"Avery, I know this will sound weird to you," Alana began slowly, her voice softening into a practiced mixture of hesitation and sincerity.
She lowered her lashes just enough to give herself an innocent, vulnerable air, while inside her mind, the perfect excuse finally began to take shape. "But… Silas didn't want to make our relationship known to the public. He never allowed me to take any pictures, saying he couldn't risk our relationship being exposed."
Her tone trembled faintly at the end, a deliberate touch meant to sound like the confession of a wounded lover.
This was all she could offer at the moment. She didn't have any concrete proof to back up her claim, she hadn't thought she'd need to when dealing with Avery.
Avery had always been so easy to manipulate in the past, so eager to believe her. But now, she realized she would have to be careful. If she could just plant a single seed of doubt in Avery's heart, she could cultivate that doubt later into something powerful.
