Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 169305 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 847(@200wpm)___ 677(@250wpm)___ 564(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169305 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 847(@200wpm)___ 677(@250wpm)___ 564(@300wpm)
I pushed the door open and stepped inside, closing it behind me. Natalie lurked somewhere in the house—Constance, too, maybe—and I felt protective of Octi’s privacy.
She lay in bed, her long legs tangled in the satin sheets, her face buried in a pillow.
She wore nothing but an oversized sweatshirt, somehow looking lovelier than any girl I’d ever seen in a ballgown. Her golden hair splayed across the pillowcase like liquid sun rays.
Something tightened in my chest at the sight of her.
This better be a heart attack, Zachary, Mom’s voice warned inside my head.
I rushed to her bedside. “What happened?”
I’d never seen her cry or anything close to it. In fact, one of the reasons this woman appealed to me so much was the fact that she was stronger than tungsten.
“Who did this to you?” I demanded.
My hands found her back, rubbing it back and forth as I sat on the edge of the mattress.
Face still buried in the pillow, she fished her phone out from under her chest and tossed it in the general vicinity of my hand. “This is what I woke up to.”
A New York Times article popped on the screen, the headline bolded.
Farrow Ballantine:
Prodigy, Talent, CHEAT.
“Check out the news tab under my name.” The silk muffled her moan—not quite a cry but a sign of her obvious misery. “Just have a bucket ready in case you need to vomit.”
Dozens of scandalous headlines graced all of the leading sites.
Farrow Ballantine Officially Kicked off the Olympics for Throwing Match.
Fencer Farrow Ballantine Lost on Purpose—Should Team USA give her another chance?
Farrow Ballantine ‘Cheated’ the System:
A report.
Nothing about these headlines surprised me.
I’d dug all this up in my deep-dive prior to hiring her.
Shortly before returning to the States, Farrow had thrown her last match in Seoul.
The little cheat somehow managed to keep it under wraps, handling this internally with USA Fencing and the Olympic Committee.
That I didn’t know how she’d pulled off.
The woman had less connections than a prepaid phone.
“My future as a fencer is done. I’m toast.” She shifted, hugging her pillow to her chest. “I’m never going to make it to the Olympics now.”
I checked her cheek for wetness.
Nothing.
Still, she sniffled, fighting a fresh wave of tears.
“You need to tell me what happened, Octi. From the beginning.” I brushed her hair away from her face, mainly as an excuse to touch her. “Think you can do that?”
She rolled on her back. I got a full glimpse of her face now. Nose pink, eyes bloodshot, hair a tousled mess.
I balled my hands into fists to stop myself from breaking something.
Farrow licked her lips. “Promise not to judge?”
The one who needs judgment is me.
Much to my horror, you could set the entire world aflame and I’d hold your fucking earrings and cheer you on from the sidelines.
“Pinky promise.”
She scooted up, plastering her back against the headboard as she peeked at me.
Her teeth sank into her lower lip. “My last day in Seoul, I did something… bad.”
“Elaborate.”
“I’d just received a phone call that Dad died in a freak accident. A distant aunt told me. Not Vera. Not Reggie or Tabby.” Her gaze dropped to her lap. “I tried reaching Vera via email and phone. I even sent a neighbor to knock on her door, but she dodged me.”
I swore, looped an arm around Fae’s waist, and carried her onto my lap, her hair spilling down my leg like a golden waterfall.
Fae blinked up at me, relaxing into my thighs. “Later that day, I found out that she’d canceled the card Dad set up for me to use in Korea. She emptied my joint bank account, too, including my personal savings I kept there. She knew I wouldn’t be able to buy a plane ticket home without that money.”
I ran my fingertips down her head, massaging her scalp, mostly to distract myself from the rage stewing inside me.
Fae rested her cheek against my abs. “She didn’t want me at Dad’s funeral. Probably to hurt me, but with the added bonus of convincing people that I didn’t care when she presented his will.”
Her pink-rimmed eyes glistened with unshed tears.
Lucky for me, Vera was nowhere near our vicinity. Spending the rest of my life on death row sounded like a depressing existence.
I kneaded a knot out of her neck, gliding my thumb down its column, hoping to ease her tension. “Everyone who knows you knows you love your dad.”
“No one here really knows me except you.” She scrunched her nose, rubbing away tears that refused to spill. “I had options. I won’t pretend that I didn’t. Ari’s a chaebol. Heiress to a ginormous fortune. I could have gone to her for a loan. She wouldn’t even ask me to pay it back. And my other fencing friends would’ve chipped in for a plane ticket if I’d told them I needed the money.”