Norah believed all roads led to us, which made this even more difficult to say.

“I know Norah. I know you believe that how we got together was because we finally realized we were meant to be and the moment was right, but...” I stalled. I couldn’t do it. I simply couldn’t. I was about to lose her.

One of her hands lifted up to my cheek, trying to help me go on. She could sense I was quickly retreating. “But what Josh?” She was eyeing me carefully now, a new and different look gracing her face. She looked unsure, her emotions mixed, but her fingers smoothed over the skin near my mouth, coaxing the words to come out.

“But,” I paused again, taking yet another long deep breath. I couldn’t be weak. Not today. I needed to tell her. “There is a reason you came to me Norah after what Clint and Samuel did.”

Her eyelids fluttered as I said their names. The mere mention of them made her body react. She had barely spoken about them since she moved in with me, but there were days I knew she had been thinking about them. The way her eyes lingered on certain pieces of art at galleries when she was thinking of Clint, or when her head would turn without her even noticing at the sound of a Mustang driving down the street, thinking it was Samuel. I don’t think she realized when she did these things either. I can’t say it didn’t hurt seeing her mind wander sometimes, but as much as I felt jealous of her memories with them, they were still just her past. I will be her future. Well, that’s what I was still hoping for.