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…oh shit.
Chapter 28
Ethan
“Rose?” Izzy is lost. “But you told me your name was Rosilyn. You lied to me?”
Jesus fucking Christ this is a mess. Rosilyn is Rose. Rosilyn, the mom Izzy met at Jax’s school, who is also a single mom, who lives in her neighborhood, THAT Rosilyn, is Rose. Our secretary, Rose. The one who is always doing extra work for Liam and offering to do extra work for me and batting her eyes and working late and…fuck.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“You’re behind it,” I add to the conversation. “You’re behind it all.”
I am ready to rip into her. To fire her on the spot. Fuck Liam’s authority, I have the power to make this call too. At least until dawn when the magazine goes viral. Might as well do some damage while I’m still employed. But Mama Bear beats me to it.
“You lied to me,” she repeats.
“No, I didn’t lie. I just…didn’t tell you everything.”
“That’s the same thing!”
“Mommy, why are you yelling at Luca’s mom?” Jaxon is starting to cry. She sets him down but keeps going. Izzy is on fire.
“I let you in. I was your friend. I trusted you with my son!”
“And we are friends.” Rose or Rosilyn or who the fuck ever is starting to cry. Fucking bullshit. “I liked you as soon as I met you. I mean, I will admit, when I saw you and Ethan at the coffee shop I was a little upset. I’ve known him so much longer than you, done so much more for him than you ever have–”
“I’ve known him my whole life!” She cries out.
“Which is exactly why this is so fucked!” Liam chimes in.
Good fucking God.
Rose goes on. “At first, yes, I was not okay with it. And I’m still not really. But I want to be your friend, even if I can’t have Ethan. Even if I was under his nose all this time and I was raising my son on my own just like you. At first I thought maybe he just didn’t want to get tied up in a single mom story but obviously that’s not the case.”
“So where are you going with this exactly?” Izzy asks. “Because what I am hearing is that you have been crushing on Ethan for a long time hoping he’d like you back and support you and your child. And then I came into the picture and you pretended to be my friend to get close to me all while threatening us.”
“I never meant to hurt you. I would never do anything to actually hurt either of you,” she shakes her head.
“You broke my kitchen window! And you exposed us! Did you follow us to the game? Because if so, we can add stalking to the list of things you’re going to go to jail for.”
Rose’s face widens in horror. “Jail?!”
“You better fucking believe it.” Izzy narrows her eyes.
“Hang on,” I cut in. The cluster is getting too fucky. “No one is going to jail. But I will say, you’re fired. And you can kiss working in the industry goodbye.”
She nods and goes to walk out of the room, already softly crying. Then she looks back at Izzy and Jax. “I never meant tohurt you. I really do care about you. I went too far, I know. And I’m sorry.” With that, she turns and leaves.
Liam looks at both Izzy and I with a nod. “Are you proud of yourselves? Blackmailing me, firing my secretary? You do know I am still in charge right?”
“You won’t be pretty soon,” I say. “Not when that article goes live.”
“I’ll pull it. I can do that, you know. I have access to everything in this building.”
“And we have a platform to publish anyways,” Izzy adds.
Liam snorts out a laugh at that. “And who is going to publish your dribble? I am the CEO of the top magazine in the fucking industry right now. If you did your job, you’d know that.”