Free Deliberate Deceptions: Hauberk Protection, Book 3 by Leah Braemel Page A

camped on our front lawn, taking pictures through the cracks in the blinds that got plastered over the internet for anyone and their brother to see. I lived with the headlines speculating if we were into sex games like those from Thalia’s club. Do you have any idea what it’s like to be the butt of night show monologue jokes when a video of you and your husband having sex goes viral?” She still hadn’t figured out how they’d filmed that footage. “I lived with the neighbors who gave us sideways glances every time we left our front door, with those who didn’t bother with glances but with outright suggestions of what they wanted me to do for them. You weren’t there when I discovered my co-workers were passing around Photoshopped pictures of me or hear the snickers and suggestions when I walked past them.”
    She whirled away from him and stared at the trees swaying overhead. Her body quivered, torn between wanting to race along the path, to put as much space between her and Troy as she could, and decking the smug bastard. “You weren’t there when the press followed us to the cemetery to visit Emily’s grave on her first birthday.” What should have been her first birthday.
    “Do you know how it felt to have to watch the news showing your daughter’s gravesite being trampled by press who didn’t give a damn about respect? To find graffiti and damage done to her gravestone the next day?” She forced herself to face him again. “I had to deal with the catcalls and hate mail accusing us of being single-handedly   responsible for 9/11. I was there for the death threats. And the bomb threats. Me. Not you. So don’t you dare judge me.”
    “No, I wasn’t there.” His voice was soft, almost gentle, but the intensity in his gaze, his white-knuckled fists, told her he was barely hanging on to his own temper. “But Chad was. And you let him think it was all his fault when it wasn’t.”
    “I didn’t.” She closed her eyes and swayed. She had. Which was one of the reasons she was here, wasn’t it?
    “I know what you told him, Lauren. I also know what really happened.”
    “No, you don’t. You don’t have a fucking clue.” Only her therapist knew what really happened. And Cooper. And Harris if he’d gotten into her psych files. So much for doctor/patient confidentiality.
    Troy clamped his hands on her shoulders, ensuring her attention. “All Hauberk employees have to have regular psychiatric evaluations. Even the managers. Chad thinks you hold him responsible for not being able to save your daughter. Apart from his decision to protect his sister, he thinks that’s why you ran from him.”
    She resisted the urge to press her fingers to her mouth in horror. Did Chad truly believe she thought him responsible? “He did everything he could. I don’t blame him.”
    Troy stepped closer, staring down at her like a judge and jury ready to pronounce sentence. “I’ve read your reports too.”
    “No. You couldn’t have. Those are sealed and kept in…” Dear God, had it been Troy who had broken into the Dr. Brewer’s files? Not Harris?
    “You think you’re the reason Emily’s dead.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “That if you’d just said something about what you’d been worrying about, if you’d talked to your doctor or her pediatrician you could have saved her. You think you knew there was something wrong with her, didn’t you?”
    “No!” Except Troy echoed what she’d wondered all this time so her denial lacked conviction. Why else had she been so obsessive about checking on Em all those months?
    Grief knifed through her as sharply as it had when she’d cradled her daughter’s lifeless body in her arms. If it hadn’t been for Troy’s hold on her, she’d have dropped to her knees.
    Damn it. She’d locked that guilt away deep inside, hadn’t had to face it in years. Damn him for releasing that flood gate. Needing to strike out at everything that had happened in those years—the