Total pages in book: 176
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
I frowned. “Her mother contacted you?”
“Yes. This morning.”
“Well, Susan, I find that to be pretty impressive indeed, considering Kareena Beck has been in a coma for the past week.”
“And how would you know that, Professor, when, as you said, you can’t recall having Atlas as a student?”
My skin flushed from my careless slip and I brought myself up to full height which wasn’t much even with heels. “I’m not saying anything else without a lawyer.”
Susan nodded. “That is your right. It is also your right to know that a formal investigation will be launched, and if there is any truth to these allegations, your position at the university will be in serious jeopardy.”
“Well, good luck with that,” I mumbled as she left my classroom.
I already knew they wouldn’t find anything on my work email or computer, and that this would soon become nothing more than a black mark on my reputation.
Still, someone had to pay, and I had only one guess as to who was really behind this.
That deceitful whore who’d stolen my man.
I couldn’t believe my eyes the day she walked into my class a year ago. I thought perhaps it was a cruel coincidence, but no. Her face had haunted me for twenty long years.
After thoroughly abusing my teaching privileges at the university and calling in a few favors, I discovered that Atlas Beck was the baby my best friend had given away.
I was the only one outside of Jada’s family who knew about the baby since her parents had wanted to keep it quiet that their sixteen-year-old daughter had gotten knocked up.
I’d only seen the picture of the baby that Jada carried around once, but I could never forget those star-shaped markings or the feeling of utter betrayal from the boy I’d loved quietly from the sidelines.
It was bad enough that he’d fucked Jada, but to give her his child?
I couldn’t forgive him. I wouldn’t.
Until I realized the gift fate had given me. Rowdy would never see me as long as Jada had her claws in him. She’d been the only one of his numerous fuck buddies to last so long. Twenty goddamn years. It seemed nothing would free him from her spell—except proof of her betrayal. I couldn’t be the one to expose her, of course. Too messy.
So…I sent Atlas to do my dirty work for me, and with all her emotional trauma, it had been all too easy. I just hadn’t expected the bitch to go and fall in love with him first.
Now, I guess that young whore had found me out and wanted to play. Following Atlas to the grocery store had been stupid, but the cat was out of the bag now, so let the real games begin.
I had already begun plans to dispose of her now that she wasn’t needed anymore. Rowdy and Jada were done, and I could step in to pick up the pieces without losing the only friend I’d ever made—even if it was someone as selfish and foolish as Jada Dorsey.
She’d known back then how much I liked Rowdy. I’d been stupid enough to confide in her many times, but she’d always laugh and tell me how I didn’t stand a chance. And then, to throw salt in the wound, she went and fucked him and got pregnant.
After leaving campus, I drove straight home and went into my office. I then pulled out the elegant leather gloves and stationary I kept in my desk drawer. There was no more need for anonymity, but I still had one more trick left up my sleeve.
I hadn’t counted on how devious Atlas was or her poisoning Rowdy’s mind so thoroughly that he would defy the laws of nature just to be with her.
This was not the man I fell in love with. A man so sick he would fuck his own daughter. It wasn’t his fault. Like Jada, he just needed to be freed from Atlas’s hold.
So I penned three letters.
One to Kareena Beck for if she ever woke up, another to the Wrays, and the third to a local radio station in Idlewild.
At the moment, Rowdy and Atlas were each other’s twisted secret. Let’s see their love survive their friends’ and families’ scrutiny—the public’s scrutiny.
By now, they will have done a DNA test, but I wanted to be sure that once the results came back, they’d have no choice but to walk away.
I was sealing the last envelope when the doorbell rang. I left my office to answer the door and my knees nearly gave out when I found him standing on the other side.
“Rowdy?”
“Sup, Sissy? Did I catch you at a bad time?”
“N-no. What are you doing here?”
He shrugged those shoulders I’d always admired so much. I longed to feel them under my hands as he drove into me. “You kept saying you wanted to link up, and I was in town so…”