Page 51 of Scarred Heart

I had known that, hadn’t I?That she felt overshadowed.All the photos in the living room, the way our parents had always bragged about me while rarely doing the same over her.How awkward she felt around people.How rare it was for her to leave her shell.

One day, I might find it in me to feel sorry for her.This was not that day, not with my battered heart still struggling to beat.Not when the pain of losing Spencer again was so fresh and sharp.

“When did he approach you?I need to know,” I told her when she snorted.“I need to put it together in my head, for myself.”

“I don’t know.”Her head tipped back, and she heaved another sigh.“The day before you went out on that date.I assume it was with Spencer.”

“The night of the break-in?”

“Right.We met the night before that.I went to my usual place to pick up dinner on my way home.He was behind me in line and struck up a conversation over whether he should get a chicken cutlet sandwich or meatball parm.We ended up having dinner together at the restaurant.It all sort of snowballed after that.”

This meant itwas the night after Spencer and I found each other at the award luncheon, then went for drinks in the evening.Was he following Spencer around all this time?More likely, he had someone else doing his dirty work.Probably more determined than ever to dig up dirt on him.

Spencer visited my office the next afternoon, didn’t he?Asked me out.With all of Damian’s money and all of his ruthlessness, I didn’t doubt it was child’s play, dredging up more information about my family and me after confirming our association.Following my sister.He had the resources to find out just about anything on anyone.He would have known she was single.

Now I understood something else that had never occurred to me with so much bullshit drama threatening to drown me.Damian had probably sent that guy to the apartment to break in, to shake me up at the very least.Maybe to find more information on Spencer.

“Honestly,” she whispered, sliding a pleading look my way.“I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody.Not you, not even Spencer, definitely not Hannah.”

I wasn’t trying to hear that.Not with a hurricane raging inside me.“So you told him about the accident,” I concluded.

She gulped, nodding.“Vaguely.I swear to God.I told him it was some rich guy named Spencer.”

That was all he needed to know.Some rich guy named Spencer had crashed his car with me inside and gotten away unscathed.“You told him Spencer was Hannah’s father,” I added, groaning when she nodded in response.“You told him I wanted to be an actress?”

“There were so many conversations.It’s not like I told him everything at once.”Now she was defensive, shoulders hunched, eyes hard.“Yes, I must have.”

Chilly silence unfurled between us and hung in the air for a long time.My heart was too heavy.I didn’t know what to say.I didn’t know how to feel about her.“I’m going to need time with this,” I decided, standing and heading for the door.“If you’re going to be here, fine.I’ll be up in the bedroom.”

“Wait, Rowan,” she pleaded with tears in her voice.“Please, don’t hate me.”

I didn’t know how I felt, whether I hated her or not.I only knew I couldn’t say another word without either screaming or sobbing.It was better to remove myself from the situation, so I headed inside and straight upstairs without another word.She could explain my absence to Mom and Dad.

19

SPENCER

“If there's one surefire way to make the public forget bad press, it’s introducing something even worse.”My cousin Connor laughed somewhere on the East Coast, and I could hear ice tinkling in his glass like he was enjoying a celebratory drink.

After nearly two weeks of slugging it out in the mud, I was ready to join him.

“This should put an end to it,” he predicted.“I knew for sure once we found those two employees Fields poached from you, we would have it made.”

I sat in front of my open MacBook, checking out one headline after another.Tech guru accused of sabotage and competition.Tech genius poached competitor employees to steal secrets.Tech golden boy used arson, sabotage, bribery to get ahead.

Miles was the third party on our conference call, and he released a huge sigh.“We have one thing he couldn’t get his hands on.Proof.”

He was right.Proof in the form of signed testimonials describing the tactics Damian used to lure employees out of my company and into his.The promises he made, money he wired to their bank accounts through shell companies.He was generally smart enough not to leave a paper trail, but they did.They’d provided printouts of emails they sent him, screenshots of text messages, all of which pointed to very dirty dealings.

The second Connor ran the story this past weekend, the world forgot about me.There was no proof of anything printed about Rowan, whose name was never mentioned, and me.As much as I loathed Damian, I had to give him credit.He knew better than to drag anyone else’s name into this since they could easily sue.No doubt Rowan warned him about that.She wouldn’t want that sort of publicity around her.

In other words, there was no real story outside of unsubstantiated, secondhand rumors.A couple of phone calls to our respective Board members had helped soothe their concerns.Once we presented them with the proof Connor’s investigator pulled together, we were home free.

Since then, one of his thugs must have figured it was a good move to go to the authorities.He lawyered up, ready to talk about certain illegal activities in East Hampton and Silicon Valley, including a recent break-in at a competitor’s offices.

“Stupid sons of bitches like him never stop while they’re ahead,” Connor concluded with a dry laugh.“Enough is never enough.They get away with something small, so they decide to go bigger, until finally, they become so brazen it’s inevitable that they’re caught.I’m only glad I was able to be part of this.”

“I can’t thank you enough, cousin.Really.The same for Lucian and Ivy,” I added, thinking about the amount of effort the two co-directors of the company’s digital media team had put into their social media campaigns.“You’ve been lifesavers.”I meant every word and so much more I couldn’t verbalize.The problem was, I felt none of it.I knew I should, that eventually I might, but not then.Not in my otherwise empty apartment surrounded by what I used to consider solitude but now felt more like loneliness once the call ended.

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