“Lawsuit?” Julianna shouts. “What lawsuit?”
“Will you keep it down?” I glance over my shoulder.
Without instruction, Treena shuts the door to the hallway. The loud laughter and chatter from the hall is muted instantly.
“Um, excuse me?” Julianna crosses her arms over her chest. “My brother is being sued, hasn’t mentioned a single word of this to me, and now you’re asking me to keep it down?”
“Yes,” I clip, angrily. Annoyance simmers under my skin. My sister always manages to twist every situation to reflect how she’s feeling. “This isn’t about you, Julianna.” I growl, spinning and resting a hand on my hip while my other rubs at my mouth.
An ear-piercing silence swells in the room as everyone waits for me to react.
My sister breaks the silence.
“Who is suing Holt?”
“NotjustHolt,” Vanessa answers weakly. “He’s suing Holt’s magazine Scribe as well.”
“He?”
“Rome Montogomery.” His name spills from my mouth fast and bitterly, and I raise my head high enough to face my sister.
She laughs in disbelief. You think she’d just been told her favorite makeup brand was going bankrupt and she was ready to riot. I should know, because that’s exactly what she did when she was fourteen years old.
Julianna wasn’t bullshitting when she said she’s relentless in her pursuits.
Her head is tipped back as her laughter pours free and tears well in the corners of her eyes. Eventually, she calms enough to stare straight at me with her glassy, humor-filled gaze. “You’re kidding, right? Is this another one of your pranks?”
“No.”
Her face falls. Then it turns red.
Our family has had a long, sordid battle with the Montgomerys—a classic tale of competing families—but the personal vendetta my sister holds against Rome Montgomery, the prodigal son, takes our family rivalry and jacks it up on steroids. Her hatred for him runs deep.
“Rome is suing the magazine?” She’s shooting daggers at me, but I know they’re really meant for Rome. “Why?” she squeaks out. “Whyis Rome suing the magazine?”
“Defamation, apparently.” I wave my hand flippantly. “Some article in my anonymous column.”
“Our legal team is working on the case right now and gathering details to decide where to go from here,” Vanessa interrupts. “We don’t have the full story just yet, but we’ll build a strong case in your defense, Mr. Capuleti.”
“Defamation.” Julianna’s neck bobs as she swallows, and for a moment, she avoids my stare, biting down on her lip. The reality of the lawsuit must be hitting her. She knows the damage this will do to me and my company. “When did he bring this lawsuit on?”
“The night West and London held The Veiled Door reopening.”
Julianna’s eyes widen, her memories of that night evident. The night all of us watched our best-friend’s brother get demolished by a New York City Tour bus after finding out he’d faked his own death due to giving poor investment advice to members of the Irish fucking mob.
“Don’t worry about the details,” I offer Julianna, not wanting to think about that clusterfuck of a night any more than the rest of us.
“Oh, um, okay.” She nods once with a faraway glaze to her eyes.
“You shouldn’t be surprised. This is Rome Montgomery we’re talking about. I’ve tried to soften the hatred our families hold for quite some time now, and it doesn’t seem to have worked, so this doesn’t exactly come as a complete surprise. His blades are quite sharp.”
“Wait,” Julianna says. “Is this why you’ve been cozying up to him lately? Not-so-chalantly inviting him into our friend group?”
“Yes.”
The corner of her mouth lifts. “So, it wasn’t just to piss me off?”
“No. That was an unexpected perk, however.”
