Page 48 of The Mood Board

As much as I didn’t want to share my crumbling life with her, I appreciated the kindness she showed to a complete stranger.

“Okay, well, just so you know, I think it’s going to be okay,” she said, offering another bright smile.

“What?” I asked, wondering if she recognized my face.

But the barista shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re going through, and it seems like it’s something tough, but I have a feeling it’s going to be okay. Not sure why, but I just get these feelings sometimes, and I think everything will be okay for you.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what to say to that. “Okay. Well, thank you.”

“Sure.” She flashed me a final, dimpled smile and returned inside.

For a moment, I sat there staring at the ripples chasing one another across the surface of my tea, her words spinning where misery had been a moment before.

Everything is going to be okay for you.

I didn’t believe in the supernatural, no ghosts or fortune tellers or those TV psychics. I certainly didn’t think this barista was receiving signals from the universe about my future. But even so, her words set up a small point of light where there had only been darkness a moment before.

Could everything be okay?

I had been so focused on everything falling apart I had forgotten to think about the other side of the coin-that things could turn out for the better. And it had taken one random, kind stranger at a coffee shop to remind me of the possibilities.

Could it be true that things might turn out well?

Lifting the mug of tea to my lips, I took a sip, my mind carefully probing the possibilities.

Could I find triumph instead of defeat? Help to save Liam? I had been so sure before Russ had come over, but he had knocked the assurance right out of me. Even now, I couldn’t believe he had said what he had.

But I also wasn’t the woman he’d held in a type of thrall, the small, mousy, quiet woman without self-confidence or a sense of self on which to depend.

I had grown since then, gaining back strength and self-assurance. I had friends now, and a family beyond my parents who loved me for being exactly who I was. More than that, I liked who I was—I was smart, successful, and talented. I owned a successful design firm, and now I knew why I disliked Janelle. It wasn’t jealousy or lack of self-assurance, but my intuition telling me something was wrong.

And I had dismissed it, had yet again failed to believe myself, given in to old habits that didn’t serve me anymore. They never had to begin with.

But I hadn’t been imagining things—Janelle was the snake. She had been worming her way into the company and everyone’s good graces. I knew it because my instincts had been screaming at me since the beginning, but I had still ignored them.

And Russ still had me questioning myself, damn him. And the way I had reacted momentarily to the letter had thrown me off enough that I had doubted every reaction after that.

Well, no more. I was done giving him space inside my head and my heart. I was done giving him any consideration, and I was taking back the power and sense of self he had stolen from me. I was done ignoring my gut and not trusting myself.

I promised myself and Liam that I would do something, even if he didn’t know it. I could do this. I had to do it for Liam, but I also had to do it for myself. I deserved peace and to live my life without someone trying to grind me under his thumb. It was time I took Russ down once and for all and Janelle with him.

Russ had presented me with the perfect opportunity to blast his plan wide open, and I needed to take it. It wasn’t going to be easy, though. A plan had begun to take root in my mind, one that might just succeed. Except that it came at a significant risk—I would risk losing Liam if my plan worked the way I hoped. I might lose him, my new family, and even my friends. I wasn’t sure I would ever get over the pain of losing Liam, but what did it matter if the alternative was that Liam spent what was supposed to be our life together in prison?

I could lose him either way, and if the choice came down to losing Liam to my plan versus losing him to prison, I wanted to know that he was living his life as he should: free, happy, and making positive changes in the world with his company. Even if I wasn’t a part of that life anymore.

Liam might never talk to me again. He might go his whole life thinking I had betrayed him. But I was going to bring Russ and Janelle down. It was time I turned the tables and rescued my prince from his prison. I was the one who would do the rescuing this time, white horse or not.

I was going to save Liam and his company, whatever it took.