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I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms as anger bubbled up inside me like molten lava. My heart raced, fury and hurt wrestling for dominion as I stared into Dawn’s smug face.
“You’re twisted, Dawn,” I spat, unable to hold back any longer. The words tasted bitter on my tongue, but they were nothing compared to the poisonous lies she’d woven around me.
Dawn’s smile only widened, her eyes gleaming like polished obsidian. She stepped back, releasing me from the vice-like grip of her presence, only to circle me like a vulture honing in on its prey. As she moved, I felt the weight of her gaze, scrutinizing every inch of my being, searching for weaknesses to exploit.
“Am I?” she asked, feigning innocence. “Or am I hitting too close to the truth?”
I gritted my teeth, swallowing the fury that threatened to spill over. I needed to stay focused, to gather enough evidence to pin her down. But with each passing moment, it became harder and harder to think clearly.
“You were jealous of Ryder stealing your man,” Dawn continued, her cruel eyes never leaving mine. “That’s a rough one. You couldn’t keep Greyson satisfied, so he turned to Ryder.”
Her words stung like tiny needles jabbing at my heart, but I refused to let her see the pain they caused. I fought back the urge to scream. The look of pure satisfaction on her face only fueled the fire burning in my chest.
“Greyson didn’t deserve what you did to him,” I whispered, my voice trembling with the effort it took to keep my emotions under control. “Neither did Ryder, nor his family. You used them, destroyed their lives for your own gain. And for what? A promotion? To bring me down?”
She retreated back to the mirror. “Remi, darling. You’re delusional. It was your article that did all that damage. Is that why you threw Ryder’s cousin under the bus, too? You had the perfect motive.” Dawn sneered, her voice dripping with disdain.
She snapped her compact closed with a loud click. I was afraid she was going to leave without saying anything incriminating.
I had to keep her talking. “What are you talking about?”
She shrugged. “You wanted to get back at Ryder for stealing your man, so you went after his dead cousin, making tenuous connections, at best, to the ghost being the cousin who supposedly died of an overdose.”
Supposedly died. Something about those words stood out to me. “How would that be getting back at Ryder?”
Her laughter sliced through the air like a razor-sharp wind, and her eyes narrowed into slits of contempt. The sound was sharp and mocking, with an edge of superiority as if to emphasize how foolish I was.
“What do you think the dead cousin’s parents felt when you exposed to the whole world that the coroner’s report stated that he died of autoerotic asphyxiation? That’s kind of low, even for you.”
A cold shiver ran down my spine as I realized the full implications of Dawn’s words. She’d just exposed herself. The smug expression on her face seemed to mock me, but it was her casual mention of autoerotic asphyxiation that truly caught my attention. That bit of information about the coroner’s report was in my notebook, but it wasn’t in the article and wasn’t public knowledge. Dawn had just proven that she’d read my notebook and it was only a small leap to deduce that she was the one who wrote the article.
I could barely breathe, my heart pounding in my ears as the realization of Dawn’s misstep hit me like a ton of bricks. “How did you know he died from autoerotic asphyxiation?” I asked, my voice steady despite the pounding in my chest.
Dawn’s eyes flickered with panic for a split second before she recovered. “What? Because I read it in the article, of course!”
“Except that wasn’t in the article,” I replied cooly, my pulse quickening as I watched her facade begin to crack.
Her eyes widened for a split second before her expression smoothed over, trying to maintain her cool façade. She tilted her head slightly, feigning confusion. “What are you talking about, Remi?”
“Autoerotic asphyxiation wasn’t mentioned in the article,” I continued, staring her down. “That piece of information was only in my notebook.”
Dawn’s eyes narrowed, a bead of sweat forming at her hairline. She hesitated for a moment before responding, her voice wavering despite her best efforts. “You — you must be mistaken.”
“Face it, Dawn. You just exposed yourself.” My words were hard and unyielding, like steel. “You’ve been caught.”
As I glared into her desperate gaze, I could almost hear the gears turning in her mind, scrambling to come up with a plausible explanation. But there was none — she had just given herself away, and she knew it. Her carefully constructed house of cards was starting to crumble, and I could sense her panic rising beneath the surface.
“Are you seriously suggesting that I read your notebook?” she scoffed, attempting to maintain her air of superiority. “Get real, Remi. You’re grasping at straws now.”
“Am I?” I countered, my voice steady despite the whirlwind of emotions churning within me. “The fact is, you shouldn’t have known how Ryder’s cousin died unless you had access to my research.”
“Your accusations are absurd,” Dawn spat, her poise slipping with every passing moment. “You’re just bitter because you lost everything, and you’re looking for someone to blame.”
“Except I didn’t write that article,” I shot back, my voice dripping with disdain. “And now I have proof that you did.”
Her chest heaved with each ragged breath, and I saw the unmistakable glint of fear in her eyes. But she was nothing if not tenacious, and even now, she refused to go down without a fight.
“Even if I did know,” she spat, her voice laced with contempt, “it doesn’t prove anything. It’s your word against mine, and who do you think they’ll believe?” Her eyes gleamed with a sinister light, daring me to challenge her.
