CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTI stared at Hayden, unable to react. Unable to process. While it felt as if a swarm of bees began stinging every inch of my flesh and my stomach plummeted into my knees, my gaze couldn’t seem to leave my oldest stepbrother. He looked so sure, so tormented by his claim. The man truly, honestly believed what he was saying.But could I?Next to me, Brick gushed out all the responses I couldn’t seem to summon. Letting out a harsh laugh, he flopped back noisily in his seat and ran both hands through his hair. “Jesus, I know we joke about that shit all the time, but fuck, bro. This isn’t funny.”“No, it’s not,” Hayden agreed, tearing his gaze from me to focus on Brick. “Not at all. But it’s true. I found proof. Irrefutable evidence.”“How?” Ezra was the one to ask.I looked his way, but again, he was too busy dissecting Hayden with a hard stare to notice me.“It started a few weeks ago,” Hayden began. “From something Brun
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINEAt home, the first thing I saw when I stepped into my apartment was the big box window that looked so much like the one in Ezra’s bedroom, and I burst into tears.To escape painful reminders, I fled to my room, only to remember everything we’d done on my bed together. I already knew I’d only summon a memory of him cooking grilled cheese sandwiches in my kitchen if I went there, and basically, there was nowhere else in my apartment to go after that, so I shut myself in my bathroom and curled into a ball on the closed lid of the toilet seat.It felt as if my dad had just died, all over again. But this time, he’d been murdered.By Lana.How had she done it to make it look like a heart attack? I’d read this true crime book once about some doctor lady who’d fed her husband some kind of exotic beans or something that wouldn’t reveal anything unusual in a toxicology report as she’d made him sicker and sicker over time. Was th
CHAPTER THIRTYOh, wow. So I guess it didn’t take much wine to turn Mabel’s granddaughter silly-drunk.“Magic wand?” Ezra asked, lifting one eyebrow.And yeah, now I had questions like that to deal with. Lovely.I cleared my throat, ignoring the way my face heated as I decided to go with Gabby’s tact. “Long story,” I told him.He nodded.When neither of us spoke, just stared with this uncomfortable tension brewing between us, he finally broke, his face morphing with concern.“Jesus, Yellow,” he breathed, running his hands through his hair. “Are you okay?”When he stepped toward me, I hugged myself and turned to the side, letting him know I wasn’t okay. Not with anything. Not even with him.He paused, his eyebrows furrowing with concern. “Kaitlynn?” he rasped, his gaze full of agony.I cleared my throat and shifted my attention from him, unable to focus on anything but how betrayed I had felt when he hadn’t stood up for me in that con
EPILOGUE“I hereby call to order the first meeting of the most kickass book club ever assembled.”Camille stopped talking in order to take a huge gulp of the wine she’d been holding above her head.Seated in a comfy chair across the room from her, Isobel—yes, Ezra’s sister, Isobel—said, “Uh…hear, hear,” and took her own drink.Gabby and I exchanged raised eyebrow glances before we shrugged and tossed back our glasses as well.So, yeah. A couple months had passed since my wicked stepmother had been arrested and I’d become the new CEO at Judge Fashions Industry, sharing the power with my awesome boyfriend, Ezra.My lawyers had officially gotten everything that had originally been left to me in my father’s will transferred to my name, even though they were still trying to figure out how much money Lana owed me after spending it as if it were her own for the last few years. Not that she’d ever be able to pay me back everything from behind bars, but the law
CHAPTER ONE“Kait…lynn!” The unexpected shriek that blasted through the intercom caused me to jump so hard I spilled the armful of papers I’d been carrying from the copy machine to my desk.Groaning over my clumsiness, I bent to pick them up, only for the cantankerous voice to return. “I need you up here. Now, Kaitlynn.”After scooping the mess of pages into my arms, I slapped them into a disorganized heap on my desk, figuring I’d deal with them later, and called, “I’m coming!” Then I hustled to the teapot sitting on a nearby table and fished out the tea ball bobbing in hot water.Lana preferred full-bodied oolong tea every morning, so I usually left the oxidized leaves in for at least six minutes before removing the ball. But today, it sounded as if she wanted her tea sooner, so hopefully she didn’t notice a weaker flavor.I placed the ceramic lid on the pot, then carefully poured a portion of the tea into a waiting cup on the tray. Af
CHAPTER TWOI wasn’t going to get my work done in time for the meeting.No, wait, yes. Yes, I was. Positivity, Kaitlynn, have some positivity.Bolstering myself with a mental chant of yes you can, I glanced at the time. Six minutes to sort and staple. I was cutting it close, but I had every confidence I’d make the deadline.That was until the door flew open and Lana flounced inside. Proportioned like a model, she wore stiletto heels, a knee-length pencil-thin skirt, and a form-fitting wool-knit sleeveless blouse. The haughty demeanor suited her perfectly, which was too bad, because she overused it big-time, making it seem bitchily sinister instead of coolly confident.“What the hell is this?” She shoved her teacup at me, spilling just enough to splash the front of my shirt.With a gasp, I lurched to my feet and tugged my blouse away from my chest, but thank goodness nothing soaked through the cloth.“It’s tea,” I said, staring at her in
CHAPTER THREEShock.Loss.Disbelief.It all roiled through me in dizzying waves. I tried to process what had happened. But it was impossible. My dream had been shattered. Not only could I never try to work my way to the top of my father’s company, but now I couldn’t even work there, period.By Saturday evening, I was a complete wreck. I wavered between wanting to storm JFI to tell Lana I didn’t need her—I’d go somewhere else and show her how successful I could be on my own—and wanting to beg for another chance, because oh my God, I couldn’t lose my dream of staying with my parents’ legacy.In reality, I sat on my sofa in my pajamas and moped as I tried to find a true, paying job on the internet. Nothing looked promising in the corporate world but there were plenty of food service or cleaning opportunities. I sighed and set my laptop on the coffee table in front of me while I scrubbed my tired face, only to wince at the smell that wafted
CHAPTER FOURBrick continued to grumble as he followed me into the elevator of my building and then down and out of it toward the front exit. I didn’t catch each word he said, but it sounded as if he were complaining about a little bit of everything, from my embarrassment of a costume to my intolerable apartment and even his horrible mother for never paying me to work for her.It warmed my heart to know he cared enough about me to be upset on my behalf. Made me think maybe I’d misjudged him all these years. Yes, he’d talked to me because I’d been around when we were kids, and he’d always been nice because he was just that kind of guy, warm and charismatic. But to realize he genuinely liked me on top of that made something heartfelt grow inside me. He was starting to feel like a true brother. The urge to give him a big, affectionate hug and maybe a sloppy, happy kiss on the cheek grew until I stepped outside and took in the orange Porsche at