CHAPTER EIGHTEEN #2
She nodded and walked away as quickly as her injured ankle allowed her.
I frowned. Mom had given her only one day off and made sure Emily signed a document that prohibited her from suing Mom for what she did.
When I tried to ask her to allow Emily sick leave, she laughed it off and said she might as well fire her in that case.
I motioned for Lana to come in. “I turned off my phone. Will you calm down and tell me what’s up with you?”
“You’re still trying to act like you don’t know?” She tapped on the screen of her phone and turned it toward me.
The videos of Lana bullying students in school hallways greeted me, posted all over TikTok.
My heart contracted hard. Those same videos were on my laptop.
The faces of the victims were blurred and their voices were distorted, but everything else was the same.
I was the one behind the camera, but you couldn’t tell that because I never spoke.
Zach must’ve taken them before I showed up. How didn’t I see that coming? I’d made sure to change the passwords of all the accounts I’d been logged into on my laptop and canceled my credit cards, but it had never occurred to me that he would store something from the laptop before he destroyed it.
“You’re pathetic.” Lana’s voice rang out in the video she started playing.
My chest throbbed as I watched her press eggs onto what was now blurred Zach’s head. I remember laughing silently at the time, giving him a triumphant look as he watched me with despair and embarrassment in his gaze.
“You should know your place. Losers like you will never amount to anything in your life. You can stop wasting your time and drop out of school already. It’s just embarrassing how you think you can do something.
You can’t. Poor bastards like you will always stay at the bottom, serving us.
It’s where you all deserve to be, you pieces of shit. ”
I ground my teeth. I didn’t need to keep hearing this, but thankfully, Lana turned it off.
“Why the fuck did you post these videos?”
I glared at her. “I didn’t post them.”
“You’re the only one who had them.”
“But I didn’t post them.”
“Yeah, right. How convenient that the only videos that were posted are the ones where you can see my face. You never showed yours.”
I didn’t want to get into it with her now about the way I filmed those videos.
“I didn’t post this shit! It was Zach.”
Her eyes rounded. “What?”
“Zach had my laptop. He told me he found those videos on it. He must’ve taken them and uploaded them to TikTok. I told you he would go after you next.”
Her hand tightened around her shades. “That motherfucker. Where is he now?”
“Probably in the shed, working. Why?”
“If he thinks I’m going to just lie down and take it like a little bitch, he’s dead wrong.” She placed her shades on top of her head and darted toward the back door, her high heels clicking against the marble floor. I followed her.
She rushed down the terrace steps and made a beeline for the shed. Zach was leaning over the workbench, working on what seemed to be a nutrient solution.
“Hey, you!”
He turned around, his eyes arctic cold as they landed on Lana. I shivered.
“Why did you post those videos?! Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
“I have a few, yeah.” He looked at her like she was stupid. “I just did the world a favor. Now they know who you really are, especially your donors.”
She snarled. “You son of a bitch!” She slammed her hands against his chest and went for it again, but he grabbed her wrists in a steel grip.
“Touch me again, and you’ll regret it,” he hissed and shoved her away.
She stumbled over her heels and crashed down. Her eyes went wide with shock and fear. Yeah, she was finally realizing she wouldn’t be able to bully him into submission. Not anymore.
She picked herself up, patting off the dirt from her beige pants. Her lips curved into a sneer. “You finally got some balls, but that won’t make a difference with me. No one can mess with me. You’re going to pay for this. I’m going to get you fired.”
“You can’t do that,” I blurted out before I could analyze why I opposed her.
There was absolutely no reason for me to defend Zach, and I should be taking this opportunity to have Zach fired, but somehow that didn’t feel right.
Zach’s revenge was twisted and wrong, and he shouldn’t be working here in the first place, but we’d done him so dirty.
It only made me conflicted about what was right or wrong, all the more so after everything Maggie told me.
She gave me a look of disbelief. “Are you serious? He’s ruining my life!”
“And we ruined his.”
I felt Zach stare at me in surprise.
“You’re actually on his side.”
“I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. I thought we were friends. You’re supposed to defend me, not this fucking lowlife with that ugly-ass scar.” She glared at him. “By the way, you deserve it, you freak. I only wish your whole face were disfigured.”
What the actual fuck?
Zach flinched, turning extremely pale. His hand went to his scar in a way that made me think he wasn’t even aware of it, a moment before his face went so red with rage I thought he was going to punch her.
“You fucking bitch—”
“Shut your mouth,” I said to Lana, interrupting him.
Lana snapped her gaze back to me. “What?”
“You’re disgusting. I won’t let you insult him or even mention his scar, got it?”
I saw Zach gape at me out of the corner of my eye, but I didn’t look back at him. I kept my gaze fixed on Lana, feeling like we had this huge gap between us, and I couldn’t even bring myself to care about it. What Zach did with those videos was awful, but her words were too cruel.
She looked me up and down, her brow arched in disdain. “His cock was that good, huh? I always knew you were a slut. I just didn’t know you would stoop so low as to fuck losers. It figures. You two fit each other.”
Anger passed through me like a spear, and I slapped her across the face.
She pressed her hand to her cheek, her eyes widening at me. “You did not do that just now.”
“Get the fuck out of my house.”
Her face twisted with pure hate. “Gladly.” She glared at Zach. “You’re going to pay for this.”
He raised his brows. “You said that already, but are you sure you want to threaten me? You really don’t have a clue who you’re dealing with.”
Her gaze faltered a second before she tipped her chin up. “I know exactly who I’m dealing with.”
“You sure about that?”
I could see she felt scared, but she gritted her teeth and faked bravado, turning on her heel with a hmph.
But before she could leave, she directed the last barb at me over her shoulder, “And by the way, if you haven’t figured it out, you and I are done.
