Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
“Lyla,” Sunny said. “Was he sleeping with her too?”
“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “Maybe they were, or maybe Lyla was just waiting for her moment and Damien stepped up at the perfect time. About a week after I told Damien I was pregnant, Talia called me into her office—Damien and Lyla were both there. Talia said she knew the truth. The designs I submitted were stolen and passed off as my own. I was out of the Phenomenal Five, and out of Caddell House.”
“They convinced her you faked your designs? How could they do that?”
“It was easy, Sunny. That’s the worst part—how easy it was to destroy my life. Gotta give Lyla credit though. She thought of everything,” I spat. “Lyla dug up my old college roommate and paid her to say she created the Phenomenal Five designs. She didn’t stop there, Courtney told them she sketched everything in the portfolio I submitted for the Caddell internship.”
Sunny just looked at me, eyes huge in disbelief.
“Courtney spun a whole story of two fashion majors sharing a dorm, and the one who wasn’t quite good enough. I paid her to sketch my portfolio, and ever since I started, I asked her help fixing and tweaking my designs to make them Caddell-worthy. When I hired her again two months earlier, offering to pay a thousand dollars for new sketches, she did it because she needed the money, but when she saw her work was chosen as one of the Phenom finalists, she couldn’t keep silent anymore.”
“Kenzie, that’s insane. Why in the fuck would Barker believe her? You sketched those designs yourself. Hang around you for longer than an hour, and I’ll catch you with your head over a sketchpad. How could she watch you design that line and then swallow her bullshit?”
“She didn’t see me design my portfolio or the Phenom line. The drafting, the samples, the rejects, the maybes—all of it I did at home because I didn’t put it past Lyla to sabotage me. Isn’t that ironic?”
“So Talia fired you,” he said softly. “Just like that.”
“No. It was when Courtney revealed my drafts, samples, and maybes for my line and my old portfolio that she believed her. ‘How could she have gotten her hands on these if they were locked up in my apartment like I claimed? Why would she have kept year-old discarded sketches of an old roommate?’ My story didn’t make any sense, Talia said. She ordered me to get out before security threw me out. I was a stain on Caddell’s good name.
“I snapped back that my story made sense when you factored in that Lyla was a jealous bitch and I was carrying Damien’s love child.” I scoffed. “Talia did not take that well. I was a liar and a thief, and if she ever saw me again, she’d make me regret ever hearing the name Caddell. Security threw me out on my ass, and five months later, Talia and Damien got married and she received a huge promotion. She’s head of design at Caddell House New York. Last I heard, the darling couple are planning to adopt a son.”
“I’m so sorry, Kenzie.” Sunny squeezed my fingers. “If it makes you feel any better... I have a private plane and New York is a three-hour flight. Damien doesn’t have to make it through the night.”
I laughed mirthlessly. Sunny didn’t.
Smile fading, I gazed into his quicksilver eyes, and didn’t see the sun. He’s kidding, isn’t he?
“No,” I said, just in case. “That’s not necessary. Damien Frost is a loathsome cockroach and I pray someone dips his balls in honey and turns him into a piñata for bears, but still, he gave me the greatest gift. What I want most of all is for the kind, sweet man I used to know to reappear, so my daughter can know her father.”
“That sperm donor isn’t her father. A real father wouldn’t give her up for all the money in every trust fund.” Sunny tipped my chin, preventing me from looking away. “My dad used to say: Money is easy. There’s always money to make, find, or steal. You can’t say the same about family. When they’re gone, you can’t steal them back. So never get so seduced by the game you forget what’s important. Dollar bills won’t sing your children to sleep, or blow you.”
I snorted, clapping a hand over my mouth to smother a laugh. “That started so profound.”
“Yeah, well, my old man’s one of a kind.”
“But not wrong.”
Sunny shook his head. “All of this is wrong. They can’t get away with what they’ve done.”
“They have gotten away with it, Sunny. Talia burned me. She warned every fashion house in a three-state radius that I was a thieving, cheating liar. No one would hire me. They wouldn’t even let me past reception, so for months, I tried to clear my name.