Intro

By the way he did get out of Zoe's house without Emily seeing him. He and his ex-wife both knew it was the last time for them. Her new marriage meant an actual end of them, a full stop, it was the finalization of their separation, much more tangible than the divorce itself. Zoe knew it was fear sex. She was afraid to make the next step, he was afraid to accept her moving on. She knew it all, but for one thing. For Cal it was also an angry sex. He let out all his pent up emotions: anger, guilt, frustration even passion. What Zoe didn't know was that he felt it all. For another woman.

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The chapter in which Lightman gets a new case and we learn that Gillian has a secret.

That morning she was in his office again.

"Bloody Hell, this woman is like a freakin' curse" - thought Cal. Turned out she wanted his help again. That was what she said, while her eyebrows and corner of her mouth said: "My office made me come to you and I hate it but I'm here and asking you for help like it was my idea and it's killing me" Cal hated that her eyebrows and lip corners were so talkative. He knew her every expression and could read her like a book, but now when "they" had finally ended he felt like he had no right to do that anymore. The case was a nasty one: a young woman named Carla Lawrens was abducted shortly after her wedding. The whole family was sticken by shock. Luckily they didn't just pay the money but decided to investigate the case. The family wasn't too rich, but the girl had a huge trust fund of 1 million dollars coming from her grandparents which she could only have access to after she had gotten married. Very few people knew about it, namely her parents, the groom, her elder sister Daisy, her best friend Margareth and her best gay friend Johny. Oh, and her dance partner Rodrigo de la Renta. Apparently Carla was a professional dancer. The ransom was exactly 1 million bucks so her family believed someone who knew about the trust fund had commited the crime. The tape was sent to them as a proof that Carla was alive. There was absolutely no evidence, and the only people who knew about the fund were all investigated by the DoD with zero result. It was high tme to ask for Lightman's help. He ensured Zoe he would take the case and was walking her out of the office when something extraordinary happened.

Alec stormed out of Gillian's office, anger written all over his face. His wife followed him and put her hand on his shoulder. He shook it off abruptly, turned to face her and spat:

"You're the freaking shrink, figure it out!"

Her eyes were flaring. Anger. Then Cal saw Gillian look down and away. Guilt. Shame. Her "I will, I promise" was barely audible even though Cal and Zoe were standing nearby. Cal saw Alec's anger subside and turn into defeat as he walked away, nodding to him in a "hi-bye" fashion.

"Trouble in paradise?" Zoe's remark sounded bitter and was really uncalled for. She studied Gillian's form arrogantly, her body tensed like she was a predator getting ready to attack. 0:1

"You could say that" Gillian was too good to be true. Cal felt proud. Her sadness and openness were so evident and so sincere that he was the only one who caught the glint of "I accept the challenge" in her blue eyes. And she won. Zoe's shoulder's slumped, she fiddled with her bracelet and her face was showing compassion. 1:0 (Cal deducted 1 point from Zoe because her remark portrayed her as a total bitch now)

"I'm sorry" came her sincere reply and it was clear to both Cal and Gillian that she felt like she had been mean to the other woman and regretted her gloating. 2:0 Her apology was accepted with a curt nod from Gillian, a kind of nod that said "ok, you didn't have to be such a bitch to me though". Zoe hurried to leave the office, quickly coming up with a fresh lie about some important appointments and two partners were left alone 3:0

Cal smiled proudly at Gillian and beamed: "Come on Foster, we have a case!" She followed him into his office, amused smile playing on her lips.

"What the hell does she feel guilty about?" - Cal couldn't get the question out of his head for the rest of the day.

***

Next up: The chapter in which Cal is being a bad boy and we meet Rodrigo de la Renta.