Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80495 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80495 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
“Girl tells Boy she’s finished. She just wants a clean break. But Boy pursues her, even after she moves out. Even after she tries to salvage her life. Boy tells Girl that he could destroy her at any time. She threatens to go to the police for a restraining order, but again, he tells her that getting the police involved isn’t a great idea since Boy has never laid a finger on Girl. There have been zero reports. She’d have to have some kind of physical proof that Boy abused her in some way. Girl starts recording how Boy is stalking her, but he’s careful not to get caught. He’s never on cameras. He’s always sneaky and crafty, the way he’s always been, even when she didn’t know it. And then, just to prove he can, Boy appears in Girl’s apartment. He somehow gets in, hacks the cameras, steals her laptop, cracks the password, and starts the scamming again. Girl gets really freaked out.”
“Girl is an up-and-coming designer and has lots of friends all over the place. One friend knows someone who knows someone who makes fake IDs, and Girl knows that with a fake ID, she can disappear. She can take her savings and run and hide. Gather evidence and try and put together something that indicates she isn’t guilty. Girl had some money saved from said designs that Boy couldn’t get at because she kept the money as cash in a bank drawer, and she never let Boy know about it. Girl gets her fake ID. Girl buys a super cheap, shitty acreage in the middle of nowhere with said fake ID. Only Girl’s parents and sister know where she is. Then, Girl drops off the face of the earth and becomes someone else. Girl starts to think she’s safe but still sees no way she can return to her regular life. And then, Boy finds her, and everything is over.”
“No. Nothing is over,” I bark raspily.
“Nothing is the same,” she huffs weakly.
“You’re right about that. Nothing will be the same again.” I let my fist come down on the table too hard, which makes her jump. I didn’t mean to scare her. I flatten my palm, stroking the old oak wood in apology. “Nothing will be the same again because now you have me fighting for you, and it just so happens I’m not only rich. I also own a company that offers personal protection. More than that, I have a lot of friends who are great with computers. Boy thinks he’s a good hacker and a scammer and that he’s covered his trail by pinning all of it on you? We’ll fix it all. You can have your life back. You’re a victim of identity theft, and we’ll find a way to make that clear. Boy will go to jail. Boy will never be able to hurt you or anyone else again, I promise.”
“Scammers don’t go to jail. And hackers go for like maybe a year. No one cares. It’s not like he murdered anyone. I’m the one who took my old life and vanished. I’m the one who quit on it instead of staying and fighting.” Then, she quickly backtracks on that. “Even if they go to jail for a year, I don’t want to go. I don’t want a criminal record. I want my name cleared. I don’t want to pay for something I didn’t even do. You know what I would like? I would like Aiden to pay the money back. All of it. Everything he took. Probably from old people who didn’t have a dollar to spare, people who weren’t great with money, or people who couldn’t figure out that whatever he was running was a con. Jesus. I couldn’t figure it out, and I was with him for three fucking years.”
Three years.
That asshat stole three years from this woman, in addition to her identity, her dignity, her peace of mind, and probably her heart and soul. I’m sorry I let him go now. It would have been ultra satisfying to break him in half. Not that it’s humanly possible. Is it? I’d like to do an experiment to prove if it could be done or not, using one foul piece of shit test subject. Aiden. Christ, I should have figured he’d have a name like Aiden.
Not that Beau is much better.
But Aiden.
He makes all the good Aidens in the world look bad.
“It would have been like fighting a ghost.” I’m trying to find the right things to say. Normally, I’m good at it. I can take a very upset client and calm them down in no time. “He intimidated you and scared you. He did stalk you. He broke into your place and made you feel unsafe. That is not okay. I don’t believe in fate or destiny, but when I messed up my age on the website—when I even went on the website at all—I started a chain of events that brought me into your life, and all of it might have been random, but I see the reason now. I’m going to give it a reason. You’re going to move in with me so I can ensure your safety while my team gets this figured out.”