Chapter 134: The Shadow Of Obsession, Part 22, Interviewing Klempner

MICHAEL

James sucks air through his teeth.

Klempner leans forward again, folded arms resting on the counter. "She knew I had you. She knew where you would be. But she never came for you. I believed she would. But she didn't."

Charlotte, white-faced, could be carved in stone. I take her hand again, curling warm fingers around her cold ones. "You don't believe in softening the blow do you?"

Klempner inhales. "I thought you came to talk; to ask me what happened. Do you want the truth or do you want a fairy tale?"

Charlotte whispers. "I want the truth to be a fairy tale."

The aggression seems to drain from him. "And whatever led you to think life is like that?"

There's a shudder running through her fingers to mine. "It can be."

"Yes?" He picks at his teeth, extracting a morsel of something. "Is that why you married Eye-Candy here...?" He nods to me... "And him too?" He jerks a thumb at James.

She tugs her fingers from mine again, hissing, "What turns a man into something