What You Don't Know...

Thank you to everyone for your kind words. :) And to those of you who are reading but not a fan of the show, believe me, I am in no way advocating actual viewing of Smallville. So if you do so, it is at your own risk because, frankly, the show often blows...and not in the good way. Personally, I just DVR and skim for the good parts with the characters that are still worth watching.

~Sarah~

Chapter Sixteen

Clark was lying on the worn sofa in his loft…again. Staring at the ceiling…again. He wondered what had happened to his life. Then he remembered – it was in California; with Chloe.

He’d always been aware that Chloe was above and beyond when it came to best friends, but he’d never realized how much her presence filled up his life. And the hardest part of all – despite the loneliness, the restlessness, the sheer boredom – was that Lana was making it worse.

Not that she meant to. No, Lana had been there for him whenever he’d called her over the last two months. Both cautiously trying to reconnect, to perhaps rekindle some small part of the spark that had been extinguished during Lana’s disastrous relationship with Lex, they had been meeting regularly for coffee, lunch, the occasional movie. But instead of being overjoyed at this second chance with the girl of his dreams, he was finding himself more and more convinced that their painful breakup had been a blessing in disguise.

Of course he still cared about her. He would always consider Lana a friend. But it seemed that, recently, their conversations were shallow and unfulfilling, lacking any real depth or substance. And, looking back, Clark began to wonder if that had always been the case.

As long as Clark could remember, his conversations with Lana had centered primarily around their relationship. The years they’d spent dancing around their feelings had been marked by discussions filled with veiled allusions to their interest in each other, and when they’d actually gotten together their talks had been laden with fantasies about the future and bitter recriminations about the present in a never ending cycle that, by the time Lex had made his move, had clearly exhausted them both.

And so the more time that Clark spent with Lana, the more he was beginning to suspect that they couldn’t recapture their great love because it had been nothing but an illusion to begin with. And though a part of him was pained by the loss of his childhood dreams of a normal existence and the realization of so much wasted time, a larger part was glad that that period of his life, the folly of his youth, was finally being laid to rest.

Sadly, the downside of this new insight into his relationship with Lana was that it had come at the cost of hours and hours of monotonous and tedious heart to hearts. And it was those often stilted and awkward conversations that made him miss Chloe with an agonizing intensity.

He could barely remember the last time a day had gone by without at least hearing Chloe’s voice. Now he’d had been two months without that luxury. Well, if one didn’t count the message on her voicemail. A number which Clark pitifully acknowledged he had been pathetic enough to call, sometimes more than once a day, just hear her voice.

Not that they’d been out of touch. Chloe emailed him at least once a day; but her messages seemed distant and perfunctory, without the customary warmth that she brought to everything she did. It worried Clark, and he’d offered his assistance time and again just for the chance to see her and make sure that she was okay only to be graciously but firmly rebuffed.

And if her remoteness had worried him, her refusal to allow him to help her absolutely terrified him. He hadn’t realized until she been out of reach just how much he had come to rely on Chloe over the years. It wasn’t just that she knew his secrets and still remained steadfast beside him; it was that Chloe helped him make sense of things. When life seemed hopeless and overwhelming, Chloe’s tough love always pulled everything back into perspective for him. She was the grounding force in his peculiar reality and Clark was coming to understand that he’d taken that for granted for quite a while.

Worst of all was the fact that he was very afraid that he wasn’t any of those things to Chloe. Although he tried to be supportive of her, Clark was beginning to comprehend the painful fact that he had often been quite oblivious to the times when that very support was most urgently required. So often he’d been caught up in his own drama with Lana that he hadn’t recognized her need until her crisis was over and she’d found her comfort in someone else.

When she’d first left and these epiphanies had begun to bombard him, Clark had consoled himself with the fact that, even if he had been emotionally deficient in their friendship, he’d always been there for her when the chips were down and she needed someone to have her back, to save her. He’d routinely been her first stop when she required a partner in crime. Only now he wasn’t. And that thought scared him in ways nothing else ever had.

What if she didn’t need him anymore? What if she was off investigating stories and tracking down leads all on her own because she preferred it that way? What if her minimal communication for eight awful weeks was her way of easing him out of her life? The thought of losing his best friend was unbearable and as each passing day increased his desire to have her home, his fear grew that Chloe was learning to live without him.

