Page 117 of Scandalous Lover

They don’t need to be.

They clearly have the votes.

I pull my trump card out and consider the damage it might cause.

I don’t have a choice.

I throw the damn thing on the table.

“She’s already caused one terrible scandal that got hercanceled from the internet. How can we trust her to manage the resort’s reputation after what she did to her own?”

A different kind of hush falls over the table now. I finally get the nerve to look up from where my hands rest on the smooth, cool wood, bracing myself for the shocked faces.

But no one is looking at me.

With cold dread pumping through my veins, I follow their gazes behind me.

Where I find Naomi, looking just as shocked and hurt as she should.

Our eyes lock for a split second, in which time I try to convey to her how sorry I am and all my many reasons for saying the terrible things I just said.

But it doesn't work.

She turns and runs from the room.

I follow after her immediately, ignoring the surprised shouts behind me.

Down the hallway I run. Up the stairs to the lobby level and then up a few more flights. She’s running aimlessly it seems, just trying to lose me.

It’s not going to work. She may have a head start, but I’m bigger. I know my way around these hallways better.

I catch sight of her golden brown hair glinting in the sunlight from a high window as she disappears down the third-floor hallway, around the corner, and through the door into the emergency stairwell.

With a deep sigh, knowing that I have little recourse here, I pull open the door and follow her in.

Once the heavy fire door closes behind me, the world goes cool, dim, and quiet. The only sound is her flip-flops hurrying down the concrete steps.

“Naomi, stop.” My voice echoes through the stairwell.

She does not stop.

“Naomi, let me explain.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Her words bounce off the walls, breathless and angry.

She still doesn’t stop.

I start to jog down the steps but I’m too far behind. I hear the ground floor exit door slam when I’m making the turn to the second floor. By the time I emerge into the hot morning sun, she’s nowhere to be found.

ChapterForty-Two

Naomi

My mind is a blur of rage and sadness and shame. It’s screaming at me to run and fight and hide and attack, attack, attack. I can’t even force the spinning wheel of thoughts to slow, let alone stop.

This is it. This is the moment I was somehow, in the dark depths of my mind, waiting for.

I know better than to trust people.

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