Page 107 of A Bossy Roommate

My feet carry me to him even while my brain races to process what’s going on. The loving way he smiles takes my breath away, and my hand shakes when I reach for the wineglass. “I take it you meant everything you said in the meeting?” I ask, my throat suddenly dry. “That you had no regrets and would do it all over again?”

“You know me by now, Eden. When have I ever said something I didn’t mean?”

He’s right. I know he wouldn’t have said the things he’d said if he didn’t absolutely mean them. My question probably came from deep insecurities left over from what Rob did to me, alingering scar that had started to heal the moment I met the man standing in front of me. Carter is nothing like Rob. I know I can trust him, that what he says is one hundred percent true (except for that one time he told me there were two beds in his room).

“I…don’t know what to say.”

Carter puts his glass down and holds the chair out for me. “Sit.”

I do. Carter takes the chair next to me and lifts his glass, clinks it with mine in a small toast before we take a sip. “There’s a lot we need to talk about.” He reaches over to take my hand. “Let me get straight to the point.”

“You could have denied it!” I blurt out.

Briefly, he finds himself uncertain of my implication. “What do you mean?” he asks.

I know I’ve interrupted him, but I need to get it out, to come clean. “I would have gone along with you. Because now I think it’s my fau?—”

“Eden, I don’t have any intention of talking about work right now. I just got off the phone with Bradley, and he’s keeping me in the loop. There’s something else I need to tell you. Something important.”

“Uh-oh…what?”

29

CARTER

“Ifound Rob.”

Her shoulders drop. “You what?”

“Well, Vance’s PI did. Alexei. He wasn’t hard to find. I got the call from Vance earlier.”

Thinking about the embarrassment she’d lived through still makes my gut churn. Rob had made the breakup out to be her fault, made her believe that she had tricked him into a marriage that he never wanted, and had dug the knife even deeper by telling her that he never loved her. Truth is, the piece of shit had found out that “he didn’t love her” after one of his deals went downhill and bankrupted him. The people within their social circle have rallied behind him, swayed by his influence, and captivated by his crazy little story. Little do they know he was broke and that she had financed his life after he took a severe dive on several investment deals.

He’d lied to save face, the fuckhead. Then robbed her and turned it on her, knowing full well that she lacked evidence and has no social backing for her accusation against him.

She’d not only been left at the altar, brokenhearted, without money, friends and support—but on top of all that, he’d made her out to be the culprit.

Getting cold feet before a marriage was one thing, but he was a piece of shit for leaving her at the altar. As far as the rest goes? Unforgivable.

And I’m here to make things right. Eden had entrusted me to do so when she had agreed to place the matter in Vance’s capable hands.

If there’s one thing I can do to salvage this, I can make sure she knows there’s a man who will stand up for her, have her back, no matter what. Who won’t use her and drop her like a hot potato after he’s fucked her, physically and mentally.

“He will face legal consequences,” I declare as she stares at me, wide-eyed. Initially, there’s disbelief, but she can clearly read in my expression that I wouldn’t joke about any of it. “Vance filed a police report, a defamation lawsuit and a civil lawsuit to recover the stolen funds.”

“Carter, I know Rob. He will deny any wrongdoing?—”

“Let’s just say, he agreed he made a mistake.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“Wait a moment,” she interjects. “This PI didn’t…”

“—resort to physical violence?” I finish the sentence for her. “No, that wasn’t necessary. Someone else had already taken care of that. Alexei found Rob in some third-rate hotel, nursing his wounds, quite literally.”

I wouldn’t mind giving Rob a black eye (at the very least) myself, but in the end, that scumbag isn’t worth us getting our hands dirty.

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