Clark’s morose musings were interrupted by the sound of a car making its way towards the house. Jogging down the stairs, he stepped outside to see a dark limousine approaching. The license plate read LC1 and Clark wondered what would bring either of the Luthor men to his door. With his mother in Topeka he doubted that, given his minimal tolerance of the man, Lionel would be eager to talk to him. And even less likely was a visit from Lex with whom he was engaged in outright hostilities.

On the verge of using his abilities to see exactly what kind of ordeal he was about to be subject, the vehicle came to a stop in front of him and the door flew open before the chauffer even had a chance to shut off the engine.

Utter shock held Clark still as, instead of either man he’d been dreading, Chloe exited the car. So grateful to finally see her again, it took a moment for him to recognize her distress. She looked exhausted. She’d clearly been crying and her body swayed slightly as she stood there, staring back at him.

Her unconcealed suffering broke through his astonishment and he moved quickly to her side. Before he quite made it, Chloe threw herself forward and into his arms. They closed automatically around her, and her obvious need for the warm embrace was the only thing that stopped him from dragging the driver out of the car and shaking him until he explained the traumatic state of his best friend.

Clark had seen Chloe cry before. They’d been too close for too long not to have shared some tears; but the only other time he’d watched her breakdown like this, witnessed such grief-stricken weeping was after the death of her father. He needed to know what had led her to this state once again, but could see that right then she didn’t need an interrogation, only reassurance.

“Clark.”

Chloe wanted to say more, wanted to rant, to scream, to pour out everything; but in the familiar shelter of Clark’s arms her reserve finally shattered and all that escaped was his name and her broken sobs. Suddenly she felt herself picked up and held tight as Clark turned towards the loft. The sound of the car pulling away rang in her ears and she wept all the harder at the realization that it was over; her life with Lex was truly at an end.

He lowered them both to the couch and as he began to rub her back in a gentle, soothing motion, Chloe was thankful that, for once, Clark seemed to understand intuitively what she needed from him. Slowly, as the minutes passed, her breathing calmed and her tears began to dry.

“Chloe?” Clark asked hesitantly, desperate to know what had hurt her but afraid to upset her all over again. She nodded silently against his chest and he took it as a sign to continue. “What happened?”

A choked sob was his only answer until Chloe finally managed a single, whispered word that chilled him to the depths of his soul.

“Lex.”

Chloe heard her voice break on the name and wasn’t sure that she could say any more. Weighed down by the fatigue of gaining and losing a life in an instant, all she wanted was to sleep for hours, maybe days. She just wanted to wake up and find this had all been a dream; but the fact that she wasn’t sure which life she wanted to awaken to find brought new tears to her eyes.

She heard Clark curse above her and the foreign sound was as shocking as his next question.

“Lex was with you in California?” He didn’t understand why on earth she wouldn’t have mentioned something like that in her emails.

“California?”

Clark’s stomach fell as her genuine confusion penetrated his mind and the ramifications roared through him.

If Chloe hadn’t been in California then all of those messages from her talking about stories and leads on the west coast had been fake. If someone had been lying about her being there it was because they had a vested interest in keeping her real whereabouts a secret; and the dark possibilities of what that interest was and where Lex came in made him almost fearful of the explanations to come.

As she began to shake anew under his hands Clark wondered if maybe he wasn’t the best comfort for her at that point. After all, no matter how deeply he cared for her and how close they’d been for years, he still was a guy and he was cursed with all of those guy limitations that would eventually show through and make him say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing.

“Chloe, do you want me to call Lois? Or Lana? I know they’d come over as soon as they heard you were home.”

Chloe’s head snapped up and Clark was taken aback by the wild shaking of her head.

“No!” Chloe knew she sounded desperate, but she needed him to understand before he did something stupid on her behalf that couldn’t be taken back. “Clark, you can’t call them. They can’t know anything.”

She could see that he was going to argue with her and she was simply too weary to consider the prospect. As much as she would have loved to have had Lois’ ever supportive shoulder to cry on, if her cousin knew that Lex had kidnapped her and kept her for two months she’d never let it go until she understood why. And that was the one thing that Chloe could never tell her.

And, although she wasn’t yearning for Lana’s presence, the same held true for her the other girl. Clark was her best friend, and he was more than worth the effort, but his unique circumstances often had a way of narrowing her options.

“Clark,” she reasoned with the last of her energy, “it’s too dangerous to tell them. Your secret…”

As she trailed off and her head fell against him once again, Clark thought he might be sick.

His secret.

