Free Crossing Lines: A gripping psychological thriller (Behind Closed Doors Book 3) by Erin Cawood Page B

need, and you've shared your deepest secrets and biggest fears with me. Ergo, you trust me.”
    “I'm not sleeping with you, though, am I?” she whispers, shaking her head. “And I don’t.” There’s a kick in the gut. "Because you don't even know my name.”
    “What are you talking about? Your name is Krystal.”
    She shakes her head and the floor of my stomach drops. She takes a deep breath in through her nose and lets it go out her mouth. The foundation of our five-year friendship crumbles as she reaches into her purse and withdraws an envelope. “But if I’m going to tell you that, you'll have to sign these.”

Chapter Seven
     
    “YOU’RE NOT SERIOUS!” I shout the moment I’m aware she’s reentered the kitchen. I toss the documents she’s asked me to sign onto the kitchen counter, as I spin around and climb from my chair. My gaze locks onto a refreshed Krystal. “This is bullshit!”
    She isn't serious. She can't be. She's been my patient for five years and has never requested anything as extreme as this. I glare at the contract she dropped on me before she left to take a shower, after advising me never to sign anything without reading it thoroughly first. The words "Non-Disclosure Agreement” jump up at me.
    “I could give you CliffsNotes, but if you want me to answer your questions without omitting anything, Darryl … you'll have to sign it.”
    “Damn it!” I draw in a deep breath. The CliffsNotes version will not work in this situation, and she knows it. But putting me under a legal obligation to keep her secrets, gives me a really bad feeling about what she’s going to tell me. “You know there's such a thing as patient-doctor confidence,” I say as I scrawl on the dotted line. “You didn't have to do this.”
    She shrugs as she reaches for the coffee pot and then refills our cups. “Maybe I didn’t. And maybe you didn’t have to sign it." She returns the coffee pot to its seat, then sits down opposite me at the kitchen's breakfast bar. “But I did. And so did you.”
    “Before you start messing with my head, remember that I’m here to help you, Krystal. I can still walk away, and I will. If I think you’re not being straight with me, I'm out of here.”
    Her gaze meets with mine. She stares at me for what feels like an age, but I don’t back down. She draws in a long, heavy breath and blows it out again before nodding. “After I spent months in New York preparing for my role as Faith, I knew exactly what was going on between Julia and Wayne. Saw it, heard it, all the signs are there. But Julia denies it.”
    “Skip to the part where you changed your name; we can come back to Julia and Wayne later.”
    “Just …” She sighs in a way that lifts the hairs on my arms. Suddenly, I’m aware of how uncomfortable she is discussing this. “… listen. I promise I'll get there.” When I don't reply, she pushes on. “Ten years ago, Wayne and I were dating. We’d been together for six months before I caught him with Julia. Now, he's holding what she did to me, sleeping with him when he was my boyfriend, against her. But at the same time, he’s made her, and everyone else we know, think that I’m the one with the problem. I swear to you, Darryl, if he truly made her happy I'd back off. But …”
    I examine her expression with an intensity I don’t think I’ve given anything else for a long time; everything I thought I knew about this woman is a lie. She’s had me fooled for years. But I’m also certain, she really doesn't care about her best friend's betrayal, and she’s trying hard to prove she didn't care about the ex-boyfriend at all—maybe a little too hard. Her eyes drift to the coffee cup wrapped within both her hands. “But what happened a month ago, the attack on my sister and the shooting, it's my fault.”
    “You weren't even there.” I know that much from what she said last night. I watch her unconsciously touching the bruising on her eyes. “Has he done this