“Why?” I yell at her. “The fucker did all but rape me for six weeks, and you blamedme,an 11-year-oldvictim. You blamed me for him being attracted to a fucking child. Do you know how fucking sick you have to be to…”
“Stop cussing at me,” she snaps.
“Fuck you, Mom,” I snap. “Both of you. Stop fucking calling me before I block your number.”
“Sadie Marie Graves,” she gasps. “How dare…” I end the call and toss my phone on the coffee table.
“Damn,” Jeff says.
“That was a bad idea,” I sigh and lay my head on Dean’s chest. He wraps his arms around me and kisses my head.
“No, it wasn’t,” he says. “They deserve far more than that.”
“Well, we are going to let y’all spend time together,” Cindy says.
“We are here if you need us, and please understand that we support you, okay?” Penny says.
“Exactly. Tell me if you have any issues with Paul, okay?” John asks.
“I will,” I sigh.
They hug us before leaving, and Mason locks the door before setting the alarm. “What do we do now?” I ask.
“Now… we relax. We take a mental health day and just do whatever we want,” Lance says.
“I want to stay with you guys,” I admit.
“Then we can go take over one of our beds and watch movies all day,” Dean says.
“I liked sleeping in the same bed with all of you. It was… comforting,” I say.
“Do you even remember falling asleep?” Mason asks.
“No,” I laugh.
“I didn’t think so,” he smiles.
“My bed is the largest. We can congregate there and talk about the long-term later,” Dean says.
“I feel like we should prepare for a meeting tomorrow,” I say.
“Nope,” Lance says. “We all need to take a step away for a minute. We all know the next few weeks are going to be hard while we face this, so for now, we relax.”
“Yeah. You’re right,” I sigh. “I’m not looking forward to work tomorrow.”
Chapter Eight
Sadie
I spent all dayyesterday with the guys. We took our mental health day. I went through waves of emotions, and they supported me through all of it. I was and am mostly angry. I still want to strangle Angela, but I won’t. I’ll leave it alone and focus on the company.
At the end of the day, we did nothing wrong. I have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, and I do not regret anything that has happened with them. We are adults, and I was very willing in that situation.
Mom and Dad haven’t called again, but I know it’s not the last I will hear from them. I know they will show up this weekend. I can’t worry about that right now because we have an entireshitstorm at work to handle. Most of our investors are coming in today to demand a meeting with us. We planned on having one anyway, so this saves us from having to try to get them all to come in. Some of our long-term investors know us well, so they don’t care.
We’ve had ten employees email their resignations this morning, but luckily, the departments they are coming from can handle losing a few people. We can always help out with anything that needs to be done. We know every aspect of this company, so it’s only natural that we fill in where we are needed.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I sigh when we pull into a parking spot and see a horde of reporters and random people.
