Public Secrets (Artificial Intelligence Book 1) by Liza O'Connor Page A

book. You bitch! You lying, whoring bitch!”
    “That’s enough!” Luke ordered, pulling Chad away from her. “Back off and calm down!”
    The rage in Chad’s face was frightening, but he backed off and vented his anger on the library wall instead.
    ***
    Luke studied the woman. She did look more like a terrified co-ed than a middle-aged novelist. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?” he asked as he led her to a chair.
    “I’m fine, but I don’t understand. Why is he so angry?”
    “When we thought you were dead, I obtained a copy of the latest novel you were writing. I let him read it.”
    Now Carla was even more confused. “Why?”
    “To watch his expression, so I could determine if he already knew its content.” Luke could tell she still didn’t understand, so he tried again. “Your current novel made Chad Tyler our number one suspect for your murder.”
    Carla shook her head. “Chad wouldn’t kill anybody. He’s incredibly kind and gentle. The man who wants me dead is Gary Eder.”
    Luke didn’t think Chad had been very kind or gentle a minute ago. “A man can be driven to do desperate things when you’re destroying his life.”
    “Destroying...” Finally, she seemed to understand. “You think my novel is about Chad Tyler.”
    Luke stared at her in surprise. “Yes,” he finally replied.
    “But it’s not. Jeremiah Taylor is a character I created. It’s not Chad Tyler.”
    Chad turned around and approached her. “Is that how you live with yourself? You say it’s fiction because you’ve put an extra letter in a person’s name? Is that how you excuse the lives you destroy with your malicious words?”
    “It wasn’t you. It was someone named Jeremiah,” she insisted, tears swelling in her eyes.
    “I’m Jeremiah! Chad Jeremiah Tyler. All you did was add a goddamn A to my last name.”
    “But the story, it’s not about you.”
    “It is about me, but worse, it’s about my family—my sister, and my mother. Damn you! Damn you to hell! Do you have any idea what this story will do to them? My sister has tried to end her life three times because she cannot get past the shame of that rape. What chance do I have of keeping her from killing herself once you publish her story for all to see?”
    Carla dropped the laptop onto the couch and ran to Chad, wrapping her arms around him. “I won’t publish it. I swear. I didn’t know it was you. I didn’t know.”
    He pushed her away in disgust. “How can you lie with such an angel’s face? I don’t know how you got your information, but you obviously did extensive research. And you can’t do research without knowing the topic.”
    “I don’t!” she screamed in frustration. She turned to Luke. “You said you searched my house. Did you find any information on this or any of my other books?”
    “No,” Luke admitted.
    She turned back to Chad. “It’s because there isn’t any. I just write what comes into my head. I used to think it was my imagination. No one was more surprised than me when my story about the religious sect turned out to be about the Temple and the events true.”
    Chad raised his hand as if to slap her, but turned away and walked to the corner. “Stop lying! If you’re going to make a living from destroying people’s lives, then, at least, have the decency to own up to what you’re doing.”
    “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I am owning up. I am now convinced these characters are not from my imagination. They are real people with real lives. My editor kept telling me the lawsuits were just part of the business, something all novelists must endure. I let him convince me. But I knew. In my heart, I knew that my stories were real. And he knew as well. In our last meeting, he yelled at me for not changing the names...”
    He remained untouched by her words, staring into the corner, his stance rigid with fury.
    “Don’t you remember that I told you I hated my job and I wasn’t going to do it anymore? You