“I… I’m numb.”
“Don’t go all Fort Knox on me now, Car…”
“I… I need processing time.”
“You need to talk to Aiden. Don’t take that girl’s word for gospel.”
“It’s not just her word, Ally. There was a recording.”
“I know. But…”
“I need processing time. Okay? I’m gonna go take a bath and crawl into bed. I… I’ll see you in the lobby at eight.”
She hugs me and whispers into
my hair, “Don’t jump. Talk to him.”
I nod.
She leaves and I lock the door and go run a bath.
I lay in the bath until the bottoms of my feet are pruny, and then I crawl into bed. My bed.
I text him.
“I’m going to sleep. Really tired. See you tomorrow.”
The phone rings a minute later. It’s him. I ignore it until it stops.
A minute later a text comes up on my lock screen.
“Called to try to say goodnight, but didn’t get you. Sweet dreams, peaches. See you tomorrow night.”
45
AIDEN
I get a text from Bella as me, my Dad, our VP of sales, Ben, and the newly promoted (to replace Brad) Miami sales manager Russ head into the lobby of Babylon.
“You made a big mistake by screwing me over. Thanks to you doing nothing, trying to deal on my own, they messed up my face and broke two of my ribs. I’m leaving town. I had to do what I had to do. When you see your Mom on the news, you’ll know you could have stopped it.”
The message is long. I don’t have time to read the rest right now. There’s also a file attached that says New Recording, 1 Audio File.
I tuck my phone into my pocket. No time for her shit now.
***
The meeting went well. We’re expecting good things. I’m back in San Diego and on my way home from the airport in a cab when my phone makes noise. It’s a text from Adele with a picture of Braeden holding Lilly. It says “Your daily smile. Call me when you’re back. I have some ideas about Suki’s birthday.”
I scroll to the message from Bella and read the rest of it.
“I ran into your new girlfriend, btw. So much for your vow of no relationships, right? She was so pretty and sweet laughing with her friend walking into the building where you two share an apartment like love birds. She saw me. She saw me and figures you had this done to my face. She also listened to this. Don’t bother trying to get revenge. I’m gone with the money I got from selling the story about your Mom. I know that the cloud videos got deleted so fuck you, you dirty motherfucker. You’ve got nothing. Have a nice life. Thanks for the cock.”
My gut twists as I hit the audio and within two seconds of hearing my own voice, I realize that the bartender that was giving fuck me eyes to Jude was recording our conversation that night. She and Bella were obviously friends.
Fuck.
Carly avoided me last night. I called her today at work and she cut me short, telling me she was in the middle of something.