Lex had taken her to learn his secret. All the times he had worried about putting Lana in danger by sharing his true identity came back to mock him as he realized that it had been Chloe at risk all along and he’d never really taken any steps to prevent it. He went to her with all of his troubles no matter how hazardous and let her help with all of the solutions no matter how risky.

The fact was that he’d been so happy to finally have someone to share that part of his life with, a confidant who was so exceptionally enthusiastic and supportive, that Clark wondered if maybe he hadn’t pushed those thoughts away on purpose to be able to keep her. It wasn’t a possibility of which he was particularly proud and, in light of his recent revelations about Chloe and this new development with Lex, Clark thought he might choke on the guilt swelling within him.

And suddenly the reality of it all began to set in. Two months. Clark’s jaw tightened as anger warred with his remorse at the thought of the damage that a Luthor could do it that amount of time. Despite every principle his father had instilled in him, he wanted nothing more than find Lex, beat every detail out of him and then break him into a thousand pieces for the way he’d obviously hurt the woman in his arms desperately trying to hold back her tears.

Chloe could feel the muscles beneath her bunch as Clark’s entire body clenched. It didn’t require any great leap of logic to see where her friend’s mind was headed.

“I’m so tired, Clark,” she whispered as she looked up to find a pain that mirrored her own. “Please, stay here. Don’t leave,” she begged, “please.”

Before her mind could even comprehend the change, Chloe found herself in the Kent’s home, tucked snuggly into Clark’s bed. Unable to struggle against the lure of sleep any longer, she drifted off with Clark’s promise hanging in the air.

“I won’t leave you, Chloe.”


Chapter Seventeen

Chloe awoke to the tantalizing aroma of coffee wafting up the stairs. For a moment she savored the familiar scent until the memory of her last cup flooded her mind and her stomach turned at the smell.

Not ready to face Clark and secure in his promise not to leave, Chloe headed to the shower instead of the kitchen. She’d cried herself and ocean of tears and slept in her clothes. She felt gross on a multitude of levels and knew that the upcoming conversation would be hard enough without any added discomfort.

Stepping out of the shower she wrapped herself up in Clark’s ridiculously large robe and wondered why she hadn’t thought to have a shorter best friend. The thought brought a small smile to her lips until her eyes fell on the pile of green material lying haphazardly on the floor.

An outfit it would have taken her a year of saving to afford, bought because Lex told her it matched her eyes. And for a moment she wanted to tear the fragile fabric to shreds. Instead, she picked it up, smoothing out the wrinkles as best she could and folded it carefully, setting it on Clark’s dresser. It was the only thing she had left of her time with Lex. Except for her shattered heart.

Her eyes stung but she couldn’t afford new tears just yet. Not when there was still so much to be done.

She had to explain everything to Clark and find out exactly what kind of story Lex had told everyone to cover for her absence. Then, when that trial was over, she was going to have to figure out how to keep him from killing Lex. She’d never seen Clark as angry as he’d been last night; not even when Lana and Lex had started dating. And while his fury on her behalf was both sweet and flattering, she didn’t want him doing anything stupid.

Clark was usually fairly good at remembering not to use his powers. His parent’s reasonable paranoia and his dislike at being different generally deterred recreational use of his abilities. But Clark didn’t always make the best decisions when in the grip of strong emotions and she knew that if he ran off to confront Lex, what he didn’t end up exposing on his own, his former friend would manipulate him into showing.

And because all of those reasons were true, she chose to focus on them and not the fact that just the idea of Lex being seriously hurt by Clark made it difficult for her to breathe.

Clark had heard Chloe wake up and, despite his urgent need for answers, he’d waited while Chloe showered and, he assumed, gathered herself together.

He’d kept his promise to her and hadn’t left the house, but he’d been up all night alternately pacing the floors and returning to his room just to stare at her and convince himself that she was truly back.

He’d been plagued by countless scenarios during the night, each worse than the last, and by the time the sun lit the sky his head had been bursting with visions of dungeons and images of interrogations. Clark had wanted to wake her up, to demand to know what had happened to her, but he’d restrained himself. Partly because he could see that Chloe desperately needed the sleep, and in part because he was so afraid of what she might say.

It was killing him. Knowing that she’d spent two months at the mercy of a monster; that he hadn’t helped her, hadn’t even suspected something was wrong. When Clark remembered that he’d seen Lex at the Talon when Chloe had first disappeared he felt nauseous.

