CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE #4
“Why can’t you watch where you’re going?” Lana hissed at her, stepping over the glass shards. “You’re so getting fired.”
I glared at her. “She could be hurt.”
“I don’t care. You’d better leave quietly.” She said the last sentence to the girl, then motioned at someone with a snap of her fingers to clean up the mess before she stomped out of the room.
Zach stared at her in rage, then at all the people now watching, their faces twisted in disgust—not toward Lana, but toward the girl.
They murmured behind their hands, and I caught words like “disgraceful,” “so incompetent,” and “why did they even hire that trash?” The murmur only grew louder and louder, like a buzz of bees right before they zoned in on you to attack.
Finally, Zach’s gaze landed on me, cutting through me hard. “This is what you’re trying to protect? You still want to stay part of such a fucked-up world?”
Something tightened inside me, shame making it hard to breathe for a second.
I placed my hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, her lip wobbling. “Yes, I am. The glass didn’t hit me.”
“You won’t be fired, don’t worry. I’ll make sure of it.”
Her eyes widened, then filled with tears, and I felt a sickening sensation as I saw the gratitude on her face. She shouldn’t even have to feel grateful. She did nothing wrong.
And as I watched her leave, I thought about Zach’s words. He was right. All this pretending, making friends based on their usefulness, was shallow. And it was so tiring to treat others as if they had no value just because they weren’t well-off. What was I even doing here?
They didn’t care about me. I wasn’t anything special when you took away my money, status, and connections. I did nothing to contribute to the world. Absolutely nothing.
I turned around to Zach, who had been watching me the whole time, his facial expression unreadable.
“You’re right. I don’t want to be part of this world. I can’t watch a person get mistreated and do nothing because society deems them worthless. I’m leaving.” I spun around, but he caught my arm, stopping me.
“Not yet,” he said, a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes.
Satisfaction? Because of me?
“Why?”
“Because I have a surprise for her.”
It didn’t take long to discover just what exactly he had in mind.
Lana returned to the room just as someone finished testing the microphone on a small stage set up across the entrance.
There was a projection screen right behind the stage.
The murmurs had long stopped, and the regular conversations had resumed, fake smiles and polite expressions back in full force.
The quartet stopped playing just as Lana stepped on the stage, the lack of music directing everyone’s attention to her. Zach grabbed two glasses of champagne and handed one to me, a small smile playing on his lips as he turned to watch Lana.
Lana took the whole room in with a shining smile.
“Everyone, thank you very much for coming. On behalf of Everett’s and my organizations, I would like to welcome you to tonight’s fundraiser.
As you may know, the mission of my organization is to help people in need and provide opportunities to the disadvantaged. ”
I snorted. Of course, she would direct the spotlight solely to her charity.
“Our priority is ending child hunger, so a portion of the proceeds tonight are directed toward that cause.”
I took a swallow of my champagne, zoning out as she droned on about everything her organization had accomplished so far.
Like always, her speech was uninspired and generic, showing just how full of bullshit she was.
She didn’t have the first idea about people in need or starving children, and I was sure her address was fully prepared by her PR team and advisors to make the strongest impact.
But even I wasn’t ready for the actual truth as she started the slideshow, and the slides that couldn’t have been created by her team appeared on the projection screen. They contained offshore bank account balances and other incriminating information.
The wave of shocked murmurs was Lana’s first indication that something was wrong. She stopped mid-sentence and turned to look at the screen, and all color drained from her face. She fumbled with the remote in her hand, frantically trying to shut the projector off, but it didn’t work.
“Come on. Work,” she hissed at the remote, forgetting all about the audience or propriety. “Why doesn’t this damn thing work?” She kept punching the buttons, glaring at her assistant as if he could have the answer, but he just gave her a frantic shake of his head.
Zach’s smile grew bigger as the slides continued to change, showing that Lana’s organization donated only ten percent of all the proceeds it received, and the murmurs grew louder. A couple of people had pulled out their phones to film this. This was huge. This was going to ruin her.
And as I thought about all the implications, I knew this wouldn’t bode well for Mom (I wasn’t sure myself how involved she was in this, if at all), but strangely, I didn’t care.
Lana shot daggers at Zach, her knuckles turning white where she had her hands clenched on the mic stand.
I expected her to go rampant on Zach right in front of everyone, but her assistant rushed over to her and whispered something in her ear, then quickly ushered her off the stage and out of the room.
The slides went on and on until they finally stopped, and the whole truth was out there for the world to see.
The guests started leaving, some of them already on their phones.
I looked up at Zach, at a loss for words.
He smiled at me—like an actual, happy smile—and I soaked it in like a flower basking in the sun.
He raised his glass to toast with me, and my heart accelerated, butterflies filling my belly as I clanked my glass against his.
Zach got back at Lana, alright, but more than revenge, this felt like justice. And I couldn’t help feeling that he did the right thing. Lana had a way to help so many people. She could do so much good. But she chose not to. She chose herself.
“That was something else,” I said, my voice filled with awe. “How did you manage to do that?”
He was still smiling, looking down at my lips. “I have my sources. I was just biding time, waiting for the right moment to go for the jugular. Those bullying videos were just the icing on the cake.”
My smile disappeared. I swallowed the lump in my throat, my fingers tightening around the stem of my glass as I watched him bottom up his drink.
Of course. I was next. How could I get lost in the moment with him knowing that?
All these times when I felt the irresistible pull toward him didn’t mean anything.
All his kisses, his heated looks . . . this night .
. . they changed nothing. He was still weaving his spiderweb until he finally caught me and destroyed me.
I swallowed hard, my hands turning cold. “I guess now I know this is how it’s going to end for me as well, when I least expect it.”
His smile disappeared as well, and my heart constricted hard in my chest at what he was going to say.
After a beat of silence, he said, “Now you know.”
I dropped my gaze, swallowing past the hollow feeling his words created, which made no sense because I’d always known there was no other option. Still, tears pooled in my eyes, and I cursed myself inwardly for letting him affect me so much.
“I see. Well then—” My voice cracked. Crap. I had to get out of here right away. “Enjoy the rest of your night.” I picked up my purse and walked away as fast as my heels could take me.