Page 27 of Sinner's Vow

Emotions are ripping through me so fast I’m breathing hard, air heaving in and out of me. My head is swimming. I can barely see straight, can barely think straight.

“And when he told you he couldn’t marry you, that he didn’t love you, you told him you had an abortion!” Tears are streaming down my face as I look into Gina’s shocked eyes. She holds a hand over her face, where I hit her. “You fucking liar!”

She faked it. She couldn’t even get pregnant, but in her desperation, she lied to Noah. She tried to play on his emotions. To trap him.

“If he had said yes, what were you going to do?” I breathe, feeling every bit of me shake. “Tell him you’d had a miscarriage?”

Gina breathes in and out in sharp, shallow breaths. Her eyes flick over my shoulder, and I realize that we are not alone. But her eyes come back to mine, and she doesn’t say a word.

“Do you know what you did to him?” I ask, my voice quiet and filled with horror. “Do you know how much the guilt and the regret destroyed him?” My vocal cords shake with anger-induced mortification. “And you lied? About the whole fucking thing?”

“Gina?” I hear Tori ask from behind me. “Is this true?”

Her eyes flick over to Tori, growing wider. She looks scared. She looks so fucking guilty. But she doesn’t say anything. She just continues to hold her hand to her red and swollen cheek.

“You told him you were pregnant?” Tyler asks. The disgust grows in his voice with every spoken syllable. “And then you told him you got an abortion when he turned you down?”

“You fucking, lying piece of shit,” Gabriel growls and he takes two aggressive steps forward.

Just then, a door opens, and Owen steps out into the hall, Jordan’s head poking out behind him. “What’s going on?” he asks, genuine concern in his voice.

“We all knew you were a cold-hearted snake,” Tyler says as he too takes a step forward. “But this is just evil, Gina. You deserve to go to hell for this.

“You’re the reason my best friend has been such a mess,” Gabriel says as he steps beside me. He’s truly terrifying as he looks down at her. He’s a beast. At least six foot four tall, hair halfway down his back, a beard that nearly touches his chest. He looks like he could rip Gina in half.

And the woman shakes from head to toe.

I shake my head at her.

Twenty-four hours ago, a man posted mostly naked pictures of me on the internet. He humiliated me. Made me the center of public speculation.

But none of that matters now.

I don’t even feel it anymore.

It’s all been transferred into rage and disgust.

She lied.

She faked a pregnancy.

She threw a fake abortion in his face when he told her he wouldn’t marry her.

“Gina, you’re fired.”

Like a hammer, the words slam down, and I didn’t think it was possible, but Gina’s eyes go even wider.

“You’re never going to work in the industry again,” Tori says. She walks up and stands at my other side. “After this, after something so insidious, I will make sure of that.”

Still, the woman doesn’t say a word. The shape of my handprint on her face grows more defined by the moment. Gina covers it with her own hand, but still, I easily see the shape of my fingers in her skin. She takes shallow breaths that shake her entire body.

“Get the hell out of our lives,” I say, my voice low and deadly. “I don’t ever, ever want to see you again.”

Gina’s eyes fix on mine. She doesn’t breathe in and out. She just holds my gaze, and I can’t find a single ounce of sympathy in me.

She felt something for Noah. Feelings can make people do crazy things.

But it doesn’t justify what she’s done.

So I take a step back from her. Gabriel does as well, giving her just a little bit of space.

Gina peels off the wall and practically sprints down the hall.

And there, down about ten doors, the elevator dings. And out steps Noah.

Gina gives a slightly panicked sob. But she skirts around Noah, dashing into the elevator, just before it closes.

With wide, confused eyes, Noah looks down the hall at us.

“What’s going on?”

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