Page 60 of The Rebel

This wasn’t right.

None of it was.

What the hell am I going to do?

Another wave of sickness hurled through me as I dropped the phone back in my bag. My mouth watered and my inhales were short and far too breathy.

I needed this anxiety to leave my body, so I could survive the rest of the day.

A day that wasn’t going to be easy on me.

And I knew I certainly couldn’t run back into this restroom and hug the porcelain bowl.

I needed to be present. I needed to keep everything inside my body until I left this building.

I needed to keep these feelings masked.

Because there was absolutely no way that I could let on to Ridge, Rhett, or my father that I was a mess inside this designer suit. That my muscles were shaking. That my skin was hot and clammy.

The only thing I wanted them to see when they looked at me was that I was a fucking rock star.

I repeated that in my head while I took in my reflection again.

While I released the sides of the sink.

While I forced the bile back down to my stomach, where it was going to stay.

My family was outside the restroom door, waiting for me. I’d told them I was only going to be a minute, and I was sure I’d taken at least a few.

I couldn’t hold things up any longer.

So, I finger-curled the pieces of hair that framed my face, and I swiped the skin around my lips, making sure my lip gloss stayed within the liner that I’d drawn on before we drove over here, and I walked out of the restroom.

Rhett must have heard the door because he looked up from his phone. “You good?” he asked me.

I nodded, wishing my mouth would stop watering.

“Then, let’s go,” my father announced.

I moved in next to Ridge while my father and Rhett took the lead, and we entered the narrow hallway, the sound of my heels filling the silence until I heard Rhett say, “This is the longest walk of my fucking life.”

“Agreed,” Ridge replied.

I thirded that.

But I was afraid to speak, not quite trusting my stomach yet.

To keep my brain busy and my mind off the obvious, I focused on the name plaques outside each door we passed. Some were familiar since we were here so often. People who had helped us with our normal business dealings.

But people who wouldn’t be participating in today’s ordeal.

Because today was hardly normal.

And the sirens going off in my body only emphasized that.

We rounded the corner of the hallway where the conference room was at the end.

We knew the location well.

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