Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 182075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Spencer shot him a look.
“But we won’t if you leave now and never contact us again. Believe me, it’s more generous than I wanted to be,” Quaid told her. “We won’t reply to any messages, any calls. Understand? From this moment on, Indie, you are dead to us.”
The pain of it was like nothing she’d felt before. It was indescribable. Even worse than when Evie Johns punched her in the nose when she was seven for not sharing the scissors.
“You don’t . . . you don’t mean that! I don’t even know what you’re talking about. What did I do? And what proof could you have?”
“We caught you on camera coming here a few weeks ago,” Quaid told her in a monotone voice that she hated. “We were undercut in a bid using plans eerily similar to ours. Someone stole our plans, the information about our bid, and gave it to Zodiac Construction so they could win the bid. All of that information was on a pen drive in Slade’s home office.”
A few weeks ago? That’s when Billy followed her.
“Can I see the footage?” she asked in a raw voice. Surely they’d seen Billy with her?
They had to know that he’d forced his way into the penthouse.
But how had he gotten into the safe? Why had he stolen that information? What did it gain him?
“No,” Slade said in a short voice.
Was he serious?
“But . . . but . . . it wasn’t me. It was—”
“Just . . . just leave Indie. The damage you’ve done, it can’t be repaired,” Spencer told her.
“You really won’t let me explain?” Her breathing was growing shallower.
Why wouldn’t they let her speak?
Had Billy somehow doctored the camera feed? How could he do that?
None of this made a lot of sense. But one thing was clear. They weren’t even going to give her the benefit of the doubt. They wanted her gone.
Pain ripped through her insides, and she tried desperately not to show it. She’d thought they were her family. That they’d at least let her explain.
But maybe they’d never thought of her as family. Perhaps she’d always been on the outside, looking in, and she just hadn’t realized it.
“We know you gave Billy that information. When we confronted him, he basically threw you under the bus,” Slade said.
Oh God.
“When we messaged you for an explanation, you could have explained then,” Quaid told her. “Instead, you told us to stop messaging. So we knew then that you really were guilty. An innocent person would have tried to explain themselves.”
She’d never gotten any message. Which meant that Billy had been the one to reply.
They didn’t want to hear the truth. They’d already found her guilty.
“I really thought better of you guys. I thought . . . I thought you cared about me. That you’d at least hesitate before you . . . before you . . .”
Brutalized me.
She couldn’t say the words and risk losing it. She was only keeping herself together through sheer force of will.
Slade watched her impassively. He’d been taking lessons from Quaid who was a blank slate. Spencer, at least, glanced away.
“The words are pretty and the acting is good, but there’s no explaining away the evidence. I wish I knew why you did it,” Quaid said. “But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter, does it? The damage is done. We’ll recover from the damage to our business. But our relationship is finished. There is no repairing that.”
Ouch.
She swore she started to splinter apart inside. Tears welled as she stared at each of them. Words dried in her throat. She had so much to say to them.
But she’d never been good in these sorts of situations. Everything would come to her an hour later. When it would be too late.
She knew if she spoke now it would all be a garbled mess that would make no sense.
Leave, Indie.
Before you start to cry and completely humiliate yourself.
Turning, she headed to the door. The sobs welled up, but she swallowed them down.
Just make it outside.
You can do it.
You have this.
As she got outside a cold wind whipped up, making her shiver. It was only the beginning of autumn, but it was extra cold today.
Or maybe she was just cold from what had happened.
She managed to make it into the park before the emotions fully hit her. She slumped onto a park bench that was half-hidden behind a large tree.
And lost it.
The sobs rocked her body.
How had everything fallen apart?
It was all too much. She couldn’t cope.
Billy hurting her. Demeaning her. Beating her.
Learning she was pregnant.
Leaving him. Again.
Being thrown from the penthouse like she was nothing. Accused of something she hadn’t done.
And now . . . now what? She had nothing. A few hundred pounds and her backpack.
No job. No family. Not even a freaking cell phone.