Page 85 of Apparently, I’m Torture

She laughed.

“Couldn’t hold it together, could you?” she asked, shaking her head. “Lilly comes waltzing back in and you just couldn’t resist.”

I was hurt. I was physically and emotionally hurt. All the joy, pleasure, contentment I’d held close only hours ago, was shattered. If Shawn fired me from the fundraiser, I was going to lose my job, and if we didn’t prove Trevor was behind this, my career was over. Things were worse than they’d ever been, and I was torn between wanting to scream, or cry into Shawn’s jacket.

“Remember all the misery she caused you? Remember what you told me?”

“Stacey, that’s enough. This isn’t about Lilly and me, it’s about your cousin,” Shawn said, but she only scoffed, her attention now on me.

“He avoided you for five years, Lilly. Are you really just going to accept that? Like he did nothing wrong?”

I looked at him, the reminder of all the confusion and hurt he caused me made my heart ache. “We worked things out. I forgave him.”

Her eyes went wide and her sneer was an open-mouthed thing that made Mia tense in my arms. “Oh you did, did you? Well, I guess you’re going to have to do it again, aren’t you? Since he has to fire you now, and all that.”

“Stacey,” Shawn warned.

She rounded on him. “Go on, fire her. This is your job, Shawn. She jeopardized the fundraiser, she deserves this.”

Shawn’s chest rose, his jaw clenched, and his eyes narrowed. He looked as if he wanted to breathe fire at her. Instead, he took her by the shoulder and dragged her back, as if she needed to be close to hurt me.

With a control I’d never seen before, he ground his teeth and said, “She doesn’t deserve to be fired. Your cousin is trying to ruin her career. He did this.”

She let out a laugh. “Even if that was true, what the hell does that have to do with me? Why am I here?”

Shawn opened his mouth to answer, but I cut in, my voice trembling as I asked, “Do you… know how Trevor got access to my computer?”

I was numb. Even my anxiety couldn’t reach me now. I had to fix this, and maybe there was some small chance that Stacey’s loyalty toward Shawn would extend to me.

Her blue glance was sliced thin as she swiveled her head toward me. “No, of course I don’t. And I don’t like what you’re implying. I had nothing to do with your forgery.”

I’d forgotten I was still holding Mia back. She stiffened and asked, “What forgery?”

Shawn’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t say what was in those emails, Stacey.”

Her face went slack for a fraction of a second, before she reverted back to haughty indignation and crossed her arms over her chest. “We’re missing fifteen thousand from the budget; it wasn’t that hard to put two and two together.”

None of us were convinced, and I was stunned. I shook my head, barely feeling it move as Stacey threw her arms wide and rounded on Shawn. “Why are we dragging this out? Fire her. You have no choice here, Shawn. Do it.”

He looked at me, cursed, and said, “I can’t.”

Stacey let out a noise of frustration. “Everything we planned for is on the line here. You can’t let her ruin this. Think of all those kids going without a decent breakfast. Or the kids who show up to school in torn uniforms. We can fix that, but you have to get rid of her. Otherwise, the department heads are going to shut us down before we can get anything off the ground. We’re so close. Please.”

He shook his head, and in a low voice, he said, “We’ll find another way. I’m not letting her go.”

I felt sick. So sick. We believed he would walk away from this unscathed. That the great Shawn Jackson, educational leader extraordinaire, would be able to withstand a hit like this. But Stacey was right. His initiative, the project he’d been working toward, was on the line. He needed this fundraiser to go well. He already told me that more than once. And even if I wasn’t the one who sent those emails, if I stayed, I would be the reason his carefully laid plans went up in smoke.

I was ruining everything for him. My grasp on Mia loosened as my anxiety gripped me tight, and I held my stomach as acid tore at my organs.

“I’ll go,” was all I could manage.

Mia whirled around, searching my face before throwing her arms around my shoulders. Then she pointed her glare at Stacey and spat, “I knew you were still a bitch.”

Frustrated, Stacey ground out, “Takes one to know one, doesn’t it?” as Shawn stepped toward us and pleaded, “Wait, don’t leave. We can fix this.”

I couldn’t trust myself to say anything; everything swirled in tight circles as Mia squeezed my upper arms. I shook my head, and that was all Mia needed.

As Shawn yelled after us, she gripped my arms and led me out of the room, angrily muttering, “I’m going to need something stronger than boozy bingo to deal with this.”