Five minutes later, I emerged from the dressing room and caught sight of the pool below through the huge line of floor-to-ceiling windows. The officers and my dad were gathered together in a group, and people were high-fiving and slapping each other on the back. I suspected they’d just announced the company’s market capitalization and opening share price to everyone. As I watched, Jordan and a couple of other big guys, including Adam’s handsome cousin, William, grabbed hold of Adam and carried him—under protest—to the edge of the pool. I laughed until a movement at the edge of my vision caught my attention.
Cari sidled up to me and watched, too, as Adam’s friends dumped him into the pool.
“There’s a whole pile of new millionaires down there,” I said to Cari with a nod, hoping our semi-silent truce would continue. I’d avoided her for weeks and hadn’t spoken to her alone since our confrontation in the hallway when she’d threatened to expose me. She had remained coolly polite since.
She laughed. “Too bad I’m still hung up on the biggest fish in that pond. He’s going to come out of that pool with a wet t-shirt. I should be down there to watch that. Too bad Mia didn’t get dumped in there. She’s wearing that ridiculous sundress, probably because she’s too ashamed to be seen in a bathing suit.”
I resisted the urge to shake my head. At this point, I just felt sorry for Cari. I turned to lead the way back to the pool when she grabbed my arm and stopped me. Her eyes were burning with something feverish. “I know what you were doing in that dressing room.”
I glanced back in the direction where I’d come from with more than a little guilt. But I wouldn’t let her see it. “Jordan needed some information about—”
“Don’t lie to me, April. You’re fucking him. I wondered how you got him to keep silent about your starring role in the sex video. Now I know, you slut. Screwing your way to the top, huh? I wonder if your daddy knows that.”
I yanked my arm out of her hold. “You’ve lost your mind,” I muttered in a strangled voice and then turned to go.
I had to listen to her poison on the way back to the pool, hoping the safety of the crowd would shut her up. “You wouldn’t help me get Mia out of the picture because you had a bigger fish to fry. Well, I have news for you. Jordan is using you. He uses women, and everybody knows it.”
I stopped and spun, getting in her face. “Leave me the hell alone with your nutball theories. There’s nothing you could have done to break up Adam and Mia, okay? They are in love, and they’re engaged. I don’t care what kind of sick obsession you have with him. It’s over and you lost.”
“You have a lot more to lose than I do, April.”
I moved away from her, my heart hammering against my ribs. She continued. “If you help me, I’ll shut up and I won’t say a word. We were going to untie the top of her sundress and show everyone how repulsive she is. You’re friendly with her. You can get close enough to do it easily and even make it look like an accident.”
I gasped and turned to her. We were at the top of the stairs, and no one could hear us over the din of the cheering and taunts leveled at the now sopping wet CEO. He waded out of the pool as Mia, laughing, handed him towels.
“I’m not doing any such thing and neither are you.”
Cari’s face was murderous as she clamped onto my hand and practically dragged me down the stairs. I lost my balance as I fought her hold, tripped and fell to my knees, stumbling after her. I slipped free from her grip just as we reached the bottom. The group of officers were mere feet away, and I could see what was coming so I turned to climb right back up the stairs. She reached out and grabbed the back of my swimsuit, and I felt it ripping down the back seam. I was halfway up the stairs before I realized I was exposed, and she was already shouting, “Adam, everyone, look! I found out who was in the sex video! Check out the tramp stamp on that tramp’s back.”
There was silence behind me and everyone gasped or mumbled. I hadn’t made it all the way up to freedom yet, but my ass was hanging out in the air for all to see. I spun to hide myself, mortified as I was to face them.
Everyone had frozen. Everyone was staring at me. This horrifying moment almost froze my heart.
I was like Hester Prynne, stuck on the scaffold, standing to face the jeering crowd with her innocent baby in her arms and that gleaming letter A for “adulteress.” The blood was rushing out of my head and I saw spots at the edge of my vision as if I was going to faint from the humiliation.
Apparently, I wasn’t that lucky.