Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
She moved to wind around him, only he snatched her by the wrist to stop her. His mouth was at her ear, and the easy tenor he normally spoke with had disappeared. In its place was malignancy. “I would reconsider the choices you make.”
She jerked her arm free, muttering, “Screw you.”
She hurried out to her cubicle and grabbed her things. She hoped this didn’t reflect poorly on her father, but she wasn’t about to put herself through this.
Not for anything.
So, she walked out without looking back.
A light tapping sounded at her bedroom door before her mother cracked it open enough to pop her head through. “Are you decent? I have some mail for you.”
She straightened where she was sitting with her legs crisscrossed on her bed, doodling in a journal, trying to figure out how she was going to break the news to her father that she’d walked out this afternoon.
She gave her mother a playful grin. “If I wasn’t decent, would it matter?”
Her mother chuckled. “Sorry, sorry, I was used to barging into your room for years, and I keep forgetting that you’re basically grown, and I need to give you some privacy.”
“It’s honestly fine. You know I don’t mind.”
It wasn’t like she was hiding a boy under her bed or in the closet, though she’d been texting with this guy Scott who’d been in one of her classes last year, and she was hoping something might come of it.
Her mother pushed through and handed her a small stack of mail. “Here you go.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem. Your father is grilling if you want to join us for dinner, unless you have plans?”
“No plans other than hanging out in here. Does he need any help?”
Unease rippled through her at the thought of having to face him, but she figured she should just rip the Band-Aid off. And she’d be doing it in a big way.
She intended to tell her father what had actually happened and then make a complaint to HR about it.
It sucked, but she knew it was the right thing to do. She doubted she was the first intern or employee that he’d harassed that way. She couldn’t ignore it.
“No, he should be fine. It should be ready in about ten minutes.”
“I’ll be down soon then.”
“Okay, love you, Sweet Pea,” her mother said as she walked out and pulled the door shut behind her.
Once her mother left, she turned to the small stack of mail. She didn’t get a lot of it, and it was usually junk mail, which most of it was.
She flipped through the pile. A coupon for a free coffee at a local café that she’d signed up to receive discounts from and an invitation to attend an event at the local library.
But there was a big manila envelope at the bottom that caught her attention.
She frowned since it only had her name and address on it, and she realized it wasn’t even postmarked. Whoever had sent this had put it directly in their mailbox.
Trepidation needled into her consciousness, but she ignored it and ripped into it, and she spilled the contents out onto her bed.
It was a bunch of documents.
Documents from Pygus Software.
She scanned them, uncertain of what they meant or why she’d received them.
Only it became clear very quickly.
Her heart clutched in disbelief.
It was a paper trail of her father’s embezzlement.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars.
She felt sick. So sick.
She was trembling when she found the note at the very back, this one handwritten and unsigned, though she immediately knew who it was from.
It would be a shame for this to make its way to the authorities, wouldn’t it? Your father would be seventy before he was eligible for parole. Half his life wasted. Your mother alone.
And the only thing it costs to stop it is one night.
One night.
One night.
Lightheadedness swept through her brain, bile climbing up her throat as she tried to process what the man was propositioning.
She understood extortion.
Blackmail.
She could call Frederick’s bluff. Toss it back in his face as bullshit.
Ignore it altogether.
Or she could go to the authorities with it. But Frederick had power and reputation. She knew it could easily be swept under the rug.
And if this was real? If the proof he was showing her was true? It would expose her father. His sins.
She didn’t go down that night. She couldn’t look at her father and question what he’d been involved in. Couldn’t stomach the truth. Couldn’t fathom the way it would tear apart their family.
One night.
One night.
A war waged inside her as she flopped uneasily in her bed, horrified by the proposal. By what it would mean. At what she’d be giving up. The disgust she would feel.
But if one night could protect her father…
She gulped as she came to a decision, tears leaking out of the edges of her eyes as she succumbed to what she felt was the only choice she could make.