Something like this wouldn’t just ruin my career; it’d ruin Leo’s as well. It’d hurt Joyce, my family, and anyone associated with me. My own callousness will impact every single person I’m close with.
My parents and Joyce could disown me, but it won’t change the fact that they’ll pay for my sins. Everything is my fault.
Mom was right. I’m an out of control, stupid mess.
I stay hidden under the blankets to send my first real response to him.
Mina: What do you want?
Bile churns in my stomach. I have to cover my mouth with my trembling hand to keep my cries silent. I’ve upped the volume on my laptop and turned away from the screen’s light in case Leo looks at the cameras.
This is all my fault.
I should have just left Leo alone. Now, he might pay the consequences of my actions.
Even if the information that goes out ruins my career, even if I go back to school and get a degree, who’s going to hire me?
How am I even going to afford to get through school? What could I even give this guy? There’s next to nothing to my name.
Unknown Number: $500,000, and all your secrets are safe with me.
My chest squeezes, and I swallow down a sob.
Five hundredthousand?
I’m going to lose everything.
The people around me are going to lose everything.
It doesn’t matter that this book has my highest recorded preorder amount. I’ll never earn enough to pay him what he wants—and I’ll never make that money if it comes out that I’ve been stalking the Serpents’ star player.
Mina: I don’t have that kind of money. You have access to my accounts—you can see that.
It’s not like I can ask my parents for help. They’d say no even if they had the funds. Regardless, I can’t put them through that.
Leo...He’dhave that kind of money. Could I ask him to do that? No. This is my problem to deal with. I can’t get him to bail me out unless I’ve tried to deal with this myself first. I’ll be fucking up my entire relationship with him if I ask.
And going to the police would be like handing myself in and confessing to all my crimes—and there wouldn’t be any guarantee that they’d catch him before he goes public with what he has on me.
Unknown Number: How much are you willing to pay for my silence?
Mina: I can get $5,000 transferred to you right now. Please. You can see that’s all I have.
The insurance company finally paid us out, and one of the companies I collaborated with months ago finally sent the funds. It’s all the money I have for a couple more weeks, so I’ll have to ask Joyce if she can cover my half of the rent, and I’ll pay her back once my royalties are in.
I hold my breath, waiting for his response.
If he doesn’t agree, then what the fuck will I do? Drag Leo into it? Have this huge debt to him hanging over my head for the rest of my life? I’ll feel like I owe him just as much as I owe Mom, and if things were to ever turn sour with him, I wouldn’t be able to leave because he would’ve paid half a million dollars getting me out of my own fuckup.
Unknown Number: I’ll send you the account details. I want the money by tomorrow morning.
I sit up. The blankets fall around my waist as I reread the message.
Is he serious? He’s willing to settle for a single percent of what he asked for?
So this means... it’s over? He’s going to let it go, and I don’t need to ruin everyone’s lives or screw up my relationship with Leo?
The account number and name comes through, and I can hardly believe my eyes. He... agreed. I want to laugh at how easy this was, but nothing is ever that simple in real life. This doesn’t feel over.