That Lex had sat there, drinking coffee with that superior smirk on his face while doing God knew what to his best friend had almost been the straw that had driven him out of the house. But it hadn’t. Looking back, Clark cursed himself for not sensing that something was wrong, for failing Chloe. He wouldn’t do so again. So he’d kept his promise and stayed.

Of course, his vow ended with the night and once he found out exactly what had been done to her, he had every intention of taking the matter up with Lex.

“Whatever you’re planning, stop.”

Clark whirled at the sound of Chloe’s voice. He’d been so caught up in his thoughts he hadn’t even heard her come down the stairs. She was wearing his robe and the large garment swallowed her smaller figure. She’d borrowed it a number of times before when she’d stayed over for various reasons and the sight of it had always brought a smile to his face; but, at that moment, it tugged at his heart to see her looking so tiny, so fragile.

“What makes you think I’m planning something?” It was eerie how well she knew him, Clark thought.
“Because you wouldn’t be Clark Kent if you hadn’t already come up with a hundred ways this was all your fault and decided only you could fix it” she told him bluntly.

Handing her a cup of coffee, Clark watched in surprise as, for the first time since he’d met her, Chloe waved off what she had once referred to as “the elixir of life”. Instead, she made her way to the sofa in the living room. Tucking her feet up beneath her she appeared even smaller than she had before and he found himself almost reluctant to join her now that the time for had arrived for his questions to have answers and his fears given voice. With a deep breath he followed, sitting on the other end; far enough away to give her space but close enough should she need his comfort.

“I broke into a LuthorCorp lab,” Chloe told him, deciding to get the confessional part of her story out of the way.

“What?!” He barked. “Why didn’t you call me? I could’ve-”

“Clark!” She interrupted him before he could wind himself up into a full blown lecture. “It wasn’t a meteor rock thing, or a Kryptonian thing, or even a standard Smallville bizarre type thing. It was just a lead I had for a story, so there didn’t seem to be a reason to bring in the big guns.”

Although she could tell he didn’t like it, she watched as he relaxed a little at being told her decisions was made only because he was overqualified for the job. Men, Chloe thought, just barely restraining an eye roll, were so very easy.

“I found the information I needed and almost made it out. Darn short legs.”

Clark would have smiled at the familiar complaint if it didn’t seem so much like a harbinger of doom.

“Some overzealous security guard caught up with me and showed me the exit face first,” Chloe winced slightly at the memory of hitting the steel door.

All those weeks struggling against the void that was her memory and there she sat, willing to give almost anything not to remember what came next; not to have to say the words.

“The blow to the head knocked me out for a while,” she ignored Clark’s small gasp, knowing that she wouldn’t get through the recitation if she had to stop to assuage his sure to be escalating shock. “When I woke up in the medical section of the lab I didn’t remember anything.”

“About the accident?” He asked.

“About everything,” her voice caught at the memory of the fear and confusion she’d felt when she’d awoken to find all that she knew erased. “I didn’t have any idea where I was, who I was. Blank; all of it.”

Chloe skipped the lengthy explanations she’d been given about her condition. Clark understood the basic concept of amnesia and, frankly, she wasn’t sure how much of what Lex’s doctors had told her was even true.

“Lex was there,” she swallowed heavily, pushing back the tide of emotions that threatened to smother her as she thought of what had happened next.

“Did he hurt you?” Clark’s kept his voice was soft and soothing even though he wanted to scream and break things; a temptation he feared would only increase as Chloe’s story continued.

“He said we were married.”

“What?” His hearing was exceptional. Super-hearing, Chloe always called it. But Clark was certain that it must not have been working properly, that he must have misheard her.

Chloe understood her friend’s shock, had experienced it first hand when she’d realized the extent of what Lex had done; but she almost hated Clark for making her say it again.

“He told me that he was my husband,” she clarified, “that we’d been married almost two months.”

Of all the possibilities that Clark’s mind had spent hours conjuring, what Chloe had revealed hadn’t even been a consideration. It was incomprehensible, it was unbelievable and for the life of him he just couldn’t understand –

“Why?”

Chloe understood the question. She had a lot of those, too. Why did Lex have to take his ruse so very far? Why did he have to make her love him? Why had he been so cruel as to tell her he loved her? But instead of letting those mysteries consume her she focused on the answer Clark was seeking.

“He told me about you; said you were my best friend but that we’d been fighting because you didn’t approve of my relationship with Lex.” The day before that had been her reality and it was so hard for her think of it now as a lie. “He said you were out of control and because of your erratic behavior we’d decided to keep our marriage a secret.”

