“Okay, but?”
“But he’s the brother of someone my dad set up.”
“Says him.”
“True, I only have his word for it but, Knox, I believe him.”
Knox unhooks my arms from around him and leans me back so he can see my face.
“You’ve been crying. Did he frighten you? What did he do?”
I silently recall the frightening scene in the break room at work…
“Is your father’s name Camden?”
“What are you talking about, Ben?”
“Your name is Gigi King. Isn’t your father’s name Camden King? Doesn’t he hack into people’s lives and create them a new one? He can turn a nun into a stripper with a few clicks of his keyboard, right?” He asked angrily.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You’re a liar just like him but you’re going to pay for what your family did to me, bitch.”
“Are you crazy–“
WHACK!
Ben smacked my cheek hard with an open palm then grabbed me by my arms and pushed me to the ground. I was scared to death and crying on the floor of the break room when we heard someone coming.
“I’ll be back for you,” he warned, and then he quickly stomped out of the building.
It was probably the scariest moment of my life, but a reckoning that I knew would one day would come being the daughter of Camden King.
“I know he wasn’t going to really hurt me, but he has a lot of pent-up anger,” I try rationalizing Ben’s behavior to Knox. “His brother having to go to jail when he was just a kid changed the whole trajectory of his life and that’s why he ended up in jail too.”
Knox stares silently at me for a moment, then grabs my hand and walks me to the bathroom. It has a rather dated sink with a long Formica countertop and Knox picks me up by the waist and sits me on top of it.
“Up you go.”
He grabs a washcloth, wets it with warm water, and starts wiping my face especially around my eyes. I keep my lids closed as Knox softly wipes away the residual mascara and tears on my face. The soft towel feels so good and is exactly the kind of comfort I need right now. It’s not just that Ben scared me, but I'm shaken by the fact that someone with a vendetta against my family could get so close to me and I didn’t suspect him for a moment.
“So, this was some sort of revenge plot on his part?” Knox asks after a momentary pause.
I love how calm he’s being about this whole thing. Maybe he’s not a complete rage monster like he used to be when we were teenagers. Maybe he’s actually grown up like he said
“I guess so. I mean, I asked him what was the point of getting a job where I worked, and he told me he honestly didn’t know. That he didn’t have a plan. He said he just waned to learn more about the people who destroyed his family.”
“And so you just happened to be his first target?”
“I think I was probably the easiest target to get to.”
“Did he hit you?” Knox's voice sounds almost pained.
“Once,” I reluctantly admit but figure it’s best just to admit the truth at this point.
“Where?”
“He lost his composure for a moment.”
