She keeps talking, but her words fade to the background. One thing she’s said remains in the forefront of my hazy mind.
Women cutting one another down…
I think back to that morning I was so hurriedly packing at Gran’s. How I had a nagging feeling I’d left my computer on the nightstand from the evening before. That nagging feeling wouldn’t go away, so I made Darius pull over the car to be sure we had my computer with us. But it wasn’t in the part of my bag I normally keep it in.
Because… I wasn’t the one who put it in there.
Someone did have access to my computer. Someone who despises me, who wants to tear me down.
Someone with a personality as fake as her boobs.
We’d had our fight at the party. She’d stormed off with Rawley. I think back to the direction she left in… I’m sure she was headed to the house. She could have easily had a thumb drive on her, lifting my story from my computer.
And I’m the idiot that never password protected my computer.
When I first set the computer up, I decided that it was a lot more likely I would forever lock myself out of my own computer than anything like this would ever happen.
And yet… it has.
“Sarah. I think I know who it was. I think I know who did this.”
“Who? Tell me now because so help me she’s about to have her head shaved by yours truly.”
Imagining Tiffany sans her long perfect locks, I almost giggle. Then, the sinking feeling returns to the pit of my stomach, thinking of the anger and sorrow in Darius’s face when the story broke.
The way he looked at me with such hatred.
I try to focus on the conversation at hand, forcing myself to speak through the pain. “Yes. She’s a jealous ex of Darius’s from back home. Though I’ve no idea what she’s jealous for, she’s twice as pretty as me—a beauty queen, as she reminded me several times—and didn’t want him in the first place.”
“Katie, you’re a true gem. Everyone that meets you falls in love with you. You’re kind and sweet and funny and those are qualities that can’t be bought. This bitch sounds fake as shit. And mean.”
“She is mean. Really mean.” Tiffany’s hatred for carbs plays back in my mind… sweetness and cellulite. I almost feel sorry for her, to be so hateful, so bitter.
She may have thought Darius was a pervert, but of all the women I can think of that need a Daddy to spank their ass—she’s on the top of my list. “I know she did it. She had access to my computer. She must have added that chapter on my computer, then downloaded the file and shared parts of my book with the press.”
The sound of Sarah tapping her pen on her desk comes over the line. “Katie Ann Davis. How many times have I told you? Do not under any circumstances send me a book without doing a final read through of the entire thing before you send it over?”
Giving a groan, I put my palm to my forehead. “I know, I know, but Darius was just so… distracting. And I had to make the deadline. And I read through everything before I went to his hometown and I read everything I wrote after that, too. But didn’t go back to the beginning and her slipped in chapter was an earlier one.”
“Yes, but now we can’t deny that you sent the book in with that passage, because you did send us the book with that passage, straight from your personal email account. And the story of a jealous ex breaking into your computer and adding it to ruin you just doesn’t sound feasible.”
“But it’s true!”
“I know that. And you know that. But when has the truth ever mattered to the gossip-centric media? You know they’ll do anything to print a juicy article on a billionaire bachelor. Especially one with a daddy kink.” Her tone softens and she begins to murmur, as if talking to herself, not me. “Speaking of… by the way, that thing in Chapter Four that he does over his lap… did that really happen? I need that in my life…”
I let out a long moan. What was I thinking, sharing that with the world? “Yes?”
“Oh my God. That was soooo hot. I mean, like sooo hot.” I can picture Sarah removing her glasses and fanning herself at her desk. “How do I get a daddy of my own? Does Darius happen to have any single friends? Hmm?”
I wave my hand to an empty apartment. “Sarah, Earth to Sarah. Can we please focus on the task at hand? Saving my crumbling life and fixing this terrible mistake?”
Her no-nonsense business tone returns. She must have put her glasses back on. “I’ll work with the editing department on my side. You start with Darius. I’m sure if you explain the whole thing to him, he’ll believe you, especially if Tiffany is as bad as she sounds.”