Ruin Me, Daddy novel · Chapter 8 of 32

Chapter 8: Versailles

"Marlee."

She didn't move.

"Marlee. Wake up."

She sat up on the sleeping bag with one eye open and her hair everywhere. "Is it a fire?"

I turned the phone around.

She read it, and both eyes opened.

"Oh, that little shit."

By midnight it had twelve thousand shares.

By one, somebody had stitched a clip of episode twelve under the Christmas photo. My face, my red sweater, my voice saying "Please, Daddy."

By two, the comments had found the distillery.

Ledford Bourbon. Ask the master distiller what he listens to.

Marlee took my phone out of my hand and put it under her pillow.

"You're not reading the comments."

"I have to know what they're saying."

"They're saying what people always say." She lay down next to me in the iron bed with all her clothes on. "Tomorrow you can know. Tonight you're sleeping."

I didn't sleep.

At seven forty my phone rang under her pillow.

The hotel. My manager.

"Jessa," she said. She sounded tired and embarrassed. "I'm sorry to do this on the phone."

"Then don't."

"Corporate's seen the post. A guest emailed it to them. Somebody found an old photo of you at our front desk." She sighed. "They're calling it a brand-safety issue. You're terminated as of today."

"I'm on vacation."

"I know."

"I checked in that whole dentists' convention. I found the stuffed rabbit."

"I know. I'm sorry."

She hung up.

I sat on the edge of the bed in my socks.

Twenty months at that desk, gone over one photo.

Marlee was making coffee in the nine-minute kettle. She watched me without saying anything.

At eight Lettie's truck crunched to a stop outside. She banged on the door with the side of her fist.

"Get your shoes on," she said. "We're going to breakfast."

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