Room-maid(87)

Again I felt my weak heart waver as my breath caught, but I wasn’t going to be taken in. Not again.

As if he sensed my resolve slipping, he said, “I should have told you that I loved you when I first realized it.”

Was this part of the plan? Where he’d only meant to lie to me about living in his apartment but, whoops, accidentally fell for me? Which, again, would be to his benefit?

I could only imagine how much bigger and better his career would be if he were with me. Because that’s how things worked in my family. If Violet ever did tell my parents about her personal trainer, Tyler might just end up the new Weston Wilshire CEO.

Or he would if I were by his side. Coughlin came to the front, carrying my coat. Tyler reached out, as if he wanted to help me, but I backed up. I didn’t want him to touch me.

I didn’t want him near me.

“I don’t believe you,” I told him. “But if you do care about me at all, don’t follow me or try to contact me.”

My lungs started to constrict as I put on my coat and stepped outside. Hot, unshed tears blinded my vision but somehow I found Julio and asked him to drive me to Shay’s apartment, giving him the address. I rolled up the dividing window between the driver’s seat and the back. I needed the privacy.

When we pulled away from the house it was then that I finally allowed the sobs to break free and shake my entire frame. I cried so hard I worried I might vomit.

My mother had ruined everything. Tainted every memory I had of the things I’d accomplished.

And all my memories of Tyler.

The car dealership? That was where our friendship had started. Had my mother forced him to go with me?

I ran through all my interactions with Tyler in my mind, wondering what I’d missed. The signs that he was my parents’ employee this entire time. Were they all laughing at me? At how easily they’d continued to manipulate and control my life without me even knowing it?

Julio got me to Shay’s and I somehow managed to climb the four flights of stairs to her apartment. I knocked on her door, hoping she was still up. I was about to call her when the door opened and she took in my mascara-stained appearance.

“What happened?”

She led me over to the couch and had me sit down. I started crying all over again and it took a while before I could stop and actually speak. I told her everything that had gone on that night, ending with Tyler’s betrayal. She stayed uncharacteristically silent as she listened, periodically handing me tissues so that I could dab at my eyes and blow my nose.

“I’m going to quit the academy,” I announced, unnecessarily dramatic.

“Why would you quit? You just signed a two-year contract.”

“Because now that I know my parents are responsible for getting me my job, how can I stay there? They ruined it. I didn’t earn it on my own.”

Shay shook her head. “I recommended you, too. Maybe it was a combination of both things, or neither one. It doesn’t really matter. You’re the one who interviewed. You earned that job. You got a contract because you’re good at what you do. Who cares how you got in the door? Now that you’re here, stay and prove Ms. Gladwell was right to have faith in you.”

“I guess you’re going to tell me not to return my car, either.”

“Well, you can’t return cars. You could sell it, but you’ll lose money. So I think you’re stuck with it, to be honest. And again, even if your parents are the ones who put that in motion, you’re the one making payments on it. It’s your car. Who cares how you got it in the first place?”

“Now are you going to say the same thing about Tyler? Who cares how it started, only that we’ve fallen in love with each other?”

She didn’t reply.

If she wasn’t going to speak, I still had some more complaining to do. “I did tell you and Delia, that night at the bar that I had a type. Men who suck up to my father. The streak continues.”

“Hmm,” was the only sound she made in response.

“What does that mean?” I asked between sniffles, because I was starting to get annoyed.

“Nothing. I’m on your side.”

Why had she felt the need to clarify that? “Which actually means you’re on my side but . . .”

She reached over to grab my hand. “I’m on your side but . . . what if Tyler was telling the truth? I wouldn’t put it past your mom to orchestrate this whole thing and leave Tyler in the dark. I’ve seen her handiwork before.”

Shay hadn’t been there. She didn’t get it. I shook my head. “I know what my mother’s capable of. I also know that the things she told me were true. Why would she lie now?”

“To hurt you more? Since she was already plunging in the knife, she decided to twist it a little? Is it at all possible he didn’t know?” she asked gently.

“How could he not? Wasn’t it common sense?”

“That he didn’t immediately link you, somebody he’d never met, to the owner of a company he worked for? Because you guys are the only people in all of Texas named Huntington?”

I was starting to get a little angry. “He knew I used to be rich and my last name.”

“You were asking him to connect a lot of dots with no numbers attached to them,” she said, pausing. “You were introduced to him through Frederica, who has a different last name than your parents.”