Page 136 of Dial L for Lawyer
"How can I not? You're suspended because you helped me!"
"I'm suspended because Maya Bolton is a vengeful bitch who's trying to hurt you through me," he says firmly. "This is on her, not you."
"Caleb—"
"I have to go. Bennett, keep an eye on her. Don't let her do anything stupid."
"Understood," Bennett says.
"Serena?"
"Yeah?"
"This doesn't change anything between us."
"OK," I whisper, my eyes burning because how can it not?
After he hangs up, I stare at the phone in my hand.
"We need to fix this," I say.
"We need to let the process play out," Bennett corrects. "Anything we do could make it worse."
"So we just sit here while his career gets destroyed?"
"We be smart," Layla says, kneeling to clean up the broken glass. "We document everything. We prepare for whatever comes next."
But all I can think about is that moment in the jail, Maya's question about Caleb. The look on her face—that tiny, satisfied smirk. She knew exactly what she was doing. Even behind bars, she's found a way to hurt me one more time. God, and I honestly walked away from that meeting feeling like we cleared the air. I'm so stupid!
"This is ridiculous," Dominic says, pacing now. "Everyone knows what really happened. Caleb was into you from dayone. The dinner thing was just his way of getting you to stop running."
"But that's not how it sounds," I say, dropping my head into my hands. "When you say it out loud it sounds predatory."
"Context matters," Bennett says, his voice steady but strained. "The ethics board will look at the full picture."
I look at the boxes around us, each one labeled with hope for the future. "What if he loses his license because of me?"
"You think you ruined him? No," Dominic says, surprising me with his seriousness. "He made his choice. And so did you. Now it’s our turn to make sure neither of you pays for it alone. That’s what we do—we figure shit out. Together.”
"But this time it really is my fault," I say. "I didn’t expect Maya to…Even after everything. I thought... I thought we were finally being honest with each other."
"You were being honest," Layla says. "She was gathering ammunition. That's on her, not you."
But as I sit there surrounded by the people who've become my chosen family, all I can think is that my need to connect, to be understood, to share my truth with someone who I thought finally got it—that need just destroyed the man I love.
But maybe that’s just who I am. The girl who ruins the people who dare to love her.
CHAPTER 33
Serena
"Ishould unpack everything."
The words are out of my mouth as soon as Bennett hangs up from his marathon information gathering session with his assistant. While he was asking Jenna to help with damage control, I was standing in the middle of my apartment, surrounded by the boxes we'd been packing together just hours ago, and all I could think was that I need to undo it all.
"What?" Layla stares at me like I've lost my mind. "Why would you unpack?"
"Because they're going to investigate everything. Every text, every meeting. If it looks like we were planning to move in together, like this was some predetermined relationship?—"
