Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 26659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
Taking her face in my hands, I kept eye contact with her as I told her about my opinion on it all. “Baby, men like Tyson Randall who think they’re invincible, let their egos dictate what they do. That means they truly believe they won’t go wrong because they think they’re smarter than anyone who’s come before them, or they believe they’ve learned where the others went wrong. Know what that means?”
When she shook her head, I grinned. “They fuck up. There’s no such thing as the perfect crime, and with him being as egotistical as he is, he’ll have forgotten to hide his tracks somewhere, even if it’s just forgetting to empty the trashcan on a computer or email account.”
“There’s no way it’ll be something as easy as that,” she scoffed.
Turned out it was.
EPILOGUES
Epilogue 1
* * *
Joshua
“Ms. Ray, it goes without saying that confessing to crimes you didn’t commit and not reporting that you were being blackmailed was an incredibly stupid move,” the judge said as he looked around the courtroom. “That said, I do understand your reticence at going to the police. Sometimes, when even the best-intentioned people are backed into a corner, we act in ways others see as stupid, but until they’re in the same shoes, they won’t understand.”
“I can’t tell if he’s being sympathetic or if he’s lecturing her on being stupid,” Eva whispered into my ear, just as her siblings turned to look at the back of the room and began whispering amongst themselves.
Following where they were looking once again, my hand spasmed in Eva’s, getting her attention off what the judge was now saying and making her look in the same direction I was.
Right at fucking Tyson Randall, his hair greased back, a ridiculously thin mustache way too far away from his top lip and wearing a poorly fitting suit which looked like the material was close to screaming in crisis.
With his top lip lifted in a sneer, he followed behind two police officers and a man I presumed was his lawyer toward where the judge was looking over his half-moon spectacles, completely unimpressed at the interruption.
Connie glanced nervously back at us and shot me a tight smile when I winked at her. I can’t say I’d been expecting it to go down like this, but I wasn’t altogether unsurprised at his appearance.
After all, Harry and I had made sure he knew it was in his best interests to take ownership of Connie’s bullshit. The shit Laura could do still never failed to amaze me, and an instant pop-up message on his computer as soon as he logged onto it had apparently done the job.
“There’d better be a good reason for the interruption, Officers.” His eyes flicked toward the lawyer, and it didn’t take a genius to see he wasn’t that fond of him. “Mr. Greenwood,” he greeted, looking like he’d tasted something vile.
“This is my client, Mr. Tyson Randall,” the lawyer introduced, his forehead shining with sweat under the lights already.
“Jeez, I hope he brought extra deodorant,” Laura said quietly as she leaned forward to see around Euan.
“Well, now, you’re the reason this lady’s in such a mess, Mr. Randall. What’s the purpose of this interruption? What do you hope to achieve?” the judge barked, getting our focus back on him.
“I did it, okay?” he shouted, sounding unrepentant. “Woman’s a stupid bitch, and I knew I could get her to do what I wanted her to do.”
He likely had no clue how much he’d just fucked up, but as we smothered our laughter, we absolutely did. See, only twenty minutes previously, someone who’d come in to watch the case out of curiosity had ignored three warnings over outbursts that involved expletives. Judge McKlinsky had said clearly that any further instances of cursing or loud interruptions would be treated as contempt of court.
“Why, I do believe he just swore,” Harry whispered over his shoulder. He’d turned up just minutes before the person had been led out, but it’d still been an hour after the session had begun. Now I knew what he’d been up to.
He and Laura still argued like cat and dog, and even without discussing it first, we’d agreed to keep them apart today, just in case they both got arrested for pissing each other off. She was six years younger than Harry’s thirty years, but regardless of that age gap, the flames were definitely burning. Neither of them wanted to admit it, though, so it was just a matter of waiting for one of them to cave.
My bets were on Harry.
Sure enough, McKlinsky banged his gavel and cited Randall with contempt of court, ignoring his lawyer’s insistence his client hadn’t known what he was doing. He even went as far as to claim that Randall was having a moment of temporary insanity.