Not that I expected her to laugh—it takes a lot to make Mabel laugh—but I thought she’d at least crack a smile at some of these revenge ideas that are breaking the tension in the room.
Instead, she winces.
“Mabel?” Heath says.
He’s noticed too.
Of course he has.
She pulls her phone out of her pocket, thumbs over the screen for a moment, and then shows us all a picture of a dark-haired dude with a mustache. The way he’s lit and the angle of the picture makes it look like he’s hunched over, leaning into a computer screen, captured by a webcam.
I gasp.
Actually gasp.
It comes from the tips of my toes all the way up, and the sudden surge of blood to my heart as my pulse triples makes me temporarily lightheaded. “No.No.”
“Who?” Heath says. “Who is that?”
Everyone’s staring.
I can barely force the words out. “My brother-in-law.”
Heath leaps back to his feet. “What?”
“You’re sure?” I ask Mabel. “You’re absolutely, completely, one hundred percent sure?”
Mabel nods once.
I wheeze out another breath, then take a long gulp of wine.
And then I stare at Mabel more. “Sure-sure? How?”
“I reached out, pretending to be an investor wanting to buy the channel off of him for an ungodly sum of money to start communications. When he was convinced I was serious, we had a video call. He’s expecting me to send a contract this week.” She fiddles with her phone again, then passes it to me.
It’s an email chain between Mabel and a guy named Romeo Walker.
My brother-in-law’s name.
My hand shakes as I read the email chain.
Heath grips my elbow. “You don’t have to read this.”
“He didn’t even use a fake email address,” I say.
“It wasn’t masked,” Mabel says. “I’m sorry, Cricket.”
“No. No, don’t be sorry. I needed—I needed to know this. Thank you. This—this is helpful.”
“Is it?” Heath murmurs to me.
I almost laugh. “Knowing that my own family is profiting off of me? Yes. It’s notgood, but it’s helpful.”
Heath’s still watching me.
Not like he’s afraid I’ll break though.
Like he wants to be ready for whatever I might ask him to do to help me through this.
