Page 97 of Apparently, I’m Torture

“Well, what about me? Don’t you care about me? It’s been years, Trevor. Please. Just delete the video. I did what you wanted.”

As Trevor’s legs crumpled underneath him, his scream filled the hallway.

“I’ll delete it, I swear. After this is done. This has to work.”

Shawn let him drop to the ground.

“What if it doesn’t? What if Rutton gives Lilly her job back and Shawn loses his?”

Mia shook out her fist.

“Then I’ll just have to keep fucking with her student’s test scores until she gets fired.”

Principal Rutton gasped.

“Wasn’t what you did with the invoice enough?”

“I don’t know. Forging Shawn’s signature and sending it from Lilly’s email should’ve been enough, but if Shawn’s meeting with Rutton works, and she gets her job back, I might have to think of something else.”

Stacey paused the recording, and we stood and stared, transfixed.

Stacey lowered her arm. She locked eyes with the principal, but when she spoke, her voice trembled.

“I, um, I meant what I said about Shawn’s career being worth more than Lilly’s. It’s worth more than mine too.” She paused to take a breath. “I gave Trevor access to our fundraiser so he could do whatever he wanted to Lilly, but it went too far, and that’s my fault. Shawn doesn’t deserve the blame for any of this, and neither does she.”

“Stacey, you fucking bitch,” Trevor yelled. “You’re ruining everything.”

Rage fluttered across Shawn’s face, and Mia looked like she was about to kick him where he laid. But it was my turn. After everything he put me through, I was ready to make him regret it.

“You evil fucking asshole,” I yelled. “You’ve been trying to get me fired for the past year?”

Holding his nose, Trevor pinned his stare on me and shouted, “You humiliated me. You strung me along for eighteen fucking months. You made me think you loved me.”

My stomach turned, bubbled, and stretched. No. I wasn’t supposed to feel bad now. Not now. Not after everything he did. I wasn’t supposed to want to fix this feeling for him, I wasn’t supposed to feel the urge to apologize to fucking Trevor of all people.

No. Anxiety or no anxiety, I was done trying to please people like him.

“So you did all this just because I didn’t want to be with you anymore? You can’t fuck with my life like this, you fucking sociopath.”

“I’ll fuck with you as much as I want.”

I couldn’t believe it. He was still so unapologetic, completely without remorse. It almost stunned me.

Then a strangled cry rumbled out of me, and as Shawn clamped his hands on Trevor’s shoulders, I managed to take two steps toward his sprawled legs, when Principal Rutton yelled, “That’s enough. All of you are behaving disgracefully. Get in my office. Now.”

Chapter 35

Shawn

Monday Evening

Lilly’s Apartment

After we locked Trevor in the principal’s office, the department heads were called, and Trevor had a decision to make. He could deny everything despite the clear evidence Stacey had, or he could come clean.

He chose the latter.

Principal Rutton was shocked. Appalled. Horrified. And the apologies Lilly received? Music to my fucking ears. The satisfaction I felt was almost savage.