Devastated (Anger Management, #1)(63)

She was definitely asking for a raise, she decided, absently clicking on the next email as she stood up and headed to the refrigerator, deciding that she’d more than earned a second cheat snack this week. Trying to block that last image from her mind, and God, she didn’t think that she was ever going to be able to look at a bottle of vegetable oil the same way ever again, she grabbed a Coke from the fridge.

Needing another minute, she walked over to the patio door and—

Found herself releasing a shaky breath when she spotted Hunter through the office patio doors. When she took this job, she’d never expected anything more than a job that she hated and to move one step closer to her plan. Instead, she’d fallen in love with her best friend and she was scared out of her mind, she realized, as she once again pushed away the panic that threatened to take over. She’d never been this happy before and that…that terrified her. Every time something good happened in her life, something bad always followed.

Every. Single. Time.

But even knowing that this couldn’t last didn’t stop her from smiling as she met Hunter’s gaze. Right now, all she wanted to do was to enjoy this moment. Everything else could wait, she decided as she reluctantly walked back to the computer and—

Felt the air rush out of her lungs when she saw the email waiting for her.

Mr. O’Mallery,

I’m sorry to have to write you this, but I’m afraid that I don’t have a choice in the matter. When we learned that your company Shadow Securities hired our daughter Kylie Davis, we became very concerned.

We’ve been trying to contact you for quite some time now. We’ve sent you numerous letters, but we never heard back from you and can only assume that Kylie found a way to make sure that you didn’t see them. We flew to Florida to attend the convention, hoping to have a word with you in private, but we were turned away and escorted from the premises thanks to our daughter’s lies. I can only imagine the stories that she’s been telling your men. Kylie is extremely manipulative, always has been.

We’ve tried our best with her, tried to get her the help that she clearly needs, but she doesn’t want our help. The last time we tried to help her, she attacked me, and we were left with the choice of kicking her out or having her institutionalized. We deeply regret not getting her the help that she needed when we had the chance and have paid for it ever since with her lies and accusations. She’s tried to ruin our lives as well as our daughter Denise’s life. It’s been a nightmare.

When she moved out of state, we thought that would be the end of it, but she won’t let it go. She’s been spreading more of her lies about me and her father, and even our daughter Denise, who is very worried about her sister. Between Kylie’s criminal record, her drug abuse, her lies, and her refusal to seek help, we’re not sure what we should do anymore.

After the convention, we went home and discussed the matter with our family and friends and they all felt that we should continue trying to reach you, especially after we saw the article written about your house arrest and found out that Kylie has been working as your assistant. We felt that you deserved to be warned about Kylie before she could ruin your life. She cannot be trusted. She’s been fired from so many jobs for lying, stealing, drugs, the list just goes on and on. We’d hoped that she would find a job where she couldn’t hurt anyone but working for your company will give her an opportunity to hurt so many people and we couldn’t sit by and let that happen.

We had some difficulty finding your personal email address to make sure that you received this, so we apologize for not writing this sooner. We only hope that we were able to help before she did any real damage. We’ve also alerted the District Attorney’s office that handled your case so that they could look into the matter as well.

If we can be of any help…

Feeling hollow, Kylie clicked on the next email and when she saw that it was from her sister, she clicked on the next email and the next, and the next, recognizing a few of the names and having absolutely no idea who most of these people were, but every last one of them claimed that they knew her and what she’d put her poor parents through.

By the time she’d finished reading the last email letting Hunter know what a horrible, sick, and vile person she was, she was trembling, her head was spinning, and she couldn’t quite seem to catch her breath.

“I-I’ve got t-to go,” she told herself with a wobbly nod as she pushed her chair back and got to her feet only to stumble the short distance to the table, knocking over her Coke and-

“I n-need t-to go,” she mumbled weakly, as she forced herself to head to the door, barely aware of Ryan when he walked into the kitchen.

“Kylie? Kylie, are you okay?” she heard Ryan ask from a distance as he reached for her only to drop his hands away when she shook her head.

“I-I have to go,” she mumbled, stumbling away from him and continued making her way to the front door as she tried to make sense out of what just happened.

“Oh…shit,” she thought she heard Ryan say as she grabbed her car keys off the side table, wondering why her hand wouldn’t stop shaking and headed out the front door.

When her keys slipped out of her hand, she licked her dry lips and reached down for them only to have them suddenly disappear.

“You and I are going to have a talk, Miss Davis,” came the coldly spoken words that had her looking up into the angry face of the District Attorney handling Hunter’s case.