Page 48 of The Wrong One

“Sure, what is it?”

“We should probably go in your office,” I said.

“This sounds serious,” he joked.

I didn’t say anything. I followed him into his office and closed the door.

After our conversation, I left the office. I didn’t go back to the lab. I left, eager to get back to the solace of my own apartment. But as I walked down the street, I kept replaying the conversation I had with Ramsey in my head. I hoped I had done the right thing.

ChapterTwenty

Cam

Ihopped out of the shower and got dressed for the day. I was worried about Izzy. She didn’t come into the lab yesterday. I didn’t know what happened. She was there and then she wasn’t. Ramsey texted me from his office and said she was sick for the day, which I thought was strange. She sure as hell didn’t look sick when I saw her, which told me there was something else going on. I wondered what it was. I assumed Patrick.

I was just about to sip my first cup of coffee when my phone rang. I grabbed it and saw it was Ramsey. “What’s up?” I answered.

Part of me was thinking he wasn’t going to be at the office. If Izzy was sick, maybe there was something going around and now Lily had it. That made sense.

“I need you to meet me in my office as soon as you can,” he said. “Before you go to the lab.”

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“We need to talk,” he said. “I’ll see you soon.”

He abruptly ended the call, which was just a little strange. He wasn’t usually so short with me. I got a bad feeling. Izzy doesn’t show up to work after talking to Ramsey and now he was calling me into his office, like a kid getting called into the principal’s office. It was not a good feeling. Did she tell him? Why wouldn’t she tell me if she did?

I dumped out the coffee and left the apartment. I got to the office, everything still quiet. Ramsey was in his office. “What’s going on?” I asked him.

“Have a seat,” he said and pushed a coffee at me.

“Thanks.”

The look on his face told me he was pissed and I had a feeling he was pissed at me. Ramsey was closer to me than any of my biological family. Something was bothering him. I braced myself, preparing for a storm. A storm I knew was going to be directed at me and I couldn’t even deny any of it. I deserved it all.

“What the hell happened?” he growled.

“You’re going to need to be more specific,” I hedged.

I was pretty damn sure I knew exactly where it was going. I was going to play dumb for as long as possible while I tried to think of a good excuse.

“Why does Izzy want to quit?” he asked.

“What?” I asked with surprise. “I didn’t know she wanted to quit.”

That was not what I was expecting. I couldn’t believe she said she wanted to quit. She never said anything to me about it. I knew anything Ramsey said about his sister was not an idle threat.

“Izzy is a damn hard worker,” he said. “One of the hardest workers I’ve ever met. She doesn’t need to work at all. She knows I would support her. She could live with us, but she insists on working. I offered her the job with your blessing. Are you telling me you don’t want her working for you now?”

“I never said that,” I said.

“Then what the fuck?” he snapped. “What’s the problem? You told me things were going well with you guys. You said you liked her working in there and that she was helping you. Were you lying?”

“No!”

“Then what’s the fucking problem?” he barked.

“There isn’t a problem,” I defended. I was keeping my temper in check. I knew how Ramsey could get with his little sister. I needed to choose my words carefully.

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