Page 164 of Legally Mine

"You ladies have a nice night," she said, and pushed the door open in front of her.

Janette brought a hand to her mouth. "Oh my. Was that..."

The terror that had been lodged firmly in my stomach since last night, when I'd seen the first evidence of Miranda's vendetta, blossomed throughout my entire body. Previously frozen in place, suddenly I couldn't move fast enough.

" I have to find Brandon," I said, moving quickly to leave. "I have to find him right now."

"I'll help you!" Janette said with sudden determination. I whirled around to face her, with a finger in her face.

"You!" My voice was shaking while tears started to stream unbidden down my cheeks. I had fury, fear, frustration, all of it bubbling to the surface like I was a teakettle about to burst. "You have done quite e-fucking-nough! Stay the fuck out of my life! Stay out of my family's. And tell Maurice he can take his fucking surveillance tapes and shove them up his tight French ass. If I ever feel even a whiff of a PI on my tail again, you two will be the first to enjoy a restraining order!"

"Skylar, wait!" Janette called out as I stormed out of the bathroom.

I didn't wait to listen to my mother. I should have listened to my own gut when it had told me not to let her close. But it was too late for that now.

I stormed down the hall, barely able to walk properly in the tubed shape of my dress, much less the heels that Mary had paired with it. I almost ran into Jared on my way back to the ballroom.

"Wow!" he yelped as I shouldered past him. "Skylar, what's up? Are you okay?"

Two seconds from losing it, I spun around.

"Am I okay?" I asked. "Am I okay? Well, I don't know, Jared. Would you be okay if you found out that your friend was a two-faced, shit-eating bastard who told your most personal stories to a perfect fucking stranger? Would you be okay, Jared?"

Jared held his hands up in defense, but when he caught the look on my face, they dropped. And then, to my surprise, he sneered.

"Well, what did you expect?" he said plainly. "You think you can get away with how you treated me? Do you know who my family is? People like us don't get turned down by a garbage collector's daughter."

He spat out the last words like they were some kind of disease. I shook violently.

"But I'll be honest," Jared continued. "Once you told me about your little secret, I was glad I'd dodged that bullet. I don't want used goods, especially a baby killer."

His words echoed down the tiled corridor, each one stabbing through my chest like a dagger. Jared just folded his arms over his chest and watched with something approximating glee while I crumpled.

"Who are you?" I asked, unable to think about anything else. Tonight was just one betrayal after another, to the point where I felt like I was living in an alternate universe.

Jared smarted. "I'm the same person I've always been, Skylar. You were just too dumb to see it."

He didn't even need to say anything else as the pieces clicked together. The number of times he'd mentioned that Miranda wasn't as bad as Brandon said. The fact that the Rounsavilles and the Keiths were old family friends. The way she never seemed to show up except when he was around.

"Oh my God," I gasped, my breath ragged as realization hit me. "You're the reason Miranda keeps showing up, aren't you? You were at the gala that that night, and now here again. You called her, didn't you? Didn't you?"

Jared didn't have to reply. His smug expression was answer enough.

"And the Globe article?" I continued. "It was you that confirmed that story? Who gave them my name?"

Jared shrugged. "They called. I don't have anything to hide, Skylar."

"You're a fucking sociopath," I spat back.

"Skylar?"

I turned around to find Kieran standing behind me, watching Jared with a curious, concerned look. How fitting, really. It was under Kieran's mentorship that I'd first learned about these kinds of people––consummate liars, pathological narcissists, people with no functioning sense of empathy. People who were excellent at posing as friends or lovers. A prince, she'd said, could turn out to be the devil in disguise.

I'd been so overwhelmed by Brandon's wealth at first, so worried that he would end up being that devil, that I'd forgotten to watch out for the other people in my life who fit the bill to a tee: My mother. My friend.

"What's going on?" Kieran asked, darting a sharp look at Jared. "Are you okay?"

I grasped her thin arm, an anchor in this crazy storm.

"I need to talk to Brandon," I said in a steadily cracking voice. "Before he gives his speech."

Kieran watched me for a half-second, then guided me to a small, empty conference room that stood off the side of the hallway. Jared strode away, hopefully back to the hole where he came from.

"Stay here," Kieran said as she guided me to a chair at a long conference table. "I'll get him."

So I buried my face in my hands and waited.

~