Roses Revenge novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Second, and Louder

By the time we reached Aunt Bea's, Colton's live video had nineteen thousand viewers.

I watched it standing in her kitchen in my green dress, with the sound turned low.

He said I had been quietly stealing from the company for years.

He said I had faked a family fund to cover it up.

He said I had turned on him the moment he tried to hold me accountable.

His voice shook in all the right places.

Under the video, the comments were mostly kind to him.

Aunt Bea read over my shoulder and said a word I had never heard her use.

"He's good," Elliot said from the doorway.

"At what?"

"Telling a story first."

He took his jacket off and hung it on the back of a chair.

"Whoever speaks first sounds like the truth."

"Then I'll speak second, and louder."

"How?"

I put my phone on the kitchen table and opened the folder I had made at Dolan's.

"I have a lease with his handwriting on it."

"I have a recording of his assistant calling me a person who gets used."

"And I have a text I saw on her phone."

"You can't use the text," Elliot said. "You didn't take it legally."

"I didn't take it. I read the floor."

"Then leave it out."

"Fine." I scrolled to the audio file. "I'll use what he handed me."

He looked at me for a while.

"Do you want me to call the lawyer?"

"I want you to sit down," I said, "and tell me if I say anything untrue."

He pulled out a chair.

We worked until one in the morning, with Aunt Bea making toast.

I did not write a speech.

I wrote a short post, and I read each sentence aloud to Elliot.

He stopped me twice to cut a word.

It started on Tuesday and gave only dates.

It said that on Wednesday I had found a lease for a luxury car in Brewer Labs' name.

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