First Lie Wins

by Ashley Elston

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he flattened your tire just so he could be there to help you fix it.”

I smile and laugh, not too loud and not too long, to show that I, too, am amused at the thought that Ryan would go to such extremes to meet me. Amused that any person would have watched another long enough to know that he always filled up at that truck stop for gas on Thursday evenings after spending the day in his East Texas office.

That someone would hold a nail just so in a valve while the air whistled away. I mean, it’s amusing to believe one person would go to those lengths just to meet another.

There’s an old saying: The first lie wins. It’s not referring to the little white kind that tumble out with no thought; it refers to the big one. The one that changes the game. The one that is deliberate. The lie that sets the stage for everything that comes after it. And once the lie is told, it’s what most people believe to be true. The first lie has to be the strongest. The most important. The one that has to be told.

But most important, no one is questioning who I am or where I came from. The first lie wins.

I am Mia Bianchi. Even though I’m only twenty-two, new-hire paperwork shows I’m twenty-seven. The right clothes and makeup are key. I’m a graduate of Clemson University—Go Tigers!—and I excelled in my public policy classes and killed it on the debate team.

omG go tigers

“How did I pass with flying colors?” “You sat here like you had all the time in the world when I knew that wasn’t the case. And that tells me everything I need to know.”