Free The Memoir of Johnny Devine by Camille Eide

the lies Ralph had used to woo her. Too
bad Eliza hadn’t been warned of Ralph’s duplicity the way this
audience had been warned about Geoffrey’s.
    Back in New York, Johnny’s character went to
meet the man who had hired him, sweating and fidgety as he waited.
When his contact arrived, Geoffrey said he wanted out. Not only did
he refuse the rest of his “fishing” money, but he also gave back
the money he’d already been paid.
    It turned out poor Geoffrey the snake had
fallen in love—for real.
    Eliza was not surprised by the storyline;
she had already guessed where the plot was going. It had been done
before and would be again. The way she had it figured, the heiress
would now discover that Geoffrey had been sent to “fall in love”
with her as a decoy, a way to detour some important investment
decision she was about to make, and the poor woman, who thought she
had finally found someone to love and trust, would realize it was
all an act, and worse, a means to use her for gain.
    The pain and humiliation of such betrayal
hit too close to home. With teeth gritted, Eliza held on a little
longer, just to see if she was right.
    In a penthouse office, the heiress was paid
a visit by a terse-talking private eye who had proof that her
company’s competitors had hired a decoy in an attempt to manipulate
her and railroad her investors. She didn’t believe him at first,
but then the detective said he had a photograph of the decoy. He
took out an envelope, but the heiress stopped him, saying she
needed a moment. She squared her shoulders as if bracing herself,
and then took the envelope. She pulled out the photo, gave it a
brief glance, then slipped it back inside. Her eyes glistened, but
only for a moment. Chin up, she handed the envelope to the man.
“Good work, Mason,” she said. Something in her expression changed.
Hardened.
    Eliza could feel the woman’s embarrassment
coming straight off the screen in waves.
    “ Do whatever you need to
do,” the heiress said evenly. “I don’t ever want to see that face
again.”
    Eliza had also had enough. She stood.
    “ Oh, but you’ll miss the
ending,” her neighbor said. “You’ll never guess how, but it all
turns out, I promise. Are you sure you have to go?”
    “ I’m afraid so. Nice
chatting with you.” Belly churning, Eliza dashed out of the theater
and kept going. There were better ways to spend a nickel, ways that
wouldn’t upset her stomach and remind her of her own humiliation.
Perhaps the less she saw of her employer, the better—
    A weird tingling on the back of her neck
made Eliza stop and look over her shoulder.
    People were walking the sidewalk in both
directions. A man in an overcoat a block away was going the same
direction as Eliza. Watching her.
    The man from the diner.
    You’ve seen too many detective pictures.
Snap out of it.
    She ventured another look back, but the man was
gone.

I knew I was being lied to and yet chose to believe it. What’s
sad about self-deception isn’t that it makes a fool of you—though
it does—but that sooner or later you wake up and realize there’s
nothing worth believing in.
    ~ The Devine Truth: A Memoir
     
     
     
7
     
    As the gate closed behind Eliza Monday morning, her cheeks burned,
in spite of the gusty breeze that whipped across her skin and
tugged at her uncovered curls. She’d spent the morning in such a
dither that she’d forgotten a scarf. Preparing for work reminded
her of last Friday and what she’d implied to John about the ten
dollars. If her mama had been there, she would have offered Eliza
gentle words of correction. She would likely say that, while
being mindful of
her feminine intuition was always wise, a lady didn’t always have
to speak what was
on her mind.
    This learning-to-assert-herself scheme
wasn’t turning out quite as planned.
    When Eliza arrived at the house, Millie was
cleaning a window but set down her cloth and went to the door ahead
of Eliza, humming a tune.
    “ Good