Page 121 of Twisted Truth

I sigh. Mother Lucy is on a warpath, and I doubt anything I say at this point will change her course. She’s worried about this arrangement, and because she grew up in a wealthy and powerful family—nothing near the Langford’s level, but still a prominent family from Chicago—she’s sure she’s the only one in my life who speaks their language. Rich people language. And she’s determined to make sure that nothing nefarious is going on. No matter how many times I told her there isn’t.

She gives my shared conference room office a cursory glance before heading out the door and down the hall toward Asher’s and Declan’s offices.

“Lucy!” I hiss, hurrying after her. “No. Come into my office and sign the NDA in there. I can have one of the receptionists get a notary.”

She doesn’t deign to answer before she looks at Asher’s office and breezes past it. I tug on her arm just as she reachesDeclan’s office and opens the door without knocking, without invitation, and without an announcement of any kind.

Declan’s surprised face greets us. He raises a brow.

“I’m so sorry, Declan!” I stammer. I grab onto Lucy’s elbow. “Let’s go,” I hiss through clenched teeth.

“Can I help you?” he asks, looking Lucy up and down.

“Why yes, you can.”

“No, that won’t be necessary,” I say, tugging on her arm again.

“And you are?”

“Lucya Morozov, Ella’s friend. And I’m here because Asher is gone at the moment, and I have some questions regarding Ella that I think someone from the Langford family needs to answer.”

She helps herself to one of the seats across from his desk and sits like a queen on a throne. Declan gives her an appraising look, and now both of his brows are in his hairline. “Like what?”

“Like what the fuck you all were thinking dragging Ella into the mess of your family’s own making.”

Declan sits silent for a moment, then throws his head back and bellows out a laugh. “You’ve got mettle, I’ll give you that.”

“Don’t patronize me, Langford. Your brother not being able to keep his dick in his pants is not Ella’s fucking problem to fix, and now your family has made it her problem to do so. And you’ve dragged her into the paparazzi shitstorm that your family can’t seem to keep out of.”

A glint of fire sparks in Declan’s eyes at Lucy’s brash words.

“We’re compensating her well for it.”

Lucy scoffs. “Five million. That’s trash money for turning her life inside out. She may never know true anonymity again.”

“Trash money?”

“I could pay her five million, myself. So don’t act like it’s some grand gesture.”

Declan smirks. “What do you think would be a more appropriate figure?”

“Loss of anonymity costs money for a long time. Possibly Ella’s entire future. So, for that entire future, she needs to be able to pay for security, upscale housing to ensure a protected neighborhood, lawyers to push back when people try to take advantage of her face or name. I’d say twenty million, bare minimum.”

Declan laughs again. “And you’d have no interest in that twenty million, right? You wouldn’t be badgering Ella for money for the rest of her less-than-anonymous life?”

“You think I’m here as some kind of hustle? I don’t needLangfordmoney, thank you very much. But Ella does because of this mess you all dragged her into, so the Langfords should fucking pay up.”

“You don’t needLangfordmoney?”

“No, the Morozov’s pockets may not run as deep as the Langford’s, but I have more than my fair share of wealth.”

“Where are you from, Ms. Morozov?”

“Chicago. The Morozovs and the Antonovs are close family allies there.” Lucy’s words are loaded, and I wonder, not for the first time, if Lucy’s family is part of the Russian mafia. She’s always been extremely tight lipped about her family and their business, but I know they have a fortune, and they have ventures in all sorts of businesses.

And I know Lucy has an extremely strained relationship with them.

Her father was beyond furious when she chose to go to school in New York instead of Chicago, but she did so because she wanted to get away from him. One time when she was drunk, she told Maya, Zahra, and me that she wished she could run away from her family and never return. When we asked why she couldn’t, she simply said,“They’d find me. No matter howfar I went, no matter what corner of the earth I tried to hide in, they’d find me.”