Harley's POV

My face dropped, and I turned my heels to face Tessa. Avery? How'd she known about Avery? I never told Tessa about her? Xander's business partner is Daniel? Supposed to be here? "W-What'd you say?" I stared at her like a deer in headlights.

"Oh, forgot you didn't know." She clenched her teeth and placed her manicured hand over her mouth like she just "let the cat out of the bag."

"What are you talking about?" I barked.

"Someone's angry." She chuckled. "It's about time you caught up anyways." She rolled her eyes.

"Caught up?" I scrunched my face in confusion.

"Everyone's been laughing at you, Harley. Even the boss. You're a joke," She said like it was common knowledge. My chest felt like a fucking rhino was on it. "You're the only one that doesn't know." She deadpanned.

"Know what?!" I asked, completely exasperated. I marched up to her quickly. "How do you know about Avery? What do you mean she was supposed to be here?" I grabbed on to her gaze.

"You poor girl, so gullible and so trusting. Well, that's what Evan called you; I just say you're stupid." She shrugged and began pacing around me. Evan? What the fuck was going on? Evan was dead? Right? Wait, Xander never told me what happened to him, so I just assumed he was dead.

"W-what does this have to do with Evan? Wh-what-" I began, but she stopped me. My mind was running rapidly.

"Evan told me the boss came up with a pretty good cover story for the reason you're here." She fiddled with the ends of my hair. "Of course, it took some convincing and way too many blowjobs to get him to tell me." She chuckled, genuinely amused.

"Ev-Evan's alive?" I swallowed. My mind rewound to what she said a second ago. Cover story?

"Oh no." Tessa barked and stopped moving. In all seriousness, she swirled around to look me in the eyes again. "Don't act like you care now. After you snitched on him and got him beat within an inch of his life." She sneered. "Sure, he worked for Huncho, but he was a good guy-" she rambled.

"What cover story?" I interrupted. "I-I don't know anything about that." I swallowed so hard a bang of pain struck my throat.

"Oh, hun, I know you don't know anything about it. If you did, you wouldn't still be here." She giggled. My face fell even more than it already was. Why wouldn't I be here? "Why are you here?" She asked.

"H-huh?" I spat.

"Why were you kidnapped and brought here?" She rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"T-to pay for my mother's d-debt," I answered. "But you-you already know that." I frowned my brows. If she and Evan are such good friends, he would've told her that. She was just playing a game with me. She's enjoying watching me squirm. As much as I didn't want to give her the satisfaction, everything in my body was screaming at me to listen to her.

"Your right." She shrugged. "I just wanted you to say it out loud so I could see how fucked your face looks when I tell you that there was never any debt from your mother."

My stomach dropped down to feet. I could feel my heart beating in my throat. "What?" I croaked out.

"The boss only said that because he wanted to shut you up." She explained. "Seem like he really is tired of your mouth." She sighed. No. No. He wouldn't do that. Tessa would do anything to get under my skin. He loved me. He cared about me. He's saved me so many times. He wouldn't lie to me about that.

"No, he wouldn't do that." I shook my head and crossed my arms over my chest. "Why would I believe anything you say?" I scoffed, trying to fight by the upchuck fighting to come out.

"That's fine, don't believe me, but I doubt Ralph would lie." She shrugged.

Ralph? What did Ralph have to do with this? Xander trusted Ralph with his life. "You talked to Ralph?"

"Yeah." She replied nonchalantly. "Actually, he came to me." She chuckled. "Funny story," she paused as she looked down at her nails. "It only happened an hour ago, but It feels like it was forever ago. He told me about everything. Of course, his reasons were purer than mine." She rolled her eyes. "He said he felt like you should know the truth, and Xander wasn't ever going to tell you." She rolled her eyes again. "He said you deserved better, and blah blah blah." She waved herself off. "I don't care why he likes you, as long as he helped me." She chuckled humorlessly. "So I promised the guy I'd tell you the truth." She paused then started again. "I was going to tell you anyway, but his part of the story just made this whole truth-telling thing more instr-" she said cheerfully, but I stopped her. I couldn't hear anymore.

