LITMIR.BIZ

       PROLOGUE

      IZZY FITZPATRICK RAN blindly out into the night, uncaring about the rain soaking through her clothes and bringing goosebumps out over her skin. She didn’t know where she was going, only that she no longer felt safe in her own home. Her whole life as she knew it seemed to have unravelled completely over the course of the evening.

      It was bad enough she was still mourning the loss of the man she’d thought she was going to marry and raise her much-longed-for family with, but to discover Gerry had sold her a lie all along was something she knew she’d never recover from.

      Now she needed to be somewhere she felt protected, be with someone she could trust. It was no wonder she found herself standing outside Cal Armstrong’s house. He was her friend, her colleague, and a man she knew she could turn to in a crisis.

      She jabbed at the buzzer on the gate, desperate to get inside and close the door on the nightmare haunting her out here.

      Eventually the voice of a sleepy-sounding Cal came over the intercom. ‘Hello?’

      ‘Cal?’ The sheer relief of hearing his familiar voice was enough to completely break her and the dam broke on the tears she’d been trying to hold at bay with every revelation she’d uncovered tonight.

      ‘Izzy, is that you? What’s wrong? I’m coming down.’ The gates swung open and she ran towards the house as though she was still being chased by Gerry’s invisible demons.

      He was pulling on a T-shirt as he opened the door and Izzy launched herself at him, making him stagger backwards into the hall. ‘Oh, Cal, I didn’t know where else to go, who else to turn to.’

      ‘Calm down and tell me what’s wrong. You’re safe now.’ He kicked the door closed behind her and she was inclined to believe him. His solid presence was just the reassurance she needed right now.

      She let him hold her, enjoying being cocooned in his strong arms and the heat of his body warming hers as the cold reality of Gerry’s betrayal hit home.

      ‘There was a man at the house...he said Gerry owed him money...something to do with a card game.’ Her teeth were chattering now with the shock of having a visit from the kind of people she’d thought only existed in gangster movies.

      ‘Did he hurt you?’ Cal tensed beneath her, his biceps bunching and flexing as he demanded the truth.

      ‘No. He was just...intimidating. I told him about the accident, that Gerry had been killed, but he didn’t seem to care. He wanted the debt paid. I had to give him every penny I had in the house to make him leave.’ She shivered, remembering Gerry’s associate standing with a foot inside her door, knowing she was there alone and terrified he’d want more than cash from her.

      Cal swore and pulled her tighter into his embrace. ‘You’re freezing and soaking wet. Go inside and get warm by the fire. I’ll get you some towels and warm clothes.’

      He led her into the living room, put a blanket around her shoulders and handed her a glass of amber liquid. ‘For the shock,’ he said, making her drink it before he went to get her the dry clothes he’d promised.

      Her throat burned as she downed the alcohol, but she was grateful as it took the chill from her very bones and warmed her from the inside out. That unpleasant house call had only been the start of unravelling Gerry’s secrets and lies and now she was afraid there could be a string of debtors turning up on her doorstep looking for recompense.

      ‘I’m sorry I didn’t have more in your size,’ he said with a half-grin and she appreciated he was still trying to make her laugh even at a time like this. She needed Cal’s stability, this normality, to prevent her from tipping completely over the edge.

      ‘That’s fine. Thank you.’ Izzy took the fresh towels and Cal-sized outfit from him, but she didn’t have the energy, or the inclination, to leave the room to get changed. She simply sat and stared at the pile of laundry on her lap, unable to move.

      ‘Let me.’ Cal knelt at her feet and gently tugged off her shoes and socks, followed by her sodden trousers and blouse. He moved swiftly and efficiently to strip her of her wet things, leaving just her underwear before wrapping her in a warm, fluffy robe.

      He took one of the towels, sat beside her on the sofa and began to dry her hair. She closed her eyes as he massaged her scalp, finding comfort in the intimate gesture. It had been a long time, if ever, since anyone had done that for her.

      ‘I’m sorry for imposing on you like this. I know I’m making a habit of turning up here unannounced.’

      ‘There’s no need to apologise and as for your previous visits, I think they were more of an intervention for my benefit. If I hadn’t had you chivvying me along after Janet left me I’d either still be in bed, unable to face the world again, or in rehab for jilted men whose fiancées had run off with the actual fathers of their babies.’ Cal’s dark humour failed to disguise how much Janet had really hurt him by stringing him along, pretending they were going to have a baby together.

      Izzy understood his pain more than ever since Gerry had essentially done the same thing to her. He’d promised to marry her one day and give her the family she’d always dreamed of but that would never have happened.

      ‘Well, if we’re playing who had the worst relationship, I’ll see your lying fiancée and raise you a gambling addict.’ That was the only way she could see him now, tonight’s revelations overriding everything she’d thought she knew about Gerry.

      Cal’s soothing hands stilled on her scalp. ‘Oh, Izzy. I’m so sorry.’

      She shrugged but the tears made a resurgence as she thought of all her hopes and dreams for the future that had been doomed from the first time they’d met. ‘I’ve been mourning him for two months, but I wasted my grief on a stranger. That knock on the door tonight prompted me to finally look at all the post and paperwork he left behind. He’d taken out bank loans in my name, forged my signature on goodness knows what and racked up debt wherever he went. It’s going to take ages to sort through the mess he’s left behind. I just feel so alone, Cal.’

      With no family to turn to and her best friend, Helen, living miles away, those old feelings of rejection were surfacing again. She was lucky she had Cal to lend her a shoulder to lean on.

      ‘You’re not alone. I’m here for you, day or night, the way you were for me.’ He put his arms around her neck and kissed the top of her head.

      ‘What did we do to deserve Janet and Gerry?’ Izzy had seen him in the depths of despair where she was currently languishing, and it just didn’t seem fair.

      ‘Absolutely nothing.’ He tipped her face up and made her look at him. ‘None of this is your fault. Okay?’

      ‘I remember saying something

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