AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We saw the manipulated feed,” I said, my breath exhaling visibly. “We know you set me up.”
Hawk straightened and approached. With a scowl that could rival Duncan’s, and Duncan flanking his side, he was a force all his own.
“We know you are the one behind the thefts at Ever After. Do you deny it?”
I waited for Pris’s usual defiance, for her rude deflection or even a personal jab at me.
Instead, her shoulders sank.
“What’s the point?” she said. “Everything is totally ruined now. I’m ruined.”
“Probably. The police have been informed of your misdealings,” Hawk said. “But I want to know who that was.”
“I don’t know who he is,” she said, glaring at him. “He approached me, and somehow knew I was the one who’dtaken that stuff from your building. He asked if I really wanted to get back at both you and Ella.
“He said you’d signed your heart away, that you had no business falling for her or anyone else, and he’d pay me well if I agreed to help him get revenge on you.”
“Pris,” I said. “That’s so pathetic.”
Her glower flicked to me. “I needed money. I was losing Derek. I told him if he stayed with me, I’d be his sugar mama.”
I released a disgusted sound.
Duncan’s brows lifted. “Sounds a little desperate,” he said.
“That’s what I’d call it, too,” Maddox added.
“What do you losers know?” she snapped.
“So you made a deal with someone you don’t know just to get money?” Just when I thought nothing she’d do could ever surprise me again.
“Shut up. It was all anonymous. We made a deal that I’d keep the agreement a secret, he’d keep my…what I did…a secret, too.”
“You mean stealing from people at Ever After,” Hawk affirmed.
She sniffed.
Finally, police sirens colored the air. We greeted the officers and handed Pris over, describing what happened in as much detail as we could.
At least we’d stopped Pris and cleared my name. But that still didn’t explain who the shadowed man was. Something told me we hadn’t seen the last of him.
THIRTY-NINE
ella
The last timeI’d stood on Dad’s doorstep was Christmas morning two years ago. I’d just started dating Derek. Stina had opened the door with a smile, only to have that expression flip like a pancake into a grimace.
Memories no longer offered pain, however. Now, the only thought I had was to wonder what Stina thought of Pris being the one in jail.
I hadn’t heard what had happened after the police had driven off with my stepsister in the backseat of their Charger two days ago. And I couldn’t help the curiosity in me now.
I mean, of course I wasn’t here to rub anything in anyone’s faces. But still, I couldn’t help wondering. And I couldn’t help feeling just a little bit vindicated by the way things had turned out.
Hawk and Maddox had gone to the jail to talk to Will, and I had my own skeletons to deal with. I’d let Stina keep usapart for far too long, but I was done allowing her to have any kind of control over my life whatsoever.
I hadn’t realized I’d been inadvertently allowing her to by staying away.
Doing so had been a way to deal with my hurt and heartache, but I never should have allowed it. I’d spent so long blaming her, I hadn’t stopped to realize my own part in our situation.