Even without looking at him, Chloe could feel Clark’s tension as his anger mounted. She hoped he could keep it in check because it was all she could do to deal with her own tangled mass of emotions; she just didn’t have the energy right then to be Clark’s therapist.

Realizing that he’d managed to rein his temper in, Chloe continued. “He said,” she took a deep breath, “he said that we’d had some kind of fight that day; that I was scared of you, hysterical. He told me he was worried and that I had to tell him if I remembered anything that could help him deal with you – anything strange or out of the ordinary.”

And suddenly Lex’s plan came into focus with a crystal clarity.

Lex had filled Chloe’s mind with fears and then waited for her inevitable memories of his bizarre behavior to surface so he could pluck out the secrets Chloe had always so jealously guarded on his behalf.

It was odd; all those years of hiding who he was and what he could do from Lex and at that moment he could care less what the other man had learned. Whatever it was he would deal with it later. But Chloe; Chloe needed him now.

When he’d first learned that she’d been with Lex, he’d imagined the third degree in a small holding cell or captivity in some laboratory. When she said that Lex had, instead, fabricated some tale of a marriage between them he’d been shocked and horrified, but it was only just beginning to sink in exactly what that meant; how horribly Lex could have taken advantage of her.

“So you lived with him as his wife?”

“Yes,” her voice was hardly more than a whisper. The memories of her time with Lex were so sharp that she missed the barely leashed violence in Clark’s question.

“Did he touch you?”

Her stricken gaze flew to his. She knew that she should have anticipated the question; but she hadn’t let her own mind drift back to those beautiful nights in the arms of the man she thought had loved her, much less steeled herself to share those memories with Clark.

“That son of a bitch!” Clark didn’t need her words to confirm what he could so clearly read in his eyes. “He raped you.”

“No!” It erupted from Chloe before she could consider what her answer would reveal. But she couldn’t lie to Clark. Lex’s cold and callous plan had been unforgivable, but she didn’t think he’d meant for it to go that far.

“He didn’t– We didn’t–” with a deep shuddering breath, Chloe tried again. “Nothing happened until a little over a week ago. There were extenuating circumstance; things that–”

“You’re defending him?” The minute the words left his mouth, Clark cringed at his stupidity. Chloe was hurt and confused and had literally begun shivering with the strain of reliving the whole experience and he knew that his thoughtless accusations would only cause her more pain.

“I’m sorry, Chlo,” shifting closer to her Clark pulled her into his arms, unable to bear the sight of the new tears sliding silently down her face. “I’m being a complete jerk. It doesn’t matter what happened.”

Chloe burrowed into the warmth and acceptance Clark offered. No matter how much she slept she didn’t ever think she’d feel rested again and the temptation to simply float away in the arms of someone on whose caring she could absolutely reply was almost too much for her too resist.

And yet she had to.

“Clark,” she mumbled into his chest knowing that he could hear her perfectly, “it does matter. There were things I remembered about you. Things I told…” a small sob choked her for a moment, “Lex.”

Holding Chloe tighter against him, Clark was torn. It had been ingrained into his very subconscious that his powers, his origins must remain hidden at nearly all cost. But, for the first time in his life, without the corrupting influence of red kryptonite, he found himself almost hoping that his secret was out. He wanted Lex to know what he was capable of so that he could personally demonstrate every lethal ability he possessed to the bastard.

“He doesn’t know about where you come from or the things you can do.”

Chloe’s assurance left relief and disappointment in its wake and Clark ran his hand softly through the silky, golden strands of her hair. “Then whatever it was wasn’t important.”

“It was.” She lifted her face to his. She needed him to grasp the gravity of what Lex knew. Even if she hadn’t given Lex what he’d wanted, she’d certainly confirmed some of his suspicions and most likely raised some new ones.

“I didn’t remember things like my best friend’s an alien. Things didn’t come back to me like that. In fact,” she was thoughtful for a moment, “most of my memories were just strings of images in disjointed dreams.”

It was hard for Chloe to force herself to focus on her dreams when everything seemed so unreal. But she knew that Clark needed to understand what he was up against and she had to find a way to keep him as far from Lex as possible.

“I remembered the summer I ran into you in Metropolis.”

Clark grimaced at her statement. She didn’t need to elaborate. He knew exactly the incident she was referring to. The way he’d treated her when she was nothing but concerned for him, the way he’d manhandled her still made him cringe. That Chloe had seen that side of him, knew that there was always a risk that it could reemerge, and still chose to let him into her life was something that he treasured. And the fact that Lex made her live that trauma all over again filled him with a hate the likes of which he’d never dreamed himself capable.

