A Redo (Sterling Shore 6)

“Yeah. Has Ray called?” I ask him.

“Oh yeah. Remind me to never piss off Ray Capperton or his brother—Joey Drivel. They were on the net all night, finding and destroying the article everywhere. I don’t know how, but I seriously think they got them all. That’s scary, right? That they can hack into that many accounts and delete whatever they want to? And that quickly?”

Right now it’s more of a godsend than scary. “He said he had other family members he was enlisting to help out. Hacking is apparently a family trait. I really shouldn’t be talking about this here,” I whisper.

“Right. Sorry. You’re meeting Allie at five, though, right?”

“Right. Erica should be here any moment. And the feed will be streaming live all over the web. Did you read that shit she posted?” I whisper, barely holding my voice down.

“Yeah. And she tagged you—no pun intended,” Tag snorts. “But I think she’s freaking out since things escalated the way they did. Erica is a bitch, but she’s not psychotic. Ash said she called her, worrying about what to do because she’s worried she may have actually put Angel at risk. That’s why she posted that. But she’s so worried about people turning on her; she made sure to make everyone think you two are together. Ash told her to fuck off, of course. She said Erica swore she regrets it, and Ash told her to never call our house again.”

“She doesn’t know regret yet,” I mutter, glancing down at my phone and considering texting Allie.

“Does she know what you’re doing?” Tag asks, apparently reading my mind.

“No. I don’t want her to think I chose Erica over her. She asked to meet me at lunch, and I told her I had something to do. I was worried she’d hear Erica’s name and that would be enough to get her to go cold on me. This is thin ice territory right now. I’ll explain it all to her later.”

Erica’s BMW pulls up, parking next to my Audi, and I watch through the window as she approaches. I slide into the seat across from where I was, putting my back to the window. No way do I want anyone seeing my face, and now I don’t have to watch for her.

“She’s here. I’ll call you later. Watch the feed and text if anything happens. I’ll keep my phone on the table in case you text with any problems.”

I hang up, watching as Erica approaches with fearful eyes. “Wren, I swear this went way out of control,” she says as she sits down across from me.

This is going to be easier than I thought.

“What did you think would happen if you told that bullshit to the media? You made Allie and my daughter a target.”

Calm down. Don’t get too angry. She’ll run and you’ll lose your proof.

“I thought they’d make fun of her, call her a few names, then it would blow over. I never expected this. This is crazy. They’re acting like you’re a prince that was just wronged. And I didn’t say half the shit they printed. Keith made it sound worse than it actually was. Not me. I swear he went off script.”

Way easier. This is almost anticlimactic.

“And that shit you wrote this morning?” I prod. “What the fuck was that supposed to be?”

A waitress comes over, but I send her away. I want answers, not food.

“I was trying to quiet the psychos out there that attacked her house. I know I messed up, but I’d never intentionally provoke that sort of craziness, Wren. You know that. I love you, and I want you back. I hate the way you are with her. Ash says you’re in love. Is that true? Because you loved me, Wren. We have so much history between us.”

Leaning up, I glare at her. “Keyword—history. That’s what it is—the past. And I’m not sure what was there, but it wasn’t love Erica. Never was. You and I were friends. And we could have stayed that way, but…”

I let my voice trail off. If I start telling her how much I feel for Allie, she’s going to get jealous, and I could end up pushing her toward the door before she spills all this bullshit.

“But what?” she demands, already defensive.

“But you hurt me,” I lie. Billy hurt me. She didn’t.

“I worked so hard to be with you, Wren. I just wanted you to love me as much as I love you. I kept trying to provoke you into action, into proving you’d go to hell and back for me.”

Maybe I should feel bad, but after what she’s done to my daughter, Allie, and Bella, I can’t bring myself to have an ounce of sympathy.

“Erica, I shouldn’t have stayed with you. I didn’t realize you were hurting. But I never went public with the fact you cheated on me before the wedding. I never went public with the fact you tried to bully me into having a child—as if I’m that weak to lay over and give in. I never went public with a thousand things that could have ruined you in the public eye. Yet you destroyed Allie out of jealousy.”