Page 19 of Our Cracked Pieces
The entire way to the police station, all I could think of was one thing: fuck women.
Chapter 13
Rowan~
We’d been charged with the break-in.
I’d been accused of making up the assault as payback.
One case had been dreadful, but it had ended with a favorable outcome.
The other had been excruciatingly humiliating, but it had also ended with a favorable outcome.
Probation and fines for one. Jail time and disgrace for the other.
But I would never be the same again; I would never see men the same way ever again.
Chapter 14
Lorcan~
I’d gotten arrested and charged with assault.
I’d been accused of being a jealous asshole who misunderstood the situation.
Vanessa had gotten an abortion to get rid of the evidence and protect her lover.
Mr. Hostettler had quit to ‘seek other opportunities’, they’d said.
My parents had paid the best lawyers in the country to expose everything, vindicating me.
But I would never be the same again; I would never see women the same way ever again.
Part
II
Chapter 15
Rowan – (Eleven Years Later)~
Iloved being underestimated.
I really did.
I knew what people thought when they looked at me. Or, rather, whatmostpeople thought when they looked at me. At five-foot-four, I came with blonde hair, blue eyes, and the curves you’d expect would belong on a provocative blonde. However, I was way more than a blonde with big boobs and wide hips.
A lot more.
At twenty-nine, I was a graduate of Georgetown, and I’ve been working for Herman Corporate Auditing since graduating from Georgetown. HCA was one of the most honest, ethical auditing firms in the nation, and it didn’t discriminate their services. Whether it was a small business being run out of someone’s attic or huge business being run out of a skyscraper in the middle of Manhattan, HCA valued every customer.
Within six months from graduating from Georgetown, I had secured a job with them. Not that I was spoiled, but my parents had let me go back home after graduation to get my bearings, and I’d been lucky as hell when I’d received a call back from HCA. Sure, they were located in Chicago, but our parents had raised us to spread our wings. They weren’t the smothering kind, so Grayson and I had guilt-free freedom from the home nest.
Grayson was another story, though.
After graduating with his teaching degree from Boston College, Grayson had gone back to California to teach in our hometown. However, that only lasted a couple of years before he had relocated to Chicago and has been here ever since.
And I got it. I really did. My brother loved me, and it was important to him that he could get to me in a timely fashion if I ever needed him. He wanted to be able to get to me in a matter of minutes, not hours. However, I wasn’t that scared eighteen-year-old girl anymore.
