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“He looks like he’s going to throw up or collapse.”
“Shh!” I hissed.
“Several years ago I was involved in a fatal DUI accident. My friend, Daniel Martinez, was driving my car.” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Three people were killed: Julian Metsky, Michelle Ramos, and James Ramos. I think of them every day. Words cannot express how much I regret my actions that night and if I could give up my life to return the victims back to their families, I would do it in a heartbeat.
“It has come to my attention that I am incapable of moving past the accident, and I would like to take this opportunity to give my resignation to Pardini Worldwide.”
With that, William turned around and reentered his apartment, ignoring the scream of questions that exploded the moment he stepped away from the microphones.
“Oh my God,” I moaned. “He’s resigning?”
Will, what are you doing?
Jessica removed her hands from her mouth. “His father won’t be happy.”
My heart pounded as I watched him disappear behind the door. “I can’t believe he did that.”
It’s not your problem anymore.
But there was no way I could ignore what just happened. Maybe I needed to do something to ignore the pain building up in my chest. I didn’t want to think about Will retreating into his own misery and wasting away. I needed to do something.
“Wait! Where are you going?”
“To see Ben,” I muttered as I ran into my room. I opened my laptop and clicked on the email Will sent me days ago. Attached to the email were screenshots. They weren’t damning evidence on their own, but if I had more information…
“What?” Jessica’s scream of outrage followed me into the room. She stood at the doorway, her hands on her hips. “Did I hear you correctly? You’re not fucking going!”
“I will get Ben to drop the charges against Will.” I waved the printed screenshots at her. “If he doesn’t, I’ll go full steam ahead.”
“And how easy do you think it’ll be for him to accuse you of blackmailing him, because that’s what this is! Don’t be stupid!”
“I don’t care!” I stood up, and the printed pictures floated to the floor, sliding out of my grasp.
Jessica stumbled back from the force of my voice. “I know that you’re angry, but think, Natalie. If you go charging off to Ben’s house again, you’ll only dig yourself a bigger hole.”
Frustration was bleeding into anger. Why couldn’t she understand? I looked at her calm face and wanted to shatter it. “I can’t just sit here and do nothing!”
“No,” she agreed. “You can’t.” Jessica heaved a sigh. “I will probably regret this, but I’ll come with you.”
“You two hate each other. It’s just asking for trouble.”
“You need someone with a cool head to come with you to stop you from doing anything stupid.”
“I’m leaving now.” Grabbing my purse and keys, I swept past Jessica who hurried behind me.
* * *
“We could still head back,” Jessica suggested.
I shook my head and raised my fist to the door.
“He might not even answer. Once he sees you, he’ll just—”
My fist pounded against the wood to drown out her protests. I brushed aside her sigh of anger and waited in front of the door, willing myself to be calm and not lose my head. Several minutes passed, but I kept knocking on the door.
“He’s not coming. Let’s go,” she pleaded.
A piercing pain shot through my heart as the door cracked open, revealing a tall man. I was pleased to see tape over the bridge of Ben’s nose.
