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I stood and stepped from behind the bookshelf with a rueful cringe, brushing floor dust off my hands and backside while everyone watched.
“Okay, this is one story I gotta hear,” Gabby said, “because let me tell you, honey, that was one fine business suit.”
Camille whistled and fanned herself. “That was one fine butt.”
“That…” Isobel heaved out a heavy sigh. “That was my brother.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Brother?” I whirled toward Isobel, whispering, “No.” I even shook my head to deny it.
But then I blinked rapidly as pieces began to come together. Ezra had said his sister was disfigured and still one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen. That description fit Isobel perfectly. She was simply lovely, scars and all.
“Oh my God,” I gasped, backing away from her and lifting my hands in apology, though I had no idea what I was apologizing for. “You are. You really are, aren’t you?”
She shook her head, smiling out a confused frown. “How do you know Ezra?” Then her expression fell. “Oh, Lord. Please don’t tell me he’s been giving you unwanted attention.”
“What? No!” I cried a bit too quickly before flushing. “I mean, it totally wouldn’t be unwanted, if he were… Which he’s not, because why… Why would he give little ol’ me any attention? I’m no one.”
Gabby snorted. “I think the girl doth protest too much.”
“Definitely,” Camille agreed with a nod.
I scowled at the two.
“Yeah, no one buys the theory that he’s not interested in you,” Shaw mused, glancing toward the entrance. “He seemed too desperate to catch you. You’re definitely not no one to him. I think we’re all just curious as to why he’s so intent to track you down.”
“Probably to cuss me out some more,” I muttered glumly, my shoulders slumping. When everyone lifted their eyebrows in curiosity, I waved a hand and explained, “I’m kind of his least favorite person at the moment.”
Shaw snorted. “Not unless your name’s Lana Judge.”
I winced.
“But… Wait. Isn’t that your name?” Gabby asked, making every person in the shop whip their attention her way, me included. She shook her head. “I mean, the Judge part. Not Lana. She’s Kaitlynn Judge,” she explained to the others before glancing at me and shaking her head. “Who’s Lana Judge? Do you go by Lana?”
“No!” I shuddered, horrified. “Good God, no. I go by Kaitlynn. Or Kait. Or Kaity.”
“Wait.” Isobel stepped curiously forward. “Your surname is Judge? Judge as in JFI, Judge Fashions Industry, the company my family owns half of?”
When I nodded, Isobel glanced worriedly toward Shaw, who met her shocked gaze and let his mouth fall open. “Holy shit,” he murmured as both he and Isobel turned back to me. “Are you… No. That would be too crazy. You’re not Lana’s daughter, are you?”
“Of course not,” I instantly defended myself only to sigh out my dejection and let my shoulders slump. “I’m her stepdaughter.”
“Oh,” they said in unison before both taking a single step away from me.
I gulped, feeling like a leper, merely because I was associated with one Lana Judge.
“Who’s Lana Judge?” This time, it was Camille who asked.
“She runs half of Judge Fashions Industry while Ezra runs the other half,” Shaw answered, “and from the way he talks about her, she’s the devil incarnate.”
I nodded. “That’s actually an apt description.”
“Wow.” Gabby blew out a low whistle. “If Kaitlynn Judge—the bearer of all things positive and perky and bright—is calling someone evil, then they’re damn evil.”
I winced—one, for being called such nice things when I could list a couple dozen flaws about myself without blinking an eye, and two, because yikes, I probably shouldn’t have been talking so rudely about Lana behind her back. No one deserved that. Not even the devil incarnate.
“Ugh. Now I feel bad. Lana’s really not so awful.” Not as awful as, say, the true devil, anyway.
