Page 80 of Always Right

I wasn’t sure I understood anything anymore and I felt too weak to respond so I simply nodded.

“So what happened then? What did the bank say?” Derek broke his silence and approached me, though he didn’t touch me again and I didn’t want him to. Not when I could feel myself crumble with the pressure.

Nathan sighed, looking down at his hands once again, then reached into his laptop case, pulling out a large yellow envelope. Suddenly it felt like I couldn’t breathe, because the realization that there was more crashed into me head on with no mercy.

“Honestly, I don’t think the money disappearing is the worst part.” Nathan handed me the envelope. “I found this at the door this morning, but didn’t get a chance to open it until before I got here.” I held it in my hand much longer than I should have, until I could finally move. With shaky hands, I opened the envelope and though I braced myself for what I would see, I wasn’t ready for the impact.

I found myself holding pictures of myself...pictures from the start of my pregnancy to our return from Colorado just two days before. I swallowed thickly as I looked at each picture, photographs in which I’m clueless that I was being followed, photographs of my life for the past year.

Derek stood next to me and though I wasn’t looking at him, I could feel the fury in his eyes as he realized what had been happening. Behind all the pictures was a single note. One that sent a chill down my spine when I realized that everything that had happened in the last hours hadn’t been a coincidence.

I’m glad to see you’re still in the game. I hope you’re ready to play.

“What the fuck is that supposed mean?” Derek seethed, taking the note from my hands. “Who the fuck did this?”

Evie cleared her throat, her voice cautious when she spoke.

“We have no idea...” She took a deep breath, offering only the glimpse of a smile, one full of sadness...maybe pity. “When Hannah was running the company...there’s a lot of people that were disgruntled...”

I scoffed, shaking my head. “I made a lot of enemies is what you’re trying to say, so who the hell knows who, out of all the people I screwed over, could have done this.”

“That’s not what I’m saying.”

“That’s what you’re implying and you’re absolutely right.”

Derek looked from me to Evie, and then to Nathan. “You understand that’s not what matters here? The problem is that she is being stalked. Someone has been keeping track of her every goddamn movement for over a year...it doesn’t matter who the hell it is. It needs to stop.”

I could breathe a little easier when I heard him speak, knowing he was worried about protecting me. But the reality of my past always following me, hurt. The aching pain in my chest increased with every passing second knowing that my family would always be at risk because of who I’d been and what I had done.

The people I'd hurt only knew my past.

They didn’t know what I had been through.

They didn’t know how much I hurt.

I would always be the dark cloud that followed the people I loved.

My girls.

I held back tears at the thought of their future being determined by my decisions, by my mistakes and I turned around, hoping I could hold it together before they noticed I was about to have a breakdown.

They all talked, Derek full of anger and worry and Nathan and Evie convinced that the route to take was to hire a private investigator. Deep down I knew it wouldn’t matter.

Whoever it was wouldn’t stop until they had what they wanted: me.

My pain and my regret.

That’s all that could possibly interest them.

“I need to go,” I managed to say. Everyone stopped talking, the silence once again making it hard for me to breathe. I felt Derek’s hands on my shoulders as he turned me around, his green eyes dark with anger and frustration.

“It’s going to be okay,” he said. “It’ll be okay.”

I rolled my eyes, wiping away the tears I couldn’t hold back.

“No, it won’t. We all know it won’t be okay.”

Evie opened her mouth to speak but I didn’t let her, wiggling my way out of Derek’s arms. “It doesn’t matter what we do. Everyone here knows I’m far from innocent, that’s the reason we’re all gathered. Because Nathan and Evie, deep down you knew, you fucking knew this had everything to do with me.”

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