Page 60 of The Billionaire and the Runaway

“Ready for that bath?” she asks.

I nod.

“Great. I’m gonna go snoop,” Katia says.

“Katia, be careful. You’re not exactly Nancy Drew, more like Scooby Doo,” I state.

“Whatever. She’s up to something. I’m going to figure out what. Stay here and take a bath,” she adds as she waltzes out of the room, leaving Diedre to help me to my bathroom.

A few minutes later, I’m soaking in a tub and it feels like the most amazing thing ever. Diedre has given me some privacy. I’m leaning back on my bath pillow with my hair piled high on my head. I glance down and see my bright red scar. With the stitches gone, it looks bad. What would Eric think of me now? I’m…hideous.

It’s like the accident stole my physical beauty and Kimberly’s antics stole my internal beauty. I feel dead inside.

“Holy fucking shit,” Katia’s voice comes from the doorway, drawing my attention away from the scarred flesh that doesn’t resemble the leg I used to have.

“What?” I ask.

She stares at my scar. “That shit is intense. Oh well, at least it’s above your skirt line, so unless you’re in a bikini, no one will see it…well…almost no one. Anyhoo, look what I found?” she squeals as she flips her phone around.

I frown, trying to read the print.

“What the hell is that?” I ask.

“Your father is rewriting his will,” she says.

“I’m sorry, what?” I question as I try to sit up in the tub.

“So, I was just…snooping around…and I hear your dad talking to some guy about rewriting his will and the guy asks if he’s going to marry Kimberly and your dad is all like, probably, and he’s like, so you’re redoing the will, and your dad is like, yeah. Then the guy asks if he’s going to need a prenup and your father is like, I don’t know.”

I frown. “Wait, my father isn’t sure he wants a prenup? Is he crazy? That’s totally not like him.”

“I know, right? So then I maybe waited until your dad was showing the guy out and I snuck into his office,” she says with a wink.

My eyes widen. “Katia, Dad would kill you if he found you in there.”

She rolls her eyes. “Whatever. He’s such a fucking amateur. He had this on his screen. So I poked around. Kimberly is a C-U-N-T. She’s been emailing him about you and all this bad stuff you do, which is total fucking lies. She’s always telling him how much she loves him and what can she do to help him. It’s like she’s figured out that your dad is a total narcissist and all she has to do is pump up his ego and he’s like putty in her hands. She’s trying to get you out of the will so she’s his sole heir. And there’s something hella suspicious about the farm where you worked. It’s like she’s the one suggesting he buy it as some kind of gift to her.”

My mind wanders back to when she suggested I find a job and then mentioned something about the farm.

“I’m an idiot,” I state dryly as I fill Katia in on the conversation that started this whole debacle.

She listens while sitting on the edge of my tub, and when I finish, she sighs. “This woman is a fucking bitch! What a terrible human!”

I nod, suddenly feeling angry, really angry. This is all Kimberly’s fault. Well, except Eric, I’m glad I met him, even if everything we had is over. I wouldn’t change that, at all.

“We have to get her to show her true colors and figure out what the hell is going on with the farm,” I state.

“How?” Katia asks.

“That’s what we’re going to figure out tonight. New plan, take Kimberly down,” I declare.

“What about…you know…everything else?” she asks.

I purse my lips as I consider her question. “Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone,” I begin with a smirk.

Katia grins like the cat who swallowed the canary. “Oh, do tell,” she whispers conspiratorially.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR

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