Page 117 of One Last Time
“Yeah, but you were on the receiving end of the shit-storm. You had to deal with the fallout. I don’t know, I think you were in a no-win situation and you did the best youcould.”
Maybe he’s right, but my heart told me she didn’t do this. I never thought she was capable of being that deceitful, it was my head that wouldn’t get on board. Now, I’ve lost her, and I have no idea if I can get herback.
I rub my now-throbbing hand. “Tell me you guys didn’t do anything to ruinher.”
“I was able to discredit the site as fake news, but it’s out there. We held off a bit more than I would’ve, but Kristin is related toCatherine.”
“Catherine your boss? The woman who came to my house is part of herfamily?”
He raises his hands and drops them. “One and the same. She wanted to leave no stone unturned before we did something to Kristin that we couldn’t take back. Catherine’s husband runs a security company, and...well, I was told I don’t want to know more than that. They ruled out her sending it about thirty minutes after you sent me the text from theplane.”
Jesus Christ. For two days I’ve been drinking myself stupid while she’s been sitting there thinking God knowswhat.
“Does she know that no one has told me untilnow?”
“I don’t know. We’re skating a really blurry line because, typically, we’d never have any contact with her. With Catherine’s husband being her cousin, it has made handling this a littledifferent.”
None of that matters to me. I told him in the beginning I didn’t want to even make a statement. “I care about her, I don’t care about thelines.”
Tristan chuckles. “I know you don’t, but you’re our client. I’m paid to fix your messes, and family or not, our loyalty is to you, not anyoneelse.”
“Right.” I run my hand down my face. “I want to know who is behind this. I want them destroyed. I don’t give a fuck what you have to do, but they framed her . . . I’m not holding back thistime.”
“Understood,” Tristan says with a smug smile. “I wish I could give you more, but you need to talk to Kristin if you wantdetails.”
Whoever did this is about to have the wrath of Hell brought down on them. I’m going to destroy their world like they did to ours. However, I’ll let Tristan handle that, I have something else that needs to be fixed, and right now, that’s all I careabout.
“One more thing,” I say. “There’s about to be another mess you’re going to have to cleanup.”
Tristan chuckles. “Yeah, that’s the second reason I’m here. I figured I’d have some work to handle inFrance.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Kristin
Three days.
Seventy-twohours.
Four thousand, three hundred, and twenty-eight minutes without a word from Noah. Now twenty-nine minutes. Not that I’m counting oranything.
I hoped when he heard it wasn’t my computer or house it came from, he’d call or textor...something. I guess he either didn’t believe it or doesn’tcare.
Broken promises and a broken heart are all I have left of what weshared.
My nerves are shot, I haven’t slept, and waiting for Jackson to call with the results from the trace on who sent the email is slowly killing me. I need to know who is behind this. I’m desperate to find out who hates Noah or me enough to set out to ruin both ofus.
A knock at the door sends my heart into overdrive. Maybe it’s Noah? I leap up from the couch and rush there. What am I doing? I stopshort.
He left me without so much as a backward glance. I was completely expendable to him, and he hurt me, worse than Scott everhad.
Anotherknock.
It’s probably not him anyway. I open the door, and sure enough, it isn’t. It’s Catherine, and she brought a bouquet offlowers.
Seems we’re changing the way we handle breakups. Usually, it’s ice cream, cake, Four Blocks Down music, and a lot of wine. Flowers is a newone.
“You look like shit,” Catherine says, looking at me with her face scrunched in disgust. “Have you showered since I saw youlast?”
