Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
“Maren,” I called her name, but I didn’t move from Ryan. For some reason, it was important she was in Cris’ arms.
She looked up, such agony in her eyes.
It made me pause because I’d been there. I’d felt that at times as well. I ached, not wanting anyone to experience that emotion. “What do you mean that she blackmailed you?”
“Last year,” Maren rasped out. “I know Kellie. She’s from my hometown and she knew something that was happening in my family. She threatened to write it up on her blog, which I wouldn’t have cared about, but she said she was going to bring Cris’ name into it if I didn’t leave him.”
He stiffened. “The fuck?”
She cast him a wary look before refocusing on me again. Tears swam in those eyes of hers, but she wouldn’t let them fall. Her jaw hardened, pushing the tears away. “That’s why I—” She looked up again at him before stepping away from him. “My dad was fired from his job last year, because he was arrested for embezzling from the company where he worked.”
Cris didn’t reach for her, his hands fisting briefly at his side as his jaw clenched.
“He’s in prison and she was going to splash it all over campus, said she could do it. I know how articles like that get attention, how the headline would be written. She’d use your name, make it sound like you’re attached to my dad going to prison, and I just didn’t want any of that to fall on you.”
“That’s why you started fucking that asshat?”
She flinched, casting me a look before looking down to the floor.
“She’s done it before,” Ryan spoke up over my shoulder, one of his arms crossing my chest, holding me against him.
Cris glared our way, but the glare wasn’t for any of us.
“What do you mean?” Maren blinked a few times.
“She approached Mac earlier today.”
Both Cris and Maren went tense. Maren breathed out, “What? No.”
Cris narrowed his eyes at Ryan before looking at me. I saw the unspoken question asking if I was okay, and I gave him a slight nod. Relief flared before he looked back to Cris.
Ryan said, “She’s the blogger I told you about.”
Cris frowned, confused. “Wait. The one who showed up before practice yesterday?”
I sank into Ryan, feeling his own tension ramping up. He clipped out, “Yeah. Same girl.”
“I saw that chick. She’s not the same girl.”
Maren had her phone out and said, looking at it, “She’s changed her looks, but that’s her. See.” She showed Cris her phone, swiping at the screen and adding, “This is what she used to look like.”
At seeing both images, he let out a swift curse. “Fucking bitch. That’s her. She’s put on weight and changed her hair color, but that’s the chick who knew I thought she was you.” He stared at Maren for a moment before cutting his eyes our way, the storm that was brewing had some pain. “She knew what she was doing. She was wearing clothes Maren usually wears.”
“What?”
He didn’t look at Maren, still focusing on Ryan. “She was wearing Maren’s perfume. That shit that smells like lilacs. She had her hair done like Maren’s last year too.”
Maren went pale. She looked as if she’d been physically punched in the face, staggered.
Ryan cursed in my ear before his hand touched my hip, nudging me forward. “Go to her. Take her in my room.”
I moved without questioning him. He always knew the right thing to do. He’d taken care of me in the same way. I approached Maren, taking her hand, and said softly, “Let’s give them a minute.” She didn’t move. She was frozen in place.
I met Cris’ gaze over her head, both of us knowing she was going to lose it.
I tried to give him a smile, because I wasn’t going to let that happen, but he’d gone back to watching his girl as shadows flitted over his face. In a way, I was feeling Maren was the most affected by this and I needed to get in there with her. I needed to get inside, where she could hear me, connect with me, or we might lose her all over again.
“Maren.” I tugged on her hand. This time she went with me, walking in a daze as I led her down the hallway, around the kitchen where some of their other roommates were standing, all with different expressions on their face, but judging by the tension in the room, they knew something was going down, something serious.
I kept going, up the stairs and into Ryan’s room.
She was still in some sort of shock, so I pulled her to the bathroom and ran some water over a washcloth, using it to wash her face when it was warm.
There was a brief knock on the outside door.