” She stormed off, her high heels clicking on the garden path.
I watched her leave without a word. I was supposed to feel something, some sense of loss, but I didn’t feel anything.
I’d lost my best friends in a matter of a week, and I couldn’t even feel bad about it.
It was more like I finally disposed of garbage I didn’t even know had accumulated.
They were both rotten from the inside out.
But that didn’t mean what Zach had done should be commended.
I rounded on him. “You went too far again.”
“Am I supposed to feel sorry for her? She should’ve thought about how she treated people.” He leaned toward me, his face hard. “I warned you. She was next. Everything bad you do comes back to bite you eventually, Blair. Everything.”
A disconcerting thought came to me. What stopped him from posting that video of mine he had?
“You say you won’t post that video if I obey you, but you will do it anyway, right? There’s no way you won’t do it.”
He took a step closer to me, his gaze dropping down the length of my body. It made me remember I was still in my sweaty workout clothes, my navel and legs on display, and heat licked every place his gaze touched.
“I guess you’ll have to wait and see.”
I clenched my hands, a burning feeling settling in my chest. “If you’re going to post it anyway, then why should I obey you? Why shouldn’t I have you fired right now?”
A small line formed between his brows. He took another step toward me, and I took a step back.
“That actually got me wondering. Why didn’t you want Lana to get me fired? Why did you help me at all? Hoping to get in my good graces?”
“I didn’t know that was even an option.”
He took yet another step toward me, and I bumped back against the worktable. I had to tilt my head back to maintain eye contact. His gaze dropped to my lips, and for a moment, all I could see—think about—was his head between my thighs.
“Then why?”
I thought about that lonely, vulnerable boy back then.
“Because I now know just how much you suffered.”
He tilted his head, confusion marring his features. “What do you mean?”
“I visited where you used to live.”
His eyes widened. “What? Why?”
“I wanted to find out where you went after that day. Instead, I discovered just how difficult life was for you at the time. Maggie, your next-door neighbor, was nice enough to share that with me.”
Raw pain flashed in his eyes, and my heart throbbed. His expression was so similar to the vulnerable look he’d often had back then, but then he hid it, replacing it with a mask of fury.
He slammed his fist on the worktable next to me. “You had no right to go there! You had no right to bother her.”
“I know, but I had to know.”
“Why? Did you hope you’d dig up some dirt? Did you hope you’d gain some leverage against me?”
That had been my intention when I hired the investigator, but my curiosity this time stemmed from something deeper than that. Or maybe that had been the real reason all along.
“No.”
“Then fucking why?”
“Why should I tell you that when you’re going to use it against me?”
“Because you owe me the truth. It’s the least you can do after everything you put me through.”
I opened my mouth to refute him, but then I stopped. He was right. I didn’t want to tell him. I certainly never planned to tell him like this, but I did owe him at least that.
Dammit.
I took a deep breath. My hands started sweating, and I had a sudden urge to look away from him, but I willed my gaze to remain on his.
This could come back to bite me in the ass real hard, but lying to him wouldn’t bring me anything good.
I’d already been honest with him that night in his room. I could be honest now too.
“I’ve always been interested in you.”
His breath hitched. “What?”
Mortification burned its way through me, and it took everything in me not to step aside so I could hide my face from him.
“Ever since I spotted you on the first day of school in the cafeteria. You were sitting alone, poring over some book, and it was like the world didn’t exist for you, save for those words on the paper.
I remember thinking how cute you looked while you were reading. ”
His cheek muscles tensed. “You always mocked me for reading. You told me I was a nerd and had no life.”
“Yet inside, I admired you. I always loved watching you read.”
“You’re bullshitting me.”
“I’m not. I developed a hard crush on you.
I always paid attention to you. Made sure I took the same hallways you did.
Felt high each time you looked at me. I wanted your attention so badly.
I wanted you so badly. That day in the library, when we talked for the first time?
I invented that keyboard issue just so I could talk to you. ”
His pupils dilated, and his gaze went to my mouth. I could hear his heart pounding fast, and it felt intoxicating. “Why the fuck did you bully me, then?”
“Because, as I told you, I’m a piece of shit. After how you defended that girl, putting me down in front of everyone, I couldn’t allow myself to lose my reputation or power. That would’ve been social suicide. I was so angry with you for making me want you, but that only made me want you more.”
“That’s sick.”
“Does it surprise you? I am sick. After all, I did almost kill you.” My voice broke, and I closed my eyes. “And after I heard from Maggie what your life was like, how you had to endure a lot while I bullied you—”
“Shut up.”
“I wish I hadn’t made it harder for you. I wish I’d known—”
“Shut up!” He grabbed me by my hair and gripped my waist with his other hand, drawing me closer to him.
The contact of his hand on my skin was overpowering, seizing the breath in my lungs.
“You shouldn’t sound like you regret it.
You shouldn’t sound like you have a heart.
” His voice cracked, and my chest ached hard.
“I know,” I said. “After what I did, no matter how much I regret it, I know it sounds far-fetched. I know you won’t believe it. And I know that’s what I truly deserve.”
His brows pinched together, and my breathing hitched when his eyes glistened, going to my lips. My pulse leaped as he started lowering his mouth, and I couldn’t do anything against the wave of longing crashing over me, wanting nothing but to chase his pain away.
But just before our lips could connect, my mother’s voice came from outside. “Tom.”
I jerked away from him. I so didn’t need her to see me with him here.
I rushed out, but I wasn’t quick enough, almost colliding with her. “Mom.”
She drew back a step, her brows rising at me. “Blair. What are you doing there?”
“I was just checking with Tom about some flowers. I’ll leave you two to it.” Without offering a further explanation or returning Zach’s gaze, which I felt on my back, I left.