Page 90 of All That She Needs

Theo opened his mouth as if to defend himself, but he shut it again, struggling to come up with a response.

Liam shifted his attention to me. "I know that you tried to hack my phone and email too," he said, not with an accusation, but as if stating a simple fact. "Which means that you found out about me from your mom's phone."

I swallowed, my nerves kicking in even more, but I hoped my anxiety didn't show. "Yes. But I didn't succeed."

"Of course," Liam replied, the tone almost as if he was thinking,Duh, do you even know who I am?

He paused before continuing, "And I'm guessing that's how you ended up meeting Theo."

I nodded, keeping my gaze fixed on the table in front of me, not wanting to meet his eyes.

"I'm not here to judge you, Kayden," Liam said, his voice calm. "Nor to reprimand you for your actions. But don't get me wrong—I don't agree with what you did to your dad or to that woman. I'm sure you've already reflected on that yourself."

I nodded, my head hanging lower. I never expected things to turn out like this. I never thought she would lose control or hurt my dad. I just wanted her to face the consequences of what she'd done to our family. I wanted her to suffer for making my mom suffer like that. And I thought I was helping that Ryan guy by showing him what a horrible person his fiancée was.

Shehurtmy dad. The image of him, bruised and battered, with his leg so badly injured, hit me again. The guilt and anger that had been eating at me since I found out came rushing back in full force. My hands were clammy, and I didn't even realize I'd been squeezing the bottle so tightly until it spilled over.

"The reason Keith and I called you and Theo here is to stop you both from doing even more damage," Liam said, his gaze fixed firmly on Theo. "More than what you've done these past two days."

Theo paused, his face shifting as the realization seemed to hit him. "You know about that?" he asked, shock clear in his voice.

Liam let out a sigh, clearly exasperated. "Theo..."

"Yeah. Why am I even surprised?" Theo exhaled, leaning back in his chair, looking defeated. "I should've known I couldn't fool you. I just thought you wouldn't have time for something like this."

"Keith and I could've talked to Theo alone about this and stopped him from helping you," Liam continued, addressing his words to me. "But then we realized that by now, you could've done it yourself even without Theo's help. You're a very smart kid, Kayden. I'm in awe at what you can do at this age."

It should've been a compliment, and I should've felt proud of myself. But all I could think about was the time I was called to the principal's office for hacking into the school's system to get the physics exam questions and handing them out to my friends.

I also remembered that Dad had to pay the schoola lotof money to keep me from getting expelled or reported to the police. They quickly changed the questions for the test, and it ended up being the hardest one we'd ever taken. The class hated me for it.

I still got an A, though. So... there's that.

"You both created a lot of rifts in the corporate world these past few days," Liam said, his expression one of clear disappointment. But he was looking at Theo, so I figured he wasn't upset with me. "We managed to retract most of it, but some of the emails had already been read, so there's no way to stop that."

I knew exactly what Liam was referring to—the anonymous email Theo and I had sent to HR at Vanessa's company, along with a few prominent headhunters in the city. I'd kept my dad's involvement out of it, but the rest of the details—the police report revealing her obsession with a man (with my dad's name covered), her stalking him, and ultimately running him over—were enough to destroy her career. No one would want to hire someone like her—unhinged and with a criminal history.

And even if my dad's name had been revealed, nothing could be done to him. He owned a very prominent, very large company, and in the report, he was the victim of a crazy woman's actions.

"You both made Keith and I very busy." Liam added.

"You both need to stop this," Keith said, his voice heavy with disappointment. "I get wanting payback, but this has gone way too far."

I could feel Theo tense up, just like me, especially when Keith added, "I expected more from you, Theo. You're supposed to be the adult here."

"I'm sorry," Theo murmured, his voice so quiet I could barely catch it. I glanced over and saw the look of shame on his face.

"I need your word—from both of you—that this stops here," Liam said, his tone firm. It took me right back to Principal Boone's office—he'd always had a way of making me feel like a little kid, and now Liam seemed to have the same effect. But unlike Boone, who liked to abuse his authority, Liam seemed genuinely concerned, like he wanted to pull us back before we headed down a worse path.

"Okay," Theo said quietly, lifting his gaze and noticing Keith's unconvinced expression. "Okay, I promise!"

"Kayden?" Liam asked me.

"Okay," I conceded with a sigh. I knew already that I had to stop. That email was the last one I would do this to her. "I'll stop."

"I know that you were the one who found out about the accident," Liam said, turning to me. "How is he, by the way?"

"Theo helped me with that," I replied. "He suggested checking hospitals, and he searched through all the ones around the area where my dad works and lives until we found him. I couldn't have done it with all the chaos of packing and traveling back home. He's recovering now. The doctor says he's going to be okay, but he'll need therapy to walk properly again."

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