“Ms. Clayborn, please…”
“You shut the fuck up!”
Even Dee stepped back at that blow-up. Even Danica stepped back, eyes wide as the timid and mousy Ms. Sarah Clayborn shot her the fiercest look a woman ever mustered.
“What do you fucking know!” Sarah pointed an accusatory finger at her boss. “You know nothing about what’s going on! You have no one but yourself to blame.” Now that dirty look was shot at Alicia.Oh my God. Was this what Sarah really thought of her? All those weeks of fetching her for fuck dates, acting like it was another day on the job? “Ever since you met that woman, you’ve endangered us all!”
Alicia gasped. “Surely you don’t mean…”
“Shut up!” Tears streamed down Sarah’s face as she turned her dirty look to Alicia. “Aren’t you supposed to be quiet when yourMistressisn’t talking to you?”
That set Danica off again. Alicia was too speechless to respond.
“None of you has any room to judge or talk. Maybe if you ever looked beyond yourselves and saw what was going...” No more words. Sarah curled around her brother and hid her incessant tears in his T-shirt.
He took her hand whilst pushing himself up. “I did it,” Nigel admitted. “I pushed Mrs. Moreau.” Was that a look of fear or guilt? “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you or your baby.”
“Then why?” both Sarah and Danica asked at the same time.
“I had to.” Nigel shook his head. “Mr. Moreau made me do it. I didn’t want to!”
Alicia was the first to approach him after that.
“What do you mean hemadeyou?” She knew that the Clayborns did work for Russell, too… and was not surprised tofind out they did dirty work. Why wouldn’t they? He probably paid better than his daughter when it came down to it.
“Yes,” Danica said. “Explain yourself. Now.”
Nigel scoffed. Was he as disgusted with his boss as Sarah was?
“Come on, Nigel! Why would you do something like that? You should’ve told her the moment you were told to do something so deplorable.” She pointed to Danica as if her brother didn’t know the boss was in the room.
“First of all, why the hell would she believe me?”
“Trust me. I’m well aware of my father’s bullshit. Why do you think my wife has a bodyguard?”
“I didn’t have a choice!” Nigel shrugged his sister off him. “He was going to hurt you again, Sarah!”
Ms. Clayborn’s breath left her body. “What are you talking about?” she whispered.
Nigel cried. The way he wrapped his arms around his sister, the way they cradled each other… Alicia would never know what it was like to be a twin.At first, I thought it was weird that they lived together as adults. Let alone twenty-somethings who would surely want their separate private lives.Now I understand.They protect each other.Danica truly did not know what she had working for her.
“I couldn’t let it happen,” Nigel said. Everyone else in the room was too frozen in disbelief to say anything. “He told me if I didn’t hurt Mrs. Moreau, he would hurt you, instead.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Sarah asked, incredulous.
“How the hell could I tell you that! It was bad enough he did those things to you before.”
Sarah shuddered. “I didn’t do anything unwillingly.”
Danica took a step forward. “Someone explain something right now.”
Ms. Clayborn was the one to stand, wiping away her tears and shooting her boss a look that spoke of her underlyingindependence. “God, you really are oblivious,” she muttered. “You didn’t even know I was fucking your father.”
Danica was too shocked to speak.
“I knew he was using me. I knew it wouldn’t lead to anything, but I went along with it. I work so much that I never get any personal time to date other people. I admit I was stupid. Why would a man like that treat me well? Pft.”
“Sarah, stop…”
