“She’s…” His voice breaks, from anger, from something else, I’m not sure. “She’s threatening to go to the press about us. She wants money to keep quiet, or she’s going to sell the story. Christ, she sent it to my goddamn work email.”
My heart halts in my chest.
His mother… she’s…
“She’s blackmailing you?” I whisper.
His throat moves as he swallows, nodding. “Fuck, I knew that bitch, I fuckingknewshe was up to something more than just showing up here. I could feel it.”
Reaching out, I grab onto the chair to steady myself.
A thousand thoughts race through my mind. It’s not like I hadn’t thought of what would happen if someone found out about Wilder and me, but I never allowed myself to consider the fact that it might actually happen.
I was too afraid to think about it, if I’m being honest. I was scared that it would get Wilder fired or that he wouldn’t want to do this anymore.
Fury rolls off Wilder in powerful waves, thick tension settling in the air until it feels hard to breathe.
He’s pacing now, raking his hands roughly through his hair. Each step he takes seems like it only makes him more agitated, more pissed off.
“Let’s just think about it for a moment. I mean, there’s no proof, so why would anyone believe he?—”
“Thereisproof, Maisie,” he says, cutting me off. “You think I would just lose my shit if I didn’t think what she was saying would be credible? Jesus Christ, clearly, this bitch has been hanging around for fuck knows how long because she fucking caught us together more than once.”
His words are harsh and cold, but I know it’s just because he’s freaking out. Because he’s pissed.
Rightfully so.
His own mother is trying to blackmail him for money.
The same mother who abused and abandoned him.
“Show me.”
When he doesn’t even look at me, I repeat it. “Show me, Wilder. Right now!”
At that, he stalks over to the table and grabs his phone, tapping at the screen before thrusting it into my shaking hands.
The email is short, only one ominous paragraph, but it drives the point home and causes my heart to bottom out.
Subject: 1 week.
Wilder. I thought you wuld’ve been more willing to help your mama out but I see now that ur too good for that after the way u treated me the other day. You were too busy worried about that girl
And I had a thought that she looked real young… had my friend look into it.
Hes good at finding the stuff you don’t want no one to know. And lookey what he found, huh?
Turns out you’re as degenerate as you think your mother is.
Messing around with a student? Not too sure your fancy hockey career can save u from that one. This can all go away if you help your mama out.
You got the money and I need it to pay back my friend who helped me out.
I want five hundred thousand.
