Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 123579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 494(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 494(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
“I wouldn’t if I were you.” I cock my arm back, letter opener gripped tightly in my fist. “This’ll hurt a lot worse than my knee, and when I’m done you certainly won’t be raping anyone else because that dick of yours will be tossed out my window into the street where it belongs.”
“Bitch.”
“You mentioned that.” A calm, foreign but real, settles over me. Wraps around me until I actually manage to smile at my assailant.
“You can’t stop me.” I chuckle, leaning forward across my desk to taunt him with my eyes. With this irrational confidence. “You’re the one with everything to lose, Kyle. Not me.”
“We’ll see about that.” His lips peel back, showing his teeth like an alligator. “Seems to me you have someone to lose now.”
My smile holds, but my heart stops. Trevor. I know that’s who he means.
“We found all kinds of shit on you, of course,” Kyle says, speaking easier now, his color returning to normal. “But him? Clean as a whistle. Not even a parking ticket.”
I swallow, my smile melting away.
“I’ll tell you right now, I got nothing on Bishop, but your shit will chase him away.” He grins. “You had twenty years to close the deal with Walsh and you never could, and he can’t hold a candle to this guy. This one? Oh, he’s a saint compared to Walsh. You think he’ll stay once the whole world sees what a slut you are? You think he wants that shit sticking to him?”
His grin drops, eyes almost earnest.
“It doesn’t have to be this way, Sofie. Just tell me what you really want here, and it doesn’t have to get so ugly. This can all go away. You can go on with your life. I’ll be New York’s next senator, and your father will be a very happy man. I’ll make sure of that. Just don’t come out with this ridiculous story.”
I tell my story every chance I get. Every time I do, I raise a fist against my oppressors.
Halima’s words, her battle cry, rises up to squash what’s left of my fear and uncertainty.
“You raped me and you raped Shaunti Miller, and God knows who else,” I say, not even a lump in my throat. “And you’re going to pay for it. By the time I’m done, you won’t even get elected PTA president.”
His eyes narrow to reptilian slits, his lips falling back to bare his teeth at me. His face goes stony, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides.
“Why you little—”
“And I bet there’s someone out there you’ve raped who still has a criminal case against you.” I lean forward, fists resting on my desk, letter opener trapped in hand. “You asked me what I want. I want you to rot in prison, you miserable bastard.”
His hand raises like he might strike me, but he catches himself and runs that hand over his perfectly coiffed hair.
“I’d take that hit, Kyle, to have proof of your brutality, so go ahead.” I tilt my chin, offering my cheekbone to him. “Hit me like you did that night. You think I’ve forgotten the bruises I had the next day?”
“You’re crazy if you think anyone will believe you over me.” Disdain drips from his laugh. “Me, an upstanding citizen, a family man with a spotless record, or you, the slutty model who spreads her legs for Playboy and any man who’ll crawl into her bed?”
“We’ll just have to see, won’t we? We’ll have to see if your hollow marriage to your sweet wife is enough to get you out of rape allegations from one of the most famous women in the world.”
He goes white beneath his fake tan.
“If you want to walk away from this unscathed,” he says, “stop before you start.”
A chuckle gurgles in my throat, spilling into the tension of the room.
“You may be the political darling in your little neck of the woods, Kyle, but I’m one of the most recognizable faces in the world. You can’t just make me disappear.”
“Everything you’ve worked for will be destroyed. You’ll be a laughingstock.”
“You first, Kyle.”
“Bitch.”
“Son of a bitch,” I fire back. “You can’t do anything to me that hasn’t already been done. That’s the advantage of living the way I have. Everyone knows everything. I’m not Shaunti, and you can’t intimidate me.”
I stride past him to the door, legs no longer trembling. I unlock and open the door, peering into the reception area, where two oversize men in dark suits sit flipping through magazines. I look back to Kyle, still standing by my desk, crimson crawling out of his collar and over his cheekbones.
“Get out of my damn office.” I shift my weight from one stiletto to the other, grabbing my cell phone from my pocket when he makes no move to comply. “Get out now, or I’m calling the cops.”