"Stop." I clenched my chest and looked away from her. My vision was growing fuzzy, and it was becoming hard and harder to balance. "N-none of that is true-" I tried to say, but everything spluttered out in a mess. She was lying. She had to be. Ralph was a good guy. He wouldn't hurt me. Xander trusted him; I trusted Xander. I looked over at Tessa for a moment, taking in her eyes and her body language. She seemed relaxed, and her body was even leaning casually against the wall. If she were lying, she'd be trying to convince me everything she was saying is true. But she isn't. No. No. Xander had my file. He knows my mom passed of a drug overdose. Daniel had a furniture factory. Avery visited him at work every week. She'd notice if something were wrong.

I looked down at the floor, allowing me time for my brain to wander. How well did I know Xander or Ralph? I just let myself trust them? I shook away the thoughts. They were good guys to me. I knew better than to listen to Tessa. Despite that, I lifted my head and spared one last glance at Tessa before whipping around and walking towards Xander's office.

"Good luck and safe travels." She snickered behind me, which only made me speed up my pace.

Like my entire existence depended on it, I marched up to the door and slowly and softly pushed it open. It wasn't trying to be overly cautious, but I was in too much shock to do anything else.

There he stood, leaned over his desk, looking something intensively. I looked down to see what he was studying. I knew my expression morphed from scared to pure horror. I could feel every moment of this trauma affecting my brain. Since my feet were bare, he couldn't hear the patter as I walked. He was still looking down at some rectangular cards. Picture. They were pictures. My eyes stayed on the photographs spread out on the wooden top. Various images of Avery's father in all types of lewd situations. Documents of his phone call conversations, his text messages, and recent trips were there too. But what caught my attention was a singular photo of Avery. In the photograph, she was talking to her Father. She had her hand on his arm, and he had his fingers laced in her golden blonde hair. They looked at each other with pure admiration. My arm seemed to have a mind of its own since the second I saw her face; I snatched the photo off the desk and held it up closer to my face. My hand went up to my mouth quickly, covering the gasp that collapsed out of my mouth. No. No. This can't be real. It can't be true.

"Harley-" he noticed me now.

"How'd you get this?" A trembling whisper left my lips.

"How the fuck did you get this?!" I ignored him; tears spilled out of my eye like a waterfall burst through a dam.

"Calm down for a second." he began walking to me, but I pushed myself further away until he stopped trying to advanced forward.

"How!" I yelled.

"I can't tell you that, Harley-" He breathed.

"You're going to tell me!" I barked. "I know about you and Daniel! I know you lied about my mom's debt!" I sobbed. "Tell me the rest! And don't lie to me anymore!" I screeched. "If you actually have some type of a conscience in that cold body, tell me the full truth!"

"Who told you?" He said in a deadly whisper.

"It doesn't matter!" I frowned. "Just tell me what the fuck is going on!" I cried

"I'm going to kill wh-" he started, but I immediately stopped him from creating an excuse.

"Say it! Tell me!" My throat burned from screaming.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked away from my face. The agitation was clear in his body movements.

"Start from the beginning. Start there." I barked. My chest ached in anxiety. It felt like I was watching a tornado come full speed towards me. I knew what he had to say was worse. Worse than what Tessa told me and worse than whatever story I predicted from the beginning.

"The night you were taken was an accident." He paused. "I sent two of my men to follow you from that party the night you were taken." A sob collapsed from my mouth. They were behind us the entire time. We never had a chance, to begin with. But if they didn't mean to take me, then they meant to take-

"They were supposed to take Avery, not you."

Tessa said that it was supposed to be Avery in my place, and I didn't know what she meant. Avery would've been taken instead of me. Why did he send for her? What would he have done to her?

He continued, "Avery's father and I were working together. I used his factory to transport product in and out of the state." He still wasn't looking at me. "He started stealing extra money that we didn't agree on. So we planned to take Avery for ransom."

