Page 95 of Sexting My Ex’s Dad

I smile without warmth. “Why? Afraid someone will hear something true?”

Her shoulders go rigid. “What do you want?”

I sit back again, calm now that her fear is visible. “Everything you have on Cindy.”

Meredith laughs once, short and brittle. “You think I keep files on her.”

“I think women like you keep insurance on everyone. Especially the people who helped build you.”

She doesn’t deny it. Instead, she stares at the table for a second, and when she looks back up I can see the math happening behind her eyes. How much I know. How much more I might know. How quickly Hawthorne would cut her loose if this broke open cleanly.

“She’ll destroy me,” Meredith says quietly.

I hold her gaze. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have helped her destroy other women first.”

That gets through. Her hand slides to the folder then stops. “If I give you anything, you never say where you got it.”

I tilt my head. “Depends on what you give me.”

Her nostrils flare. She opens the folder.

Inside is a slim stack of printed emails, a flash drive in a plastic sleeve, and handwritten notes on legal pad paper. I don’t reach for any of it yet. It’s evident she knew she could be in trouble and she’s come prepared. Brave of her to still try to test the waters, though.

“Start talking,” I say.

Meredith wets her lips. “Cindy paid for more than my placement. She used me to bury two staff complaints, flag your name when it came up in internal scheduling discussions, and keep tabs on Nathan whenever she thought he was involved with someone inconvenient.”

My fingers curl under the table. “Me.”

“Yes,” she says, barely above a whisper. “You. Once she knew you’d entered in his orbit, she wanted updates.”

I stare at her. “How did she know?”

“Nate,” Meredith replies. “He told her after he saw you with Nathan.”

Meredith slides the flash drive toward me with one shaking finger. “There are emails. Payment records. Messages. Enough to implicate her in falsifying my credentials and interfering with internal staffing.”

“And Nate?” I ask.

Her expression shifts. “Less paper. More calls. More in-person mess. Cindy keeps him off writing when she can.”

That tracks too well. I finally reach out and take the flash drive. “What about the assault?”

Meredith’s face goes blank in a way that tells me she knows something but not everything. “I wasn’t told details,” she says carefully. “Only that Cindy wanted Nathan distracted and frightened enough to stop making plans around you.”

That’s enough to make my hands go cold.

I stand. Meredith looks up sharply. “That’s it.”

“For now,” I say.

Her breath catches. “Athena.”

I pause.

“If Cindy realizes I talked, she’ll come for me.”

I turn back toward her, and I almost feel sorry for her. Then I remember my resignation paperwork, the escort, the way she looked at me like I was disposable. “You should’ve thought of that before you sold your spine,” I say, and I walk out.