Fraud

He’s in battle mode, straight and to the point.

“I’m letting her go,” I answer, dropping my weight onto the chair opposite him. “What’s the letter say?”

Laughing at that, Ta

He grabs a pen to flip through his fingers, the printer quietly ru

“She knew I set her up back in high school.”

His brows lift, a silent gesture to tell me something he doesn’t know. “You told her that. So what?”

I sigh. “She knew before she set the fire and ran to you for a favor.”

Brows lifting higher, he sits back in his seat, that damn pen flipping faster. “The fuck? Why would she do something so stupid?”

Laughing at him asking the exact same question that ran through my head, I tell him, “Because she knew it meant we would resurface eventually, and she was trying to hold on to me. Ivy admitted she never hated me in high school. That she -“

I can’t even fucking say it. I glance past Ta

“So what’s the problem? You never hated her either.”

My eyes shoot to his, and he laughs. “What? Everybody knew it. You wouldn’t have given her the time of day if you hadn’t. So I’ll ask again: What’s the fucking problem?”

Refusing to hear what he’s saying, and also refusing to consider the truth of it, I cross my ankle over a knee and nudge my chin at the printer. “I told you what you wanted to know. What’s the letter?”

“I think you’re being an idiot,” he says, his stare holding mine before he grabs the papers from the printer and admits, “It’s a letter to Luca from her dad. Apparently, it wasn’t just our fathers trying to kill him.”

Son of a bitch. “Who else?”

“I suspect Governor Callahan,” Ta

“Georgia?”

“Here,” he says, the pen almost snapping in his hand. Tossing it on his desk, he grabs a rubber band and winds that through his fingers instead.

“And she hasn’t seen the letter yet,” I say, thinking out loud more than asking a question.

“After we decide the game plan, you all will need to leave. She’s not going to want company while reading this.”

“I agree.” Pushing to my feet to go downstairs, I’m stopped when he says my name.

Ta

All I can think about is the marks on her face. If not for me, they wouldn’t be there. Now she’s no better than I was on the day we met, and I’m the only person who can be blamed.

Obviously, her father already knew about the fire, but if not for me, she wouldn’t have challenged him with our fake engagement and put herself in a position where he would use it against her, or become angry enough to bruise her face.

Given the amount of bullshit I’ve caused in Ivy’s life, walking away is the biggest favor I can ever do for her.

“I’ve made my decision. And being my best friend, you’ll back it up.”

He grins. “You sure about that?”

I smile in return. “Yeah, actually. I am.”

Tense silence settles between us before he says, “Fuck you, Gabe. Fine. But don’t come crying to me like a little bitch when you realize you did something stupid.”

We both head out of the office and are ru

“What were the other papers Ivy gave you?”

We reach the bottom floor before he answers. ”They were invoices for finished jobs.”

“Were they important?” I ask, pressing for more details.

“Not sure,” he says as we turn the corner into the living room, “but I assume so given that two of the people who ordered the jobs were Warbucks and Daddy Dearest.”

Fuck...