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“It’s okay,” she whispers. “You’re the smartest person I know. You’ll figure things out.”
“I’m not,” I whisper under my breath.
“Can I drive you home?”
A fresh wave of tears burst out as she hugs me a little tighter.
“I don’t have a home.”
“Then, you’ll come to mine.”
I don’t even have the strength to put up a pretend fight as she guides me to her car. I let her put me in her passenger seat and I don’t protest when she starts driving. It’s not like I have anywhere else to go. Everyone in my life—my parents, my sister, my extended family, co-workers, friends, even my ex-pool boy—all had money invested in Avaretech. And why wouldn’t they? I talked it up enough. I sold them on it and I’m a hell of a saleswoman. I didn’t know I was selling them lies.
My business partner and co-founder, Miles Brenner the shady fuck, was fudging the experiment results the entire time. I was in charge of business and growth—the face of the company. He was in charge of the product. Of the science. Of making sure it worked.
We had a revolutionary product—at least, that’s what we told the world.
It was a new method for skin rejuvenation. One injection was supposed to turn the clock back five years.
I thought it worked. I thought it was real.
But it was all a scam. If Miles was born two hundred years ago, he would have been a snake oil salesman, traveling from town to town selling his bullshit for wads of cash. It’s the same old grift, just a different century.
He needed a young, pretty, well-spoken woman to be the face of his company, and he wooed me with partnership offers and dreams of fame and fortunes. I signed the contracts, not knowing that I would be the fall guy when it inevitably went belly up.
I still can’t believe I fell for it. After losing my family and friends, that’s what hurts the most. I thought he actually saw something in me. I thought I was special. But all he saw was a patsy. A sucker.
Everyone in my circle—well, my ex-circle now—lost money, but no one lost more than my biggest investor, a billionaire named Lincoln McCormick. He invested over a hundred million dollars and lost all of it. He’s a very powerful man who doesn’t forget and I’m still afraid to be on his shit list.
I’m looking at my fidgeting hands in my lap through watery eyes as Caroline drives down residential streets. She pulls into a townhouse with a hockey net in the driveway and a beaten-up old scooter on the front lawn.
“You have kids?”
“Twins,” she says with a warm smile. “A boy and a girl. They’re at school though.”
I nod as my heart aches. That’s what I wanted. A family, children, a husband who loves me. All that’s gone now. Who’s going to want to be with a social pariah who lost hundreds of millions of dollars from everyone who bet on her?
I’ll probably die alone like Miles.
When the rug was pulled out from under our feet and the FBI raided Avaretech, Miles put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. He made a lot of horrible decisions in his life, but that wasn’t one of them. Death would be better than the hell I’m living through.
Caroline brings me into her house and asks if I want to take a nap. My head is pounding and my body is aching. I nod.
She brings me to a guest room and my eyes close before I hit the pillow. The last thing I remember before I fall into a heavy sleep is her shutting the curtains.
I don’t know how long I sleep for, but the kids are in the living room watching cartoons when I wake up. I rub my eyes as I walk into the kitchen, feeling a bit better. I’ve been sleeping in my car for the past three nights, so I’ve been overtired and stressed out. I needed a long deep sleep.
“Oh,” I say when I shyly walk into the kitchen and see Caroline’s husband at the kitchen table drinking tea. She’s at the oven making soup.
“I just boiled some hot water,” she says as she comes over and pulls out a chair for me. “Do you want a tea?”
“I’d love one,” I say as I sit down, trying not to yawn. “I’m so sorry to put you out like this.”
“Not at all,” she says as she rushes over to the cupboard.
Her husband is staring at me with that look I’m now used to. It’s the look people give to significant people, like they can’t quite believe that they’re here in the flesh. Only now, there’s a different tint to it. It’s roughly the same look, but with a bit of hate thrown in. Welcome to the land of the notorious celebrity.
