**Part 3**
Oliver thought his worst mistake was hiding a house. He still didn’t understand what he had actually destroyed.
I went home, picked up Daisy, and packed Oliver a bag.
He stared at it. “You’re kicking me out over property?”
“No. Over seven years of making me believe honesty was our rule while you edited your life around me.”
“That’s dramatic.”
“You deleted a sister until you needed something from her.”
He looked away.
“You used Daisy to soften Emma, lied about where you were, and made me suspicious of Charlotte because she knew the truth.”
“That’s not why.”
“Then why warn me away from her?”
He didn’t answer.
“Exactly.”
“So you’re throwing away seven years?”
“I won’t spend another seven wondering what else you hid.”
“Claire, I love you.”
“I believe you. I also believe you love getting your way more than being honest when honesty costs you.”
“What do you want?”
“For tonight? Leave.”
“And tomorrow?”
“Tell me the truth before I have to drag it out of you.”
“About everything?”
“That question isn’t comforting.”
The next morning, Charlotte knocked with a paper bag. “I brought pastries.”
“Goth pastries?”
“Croissants. Emotionally, yes.”
I laughed. “For a year, I thought you were the person in this hallway I should be afraid of.”
“Piercings are powerful.”
“Oliver made me suspicious of you because you knew Emma. One conversation could’ve ruined his version of the past.”
Her smile faded. “So what happens now?”
I glanced at Daisy in her dinosaur pajamas. “Oliver’s staying with a friend. I haven’t decided what happens to us.”
“And Emma?”
“She’s keeping her half of the house.”
“That’ll annoy him.”
“Deeply, I hope.”
We laughed.
For years, I thought asking for the truth was enough. Now I understood promises meant nothing when someone only told the truth when it suited them.
I didn’t need another promise.
I needed to see what Oliver did next.
THE END
