“Oh, yeah.” She laughed bitterly. “You think Madison’s bad? Her mom iscrazy.”
“How do you know that?”
“Well, I couldn’t figure out how Madison always knew where you were going to be. You know, how she always knew where I should go to spy on you. She said her mom taught her how to clone someone’s phone. She bragged about how easy it was.” Jamie shook her head. “Her mom had done it in the past in order to steal clients from other real estate agents at her firm.”
“Why is she doing this to me, though?”
Jamie looked at me like I was stupid. “To get full custody of the baby when it’s born.”
I could have sworn my heart stopped beating for a full five seconds. When it started again, it was pounding fast and strong in my chest.Of course.It all added up. Madison had tried to get me fired … convince everyone I was an alcoholic … set Children’s Services on me.She’s trying to set me up so I’ll be declared unfit to parent my own baby. That’s her game.I felt dizzy. “And she sent you to slash my tires and scratch ‘whore’ into my door too?”
“What?”
“The night of my work meeting at the Alto Lounge. When I got back to my car afterward, my tires had been slashed, and someone had scratched the word ‘whore’ into the paint. It cost me almost fourteen hundred dollars for all the repairs.”
Jamie looked panicked. “No, I swear that wasn’t me! Madison just asked me to follow you to the meeting, then take a picture of your car and tell her where it was parked. She must have done that herself, or had someone else do it for her.”
“What about the fraudulent charges on my credit card, and a picture of me buying tons of booze at a liquor store?”
Jamie frowned. “No … she never mentioned anything about stuff like that. But it does sound like something she would do, or make someone else do.”
Dammit. How many people does Madison have doing her dirty work for her?
“So, what does she have on you?” I asked, remembering the texts about pills.
Jamie sighed and looked down at her hands. “Madison works at this other women’s clinic, over near Potrero del Sol—the Trident Clinic. She’s a part-time administrative assistant.”
My eyebrows popped.Madison has a job? I didn’t think her royal highness bothered with things like that.
“I used to work at the Trident Clinic too, up until recently. In fact, I’m the one who got her the job there, about a year and a half ago. We went to high school together.” A shadow seemed to fall over her face as the memories came back to her. “Madison was always one of the most popular girls in high school. She was beautiful, wealthy, had tons of friends. She had this entourage who always followed her around, like puppy dogs.” Jamie shook her head. “I don’t know. To me, she always seemed so … fake. She acted like she was this sweet, innocent girl, but she could be really mean.
“The day she came in to apply for the admin job, I recognized her. I was like, ‘Madison Clark? You went to WoodgroveHigh School, right? Class of 2015?’ She got this huge smile on her face and insisted on taking me out to eat for my lunch break so we could ‘catch up.’ She asked me all sorts of questions about the doctor I worked for. She kept saying how fun it would be if we worked together—how we could hang out all the time and be ‘such good girlfriends.’ It was a little bizarre … but also kind of nice. Ever since I had my son, I haven’t really had many friends. My ex kind of turned all our friends against me when he broke up with me.” She released a shuddering breath. “Anyway, she asked me to talk to the doctor and put in a good word for her. So I did. I definitely had to stretch the truth for her; she didn’t have any experience in a medical office at all—I actually don’t think she’d ever had ajobbefore.” She shook her head again, as if chastising her former self for doing it.
“One day, months ago … she caught me doing something that I’m really not proud of. Everything changed between us. The second she had something she could use against me, it became super clear that I was just a means to an end for her. Eventually, she forced me to apply for a job at Dr. Quinlan’s office so I could keep an eye on your pregnancy.”
“You stole some pills, right?” I asked gently.
Jamie’s eyes widened in fear. “Oh my God.Pleasedon’t tell anyone. It’s just … I can’t afford health insurance.” She laughed bitterly. “Ironic, huh? Given that I work for a doctor?” She looked away for a moment as her eyes turned glassy. “I didn’t take them for myself, or to sell them, or anything like that. It was for my son. He had a really bad ear infection. I couldn’t afford to take him to urgent care. So … I tried to take some antibiotics from the medicine supply for him. Madison caught me. If she turned me in, I’d not only lose my job, but I’d never be able to get another job in a medical office again. I could even be charged with a crime.”
As much as I despised what Jamie had done to me, had put me through, I felt my anger at her softening. In a way, we wereboth Madison’s victims. “I’m sorry that she blackmailed you. That’s horrible.”
“And I’m sorry I told her your baby’s gender. I thought she just wanted to know whether to buy pink stuff or blue stuff—honest. When you showed up at the clinic that day, so angry …”
“You ran.”
Jamie nodded.
I was right.I sighed and leaned back on the bench, staring up at the blue sky as I digested Jamie’s story.This bitch is not only ruining my life, she’s ruining this girl’s too. And Jamie has a son she’s taking care of all by herself.
“Can I …” Jamie’s voice was soft, hesitant. “Can I please have my phone back? I know what I did is terrible. But I have a kid, and I can’t afford to buy a new phone. I feel like my job’s already on thin ice—I know Dr. Quinlan suspects something. Please?”
I sighed. “Alright. I can drop it off at the clinic for you tomorrow.”After I download all the evidence.
Jamie smiled with relief. “Thank you. And—I’m really sorry. I felt like I had no choice.”
“Look—you have to stop doing Madison’s dirty work. Stop letting her hold this over you. It sounds like you’ve done more than enough. Tell her you’re done.”
Jamie laughed. “I would love to. And maybe I could get Madison to back off … but her mom is a different story. That woman—she’s scary. And anytime Princess Madison doesn’t get what she wants right away, she goes whining to Mommy.”
