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“Oh, he did. Not that he was wrong. The last thing Hadley said to me was that she appreciated me for giving her a place to live when she couldn’t afford one and I’d helped her study when she needed it, but despite being really fucking sorry, Parker had actual money, not merely a bright future. Of course, he dumped her right after she left me…”
“I-I never heard any of this.”
“No one has.”
“And Hadley? You said she’s gone.”
“Dead. Car accident about six months later. She was with some even richer—married—guy whose blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit when he plowed into a tree.”
“If all that’s true, I understand why you want revenge.”
“If?” The word is out of my mouth before I realize that I can’t question her honesty without expecting her to question mine.
“He’s still my brother. Even though he’s being an ass about my inheritance and my business, I hate thinking he’s capable of that kind of backstabbing—”
“He is. You said it yourself.”
“But…none of Parker’s classmates the press interviewed mentioned Hadley at all. Nor did they say anything about him betraying you.”
It’s a valid point. “I was too embarrassed to admit to my frat-boy friends and football teammates that she had cheated on me. So I didn’t tell anyone. If someone asked about her, I said we split up because she dropped out of school and moved away. Those weren’t lies; she did drop out and leave LA. It just wasn’t the reason we broke up.”
“So what did you tell all those frat boys and football buddies that motivated them to make my brother’s senior year so hellish that he questioned his existence and contemplated suicide?”
Of course she’s going to lay that accusation on me. “Nothing much. I just led by example. I got ahold of his porn-viewing history and circulated it. Don’t ask.” Just a guess, she probably wouldn’t want to hear how much her brother fantasized about being spanked by women in pleather, killer heels, and attitude. “Then I pantsed him at a party.” Where people snapped tons of pictures of him with a Mama’s Boy tattoo on his hip and posted them around campus and across the internet. I didn’t know they would go viral. Everyone else thought the whole thing was hysterical because they never really liked him; they tolerated him for me. Well, and he often paid for the beer. “That’s it. All I did was a couple of stupid pranks. Booze and immature idiots did the rest. At the time I wrote it off as karma.”
Instead of dusting himself off, finding his bravado, and pretending he saw humor in their stupid, sophomoric crap, Parker sniveled and cried. They ridiculed him more for it.
“His humiliation wasn’t revenge enough for you?”
I didn’t take delight in his torment as much as I thought I would. He ended up shuttering his social media accounts for a few months and lying low. It was a blessing in disguise because I saw my circle of friends for who they were. After that, I reconnected with a bunch of my high school pals, especially Hayes and his now-wife, Echo. The two of them, along with Graham, Maryam, and Kella, are all genuine, kind people. They’ve stuck with me through thick and thin. Even though I live in Maui now, we’re still tight.
Now that I think about it, none of those friends liked Hadley, either. The difference is, they didn’t sleep with her to prove their point; they merely supported me when the relationship fell apart.
“If your brother would have left the past in the past, I would have, too. We both got fucked, just in different ways. But you guessed that he modeled Xayden Coast after me. So did the rest of the world, since the paparazzi won’t stop calling me for comment. Pushed Too Far smears me publicly. It could destroy me professionally.”
“I guess it can’t be easy when you’re in such a high-profile business. Handling other people’s money… Clients have to trust you.”
“Yes, and I’ve had to work twice as hard to maintain investor confidence since your brother’s book hit the bestseller lists.” It also doesn’t help that I’m Barclay Reed’s bastard offspring. “And with the movie dropping tomorrow, the cycle is starting all over again.”
She nods slowly. “So what kind of revenge are you after?”
I’d love to spend a raunchy weekend between Corinne’s legs, but even if it’s the juiciest possible retribution to let the whole world know I’ve defiled his little sister, I won’t do that to her. I wouldn’t wish having her public image wrecked and subjecting her to the kind of hounding by paparazzi and bottom-feeding gossip hounds that I’ve endured on anyone just for revenge.
“No answer? Are we at an impasse?” She finishes the rest of her drink.
I do the same, gratified when the waiter sets fresh cocktails in front of us almost immediately. “Let me think on it. We’ll find a way for you to get the money you need and the revenge I’m after.”
