And rest did follow. With all of those thoughts swirling through her mind, Liz fell asleep. Too much stress had completely wiped her out, and slumber became inevitable.

Liz woke some time later to the sound of banging on her bedroom door. She yawned loudly and stretched out the kink in her neck.

“Yeah?” she grumbled.

How long had she been out? She hadn’t even remembered falling asleep. Shit! She had said that she was going to call Brady after Hayden left. He was probably freaking out. She didn’t want him to think that she had forgotten—or worse, that Hayden was still here. She had made it clear to Brady that it was over with Hayden, but he didn’t need a reason to doubt her.

“Are you awake in there?” Victoria called.

“Um . . . yeah. Sorry. I guess I passed out.” Liz stood and searched around for her phone. She needed to find out how long she had been asleep and then call Brady.

“Well, get your ass out here. You have a visitor.”

Liz scrunched her eyebrows together. Who the hell would be visiting her? She snatched her phone off of her desk and checked the time. Okay, she hadn’t been asleep that long. Forty-five minutes or so. Still too long not to respond to the text message flashing on her screen from Brady.

Liz clicked on the text and jogged quickly into the bathroom. As she read the message, she found a hair tie in a basket by the sink and threw her hair into a ponytail.

Haven’t heard from you. Everything all right? Do I need to swing back by?

Shit! That had been fifteen minutes ago. Her visitor was probably Brady checking to make sure that Hayden was gone and she was all right.

Liz checked out her face in the mirror and winced. Her nap hadn’t done her any good; she looked as if she hadn’t slept in weeks. After splashing some water on her face to try to wake herself up, she dabbed some foundation under her eyes to cover the dark circles and then slid her phone back into her pocket. Time to face the music.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Liz said as she walked out of her bedroom. “I wasn’t expecting . . .”

She trailed off when she caught a glimpse of red hair. Her stomach plummeted.

Not good.

What the hell was Calleigh Hollingsworth doing in her living room? Liz wanted to walk over there, snatch the woman’s box-maroon hair in her hand, and throw her out of her house. As much as Liz despised Hayden, he had supposedly only gone through with the article because of Calleigh’s interference; then her name had appeared next to his byline, and now she was standing here in front of Liz.

Liz couldn’t think of a single good reason for her to be here. Not one. Hayden had claimed that he hadn’t given Calleigh Liz’s name in the whole thing, but how much did Calleigh really know? She had been taunting Liz at Brady’s primary about this sort of thing. It made Liz anxious, and she didn’t know what the hell she was supposed to do.

“Liz,” Calleigh said, turning around to face her. “How are you, doll?”

Liz cringed slightly at the nickname. She hated that. Everything about Calleigh irritated her at this point.

“I’m good, Calleigh. How are you?” Liz asked amicably. Maybe if she acted nice then Calleigh would leave quicker.

“Good. Good. Just been busy,” Calleigh said flippantly.

“I can only imagine,” Liz said dryly. Busy ruining lives and such.

“How’s Hayden?”

Liz narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

She had a million other questions she wanted to ask in response to that, but that was all that came out. Why? Because Calleigh couldn’t get into his pants or because she was testing to see if they had broken up or what?

“Geez, calm down, Liz. I was just asking.”

“But why? Don’t you work together? I would think you see him more than me right now, since we’re both so busy,” Liz said, trying to keep her anger about Hayden at bay for a few minutes. If she acted super pissed, then Calleigh would start piecing things together.

“Oh, well, yeah, I suppose,” Calleigh said, flipping her hair over her shoulder and smiling coyly. “I just hadn’t seen him since Friday, when we submitted that article. Did you read it? We’re getting so much interest from it.”

“I did read it. It was well written.”

Calleigh nodded but looked at Liz as if she was waiting for something. “Thank you. We worked on it together.”

“Do you think you’re going to get a promotion?” Liz asked. She was itching to pull her phone out and text Brady.

“Remains to be seen, I think. After this I’d say we’re in line for whatever is next,” she said, smiling brightly.

Liz just wished that Calleigh could be ugly instead of this exotic beauty with long straight hair, high cheekbones, and stunning green eyes. It would serve her right for having such a cold heart.

“Well, congrats!” Liz said, evading the one question she really wanted to ask. What the fuck are you doing here?

“Thanks. I just thought I’d stop by, since I’m in the area doing some research,” Calleigh said.

She paused as if she were waiting for Liz to say something. So Liz didn’t. She just stared at Calleigh blankly.

“I’ve been through the registrar records and it seems, as I suspected, that no one by the name of Sandy Carmichael ever actually went to UNC during the time we wrote about in the article.”

“You did say that it was a fake name or something, right? I wouldn’t think you would waste your time looking, or at the very least that you would have checked it over before writing the article,” Liz said snippily.

Calleigh laughed softly and nodded. “I just thought I’d double- and triple-check. Cover my bases. But it looks like, as Hayden said, she doesn’t exist. And he won’t tell me who told him.”

Liz stood frozen, not wanting to move or shift or even blink. Calleigh didn’t need any kind of indicators from Liz as to how Hayden got his information.

“Well, I’d assume that if he wanted to tell you, then he would have,” she said simply.

“Hayden seems to be withholding the information for a specific reason. I mean, he wouldn’t have told me if the person told him about it off the record. That’s breaking ethical boundaries . . .”

Liz gasped lightly. “Oh my God, are you afraid of getting sued for libel? Careers have been ended for less, Calleigh.”

Color drained slowly out of her face and she shook her head. “No. I’m not . . . I’m not concerned about that.”

Liz seemed to have thrown her off her rhythm, at least for a moment. The wheels were clearly working in Calleigh’s mind. She hoped that Calleigh thought that Hayden had lied to her about how he had acquired the information, or even that there was the potential for the Maxwell family to come back and destroy them. Good-bye, reporting career.

“Has he told you?” Calleigh finally blurted out.

“Told me what?” Liz asked, tilting her head and looking at Calleigh innocently.

“Who Sandy Carmichael is? Has he told you who he spoke with? Y’all have been dating over a year, I would think a strong, stable relationship like that,” Calleigh said with a gleam of mischief in her eye, “you would tell each other everything.”

Liz just smiled sweetly. “Oh, we do. We tell each other everything.”

Calleigh’s eyes enlarged slightly and then returned to their normal size. “So then . . . you know?”

“Know what?” Liz prompted. “About Sandy Carmichael or about you and Hayden?”

“Um . . .” Calleigh said, her mouth dropping open. Then she shook her head as she recovered. “I was simply asking about Sandy Carmichael.”

“Well, I’m asking about Hayden. Is there anything going on between y’all? Because he told me it was over since he dumped you after you graduated and that he’s been happy to fend you off since he moved to Charlotte.”