“Audra? Can we speak?” Roger asks.
“Get the fuck out of my house,” Dad snaps.
“Go Rog,” Austin says.
“I…”
“Go!” Dad barks.
“You’re all here for her? You’ll be there for her through this shit storm?” Roger demands. He’s seen the division in my family for years. He’s had a front row seat.
“We will,” I say.
Roger gives me a pointed look, then backs out and leaves.
Shortly after, we say our goodnights. My mother goes to bed, looking frail and exhausted. She won’t stop crying. Adele climbs in with her, saying she’ll stay until my mother falls asleep.
Dad’s told us he’s driving her to rehab in the morning. It’s probably more like a five-star resort for rich women, but either way, it’s a start.
He tells me that once she’s out of that, they’ll go to marriage counselling and see if they have anything worth rebuilding.
I get home at two o’clock in the morning.
Carly is fast asleep in my bed. I crawl in with her and pull her close.
She nuzzles in. “Everything okay?”
“Quite a night,” I mumble. I fill her in while she lays on my chest, listening.
***
I leave for work before Carly is awake, leaving a note against the banana I leave on the counter to say I’ll meet her at the office. I started leaving a banana out with a post-it on it whenever I leave before her in the morning. I always sign it,
See you a work. Yours Always,
The Banana Thief
I hit my safety deposit box the minute the bank opens and pull out the thumb drive that says “Bella Wilson” on the label.
I slip it into my inside pocket and head to the office. I open my private laptop and login through my VPN.
That fucking bitch is going to pay. No, I don’t have scheming bitches beat up. I fuck their lives up in other, more lasting ways than a few bruises.
46
Carly
I tell Ally all about last night on the way to work and she looks so relieved. She’s a good friend. I catch Ash giving me kind eyes in the rearview mirror, too.
I’m so, so relieved that Aiden didn’t have that girl beat up, that he’s not going to have the same thing done to Sienna.
I replayed the conversation with her in my mind. I assumed he beat her up. She smiled devilishly when I voiced it, like maybe she hadn’t thought of that angle, but saw that was causing damage so went with it.
Of course I’m not thrilled by what was on that audio recording, but it doesn’t surprise me. I haven’t suddenly forgotten who Aiden was when I got here, how much of a dick he was to me. How conceited and cocksure he was.
He’s not that Aiden now.
He’s going through a lot right now with his mother, too.