Page 131 of Holly Jolly July

“Yes, ma’am.”

She passes his phone to me and leaves her post, walking to the Christmas tree where we’d hidden my phone. She taps the screen and replays his confession.

His face freezes. “You recorded all this?”

“Yup,” I say, tilting my chin in pride.

“Perfect. I’ll use the evidence in court when I sue you for attacking me,” he snarls.

Ellie trims the video, leaving only his confession left. “No, you won’t.”

“Aren’t you curious why we recorded you?” I tilt my head to the side.

His face shifts from anger to fear. “No.”

My lips twitch into a cruel smile. “Liar. Ellie, do it.”

She presses a few buttons, and Matt’s phone dings with a notification. I open the newly trimmed confession on his phone, then show it to Jax as I select Send All from his contacts list.

“You wouldn’t,” Matt warns.

“Oh, we will.” I take my turn as the villain, inching closer like Ellie had. “To every. Single. Person. All the women you’ve been playing, all the women you’ve courted past and present. To your whole family.”

“Including your grandma, whose death you fabricated!” Ellie adds.

He glares at her. “I didn’t lie about that.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Ellie softens for a moment, then turns serious again. “Then we’ll send it to your mom!”

His eyes widen in fear. “No! Not my mom!”

My finger hovers over the Send button, getting closer, and closer, and—

“Stop!”Jax shouts. His breathing is fast and ragged, eyes wild.“You want money? I’ll give you money! Just please, don’t send that to my mom.”

Despite myself, my heart twinges for him. “We don’t want money,” I say.

“And we don’t necessarily want you to stop sleeping around,” Ellie adds. “All we want is for you to stop lying.”

“You want to have lots of partners at the same time, fine. There’s nothing wrong with that,” I explain. “But be honest. Not just with them, but with yourself, about who you are and what you want.”

“You might get laid less,” Ellie concedes, “but it’s the right thing to do.”

Jax looks back and forth from Ellie to me. “Seriously? That’s it?” Jax scoffs. “Okay. Fine. I promise I’ll be honest from now on. Now please, can you let me go?”

I look over at Ellie, and she looks back at me, annoyed that he’s not taking us seriously. “There’s nothing we can do to make sure he holds himself to that,” I realize aloud.

Ellie shakes her head. “Not really.”

I sigh, coming to terms with reality. “We can’t save everyone. Not the women in his phone, not the people he’s going to hurt, and we especially can’t save him.” I jut my chin toward Jax.

“I don’t need saving.”

I look back at Jax, feeling a bit sorry for him. “Someday he’s going to be old and all alone with no one to love him and he’s going to regret playing with people’s hearts.”

Ellie nods. “I’d say that’s punishment enough.”

I delete the video, lock the phone, and hand it back to Jax. Then Ellie helps me untie the lights and unlock the handcuffs. Jax stands, rubbing his sore wrist.

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