Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
The video abruptly cut out. In a blink, the picture was back and the camera guy was filming in the kitchens, getting a close-up of the making of the strawberry tartlets like nothing ever happened.
Courtney and I gaped at each other, eyes wide.
“Babe,” she rasped, the color draining from her face. “I think I found your psychopath.”
“Ladies.”
We screamed, whirling around as Micah walked in carrying his coat over his arm.
“Whoa,” he crowed, smiling that sweet, devilish smile. “I know the wind messed up my hair, but I don’t look that bad. No need to scream.”
“What are you doing here?” I blurted. “You’re supposed to be at work.”
“That’s where I was headed when my assistant called and said my client canceled the meeting.” He tossed his coat over the bar. “So I came back to be with my hot-ass wife.”
We stared at him.
“What?” Micah looked down, inspecting his clothes. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Courtney said nothing. She just scrolled back the video, and hit play.
Micah’s hissed threats hit the air... and his grin melted away.
His blank expression settled into stone. “Baby, I know what it sounds like but—”
“But what, Micah?” I shot up and nearly tipped over. I did have too much to drink. “What can you possibly be about to say next that will make up for the fact that you lied to my fucking face, and you still kept lying after I bared my soul to you!”
“Baby, I—”
“Don’t baby me,” I blared. “You told me that you found out weeks ago that my mother had nothing to do with you and your parents getting conned out of your money, but if that was true, why were you cursing her out and wishing you could kill her the exact way she was killed long after she was exonerated?”
Micah flicked between me and Courtney. I couldn’t begin to guess what he was thinking.
Sighing, his lips parted—
“And don’t you dare open your mouth and lie to me again,” I hissed. “If you do, I’m gone. I’m packing my shit and I’m leaving.”
“Okay, okay,” he said, holding up his hands. “No lies. No omissions. No half-truths. I did track down a man in Atlantic City who was scammed by the same con artist. He told me the conman worked by finding an in with a family member or friend, but what I left out is that the family member is part of the scam. They do it... for a cut of the money.”
“A cut... of the money...” My alcohol-laden brain stalled.
Courtney wasn’t so speechless. “Hold on, you’re saying Omma introduced that conman to your parents knowing what he’d do? She was in on the whole thing so that she could steal from you too?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Courtney gaped at him. “And she called me a trashy slut!”
“But—but how could she do that?” I croaked. “Why would she do that?”
Micah tossed his head, crossing to the window. “My family isn’t like the others around here. We lived paycheck to paycheck. I only got into Titan Prep on scholarship. Same for Columbia.
“When everything with the buyout got nasty, my coping habits got worse,” he said. “I was drunk every night and hungover every morning. I told you that after Alex, Rhodes, and I gave in and took the money, I gave it all to my parents, but they didn’t know what to do with that kind of money either. They just stuck it in a savings account and ignored it.”
“They should’ve invested it,” Courtney piped up. “Diversified portfolios. Property. 529s for the grandkids. You don’t want that kind of money just sitting in a savings account.”
He threw out his hands, his lips twisted in a mirthless grin. “That’s exactly what everyone—literally all of our new rich friends—said. Especially, my new mother-in-law. She never missed a chance to chide them for being clueless, new-money boneheads that didn’t know how to handle their money properly. But she really upped the pressure after Lily was born.
“Being the out-of-line, overstepping prude Omma was.” Micah spoke through gritted teeth. “She had Lily DNA tested without our knowledge. She found out I’m Lily’s bio father, and she brought that test to my parents—laying it on even thicker that if our unnatural arrangement ever broke up, I’d be the one legally on the hook for providing for Lily’s future.
“With that in their heads, my folks gave in,” he breezed—his nonchalant voice not matching the look in his eyes. “They took the contact info of the great financial advisor she knew, and that was that.” He snapped his fingers. “All the money was gone.”
A pregnant pause birthed a litter of awkward silences as I tried to reconcile the mother I knew with the manipulative monster he was describing.
“Is that why you suspected her from the start?” Courtney asked. “Because she was so pushy—even to the point of a DNA test.”