My fingers traced the sides of my mouth like it'd suffocate the sobs begging to come out. My eyes bore into his face while he talked. If he was going to take her for ransom, it meant that he wasn't going to return her even after he received his money. He was going to kill her eventually.

"Instead, my guys brought you back." He said. "I didn't know what to do with you-" he sighed out the last part and stopped himself. "I didn't know what to tell you." He finished. "I knew just by looking at you that you were going to be stubborn and resilient, and I couldn't handle it-"

"So you made up that story about my mom to shut me up." I finished his sentence.

"Harley-" he breathed out and moved towards me but again moved away. "I was trying to protect you. My father wanted me to kill you. I couldn't do it, so I lied." He explained.

"Protect me?" I asked. "You weren't trying to protect me! You were just trying to shut me up!" I barked. "I can't believe I ate up everything you told. You lied about fucking everything from the very beginning."

"Everything was not a lie!" He barked back.

"Why would I believe anything you say anymore!? You took me away from my family, lied to me to make me think I was doing something important and courageous, but I was really sitting here like a dog, obeying your orders. Everyone was laughing at me." I cried. My head was pounding from crying so hard. I didn't realize it before when Xander said it, but I did love him. I loved him like he said he loved me. As much as I knew it wasn't a good idea, I fell for him. "I cried over you! Faught over you! Defended you! You made me believe you loved me! You bastard!" I choked out. "I would've let you have me. All of me-" My dry throat rejected the snot coming down from crying.

"Now wait for a moment-" He marched up to me and grabbed my face in his hands. "I'd never lie about that. I swear to god, Harley. I meant that with every fiber in my being." He stared into my eyes. I didn't want to hear it. I didn't want to even look at him.

"Let fucking go of me!" I blinked back a long stream of tears. "You ruined my fucking life-" I pushed him away harshly. My fist flew at him without any type of caution or aim, so naturally; he caught my hands flying towards him.

"Harley-calm down. Please," He breathed, holding my hands in his. "You're going to fucking hurt yourself." He pulled me closer to him to stop me from moving.

"Let me out of this house." I yanked myself away from him and wiped the tears from my face. I wouldn't let him see me cry anymore.

"Harley-" he began softly.

"Let me the fuck out of here! Or kill me! Either way, I'm going to try and find a way out of here!" I roared. "I have no reason for being here!"

"There is a reason for you being here!" He growled. "I want you here! With me! Always! That's enough reason."

"You're nothing but a monster! Everything that comes out of your mouth is lies!" I screeched. "Now let me go." I breathed out the air I was holding in my chest now. It ached to do so.

"I can't." He began walking behind his desk.

"Fine. I'll walk out of here myself. Do your fucking worst!" Xander warned me about the guards along the estate walls. He said they shoot me if I tried to escape. Before, I cried at the thought, but I didn't care now. At least I'd die trying. I'd rather die than spend any more time with him.

"Stop." His face clenched, the veins on his neck we're bulging out and his fist were blood red. "I'll take you where you want to go." He answered. I was shocked he agreed so easily.

"No. Send someone else." I shook my head. Dry tears decorated my puffy cheeks. My nose was stuffed up, and I could hear my head physically pounding against my skull. I held no resentment towards Evan or Ralph. Not even Tessa. She had ulterior motives, but I had no reason to hate her. She didn't do this to me. Xander did.

His jaw twitched in anger, and his fist was clenched. He was trying so hard to hold it in. But I didn't care anymore. I'll never see him again.

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HEY YALLL BEEN A WHILE!!! SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING BUT I HAD TO TAKE A BREAKY BREAKK BUT IM BACKKK AND NEW TWO UPDATES COMING WEEKLY!!

THE TRUTH IS OUT!! Harley is pissed beyond belief!! Xander is pissed!! The only person to come out happy is TESSA!!!

What is Xander going to do now????

LOVE YALLLL SM XXOXOXO

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