Chapter 33 Getting to the Bottom of It

“Wait, what?” Anna said suddenly confused but not surprised. Erin had always been sensible before and even if she did sometimes look a little too long at John, Anna had never thought she was stupid enough to believe he would want to have an affair with her. Isabel on the other hand she completely believed could convince someone of that.
“Apparently Isabel told her that I was attracted to her but didn’t know how to tell her.”
“That’s bull crap! Do you think Erin is lying?”
John rubbed his eyes and Anna could see the tension and exhaustion hanging around his eyes. He shrugged and put his hand on her leg. “It’s possible, although Erin has been pretty straightforward before. Isabel on the other hand can be shady.”
Anna growled and stood beginning to pace. Isabel seemed to be at the bottom of a lot of her life problems, first, the possibility that she was behind her murder and now setting Erin up, Isabel needed to be gone. Unfortunately, Anna couldn’t tell John about her time travel or he’d’ begin to doubt her judgment too.
“This is ridiculous! We have to find out what the truth is, but how do we do that?”
John got up and walked over stopping her pacing, He wrapped her in his arms and held her close. “I know we do, the only way I can think of is to just ask her about it.”
“Do you really think that will make a difference?” Anna asked sadly “Isabel is just going to lie. There is really no way to know the truth.”
“Maybe we can try and get details from Erin so that we can catch Isabel in her own lies.”
She wrapped her arms around him wishing it would all just stop. She was so sick of all the drama, it was almost like there was some higher force stacked against them.
“I’m so sick of all this. Erin, Isabel, and Your mother and sister. It has been a lot. I just want to get away from it all, I just want to focus on us.”
John sighed as he held her closer. “I would love to get away from all of this, unfortunately, I have to run the company and now you have a job here too.”
“We at least have to get to the bottom of this, we can’t just let it continue. I need to know who we are up against and what their motivation is.”
“I know,” John sighed “I’m just not sure we can trust what either of them say.”
Anna smiled as an idea came into her head. “I think I’ve got it.”
***
John sat behind his desk and tapped his fingers on the desk. He hated everything about this idea but Anna thought that it would work and he always trusted her. The door opened and Isabel slunk in all smiles. John looked over to where the door was cracked to the office bathroom and wished he’d never agreed to this. He sent a glower at the door hoping Anna could see it.
“Isabel please sit down.”
Isabel sat down crossing her long legs making sure to give John a flash of leg. She smoothed her hair back behind her ear and beamed at him.
“John I was surprised when you called. “
“I just need to ask you a few questions and I didn’t want Anna to hear.”
Isabel’s eyebrow shot up and she leaned forward her eyes wide in interest. “This sounds juicy, private questions you don’t want Anna to hear.”
John came around the desk and leaned against it. “You see I heard something and I wanted to find out if it was true.”
“What’s that?” Isabel asked leaning closer.
“I heard a rumor and I wondered if it was true.”
Isabel pushed her breasts together and pushed them up and out at John. She smiled up at him and reached out and rubbed his leg. “You can ask me anything.”
John flinched as he tried to remove her hand without tipping her off. “Someone told me that they heard you telling Erin that I was interested in her. That you set the whole thing up at the party.”
Isabel’s smile faded “That’s insane, I would never do that.”
John gave her a harsh look and she stuttered under his eyes. “Isabel I need the truth.”
“John you have to believe me I would never do that. In fact, Erin was the one who came to me for help.”
“And you helped her?”
“I...I… I didn’t.”
“Isabel,” John said glaring at her.
“I swear I didn’t. I never told her you liked her or what to do to get your attention.”
“So she’s lying.”
“Of course she is!” Isabel screamed as she jumped to her feet. “How could you even ask me that?”
“Isabel you have done a lot of things lately that cause us not to trust you and Erin was pretty convincing.”
“I’m family.”
“You haven’t treated Anna like family for a long time.”
“How dare you? I don’t have to tell you anything!” Isabel screamed as she stomped to the door.
Isabel opened the door and slammed her way out rattling the walls. Anna stepped out and gave John a sad look.
“What do we do now?”