The door swings open.
We creep into the dark house.
Carolina flips on the lights.
“We’re trying to go incognito here, girly. Turn that shit off,” Gran hisses. “Now, flashlights out, ladies. We’re looking for incriminating evidence to hang a cheater.”
I meander into what’s supposed to be the office but looks more like a junk pile. I sift through the heap of bills haphazardly piled on his desk.
“If he’s cheating, he’s sending money to someone.” I sort through, looking for bills or credit card statements.
Late notices?
Debt collection?
I frown, opening up one credit card statement. “Jeez, Knox. You make five million a year and you can’t pay your—what is that?—eighty thousand dollar credit card bill. What is he even spending it on?” My hands itch to sit down and do his accounting for him.
No. Man wants to set himself on fire?Let him.
I open his other drawers. “For someone who just moved in, his stuff is not well organized.”
“The movers probably just packed up everything in his house as is and emptied the garbage truck here,” Kathy whispers as I dig through the messy drawers.
“He never let me in his office at home,” Kathy adds as she uses her fake police flashlight to pan around the room. “One time, I went in to try to clean up, and he flipped out and told me it was his house and I didn’t get to go anywhere he didn’t expressly give me permission to be.”
“Dickhead,” I mutter as I open the bottom drawer.
I see a corner of shiny paper. Something about the color of it makes my chest tight.
It can’t be.
I carefully slide them out.
Nudes.
A teenage girl stares longingly at the camera in a red skirt that’s too small for her, her boobs out, with lipstick that’s the wrong shade. Another of her on her hands and knees.Notice me, love mepractically screams from the photo. Trying to put on a titillating show for a boy who sees her as nothing more than an easy lay.
It’s funny. You think when you’re a teenage girl that you’re so ugly and so overweight. But I was actually kind of pretty. And definitely not a whale like Knox liked to call me.
I’m furious he still has the photos and even angrier at myself for sending them to him in the first place. He doesn’t deserve these. I didn’t even send nudes to Fitz, and he’s done more for me than Knox ever did.
Do I take them? Do I leave them? If I leave them, then he’s got my nudes. But if I take them, he knows someone was in here.
“Find anything?” Kathy’s voice is practically over my shoulder.
“Nope,” I squawk. “Just bills. Tell me,” I turn, trying to block the open drawer. I shove it with my foot. “Did Knox have money troubles when you and he were together?”
“I, um, I don’t know. I mean, it’s not like I ever asked him for stuff to buy, you know. He didn’t even buy food. He said models don’t eat much so I could buy my own food. I’d live off of scraps or parcel out leftovers that Mom and Dad would send home with me.”
“Kathy.” I give her a tight hug. I hate Knox now even more than I already did.
“And I couldn’t even get a high credit limit because I didn’t have any real income. I bet you think I’m stupid,” Kathy says sadly, looking at the ground. “You’re right. I should have gotten a job, had some savings. Something. Not just wasted my life waiting for him to finally propose.”
“You’re not stupid. Knox is a narcissist and a liar and an asshole. He’s manipulative. It could have happened to anyone.”
“You wouldn’t fall for his shit, though. You’re smarter than that. You’re the smart one.”
Now would be a great time to come clean, confess about me and Knox.
