Page 17 of The Art of Deception
I hover over the send button, knowing this isn’t a very professional way to conduct business, but to be honest, as of the nineteenth, I won’t have a business anyway.So, what the hell?
I click send and watch my email fly off to Alex Scott.
Finally, I’m able to tell him how Itrulyfeel.
I can’t fight the slow grin that appears on my face as I slump in my seat. “Okay, sent.”
“Yes! You go, girl,” Jana practically screams over the loudspeaker.
“So loud!” Levi calls.
I glance over at him, blocking his ears, and I grimace, turning her off speaker and placing the phone up to my ear. “I can’t believe I just did that.”
She laughs. “I can, you’re a badass, Tomi. Alex Scott is no match for the likes of you.”
My mail program audibly lets me know another email has arrived. My eyes widen as I sit taller. “Shit, Jana, he’s written back.”
“Well, open it!”
I open it and read it out to her. “Message received, Miss Beaufort. Whether I’m a jerk or not, you have time to come back to me and ask for help. The lease termination will not be retracted, but the offers stand. Regards, Alex Scott.” I shrug.“Short and sweet, and onlyregardsthis time.” I laugh. “I must’ve pissed him off.”
Jana’s quiet for a pass, then she clears her throat. “This Alex guy is probably some old fatso with a receding hairline.”
I burst out laughing, making Levi groan, his hands racing to his ears as I stop myself and try to keep the noise level down a notch. “Anyway, I better go, I just needed to vent. Thank you for being there for me.”
Jana scoffs. “Girl, I’d walk through fire with you, you know that.”
My stomach flutters. Jana is one of those friends—the ones who will do anything for you. “You’re the best.”
“No, you are.”
I snort. “If you start this…no, you hang up firstbullshit, I’m going to punch you tomorrow when I see you.”
She laughs—her angelic laugh always makes me feel better about the world. “You love me, you know you do. But anyway, I gotta go.Outlander’scoming on, and you know I gotta support my fellow redhead.”
Rolling my eyes, I grin. “Go watch your porn.”
“It’s not porn. It’s a tasteful show about time travelers, Scotsmen, and redheads.”
“Got it! Now off you go and watch your porn,” I reiterate, making her laugh.
“Fuck you! See you tomorrow.”
“Laters.” I end the call, glancing over at Levi. All of the humor from the moment before is now gone as I focus on the email Alex sent.
The eviction notice is final.
I have no choice but to leave.
I want to fight this, but I don’t see any possible way of doing so.
I don’t have the money to fight.
I don’t own the property, Jacob did, before he sold it to asshole Scott, and that’s where I’m screwed in all of this. My father knew Jacob from high school, and when Dad helped me get this place, and we built Hope & Faith Ink from the ground up, we believed we could trust Jacob to do right by me because he and Dad were practically best friends.
Since Dad died, Jacob’s been difficult to deal with.
When I think about it, I suppose I could take up a position in one of the new spaces in the megacomplex, but it’s so much more rent than I pay now, and ultimately, we’d end up with hardly anything to live on. Right now, we’re comfortable. Levi wants for nothing. He’s doing all right at school. I know he has a bit of trouble with some of the kids in the mainstream section, but in the special needs area, he does well. I need to keep him there, and I have to keep us here in this house—the one where we both grew up and the one that holds all the memories of our parents and Kaylie. Stability is so important for Levi. I don’t even know how he’d cope if it were all thrown into chaos by me losing this house and having to move into something smaller and in a different location.
