Bianca pushes past Matthias and rushes in. She looks nothing like the confident best friend I used to have—or the arrogantly defiant traitor who slung insults at me. Her hair is frizzy and wild—when was the last time it saw a brush?—and her eyes are wide. Her lipstick is smeared, and her silver dress is wrinkled. Her yellow sandals clash with the dress.
“You have to stop him!” she shouts.
Matthias tries to catch her arm and drag her out. But she eludes him.
“It’s okay, Matthias,” I say, not wanting him to get injured trying to remove her. She won’t care who she hurts as long as she gets what she wants.
“He’s gonna sue!” she shrieks.
I stare blankly. “Who?”
“Sebastian! He’s suing me!”
“Oh.” Still seated on the mat, I rest an elbow on my knee and prop my chin in my hand.
“Oh?Oh?” Her breathing roughens. “Is that all you’re going to say?”
“What do you want me to say?” I ask in genuine confusion.
“You’re supposed to be my friend!”
“You threw our friendship away, Bianca.” It’s so strange I’m not experiencing any strong feelings that would bring tears to my eyes at the sight of her. It’s like I’m looking at a lump of cancerous cells that were excised.
“Fine. Then make him stop. Do it as your final act as my friend.”
I just look at her. Does she honestly expect me to lift a finger for her after she backstabbed me?
She must be reading my thoughts. After all, we were together for a long time. “You have everything! This is the least you can do!
“I owe you nothing, Bianca. Leave before I join Sebastian in the suit.”
“I can’t! Nobody will hire me after this.”
“Call Roderick.” He’s been looking for a new young assistant since he broke up with Gwen. Bianca meets his requirements.
“He’s getting prosecuted! He’ll be in jail by the time this is over!”
Prosecuted?“For what?”
“What thefuck?” She’s so loud, it’s making my ears hurt. “Check your fucking phone once in a while!”
“Mathias?” I say. “Could you please call 911?”
“Certainly.” The answer comes with cheerful alacrity.
Tears spring to her red-rimmed eyes. “This just hurts,” she chokes out. “Bitch! I was right to be wary! You’re miserable—like always—and you want everyone else to be miserable, too! Yousuck!” She spins around and stalks out, her heels pounding into the marble. Not sure why she’s doing that, because she’s only going to hurt her feet and ruin her shoes. Those sandals weren’t designed to cushion her feet.
After the door’s closed behind her, I slowly get up and stretch my arms over my head. I guess I should see what’s going on if Bianca’s freaking out like this. I still can’t believe Sebastian is suing her. For what? For being a shitty friend to his soon-to-be-ex-wife? That’s not a crime.
I pad to the table where I left my phone. The second I turn it on, a bazillion messages pop up. Almost all of them are from Bianca and Roderick, with several from Darren.
I skim them to get the gist of the information. Sebastian is suing Bianca for negligence, malice, malfeasance, embezzlement and unjust enrichment, among other things. He says she’s hurt the Sebastian Peery collaboration, which cost Sebastian Jewelryincalculabledamages, submitted false expense reports regarding the project and so on. I almost laugh at the overdramatic language his lawyer used. Karen and I already priced it out. It isn’tincalculable. And if such a miserly sum could put Sebastian Jewelry under, I wouldn’t have wanted to partner with them.
Roderick is in a more serious situation, though. The audit team I had Julio hire finally completed its work. They found over seven hundred irregularities. When they couldn’t reach me, they reached out to Sebastian, who obviously took matters into his own hands. He’s having the federal prosecutor go after Roderick. Sebastian wants Roderick in jail.
Darren… He’s been fired and arrested for embezzlement. Also getting prosecuted. He sent me over one hundred texts. The latest one reads:Please! You have to save me from your crazy husband! For the sake of our old memories!
He shouldn’t have added that last part. The only old memory I can really recall is him pounding into Frankie.
