Page 302 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 8
“Fine!” yelled Nigel. “I’ll tell you everything!” He took a deep breath. “A few years ago, Tanner had been trying to help Rosalie find love at the Society.”
Wait, what?!
Tanner shook his head. “I never met Rosalie...”
“Silence, Master!” said Nigel. “Stop being a cockwomble.”
A what?
“You’re out of control with your freedom, Nigel,” said Tanner.
“I’m sorry, Master. But you keep interrupting me! I’m telling secretses! Now, where was I? Ah yes, Tanner was helping Rosalie find true love. But one day she showed up to the Society super nervous. She’d walked in on Joe cheating on Ash. Tanner had Marty investigate and found out that Joe had just hired a hitman.”
A hitman to kill...Rosalie?! Oh my God.
“Wait, we’re talking about Joe Dickson, right?” asked Rob. “Cupcake?”
“Yes. Mr. Cupcake,” said Nigel.
Fucking Cupcake!
“I would have wiped Joe’s memory to stop the hit from happening,” continued Nigel, “but we didn’t know who the hitman was. And he’d still be coming after Rosalie even if Joe didn’t remember hiring him. So instead we decided it was best to wipe Rosalie’s memory and give her a new identity. And we also wiped everyone’s memory who knew her at the Society. And then Tanner asked moi to wipe his memories of her too. To keep Rosalie safe.”
I looked over at Tanner. And he just looked very confused.
What the hell, Nigel?“Why would you not tell us this?!”
“Because I got in trouble in the first place for not keeping secretses. And was cursed! I never make the same mistake twice. I’ve learned to keep secretses very well over the past couple centuries. I’m great at secretses now! The best! And everyone made me promise never to tell a soul. So I couldn’t. I was just being a good boy. But it’s been eating me up inside this whole time!”
Oh, Nigel.My heart hurt for him. He was just trying to be good.
“But I tried to make up for it by tricking the genie council into saying that Tanner would be free as soon as Miss Cooper found love.MissCooper. NotAshCooper. Which included Rosalie! Because she’s technically also Miss Cooper.” He took a deep breath. “That’s why I kept trying to get you guys to focus on helping Frankie find love. But would you listen to me? No.”
“Wait.” I stared at him. “Are you saying that Frankie is Rosalie?”
“Yes!” He smiled. “That feels good to say out loud.” He snapped his fingers and Frankie appeared in front of us.
Frankie screamed. “What is going on?”
“Let’s get her memory back, shall we?” said Nigel.
“What?” she said.
Nigel snapped again. Frankie turned into Rosalie.
Oh my God.It was really her. I could feel tears pooling in the corners of my eyes.I can’t believe this is real.
Rosalie shook her head. And then her eyes grew round when she saw me. “Ash?” She started crying. “Ash!” She ran over to me and threw her arms around me, almost knocking me over.
“Rosalie!” I hugged her back. My tears started spilling down my cheeks. “I never thought I’d see you again,” I sobbed into her hair.
“I’m so so sorry,” she said. “I wanted to tell you before I disappeared, but I was so scared.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for.” I hugged her even tighter. But then I pulled back to look at her again. I was having a hard time believing this was actually her. “I can’t believe what Joe did.” Actually...I could. Because it was freaking Joe!
“That asshole,” she said.
Yeah, this was definitely Rosalie. I hugged her again. I didn’t want to ever let go. “I’ve missed you so much.”
