Free Your Truth is Out There (Find Your Truth Book 1) by David Allen Kimmel Page A

Each time he got no further than opening his mouth before realizing anything he might say would only serve to diminish his already poor standing with this woman, whose help he desperately needed if he was going to avoid exile on Zaras 7. In the end, he simply closed his mouth and opened the passenger door for Gsefx’s wife.
    From that high point, things went downhill rather quickly. There were no further outbursts of anger, only a cold, harsh silence, as Lhvunsa sat quietly staring out the window. It wasn’t long before Qilzar hoped she would start yelling again. He twice attempted to start conversations, asking about her family first, then her career. He was abruptly cut off both times with glares that cut right through him, which were followed by even more intense silence. Shortly thereafter, he switched the vehicle over to manual control and focused on piloting. According to his on-board navigational computer, they were about thirty ebyts from Irt when Lhvunsa finally broke the silence.
    “Why do you hate my husband so much?”
    The suddenness of her question startled Qilzar out of his dark thoughts, which mostly centered around the disaster awaiting him on Zaras 7.
    “Ahh … excuse me? What did you say?”
    She surprised Qilzar further by reaching over and engaging the auto-pilot.
    “I want to know why you despise Gsefx so much.”
    Her tone was conversational, but there was nothing casual about the question.
    “He’s done nothing to you except make you and your department look good time and again by meeting impossible deadlines with unmatched accuracy. He works so much, especially since his promotion, I hardly see him anymore. Yet you treat him like a criminal.”
    “And speaking of the promotion,” she continued, her voice rising again, “why in the galaxy would you promote him, only to hound him mercilessly and make his life miserable afterwards, then fire him on a minor technicality? That doesn’t make any sense! What do you have against him?”
    “Whatever do you mean?” asked Qilzar, slipping into the smooth voice he used on troublesome clients. “Gsefx has always been my top employee and I am actually quite fond of him. As I tried to explain earlier, this whole thing was just a simple misunderstanding. I was merely trying to point out that he needed to do something about his consistent tardiness and somehow it got blown out of proportion. You must believe me, I would never intentionally do anything to hurt your husband.”
    “Ha!” she cried. “You don’t really expect me to believe that, do you? I don’t know who you think I am, but I assure you …”
    Qilzar watched as an expression of shocked disbelief overtook her face.
    “Unbelievable,” she said shaking her head. “As far as you’re concerned, you’re telling the truth. You actually believe what you’re saying, don’t you? You’ve convinced yourself that none of this is your fault, that it really was just a misunderstanding. You’ve probably even convinced yourself that somehow this is all Gsefx’s fault.”
    Qilzar opened his mouth as if to speak, but he wasn’t given the chance.
    “You fired him, Qilzar!” continued Lhvunsa. “For some reason, ever since his promotion, you’ve been looking for ways to hurt him and today you succeeded in the worst way imaginable. You fired your best employee for nothing more than spite. You might be able to convince yourself this was a simple misunderstanding and that you’re not the cause of it, but you won’t get me to buy into that lie.”
    She reached over and switched the ship back to manual mode.
    “Forget I said anything and just pilot.” She turned her back to him and looked out the window again.
    Qilzar was stunned. Too stunned to do anything except what he was told. As he piloted the ship, his thoughts were no longer on Zaras 7, or even Irt for that matter. He had never encountered anyone like the woman sitting next to him. He was used to getting what he wanted, either by