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“Okay.” There’s shuffling, a door opening, and the quiet time is over.
“Ry?”
“I’m here?”
“Jordyn?”
She freezes in my lap and turns to look at me. I nod, encouraging her to speak up. She clears her throat. “I’m here.”
“Good,” Declan replies. “Who wants the floor?” he asks my family.
“Ramsey,” all the ladies in the room speak up.
“Aw, I feel like I’m in high school again and being voted for prom queen.” My cousin’s sassy reply comes through the line. “I’ll gladly explain because we are a group of fu—freaking geniuses.” She clears her throat, and the room quiets down.
The fact that she can get them to all be quiet, kids too, tells me this isn’t just an off-the-rails idea. No. This is “we have a plan, and we are going to do what Kincaids do, and we’re going to rally.”
“Okay, so, I’m sure Dec has filled you in on how this even started, but we’ve all talked about it, and we think we have a solid plan. This is going to work.”
I can hear the smile in her voice and the conviction in her tone.
“What’s going to work, Ramsey?” I ask. I’m ready to hear what they’ve come up with. Is it possible they’ve actually found a solution that won’t result in me jetting off to hide in another country? It sounds extreme even to my own ears, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
“It’s so easy. I think that’s why we didn’t think of this before.”
“Are you going to tell us?” I ask my cousin.
“Right.” She chuckles. “It’s simple, Ry. We beat them to the punch.”
“I’m confused.”
“Jordyn’s mom is threatening to ruin our businesses, our family name. She’s holding that over your head, over Jordyn’s head. Jordyn, I assume you have proof of this threat?” Ramsey asks.
“Y-Yes. I have all of her messages saved to a cloud account that’s under a fake name.”
“You do?” I ask Jordyn.
She nods. “I confided in one of my classmates when I was abroad, and she’s a big true crime junkie. She suggested I save all the messages and threats because you never know when they might come in handy.”
“Yes!” Ramsey cheers. “That’s perfect.”
“We expose her,” Palmer chimes in. At least I think it’s Palmer. My mind is a little scrambled at the moment as I try to process what they’re saying.
“So, what? We release the text messages?” I ask, still trying to wrap my head around how this is going to work.
“We do, only on a much grander scale. Jordyn’s family is well-known. So, I’m sure if she were to launch a video, live or recorded on her socials, and on all of ours, the word would get out. At first, we thought about going to the media, trying to get them to report on the story, but that’s tricky. We don’t know who she has in her pocket. We don’t want her to get wind of this before it hits the public.”
“That’s—genius.” Jordyn turns to look at me, and the smile on her face lights up the room. Her eyes are still red and puffy from crying, but they take nothing away from the effect her smile has on me. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of the messages before now.”
“Right?” another female voice says. I think it’s Kennedy, but I can’t be sure. “And don’t worry, you’ve been through a lot, and it’s easy to forget something that happened a couple of years ago. I’m just glad you saved them.”
“How do we do this?” I ask my family.
“We need a plan. A date where we all point our phones at the two of you and go live on our social media accounts. You tell your story, and appeal to the heartstrings of the public. I have no doubt this is going to spread like a wildfire with Jordyn’s family’s reputation. This is better than the blackmail because she’s going to be exposed to the world. Maybe even brought to justice for her part in your brother’s accident.”
“Count me in,” Gianna says.
“Who’s that?” someone asks.
“That’s Gianna. My best friend,” Jordyn answers, smiling over at Gianna.
“Nice.” I think that’s Jade. “The more the merrier.”
“Jordyn, when can you meet up?” Ramsey asks her.
“Um, I’m not sure. I left the house after a confrontation with my mother. I can try to get away next weekend. I’ll need some time to gather the few items that mean something to me, the rest they can have. A small bag at most.”
“Great. We’ll keep brainstorming. In the meantime, gather your thoughts, make notes. When we meet, we’ll help you both with what you’re going to say and pick a date.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Jordyn tells them. “I can’t thank you enough for this.”
“We’re family,” Ramsey assures her. “There’s no way this won’t work. She’ll no longer be a threat because all eyes will be on her. No one will believe a word she says about any of us after hearing the lengths she’d go through to control Jordyn. The queen of Atlanta is about to be knocked off her high-society pedestal.”
