Page 49 of Faking it with My Billionaire Bosses

Rosie grunted. “I’m not by myself.”

My attention slammed back to the phone call. “No?”

“The guys are here. They came home earlier, looking for you. They’re stressing me out. They just keep pacing around, asking if I’ve heard from you. Are you guys fighting?” She laughed after a moment. “Monster is sick of their pacing. He just attacked Drake.”

I looked down at my lap and squeezed my eyes shut. I just wanted to cry. “Everything’s fine. Try to make sure Monster doesn’t hurt anyone, will you?”

“I know you’re lying.” She sighed. “You’re not leaving me here with them, are you? Like some weird movie moment where you tell me this family will be better for me? Because I’m not interested in that.”

“I’m not leaving you anywhere, Rosie. You’re my sister and we stick together. Even when I make a mess of things. I love you. I’m sorry for disrupting your life so much.” I wiped a few rogue tears away and forced a smile to my lips, hoping it would come across as authentic over the phone. “I’ll figure shit out eventually.”

“Is that what you think? That you messed up my life?” Rosie let out a long, dramatic sigh. “You’re an idiot. I was miserable with Mom. She was the worst. I complain, but living with you is easy. It’s nice. I don’t even mind being stuck in this massive house.”

I bit my tongue and tried to stop the tears from spilling over. My chest ached from everything and having Rosie act nicely towards me was just making the urge to cry worse.

“I’ve been spotted. They’re coming. What do you want me to say?” Rosie whispered quickly, reminding me of the same way I’d talked to Gia so many times at her age when Mom or one of her boyfriends was around. “I need to know how to play this. Hey!”

“Rosie? You okay? Just… I’ll swing by and pick you up later tonight, once G gets here. She’s rented a room and wants us to stay with her.”

“Come home, Cupcake.” Drake’s deep voice was like an icepick through my chest. “Please. I fired Samantha. Ninety percent of what she said was bullshit. Come home and let us explain everything.”

I doubled over in my seat and barely held in a whimper. I’d never experienced the level of pain I felt after learning they were just using me. Everything hurt. I’d trusted them and I’d been wrong. Like an idiot, I’d willingly walked into their trap. What was worse was I just wanted to be held and comforted by them. A chill had settled over me after leaving their office and I couldn’t shake it.

“Sonnie, please. I’m begging you. Give us a chance.” His voice broke and it took him a second to clear his throat and try again. “Please, give us a chance, Sonnie. We don’t care about the publicity. We’ll fix it, somehow. We don’t want this to end.”

I slowly pulled the phone away from my ear and hung up without saying anything. I didn’t think I could say anything. My whole body ached from the betrayal, but I was desperate for it to all not to be fake. My heart told me if they held me, I would believe anything they said. But my head knew I had to be stronger than that.

I’d already been sitting at the airport for hours and security kept looking at me like I might end up being a threat, but they didn’t know they could’ve knocked me down with a strong breath right then. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I was still upright.

The sun was setting by the time Gia arrived. She ran straight to me once she arrived and wrapped me up in a tight hug that stole my breath. I started crying right away, unable to stay strong when my best friend was holding me like the baby I was. If security was worried about me before, seeing me crumble like I did, probably showed them that I was absolutely harmless. I couldn’t plot anything nefarious when I couldn’t even breathe through my nose from all the snot building up.

Gia gently rocked me from side to side and stroked my hair and back. “Oh, honey. My little Sunflower. It’s going to be okay, babe. I promise.”

I groaned and wiped my nose on the neck of my shirt. “Don’t call me that.”

“It’s your name, isn’t it?” She cupped my cheeks in her hands and looked me over. “Besides the red face, you look good.”

“You’re the best, best friend ever.” I looked up as one of the security guards handed me a small packet of tissues. It brought more tears to my eyes and the tall woman winced before hurrying away.

“Come on, babe. I rented a car from the plane. I just need to go to the rental desk and we can go. The faster we get out of here, the faster we can pick up Rosie, ice cream, and whatever sad movie you need to watch to cry some of this out.”

I groaned and leaned into her as we walked out of the airport and towards the rental car offices in the parking garage. “I don’t want a sad movie. I don’t want to cry. I just want to pick up Rosie.”

Gia rolled her eyes at me. “You don’t want ice cream?”

I grunted. “Fine. Yes, I want to pick up ice cream, too.”

“Alright, then,” she mumbled under her breath, “and then I plot my murderous revenge on the three hot bakers who hurt my bestie.”

CHAPTER 38

Sonnie

I’d stayed back at Gia’s rental house with my own bucket of ice cream while she’d gone to pick up Rosie. By the time they’d returned, I’d finished the bucket and wanted to be sick. Instead of answering Rosie’s questioning gazes, I went to bed early. I just didn’t know what to say to her yet. I wasn’t sure I ever would. I didn’t know what to say to myself. I just knew I didn’t trust myself anymore.

The next day, while Rosie slept in, Gia and I sat together on the small patio behind the house. She sipped a cup of coffee while I guzzled water. All the sugar made my body heavy and listless. My head ached, my muscles were sore, and I just felt overall shitty.

“Why don’t you believe them?” Gia had been asking questions since we sat down, all in a very gentle tone, despite some of them being painful to answer. “When they said Samantha was lying, I mean.”

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