Page 92 of Sheltered By Love

Chapter Fifteen

Zane

Even if Levi hadn’t called and woken me up, I overheard enough of what Nicki said to connect the dots.

While Levi felt like crap for being the bearer of bad news, and Jax may not know, Garrett’s been withholding vital information.

As much as I want to go straight to his place, I owe it to Felicity to hear from her before I go lay into him.

She looks deflated. Like someone just pushed a pin in her and she’s given up.

There’s no sign of the woman who’s fought me every step of the way and has prioritized her rabbit over her own wellbeing.

Even her voice is flat, emotionless as if it’s too painful and she’s disconnecting from it.

“That depends on whether you want to listen,” she says.

I do. I need to know how the nervy woman I rented our house to, is also the woman everyone in the Bay has now seen topless and screaming just before she’s handcuffed and thrown in the back of a police car.

“What happened?”

She doesn’t look at me as she answers. “Does it matter?”

“Everything about this video matters to me,” I say.

Her eyes stay locked on the water as she speaks. “I didn’t know my drink was spiked until the next day. I don’t even remember most of that night. If there wasn’t footage, I’d never have believed I was even capable of behaving like that.”

“Who recorded it?”

Her lips tug downward. “My fiancé. His name was Phillip. He was supposed to be looking after me, but he passed out somewhere. One of his friends got hold of his phone and posted it to social media.”

I don’t know what to say. What a dick. Who films the woman he wants to marry and then passes out?

I’m getting riled up, so I default to interrogation.

“Did they charge you?”

“No. They let me off with a warning.”

At least that explains why Garrett didn’t tell me. A conviction would have been significant enough to void her application.

My gut knots. “That’s why you hate phones and why you were freaked about the cameras?”

She spreads her hands. “Imagine if the person you trusted the most recorded you at the lowest moment of your life and then every person you knew saw it. You’d have a strong distrust of cameras too.”

I probably would. And I would have done my best to avoid them too. I’d also have smacked the tar out of the people responsible.

She eyes my phone. “The footage was everywhere. All the social media platforms. People kept sending it to me via email, via messaging apps. For weeks. All my co-workers saw it. I stopped sleeping, I couldn’t eat. And I started having panic attacks every time I got an email or text.”

“What about your family?”

She chokes out a bitter laugh. “My mom and dad divorced when I was thirteen. And they were both equally disgusted and ashamed of me. It didn’t help that my dad worked for my fiancé’s dad. They needed to blame someone, so they chose to blame me.”

Guilt has started to claw at me for being so hard on her. She’s lost everything, and I treated her like a suspect.

“My boss was nice about it. Embarrassed, but he gave me a reference and I tried to find another job. I even dyed my hair and started wearing fake glasses. But it didn’t make a difference. The video seemed to follow me everywhere.”

That explains a lot. Her glasses aren’t even real.

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