Chapter 4
ALICIA
It was late in the evening, my parents’ house quiet as I sank into bed, exhausted and emotionally drained after one hell of a week.
All our focus remained on Dad and his recovery. I was thankful for my ex-brother-in-law, Owen, who was assigned as his physiotherapist.
I used to consider him as close as a brother. Until he cheated on my sister with one of her close friends. If that wasn’t bad enough, he managed to knock the bitch up.
Over four years had passed, and I could still see the residual pain in my sister’s eyes when he was near. I could also see the longing… From both sides.
Despite their history, however, Dad seemed to trust Owen’s word, which helped kick his old stubborn pride into gear. We also respected Alexis’ opinion, being a nurse. She was able to bridge our diverse levels of understanding and keep everyone informed and in the loop.
But that didn’t stop normal life from moving on.
My boss, Felix Johnson, had called me earlier that afternoon, wanting to discuss a high-level contract I had been negotiating for one of my clients.
It was a big case, and one I had been preparing and working on for two months straight.
The level of complexity the contract required meant it had the potential to catapult me to the prestigious position of Executive Financial Advisor—a role I had worked my ass off to achieve.
And with that contract, I was truly on the cusp of moving higher professionally.
Although Felix was cutthroat and expected perfection from his employees, he was also severely family-orientated, as proven by his naming his entire company after his wife. So, due to my circumstances, he immediately reassured me and let me know he would take over my case if needed.
Except I didn’t give him an answer, requesting a little more time to think.
My family needed me; my Dad needed me. But I couldn’t bring myself to fully let go of the opportunity, which made guilt eat away at my conscience.
It was difficult to accept, to hand all my hard work over for someone else to reap the rewards.
So I gave myself a night. One night. To wallow in self-pity, lick my wounds and come to terms with my new reality.
I lost my man—who wasn’t even my man to begin with. I lost my pride. And now, I was about to lose my big contract at work.
Fuck my fucking life.
Silent tears began to run down my face until they turned into a torrent of sobs that soon became uncontrollable. I tried to keep my emotions locked up, so I didn’t disturb my sister or nephew sleeping down the hall.
It didn’t work. I felt the mattress dip before warm arms wrapped me up tight from behind. Which only made me sob harder.
Alexis remained calm, stroking my hair as she repeated, “I’m here.”
With the soothing presence of my sister, my tongue soon loosened, unloading my pathetic existence for her to weigh and judge.
Alexis surprised me.
She blamed herself for not being there for me. Preposterous.
She even offered to help hide the body of a certain man… a very handsome, charismatic traitor of a man. Okay, not so preposterous.
We continued to talk into the night, a sense of peace settling over us both as we shared our thoughts like so many times before. That I decided to unburden myself with my last remaining reservation. “It’s been a week, and my work has been calling, asking for a return date.”
Alexis had an idea of the case I was working on since I had confided in her throughout.
“What do you want to do?” she asked.
Familiar guilt slashed through me. “Dad… I can’t leave him.”
“Yes, you can.” I turned on my side, her silhouette sharpening with her words. “I will move back temporarily with Austin. Having him around will help with Dad’s recovery while also keeping Mum busy.”
I sighed. “Alexis, you don’t have to—”
“I want to.” She cut me off. “You know I’ve been contemplating moving Austin out of the city for a while. I can also help Dad if I stay here with them, use my presence as an excuse to bully him into listening to the doctors instead of ignoring them.”
I fell quiet, letting what she said sink in. Was it fair to leave her behind in this? Then Alexis bulldozed through my reservations with her own concerns.
“Will you be okay though, Ali? Going back there, I mean… If you see him?” she asked. “I don’t want you to be alone if that happens.”
Bitterness rushed forth at the mere mention of him .
I may have been using my family crisis as a distraction to not think about that video. Or, more specifically, the main person highlighted in that video.
Even so, the reminder would always hit me unawares. When I paused to take a breather or when I had a spare minute of the day. My thoughts would always unintentionally sway back to that two-minute window where my character was entirely destroyed on screen.
Yeah, his scathing words hurt. But that was nothing compared to the humiliation. Some person even ranted online about how I should respect myself, going so far as to start a hashtag #runawaygirl. The whole internet saw him reject me and felt sorry for me... And that just made me fucking livid.
“ Fuck him . He will not run me out just because of his fucked up actions. I have nothing to be ashamed of. And, oh”—I clicked on my phone to check the incriminating clip again—“three million random people on the internet agree with me so far.” Geez, three million and counting.
The only consolation was knowing that he was getting absolutely roasted online. Good. Wallow in despair, asshole.