Page 68 of My Boss's Sons

“What evidence are you talking about? I can’t believe this is happening. I’ve kept quiet about you for years, Gerald. I’ve swallowed my pride every time you fucked me over, but this? This is outrageous.”

“Boys. Do it.” Gerald smiled at me and I saw the devil in his eyes. “Handle this problem.”

Noah glanced over at his brothers and both Ethan and Alex nodded. “Ms. Bennett, you’re fired. You are no longer a part of this company. Your stuff has already been gathered and will be waiting for you with security.”

“He’s lying to you. He’s lying to all of you! Look at my record. Look at what I’ve done for this company. You know me. You know this isn’t-”

“That’s enough. You’re done using my family for your own gain. If you don’t stand up and leave this building, I’ll come after you for the full extent of what you stole from us. I’ve already been granted a protection order against you, Sophia. An order that you’re currently in violation of. Stay and find yourself in jail, where you belong.” Gerald stood up and nodded to someone behind me. “Escort her out.”

I stared at the guys and felt every nerve ending in my body ache. My career was over and I wasn’t sure how I’d ever support my family again. I wasn’t even scratching the surface of the pain that was surely going to crush me when I had more time to think about everything that had happened. When I looked at them, sitting with their mother and father, I felt a different ache, one for them. They trusted their father to be a good man. They didn’t know the monster in their own family tree.

I stood up and walked closer to them. I could hear the security guards coming up behind me, but I ignored their hands on my arms, trying to pull me away. I met Noah’s angry gaze, Ethan’s weary one, and then Alex’s exhausted one. “For your sake, I hope you never find out the truth about who he is.”

Silence echoed in the room as I was led out.

54

***Sophia***

For days after that ambush I stayed in bed. Ava and Jack stayed by my side and Ava sent Lily to spend some time with Davis so she didn’t have to see me like I was. The house cycled through bouts of anger and sadness for me but I couldn’t get past heartbreak. It was crushing and consuming and I felt like there were weighted chains attached to my limbs that I couldn’t shake off.

Jack blew off work to hover over me and between threats of violence, he held me and told me over and over again that everything would be okay. He took care of me in so many ways, proving that he was my true soulmate. He forced me into showers and brushed my hair for me. He rocked me to sleep and sang to me every off-key song that came to his mind. He didn’t grow frustrated when I didn’t bounce back.

Ava moved her studio into my room and angrily painted while watching me out of the corner of her eye. She brought me food and repeated the things our mother had told us when we wereyoung. She was always right there, ready for whatever emotion I needed from her.

I mourned for days and when the mourning turned into anxiety over my future, I was helpless to it, as well. I’d been knocked so far off course by the Andersons. I’d worked so hard to have a career I was proud of. I’d worked my way to earning a living that allowed me to take care of my family. That was just gone. With the wave of a hand, Gerald stole my security. I didn’t know how I was going to feed my daughter. More bills came in every day and my savings would only last so long.

I was trapped in my dark emotions and I couldn’t think about getting out for long enough to do anything about it. I was making myself sick and my pain was turning into self-hatred. I honestly felt like I was losing my mind. It went on like that for a week and I knew Jack and Ava were getting scared. I never stayed down for that long. Lily needed to come back home and I wanted her back home but none of us wanted her to see me in that state.

It was a series of unfortunate events that finally forced me to rejoin the living. After not eating much, I’d devoured a whole bag of Lily’s old Halloween candy and promptly threw up all over myself. While I showered, Ava opened the bedroom window to let the room air out. Milo, after tiptoeing around the house for a week, couldn’t take the silence anymore and broke out of Ava’s imposed chainsaw break. It was him snapping and using his chainsaw to cut a log into smaller bits of wood that dragged Mrs. Johnson out of her house and into our yard. Her shouting came in through my open window and something about hearing her judgmental voice screaming at Milo filled me with enough anger to propel me out of bed and out the front door.

Milo told me later that I looked like a messy avenging angel storming out of the house towards him. He also said that he’d nearly shit himself at first because he thought my rage was directed at him for breaking Ava’s no chainsaw rule.

Mrs. Johnson was still shouting at Milo when I stomped up to them. “You and your kind are what’s so wrong with this world. You think you can just do anything you want, whenever you want! Well, let me tell you something, you little punk, the world doesn’t revolve around you!”

I planted myself firmly between the two of them and let loose. “No more! I’ve put up with you for years, Mrs. Johnson, but I’m done. Take your judgmental, nosey, too-much audacity having self out of my yard and don’t come back! Milo is an amazingly talented artist and an amazing man. Not only that, he’s kind, which is something I’m pretty sure no one has ever said about you. If you come back into my yard, I’ll consider it a declaration of your intent to cause trouble and I’ll meet that declaration with whatever force necessary to get your bony ass back to your own yard. Do you understand me? Nod your head if you do, Mrs. Johnson.”

“Well, I-”

“There’s nothing you can say that would make me any less irate unless it’s an apology to Milo for being an asshole to him for years!” Yelling felt so good that I didn’t want to stop. It felt like a good stretch after being cramped in a too-small space for too long. “Don’t ever call me or stop me again, not until you manage to find some decency. Now get the hell out of my yard!”

Mrs. Johnson’s face was bright red and she stomped her foot before marching back to her own house. I could hear her mumbling but I didn’t care. I’d made my point.

I turned to face Milo and found Jack and Ava standing behind him. They were all staring at me with smiles on their faces. “What?”

Ava looked like she was going to hug me but Milo beat her to it. He wrapped his arms around me in a bear hug and picked me up. Ava winced. “You’re going to make her throw up again!”

“That was amazing, Soph!” He put me down and gripped my shoulders. “You’re my hero!”

I could feel the blood flowing through my body and it was so much better than the numbness I’d been experiencing. My scalp tingled with anger and normally I would’ve done something to calm down, but I didn’t want to. The anger felt good. It felt like fuel. Anger could get me places. Anger could keep me out of my bed.

“Soph?” Jack stroked my hair and cupped my cheek. “Everything okay?”

I shook out my hands and nodded. “I need things to stay mad about. This is good. This, I can handle.”

“You can take more time to grieve, babe.” He held his hands up when I turned my angry gaze on him. “Nevermind. Let’s rage against the world. Lord knows I’ve got plenty of shit I can bitch about.”

“The Rickford rejected my painting.” Ava spewed the words and then covered her mouth.

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