Page 100 of From Us, Forever

Jay laughed while she whined, blinking adorably at her dad. “You can’t ground a dog, Evelyn.”

“Damn, yes, I can. Watch me.” I stomped my foot, asserting in a firm tone. “No treats for you.”

Jay shook his head and eased her down while I let out a frustrated sigh at the mess she created.

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you clean,” Jay said, hugging me from behind while he dropped his chin to my shoulder. “And I’ll get everything replaced.”

“That’s not the point,” I mumbled.

It took us a while to sort through the mess. Most of it was going to the garbage with the amount of holes poking out of them.

“What’s this?” Jay frowned, holding out a card to me.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, approaching him. Only then did I realize it was the note I found in my bag all those days ago.

“I forgot all about it,” I said, the messageyou made a mistakestaring back at me. I recalled changing my purse, so I set it aside to tell Jay and then forgot about it altogether. “I found this in my purse the day after White and Dorian paid us a visit.”

His eyes turned to thin slits. “And you just forgot to tell me?”

I nodded, a guilty smile pulling my lips. “It’s not like I didn’t mean to. It just slipped my mind.”

“Evelyn, do you understand how dangerous this is? It means someone got close enough to you to drop this in your fucking purse.” His voice rose a decibel with each word.

“Jay, I swear I did forget, but all that’s over now, right? White’s been arrested, and everything is behind us.” But even as I said it, I knew it wasn’t true. “I’m sure I didn’t get anything else after that.”

“Really?” His jaw thinned into a straight line. “How sure are you?”

“Very,” I assured, although my tone said otherwise. I was already walking toward my purse. It was an absolute mess withthe amount of shit I had stuffed inside it. Unzipping, I dumped the entire contents onto the bed.

And my heart dropped when I found a similar white note sticking out from behind my lip gloss.

Jay grabbed it before I could snatch it. He looked furious as his eyes glided over it.

“What does it say?” I muttered, stepping toward him.

His burning gaze dashed to me, and my feet rooted to the spot. “How very careless can you be, Evelyn?”

“It’s not my fault.”

“Oh, this time it’s your fault.” He waved the note in his hand. “We could have stopped this, yet youforgotto mention something important that could put you in grave danger.”

“I’m sorry, but nothing happened, Jay. I’m fine, and it was probably Nathan who dropped it.”

“You don’t know that, Evelyn,” he gritted through his teeth.

I sighed, gently pulling the note out of his hand. A chill ran over my body as I read the message—It’s all your fault. You should’ve listened. It was the same words that White told me at the apartment.

“I’m going to update the security team about this. Unless proven otherwise, you aren’t to go anywhere, Evelyn.” And with that, he stormed out of the room.

I sighed, sinking into the bed. This wasn’t how I envisioned today to go.

Somehow, everyone pointing their fingers at me made me question everything. Was this all somehow because of me and never about Jay and his dreams to begin with?

Even if it was, why?

CHAPTER 19

The glittering lights from the chandelier hit my eyes. Everything was sparkly, muted in a golden amber glow with tapestries, velvet tablecloths, and elaborate flowers like something out of the Victorian era.

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