Page 83 of Fumbled Love

“You’re really pissed about the article, huh?”

I stepped toward her, trying like hell to keep my temper in check. “Did you think I’d be happy that you released my retirement to the press? That you threw me under the bus and brought my fucking unborn child into this?” I roared.

She wiped the towel across her forehead and then down along her chest. “Your fans deserved to know the truth.”

“You don’t give a shit about my fans, and you wouldn’t the know the truth if it sat on your face. The only reason why you leaked it was to stick it to me.”

She shrugged. “Actually, that’s not the only reason.”

I raised my brow and waited for her to fill in the blanks.

“I got a nice little chunk of change to spill the tea. The extra cash will come in handy now that I’m unemployed.” She picked up her water bottle and started chugging it.

My shoulders stiffened. “So, it’s all about money and revenge for you?” Her silence only angered me. “Money can’t buy happiness but it can lead to misery and I can’t think of anyone more deserving than you.”

She shrugged. “I’ll deal.”

“What the hell happened to you? When did you grow so cold?” I asked, searching for a glimmer of the woman I thought was my friend. How could I have trusted her for so long?

“When you chose her over me.”

“There was never a choice. I’m sorry you thought there was.” I tried to stay calm and keep my tone measured, even though all I wanted to do was strangle the woman. Something I would never do, but man, was I tempted.

“Onceshecame into the picture, I was forgotten.”

“Maybe if you weren’t so fucking petty, we still could had be friends.”

“I never wanted to be your friend. That’s the box you put me in. Look, I get it,” she sighed, “you don’t want me. You want a nice little family with the hometown girl you grew up with. But here’s the thing, I want you, and I want money. So, if I can’t have one, I might as well take the other.”

“Money!” I looked up at the ceiling and back at her. “It always comes back to money. I would have given you the money to keep your mouth shut. You could have taken it all. I couldn’t care less.”

“It’s easy to say you don’t care about money when you have plenty of it.”

“I would hand over every cent I own to keep Kinley and my baby safe. But thanks to your little revenge piece of crap that you sold to the highest bidder, the media won’t let up. She’s pregnant and doesn’t need the added stress. She’s already been through enough. I won’t risk her safety again.”

“Please.” She rolled her eyes. “She ended up with a bump on her head.”

I angled my head to the side. “How do you know about that?”

Della and I haven’t exactly been on speaking terms, so I knew for a fact that she didn’t hear about what happened in New York from me.

Her eyes darted to the window, realizing her lies were catching up to her. “I thought that’s what you were talking about.”

“No.” I shook my head as a missing puzzle piece clicked into place. “I’m talking about the comments online. But since you brought it up, did you have anything to do with that perp attacking her in the alley?”

She took two steps back and held her hands out in front of her. “Before you go assuming the worst, the guy was only supposed to scare her. He wasn’t supposed to rough her up.”

It took a second for the shock to fade. I came here intending on getting her to admit to leaking the story, this was not what I was expecting.

“Scare her?” I asked, making sure I heard her right.

“Yes.” She swallowed. “I didn’t think it would be a big deal. I gave him a few breadcrumbs and pointed him in the right direction. I told him if he could inject a little fear into her, I would send him a nice bonus on top of the money he collected from the sale of the article. She wasn’t supposed to get hurt. You can’t blame me for that.”

“The fuck I can’t.” My voice was filled with ice. “She’s pregnant.”

“Are you not listening to me? I just sent him there. I didn’t have anything to do with her getting hurt. You can’t pin the blame on me.”

“You and I have been friends for a long time. Long enough to know that I won’t tolerate being fucked with. She could have been seriously hurt and could have lost the baby.”

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