บททั้งหมดของ MINE TO BULLY : บทที่ 61 - บทที่ 70

Derek’s assistant called my office at four in the afternoon, requesting a private meeting regarding the distribution contract. I almost said no. I should have said no. Instead, exhausted from two straight days of headlines and unknown numbers, I agreed to nine o’clock that evening, after the building had emptied out and the only sound left was the hum of the air conditioning.I told my assistant not to bother staying late for this one.Are you certain, Mr Monroe, she asked, hovering in the doorway with her coat already half on. I can have security on standby.I’ll be fine. Go home.She hesitated another moment before nodding and slipping out, leaving me alone in an office that felt considerably larger and quieter once the rest of the floor had emptied.Derek arrived precisely on time, alone, no lawyers trailing behind him for once.Thank you for seeing me, he said, settling into the chair across my desk like he owned the furniture.I didn’t invite pleasantries. What do you want, Derek

My mother’s voice came through the line thick with sleep, confusion evident even before she’d fully processed what I’d asked her.Ezra. It’s four in the morning. What’s wrong.I need you to tell me about Patricia Vance. Now. All of it.The silence that followed lasted long enough that I checked the screen to make sure the call hadn’t dropped.Mom.I’m here, she said, voice noticeably more awake now, sharper, guarded in a way that immediately confirmed something was being withheld. Why are you asking about Patricia after all these years.Because someone’s threatening me and Jace, and her name just came up in connection to it. I need the truth. All of it, right now.Ezra, it’s genuinely four in the morning. Can this wait until we’re both more coherent.No, I said firmly. It can’t. Someone’s been watching me and Jace for six years, Mom. Photographs. Threats. Blackmail against my company. And they specifically told me to ask you about Patricia Vance, which means whatever happened between

Helen’s advice to wait an hour lasted exactly forty minutes before I gave up entirely and headed for Ezra’s studio instead, unable to sit still while he processed that letter alone.I found him there an hour later, blueprints scattered across every surface, a bottle of scotch open on the drafting table though the glass beside it sat untouched.You didn’t wait long, he said without turning around.I never said I would.He was standing at the window, back to me, shoulders rigid with tension that hadn’t eased even slightly since the coffee shop.I need to be alone, Ezra. I told you that already.Being alone isn’t the same as disappearing into your own head until you convince yourself none of this is real.He turned then, something raw and furious behind his eyes that I hadn’t seen since the elevator weeks ago.Don’t tell me what I’m doing inside my own head.Then talk to me instead of standing here drowning in silence.You want me to talk. Fine. Let’s talk about how my entire life has ap

I watched Ezra’s hands shake as he kept reading, each line of his father’s letter seeming to steal a little more color from his face.He arranged everything, Ezra said, voice hollow. Found out about my feelings for you somehow, maybe through the same household surveillance Weiss just admitted to, and decided exposing me publicly would be more effective than confronting me directly.Why, I asked. What could exposing you possibly accomplish that talking to you privately wouldn’t.Ezra’s finger traced down the page, stopping on a paragraph near the bottom.He says here that public humiliation would cure me faster than private discipline ever could, Ezra read aloud, voice shaking. That watching the entire school turn against me would teach me to bury whatever I felt for you more effectively than any conversation between us ever would.I felt something cold and murderous settle in my chest, five years of assuming a stranger had betrayed Ezra suddenly replaced by the much uglier truth that

I stared at the message, reading it three times before the words actually settled into something comprehensible.Someone else, I said aloud. Who else would he possibly ask for.I don’t know, Jace said, already pulling out of the parking spot despite neither of us having discussed actually going anywhere. But we’re not finding out sitting here.Wait, I said. We should call Helen back first. See if her mother mentioned anything about this.Ezra, whoever’s sending these messages clearly has real time information about what’s happening at that hospital right now. We don’t have time to wait for another phone call.He was right, and I hated that he was right, hated how quickly the ground kept shifting beneath every decision we tried to make carefully.Fine, I said. The hospital.We drove to the hospital in tense silence, my mind cycling through every possibility, every person my father might have connections to that I’d never known about, each option feeling more unsettling than the last.C