All Chapters of Dealing with Mr fucking right.: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Clara’s POVJoe stared at the documents the way a man might stare at a loaded gun someone had just placed on the table between them.His eyes flicked from the first page to me, then back to the columns of numbers, the shell-company names, the transfer dates that mapped out four years of secrets he thought no one would ever bother to trace. His throat worked once, a dry swallow he couldn’t hide. The glass in his hand trembled; amber liquid sloshed against the rim.For a long moment the only sound in the room was the faint tick of the wall clock he’d always insisted be perfectly synchronized to the second.Then his free hand moved slowly and reluctantly toward his phone on the side table.I didn’t speak. I didn’t need to. I just watched expressions the way I used to watch storm clouds gather over the city: waiting to see which way the wind would break.He picked up the phone. His thumb hovered over the screen. Another beat of silence. Then he tapped a contact, lifted the device to his e

Clara’s POVTwo weeks had passed since the night of Bryan's kidnap and we finding him at the mall security office, and the world had just kept turning and moving slowly. Bryan was sleeping through most nights now, though Emma still checked on him every hour until dawn. My spring installation sketches had started coming together again, shapes and colors bleeding onto the page like they were determined to fill every space after they’d been locked up in a cage for a long time. And Joe… Joe had simply decided the calendar didn’t apply to him and still stuck himself to the past. Like it was any of my business.That wasn't any of my business at all.I sank deeper into the tub until the water lapped at my collarbone. The heat had turned my skin pink, steam curling between us. Cameron sat behind me, his legs bracketing mine, chest warm against my back. His arms were loose around my waist and his chin resting on my shoulder. For once my apartment was quiet, there were no buzzing phones, no l

Joe’s POVWhew… so this was what winning felt like.I leaned back in the leather chair, as a slow, satisfied grin spread across my face as I replayed the video in my head. The lighting, the tone, the perfect mix of heartbroken husband and noble fighter. Damn, I’d nailed it. Maybe I should quit the family business and become an actor. Oscar-worthy performance right there.Joe, you're the bomb.I laughed softly, stroking my beard, the coarse hairs rasping under my fingers. That bitch really thought she could win. That she could make a fool out of me, Joe Pritchett. She was fucking joking.By the time I was done with her, she was going to regret every single second she spent thinking she could walk away from me. The nerve of her to leave, to…to laugh in the street with that loud-mouthed stupid Emma and that basketball-coach nobody. I was going to destroy her. Destroy everything she’d ever touched right from her little art job to her reputation, her precious “freedom.” I’d make sure she

Clara’s POVDaniel’s hand paused on the receiver for half a second before he picked it up.“It’s the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” he said quietly, his eyes flicking first to me, then to Emma.The air in the room seemed to thicken. Emma’s fingers tightened around mine until I felt the bones press together. My pulse roared in my ears.Daniel listened without speaking for what felt like forever, nodding occasionally, his face giving nothing away. When he finally set the phone down, he turned to us with a slow, deliberate breath.“They want the evidence,” he said. “All of it. The full set of documents you released, plus anything else you have in your possession. They’re opening a formal federal investigation into the money laundering. They want your official statement as the source and they want it soon. Possibly as early as tomorrow morning.”For a single heartbeat the room was completely silent.Then Emma let out a sharp, triumphant laugh, it was half sob, half victory and threw her arms ar

Clara’s POVCameron’s penthouse felt like the only safe place left in the world.I couldn’t sit still. Nahhh. The moment I stepped through the door, energy crackled under my skin like electricity that I couldn’t turn off. I paced the open living room in bare feet, my socks discarded somewhere near the couch, my fingers twisting together as I replayed the morning over and over in my head.Cameron leaned against the kitchen island, watching me with that steady, patient smile of his. A half-empty glass of water sat forgotten beside him. “You’re going to wear a hole in my floor if you keep that up,” he said gently, but his eyes were warm with amusement.“I can’t help it, I just can't.” I burst out, spinning to face him. A wild, almost giddy laugh escaped me. “Cam, I just came from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. They looked at the files, I mean, they really looked at them, you should see them with their strict faces and their glasses almost on their noses, they looked like if they got hold of