Shattered Illusions: Love, Lies, and Redemption

Chapter 83

Remington had headed back to Oakridge Heights early, pulling up to a stop.

Leaning back in his seat, he was eyeing the villa with a gaze as heavy as the air pressure around him.

The place was pitch–dark, a dead giveaway that Lizetta hadn’t come home again.

He lingered in the car, not getting out, until Cedric piped up. “Mr. Remington? You freaked out Lizetta’s friend at the hospital, she might be steamed. Maybe you should sweet–talk her a bit?”

Remington glanced over. “And how do you suggest I do that?”

“Grab a bouquet? Throw in some sweets, girls dig that stuff. Flowers and treats always cheer them up.”

Cedric felt partly to blame for today’s fiasco and was eager to make amends, throwing out suggestions left and right.

Remington’s lips curled into a mocking smile. “Girls also dig jewelry, don’t they?”

He hadn’t forgotten the morning’s episode, where he pushed a jewelry box towards the girl, only to have it chucked squarely at him.

Remington was starting to think his assistant was becoming useless; his skills were going downhill.

Forty minutes later, in the shadows beneath Yolanda’s apartment building.

There he was, in the driver’s seat, with a bunch of gaudy red roses, courtesy of the florist’s hard sell, sitting on the passenger seat.

floor, lights off. Lizetta wasn’t

nine o’clock, growing impatient, when he spotted a familiar graceful figure sauntering by with

flowers, ready to

the shopping bag

each other, obviously, chatting and laughing as

of ducking away, she

the emotion draining

Lizetta waved goodbye cheerfully to the guy before taking the

gazing up, watching the lights flick on floor by floor until they hit the sixth,

the car, Remington let

ticked off, not by a long shot. She seemed in high spirits, simply not in

that’s all:

into the trash bin

a run to the corner store for some necessities and bumped into Granny Susan’s grandson from the

flowerbed a few days back, and Lizetta was the one who

קיד.

14-20

Chapter 83

grandson had been waiting to give her the good news that Granny was

big trouble; she could rest

home, she went to pour herself some water and heard a familiar car sound

hand, walked over to the window