“And…” Chloe paused. There were other, minor bits of information Lex had gleaned from her that they’d have to go over, but those could wait. This was the most important thing he had plundered from her broken mind. “I had a dream of us, surrounded by snow and ice.”

“The fortress,” Clark breathed.

“No, I didn’t remember that part,” she rushed to ease his mind. “I didn’t have a lot of details. But,” she continued, “Lex isn’t stupid; he knows now that I lied, that you were with me that day.”

Clark was already shaking his head. “It’s not important, Chloe. I don’t care what Lex does or doesn’t figure out right now.” Large hands gently wiped new tears away. “All I care about is that you’re home. You’re safe now and I won’t let anything happen to you again.”

His drying her tears had been wasted as they only fell harder with the realization that Clark wasn’t angry, wasn’t worried, and regardless of the rage she could feel inside of him for Lex, she could see that he wasn’t going to do anything right now that would add to her agony.

As she rested against him, listened to the strong beat of his heart under her ear, she released all of her worries, all of her concerns, if only for a little while. And, finally, Chloe stopped taking care of Clark Kent and let him care for her; trusted that he could carry the greatest of her burdens for a brief time.

“I loved him”

It was the single greatest act of cruelty Clark had ever beheld. Of all the lies Lex could have told her, all the ways he could have used her, he simply couldn’t have chosen one more damaging to her very soul.

Chloe never loved halfway. When she gave her heart it was with the same exuberance with which she approached all of life. And Clark knew that, even if she’d had no idea of her identity, no memories of herself or her past, she would still have been, basically, Chloe. And Chloe, basic or otherwise, could never just shut her feelings off, regardless of how bad things got or how much she wanted to.

It was a trait he would have cursed if it hadn’t kept him in her life after so many of his selfish blunders.

“It’ll be okay, Chloe. It’ll take time but I swear it will get better.”

She closed her eyes and let herself pretend that she believed him. But already she was wishing that the arms that held her, the voice that soothed her belonged to someone else. And, deep down, Chloe knew that Clark was wrong – time wouldn’t make this better; nothing would.


Lex studied the amber liquid in his glass as he contemplated the myriad of errors he’d made over the previous months. Somehow the only regret he could arouse was for the mistake of letting her go.

All else he’d done, each lie told, every sin committed had given him Chloe to love; had brought her love in return. He couldn’t lament that; wasn’t even sure why he’d invest any effort in the attempt.

Right now she was furious. She had every reason to be. If someone had done to him even half of what he had to her, he would have ensured that it was the last miscalculation they ever made.

But Chloe was nothing like him.

It was what had drawn him in, captivated him; the truth that he’d overlooked so long. Chloe was an infinite wellspring of love and hope. It was her very nature to care and, because her love for him had been genuine, despite how it had come about, it remained. Lex knew it with every fiber of his being. And what’s more, he was certain that Chloe knew it, too.

So he’d give her time. He’d let her pass through her shock and disillusionment until she realized the true depths of her feelings underneath.

And he suffered no delusions as to where Chloe would go during this process; to whom she would turn. But it by no means meant that he approved of her choice. Honestly, the very thought sent such waves of savage hatred pulsing through him that he might have actually killed Clark had he been sure of exactly what it would take to do so.

With far more force than necessary, Lex slammed his glass on the table before him. It was that or have it shatter in his hand. Flipping open his phone he punched out a number he knew well.

“Spencer.”

“She’s at the Kent farm.” There was no need for excessive details. Spencer had the dossier Lex had sent, and there was no one better in this particular line of work. “Keep a wide distance from the house; she’ll be safe enough there. But when she leaves, stay close. I want to know every move that she makes.”

Ending the call, Lex tilted his head back and closed his eyes. It had been a long and exhausting night. He hadn’t been able to stomach the thought of going to the bed he’d shared with Chloe alone and, although he knew that he should probably relocate to either his penthouse in Metropolis or the mansion in Smallville, he couldn’t quite force himself to leave the one place he’d experienced a true sense of home in years.

Thoughts of Chloe filled his head as he remembered her words as she’d left the room he was loathe to vacate.

She’d said there was nothing between them to end. He knew that she believed it. He also knew that she was wrong.

It wasn’t over. He wouldn’t let it be.


TBC