Secrets and Lies (a Les Twins fanfic)

Chapter 35: Mea Culpa

“Larry wanted me to let you know he’s cooking tonight if you want to come over.”

Gabby glanced up from her desk. “Um…tell him I can’t. I have to start packing.”

“Do you need me for anything else today?”

Sasha was wearing another one of Larry’s shirts. The black button-up. It was baggy on her so she’d belted it at the waist over a pair of tights.

Gabby eyed her up and down. Not only was Larry letting her wear his clothes, now he was passing messages through her, too.

She guessed Laurent was wrong about them after all.

She looked at the clock. It was still early afternoon but clearly Sasha had somewhere else she’d rather be. Probably with Larry.

“No, you can go. But I need you to come help me finish packing in the morning.”

“Okay.”

Gabby stood up to take a break and stretch. She walked down the hall to the sound stage and her steps reverberated in the almost empty studio.

There were only a few janitors left in the building to break down everything and clean up the place. Sadness washed over her. Her time in Paris was almost over.

When she got back Larry was standing in the middle of her office.

“If you’re looking for Sasha she just left.”

“I’m looking for you.” He thrust a bunch of papers at her.

“I don’t understand.” Gabby scanned the pages with an expression of disbelief on her face. “I didn’t write this.”

She sat down at her computer and anxiously scrolled back through her sent emails from that morning. There it was staring her right in the face.

“Can’t you see this doesn’t make any damn sense?” She gestured at the screen suspiciously. “If I did this I wouldn’t send an email that could trace back to me.”

“I don’t care what you fucking say.” Larry was beyond upset. “You’re a liar. I knew you would steal from Lau’s laptop. You try to use him!”

When Larry mentioned Laurent’s laptop Gabby gradually realized what was happening. She felt like the wind had been knocked out of her.

She looked up at him in astonishment. Larry had gotten his final revenge. He had set her up.

“You bastard.” She stood and reached for her cell phone.

“Don’t bother. Lau already knows. And he don’t wanna talk to you or see you EVER again.” Larry got up in her face. “You finished.”

“How the hell could you do this? Do you really hate me that much?”

“You do this shit to yourself when you send that email! I only look out for my twin. I never let anybody hurt Lau!”

Gabby was fuming. If it was her word against Larry’s there was no way she could make Laurent believe she was innocent.

She grabbed Larry’s cap off his belt, threw it on the floor, and stomped on it.

Larry flinched and clenched his fists. “Be glad I don’t hit girls.”

He made a move for the door, but she jumped in front of him.

“No, Larry, wait, wait!”

“Get out of my way.”

“I can’t leave Paris letting Lau think I did this.” Gabby struggled to hold back tears.

Larry rolled his eyes to the ceiling unsympathetically. He didn’t know why he wasn’t out the door already.

Maybe because Gabby’s face looked exactly like Laurent’s had in the kitchen at his apartment—genuinely heartbroken.

He focused on her, his voice full of confusion and annoyance but more gentle than before. “Okii, so if you didn’t do it, then who did?”

“I did.”

Gabby whirled around to face the voice from the doorway. “Sasha?”