Page 216 of Twins for Three Bad Boys

“My personal life?” I cut in. “You fired me over rumors about my conduct, and now the woman who was sleeping with my ex is standing in your hallway acting like she’s never seen me before. I think that makes it very much your problem.”

Denise makes a tiny sound like she’s about to cry.

Tiffany rolls her eyes at me in a way that makes me want to shake her. “Really? Are you serious right now?”

I stare at her, anger rising. “Are you?”

“Yes,” she snaps. “I’m serious. Because I’m sick of this. Sick of your face. Sick of your name. Sick of Max talking about you like…”

She cuts herself off, but it’s too late.

“Talking about me like what?” I ask quietly.

Tiffany’s mouth presses into a hard line. She looks furious with herself for saying too much.

Rex folds his arms, his expression cold and too bright.

“Go on,” he tells her. “Now I’m interested.”

Mrs. Kline takes another step forward, clearly horrified at how things are going. “That’s enough. Tiffany, you need to go. June, if you continue causing a disturbance⁠—”

“A disturbance?” Fletcher says, and there’s a dangerous calm in his voice that makes even me go still. “Your staff member there just implied she knows exactly why all this happened to June.”

Mrs. Kline visibly bristles. “I have no idea what alleged relationship issue is happening here, but⁠—”

“It isn’t alleged,” I break in, my voice shaking now, but I don’t care. Let it shake. “It happened. I walked in on her in my apartment. In my bed. On the same day I got fired from this school. And now she’s here, and I want to know if that’s just a coincidence or if everyone in this building has been lying to my face for months.”

Tiffany barks a humorless laugh. “Months? You really don’t get it.”

Ice cold slides through me. “What don’t I get?”

She stares at me, breathing hard. Every part of her is at war with every other part. “That he never shut up about you.”

“What?” I whisper.

Tiffany’s face twists. “Max. He never stopped talking about you. Even when he said he was done with you, even when he was with me, it was always June this, June that, June likes this, June hates that, June’s so good with kids, June’s too nice for her own good.” Her voice goes high and brittle with mockery. “It was pathetic.”

I can’t quite process the words.

Not because I don’t believe Max is capable of obsession. I know he is. I lived inside it. I just… didn’t understand how far my shadow had stretched after I left.

Rex shifts slightly behind me. “Obsessed ex-boyfriend. Great. My favorite genre.”

Tiffany rounds on him. “You don’t know anything.”

“No,” Rex says coolly. “But I know crazy when I hear it.”

She whips back toward me, angry enough now that the truth is just falling out of her in pieces. “He said you’d humiliate him if people knew what you were really like. Said you acted all sweet and innocent, but you thought you were better than everybody.”

I stare at her in stunned disbelief. “I thought I was better than everybody?”

“You thought you were better than me,” she spits. “With your little wooden toys and your good girl routine and the way everyone talked about how nice you were.”

Denise makes another strangled sound behind the desk. Mrs. Kline’s face has gone paper white, but she still seems more offended by the scene than the substance.

I can barely hear any of them, because everything is slotting into place in my head now, ugly and sharp and horribly logical.

The cleaner. The school. The rumors. Max. Tiffany.