“I’m not playing games, Peter. Get out of here, or I’ll call security and have the police escort you out.”
“Go ahead. We can give the journalists here a much bigger story than a funeral. Let’s tell them all how you’re not the mother of those two cute little girls.”
Even from this distance, I saw his gaze slide from me to where the girls stood with their grandmother. My panic spiked, sharp and cold.
“Take your eyes off them,” I snarled, my voice low and venomous. “Don’t you dare take one step closer to them, or I’ll—”
“Or you’ll what?” He laughed, his eyes snapping back to me. “Seriously, Evy? Playing the overprotective mother? They arenothingto you.”
He was so wrong. Those girls wereeverythingto me. In that moment, I knew with chilling certainty that I would tear him apart with my bare hands if he so much as looked at them again.
“What do you want, Peter?” My voice was taut with barely controlled rage. “I gave you what you wanted. I know the check cleared.”
“It did. And you know… you gave it to me so easily. No negotiation, no argument… It made me realize that fifty thousand was just a drop in the bucket for you now. There’s so much more where that came from.”
A sickening realization dawned. I’d been so desperate to make him disappear; I hadn't considered that my compliance would only whet his appetite. I had shown him a well, and now he had come back with a bigger bucket.
My immediate, desperate instinct was to give him whatever he asked for—to offer every last penny from my deal with Logan if it would make him vanish for good.
But I knew that would be a catastrophic mistake. If he’d blown through fifty thousand in days, any new sum would vanish just as fast. He would keep coming back, a leech with a bottomless appetite, until I had nothing left. And then what would he demand?
I should have told Logan the first time Peter called. But I’d thought it was settled, that fifty thousand would buy our peace. My gaze drifted to Logan, still comforting his grieving brother. Now was not the time. Once again, I had to handle this myself.
“You’re right,” I said, my voice cold as I looked back at Peter. “I have more. But not much.”
“For now, I’ll settle for five hundred thousand.”
A desperate, naive part of me screamed to just agree. But the rational part knew better—this would never end. He would bleed me dry, and then what?
“Are you insane?” I bluffed. “I don’t have that kind of money.”
“Oh, you do. And if you don’t, you’ll find it. You’re sleeping with a millionaire, Evy. I’m sure he’s showered you with jewelry by now. Get me some.”
“Jewelry?”
“Isn’t that how rich men pay for their personal whores?”
“Shut your mouth, you piece of shit,” I snarled. My insult only made him laugh, a raw, jagged sound. And that’s when it clicked. “Are you on drugs?”
“Look, I just sell, okay? …Fine, maybe I started using a little after you left, but it’s under control.”
“You sell drugs? Did you sell them when we were together?”
“Some clients took forever to pay… some bastards skipped town and left me holding the bag. I had to pay my supplier, or he’d end me.”
“Is that what you spent all my money on?”
“After I cleaned out your account, I had nothing left! I started buying expensive things with your card to use as payment. I was going to pay you back as soon as my clients did!”
“You… what?” A wave of nauseating horror washed over me. “You were selling drugs out ofourhome?”
The risks I had unknowingly taken crashed down on me. The police could have raided our apartment. I could have been arrested as an accomplice. Or worse, one of his suppliers or clients could have come to settle a score with violence.
“The easy money was tempting. It still is. I just need to pay off my debt, and then I’ll get it all back.”
“No one is going to pay you, you idiot! You’re in over your head. You’re going to get yourself killed.”
“I’m in too deep to back out now, Evy.”
