Page 54 of Faking Ever After

“Hey,” she said soothingly, running out of comfort words pretty quickly. “Has something happened? You don’t sound alright.”

“No, I…”I fucked everything up, Kim, I thought. My objective had been achieved to a stellar degree until today, but I had fucked up everything else I had touched. “Kim, I did something bad.”

My friend choked, wheezed a breath of air into her lungs, and ground her teeth before asking me if she would wake up unemployed.

“No. I don’t think so,” I said.

Kim was quiet for a short time, then softened a little. “Tell me, Finn.”

“You have to swear,” I said urgently. “You have to swear you won’t just call Percy and tell him.”

“I can’t possibly…”

“Promise me, Kim,” I said.

“I promise, alright. I promise.” A moment of silence followed and I decided I could trust her. Tough love or not, Kim was always true to her word.

So I drew a deep breath of air and said, “The man I ran away from, the one I called Dickcoin…”

“Yes?” I could almost hear Kim leaning in.

“He’s here, Kim,” I whispered.

“Oh, God, Finn, are you safe? Is Percy? What about his family?”

“Stop,” I said. “They’re all safe. He wouldn’t harm them. They’re so close, dammit, and he’s like family to them, even if they don’t like him too much. See? It was a stupid pun. Like Bitcoin because he stole everything from my family with his crypto schemes and big promises. Dick. Richard, Kim. Percy’s ex-boyfriend.”

My friend gasped and choked nearly at the same moment. “You went after Harrison? The billionaire investor who helped Percy build his first company? God, Finn, did you slap his mother and spit in his father’s face, too?”

“I didn’t know,” I moaned. “You can imagine my shock when I turned around and saw the fuckface that ruined my family standing in the house, waiting for me to carry his luggage upstairs.”

“What did he say?” Kim urged.

“Erm, nothing, he just pointed at it. I don’t see how that…”

“Not about his luggage, dumbass,” Kim snapped. “What did he tell them about you? Did they throw you out? I swear to God, Finn, if you don’t start calming me down in a minute, I’ll cartoon-strangle you through the goddamn phone.”

“Richard said nothing, Kim. He pretended he didn’t know me until we were alone and he demanded that I return the drive. So…so, I ran away with it.” Admitting that I had left Percy behind was harder than I could have imagined.

“You ran away?” Kim whispered in disbelief. “If you have the damned drive, Finn, how can he threaten you?”

I shut my eyes. “It’s locked.”

Kim was silent for a short while. “Are you sure those files are incriminating?”

“Yes,” I said. “I’m absolutely sure. I saw him, Kim. He thought I was just some stupid golddigger, so he never bothered with precaution. I saw the emails, the spreadsheets, and the shady holding companies that all went back tohim. Listen, Kim, I have to ask. Do you think Percy was involved?” A crack ran right through my heart when I asked this. I knew deep down that it was impossible.

“He wasn’t,” Kim said resolutely.

“Good,” I said. Relief washed over me warmly. “I didn’t think he was, but they’re so close…”

Kim interrupted me. “And the drive is locked?”

“Deadlocked, and I can’t break into it. I’d need a really good hacker to even stand a chance.” I frowned as I thought about it. My tech skills equaled that of a six-year-old. Worse, possibly, because six-year-olds could learn this shit and I was hopeless.

“Did it ever cross your mind that the man you spent two weeks with might be able to solve that problem?” Kim asked.

“What? To hire a hacker to help me deal with his ex?” I asked.

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