Intrigue

Chapter 48

Malcolm's POV

The silence that followed in the room was deafening.

"What?" I moved back, trying to comprehend. Sean's look was serious.

"I told you about Cole because I felt that I'd been keeping too much from you. But I'm hiding worse things." Sean sighed, and looked at me guiltily. "I've been trying- I've been trying to tell you, but it's been difficult. But I can't keep on hiding it now. I want to at least tell you a part of it now. I've made my mind up. Even if it changes everything."

"What are you saying?" I asked impatiently. Lying about what? Worse things?

He stood up and walked over to the wall unit. He opened one of the cabinets and took out something shiny from it, the size of a thumb. I watched in curiosity and nervousness. His words had been extremely ambiguous and I hadn't understood a word of what he'd wanted to say.

"You know I've been trying to tell you something for a few weeks. I'm easing you in now, okay?" he asked. "Please don't be mad at me." But I couldn't reply. What was he saying?

He stopped in front of me, and handed me what he'd been holding in his hand. Then he calmly sat down and looked at me. I looked back at him in confusion, then glanced at the brass object he'd handed me. It was a name tag, with the police badge engraved on the left, and a name engraved on the right.

It read PC Michigan.

My eyes turned to Sean's, still not understanding. "What's this?" I mumbled.

"You know what it is."

"I mean - how did you get it?" My breath hitched for the second time.

I watched Sean exhale. "It's mine." His voice was low.

I blinked, trying to get what he was telling me. "What?" I croaked out.

Nothing was making sense to me. Sean looked extremely distraught about it all. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. I denied it the day you suspected it last week, when I saw Ella at that cafeteria. I didn't want to get caught right then, and in that way. But I should have told you then, if not from the beginning."

Nausea also made its way to my stomach. I was now getting what he was saying, but I wanted to be sure. I wanted him to spell it out for me. "Are you- are you saying that you're..." I trailed off, unable to carry on.

He nodded. "Yeah. That's what I'm saying."

"Your surname is Michigan." It was a statement, not a question. I was making all the links now.

He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Malcolm. Yeah, my real surname is Michigan. I lied to you, I used my mother's maiden name and my second name, and have been hiding it from you ever since I met you."

I felt my head spin round. A cold sweat made its way all over me as I finally understood it all. He was Sean Michigan, the police officer I'd inquired to him about, the police officer who had hit on Ella inside our own home, while on the job, who'd forced himself on her and threatened to report her on her relationship with Edward if she didn't comply to his demands.

"You're Sean Michigan," I murmured. "PC Michigan. The police officer who made a pass at my sister and threatened her?" My voice rose up a notch.

Now that I thought about it, the Sean I'd first met at the bar would be the type to do something like that. I watched as Sean, my Sean, now, bit his lip, looking very stressed.

I wanted to throw up.

"Yes."

I stood up, suddenly comprehending just how messed up all of this was. "You're the guy who assaulted my younger sister?" I was aware that I was repeating myself, but the realisation was so huge that I couldn't do otherwise. Sean Michigan.

He grimaced once again. "Yes."

"And you lied to me and have been acting as if you're someone else throughout the whole time I've known you?" I yelled now.

He stood up as well, looking at me reluctantly. "No. I lied because I was embarrassed. I knew it was bad, but I've changed since then. You know that." His hands reached out to touch mine, but I shook myself away.

"Bullshit," I spat.

He looked desperate now. "Malcolm, I'm sorry. When we met, I thought, why not. It was just going to be a bit of fun, no strings attached. But then by time I realised that we both meant more to each other, and I-"

I cut him off. I needed answers. "Wait. The night we met, at the bar," I said, glowering. "You'd known who I was?"

Sean nodded, looking at me in despair. "Yeah, I'd recognised you," he admitted softly. "But like I said, I was intrigued. Then you were sick and I brought you over here, and things escalated, and I thought, okay, this could be interesting, a fling. But then everything changed." He grabbed my shoulders. "I never thought I'd fall in love with-"

The shove I gave him cut off his last word, which was good, because I didn't want to hear him say that to me, not right now. "Fuck off," I told him, seething. I stepped back from him. His face contorted in pain at my words.

"I'm very sorry, Malcolm," he mumbled once again. He stood tall, looking at me helplessly, so different from the Sean I knew and had grown to love in spite of all his flaws. "You have every right to be angry at me. I'm an asshole. I deserve this and worse. But I- I love you, and I don't want things to change between us, although I know I might be asking for too much."

I seethed at the fact that he'd still managed to say the words 'I love you' to me, making this a hundred times worse. I threw the badge at him in response. It hit him squarely on the chest, and he blinked, rubbing where it had hit and probably left a mark. I started walking backwards, in order to still be able to see him. I couldn't trust him now.

"I need some time to figure this out," I answered, instead of offending him at his suggestion that things wouldn't be different now. Nothing was going to be the same ever again.

I grabbed my jacket from the chair in the kitchen and opened the front door. I gave Sean one final look. His face was red in shame and a tear had rolled down his left eye. I shook my head angrily, and slammed the door shut behind me.