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I wipe away the sweat on my upper lip. “How much do you know?”
“A lot.” She slides a folder across the table.
I flip through it with a growing rage. Every page unfolds a laundry list of lies my father has been feeding me. “My dad and Leo have been doing all of this behind my back?”
“Oh, don’t pretend that you didn’t know,” she snaps.
I don’t have enough fucks to give about Kylie’s tone as I stand up and slam the folder on the desk. “Where the fuck did you find this?” I ask, fuming in a rage only Isabella can bring out in me.
“What are you talking about? They were in that box of folders by the window.” She aggressively plants herself in a chair, waiting for my reaction while glaring at me like she’s caught me red handed in a lie.
Of course. Those were the boxes that Isabella had sent over while she was moving offices after my dad died. She said they were real estate dealings for her office, and personal paperwork including our agreement aka nightmare of a marriage. Now the rage made sense. She was keeping these files hidden in plain sight, knowing I’d probably be secretly trying to find this information everywhere else and not think to question her if she was forthcoming. I swear that woman is the devil.
I rifled through page after page. “How could he do this to me? I did everything for him. Followed whatever task he asked of me without question. Everything! Down to the marriage license and it still wasn’t enough?”
I kick over a chair in frustration, letting out a scream.
Kylie slowly rises from her seat, hands raised in surrender. “Okay, so maybe you didn’t know about the money laundering.”
“Ya think?” I fume, shooting daggers at her. “Kylie, my dad roped me into a scam. He had me marry Isabella for the betterment of his wallet, not the company that I helped keep alive for the last seven years. I bet the rest of these boxes hold the rest of his schemes and secrets. Fuck!”
I throw a chair across the room in a fury, an uncontrollable rage coming over me. Everywhere I look, I still see glimpses of him. I’m both haunted and cursed. And it’s all because of him.
I stomp over to the line of photos on the wall and yank one off its hook, smashing it to pieces.
“Johnathan!” Kylie yells, but I ignore her.
One by one I slam the photos of my father’s smug face onto the ground. I bet he’s laughing up at me from hell right now. The bastard.
I slam the final photo on the ground with satisfaction.
Kylie stands quietly by the conference table, head tilted to the side. “Are you done?”
“Yes.” I sigh, the fight leaving me. I adjust my jacket and walk back over to her, the shattered glass clinking under my feet. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to show you that side of me.”
“I’ve been seeing a lot of sides of you today.” She smirks.
“I don’t love Isabella. I never have. It was all arranged by our fathers,” I blurt out.
Kylie blinks at me, completely stunned. I’m not sure why I said it, but it feels good finally saying it out loud.
“I don’t expect you to believe me or trust anything I say ever again. But if you had to believe anything about me, believe that.”
She stares at me, eyes searching mine. For what I’m not sure. She looks away with a heavy sigh and sits back in her chair. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
“Believe what you think is right.” I shrug.
“I don’t know the answer to that either.” She chuckles sadly.
“Neither do I.”
I pick up the chair I kicked over and set it back at the table. Even in my fit of rage, the only thing that didn’t survive were those photos. It’s cathartic in a sense. Out with the old and in with the new. Although now thinking about it, I could’ve just thrown them in the trash.
CHAPTER22
Kylie
“I really don’t knowwhat I’ve gotten myself into,” I say to break the long silence.
