Avery Camden thinks she can walk out of her boyfriend, James Grant's, life after cheating on him with his best friend. For her, the conditions that led to their breakup aren't a beautiful memory.
When barely a year later, her family's business is ha...
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"What do you mean they retracted their partnership?"
Mum was squeezing the life out of her throw pillow by now, tears falling down her face as she shook her head like she couldn't believe it. Dad paced from one end of the room to the other and I just stood there with a numb mind.
"The letter came in town days ago, signed by the CEO of Grants and Co." Dad drew out a bitter laugh, one I'd never heard from him before. "Ring a bell."
It did. It rung so many bells.
But why? How could James stoop so low? I thought we had a deal? I thought never go back on his words? Guess I didn't know this new him very well.
Mum looked up at me before her gaze flickered to my dad and back to me. "I thought we were fine. Now..." She drew a shaky breath, small sobs erupting from the back of her throat. "Now we've lost everything. Everything is ruined!" She said the last part in a small whisper that had my heart shattering.
How could he do this?
Dad ran a hand through his hair. He'd discarded his suit onto the table in the living room somewhere at the beginning of this conversation. Strands of greying hair stood out amongst the mop of brown on his head.
"ARCane is crumbling. In the past two days we've had to refund The Grants their money and considering the business was already dropping before they decided to help, this put us in a position that's way lower than square one." He paused and exhaled, swearing under his breath. Dad never swore. He was a pretty collected man. Until now, that is. "I should have never let you ask that boy for help."
"I thought he'd solve our problems for sure, but he went and made it a hundred times worse!" Mum had quickly gone from silent to shouting. A vein pulsated in her neck. "How dare he?"
"I'll go see him tomorrow. Give him a piece of my mind," Dad threatened, wagging his index finger in front of the both of us. "He thinks he's wrecked us, right? He thinks he's better than us. What does he even stand to gain from all of this?"
Mum got up from where she was seated suddenly, gaze fixed on me standing in the corner. "This is your fault, Avery. We asked you to talk to James in the first place to right the wrong you'd done."
I suppressed a gasp by biting the inside of my cheek. "And I did. That was until I found out that all he wanted all this time was revenge!"
"And what did you do this time? Huh?" She took a threatening step towards me, her deep frown in place. Like she was ready to fry me. "If not for you and your inability to stay faithful to him, we wouldn't be in this mess."
"This isn't my mess, mum," I seethed, glaring at her. "It's yours. And you tried to push your responsibility onto my shoulders in the name of family! I had to endure the worst kind of punishment for my actions and I've dealt with my own problems so far. Why don't you do the same and leave me the fuck out of it."
