Oh. What’s a retreat supposed to do?
As if reading her mind, Chelsea continued, “She brought herbestie, Jessica, too. You know her.”
“Her pick-me friend from the academy?” Emily asked but knew the answer anyway.
Chelsea nodded. “Yep. And guess what?” She paused a few seconds for added effect. “Turns outJessicawas the mistress all along!”
What thehell?! That was the last thing Emily expected. Sophia and Jessica, Dumb and Dumber, as she liked to call them, were equally inseparable as they were insufferable. She never thought one would betray the other like that.
“When those two were bold enough to make out where they thought the coast was clear—and I mean full-blown action with her hand in his pants and her dress hiked to her chest—Sophia’s hidden cameras caught everything.”
Emily’s eyes tore open in shock.
“Now everyone’s seen the footage she’s put out. Friends, colleagues, even potential business partners. Frank is so fucking screwed, and not in the way he expected,” Chelsea snickered, referring to the social-climbing husband who’d always rubbed Emily the wrong way. He had a history of sleeping around when they were teenagers. But now with Jessica of all people?
God.
Turned out men had a habit of eating close to home.
“What they did was social suicide. They’re both done for,” Chelsea tsked with a shake of her head. “But you know what?”
Emily stared at her, waiting on what she’d say.
“I’m happy she got back at them.”
She stiffened. “Chels?—”
“What?” Chelsea asked innocently. “Being the bigger person sucks in these situations.”
Emily looked away, her jaw tightening.
Her sister’s gaze followed the motion. “I’m just saying,” she muttered, shrugging one shoulder. “Sometimes people need to be reminded who they’re dealing with.”
Emily lifted her eyes, seeing that she was already watching her, almost daring her to disagree.
She held her stare longer than she meant to. Too long. Long enough for the suggestion to stop sounding ridiculous and start sounding…justified.
Chelsea tilted her head, a knowing smile curving at the corners of her mouth.
Maybe she was right.
Maybe…maybe it was time they remembered exactly who Emily was.
That was when it hit her, like a light bulb flickering to life.Twisted and risky. A plan.
Arevengeplan.
Emily knew something like this wasn’t morally right. She knew better, but the well-behaved part of her, the part that always kept her head down when she was wronged, wanted to be the bad guy for once.
Just this once.
Let me actually be worthy of the title.
3
Emily’s revenge plan was shelved as she found herself on a flight to California the next morning. She knew telling her best friend the wedding was off in the group chat shared with Chelsea would stir something. What she hadn’t expected was a plane ticket.
She’d tried to talk her way out of it, but if there was anyone who was the definition of relentless, it was Zariah Davis. And there she was, leaning against the railing. Emily spotted her as theArrivalssign flickered overhead.
