JACE-2(Lane Brothers, Book 3)(211)

***

Up in her room that evening, Sasha heard the door to her bedroom click open. She looked over her shoulder. Thomas was standing in the doorway, illuminated by the hallway light. As he paced in, something in his hand glinted in the moonlight.

“I believe we have some unfinished business,” he said.

Sasha realized he was holding the spoon. She sat up, exposing her breasts to him, milky white in the moonlight. She felt her body swelling with anticipation as Thomas removed his clothes and stood fully naked before her, his muscular physique illuminated.

He tore back the covers. “Time to put this feud to bed, intern.”

She reached up and pulled him down. “Don’t call me that.”





Chapter Thirty Three



Thomas and Sasha spent the night re-exploring one another’s bodies, and this time, Sasha made sure that when they came, they were looking each other in the eye.

She woke up feeling content and satisfied. Sasha turned in the bed to find Thomas beside her, sleeping. He looked so beautiful when he was asleep.

Despite the cold day, the sun was shining. From somewhere outside she could hear Gertrude barking and Olivia calling to her. She went over to the window. Her mom was sitting in her wheelchair on the porch, a checkered blanket draped over her knees. She was watching Olivia as she chased the dog about the lawn. Beside her was a picnic table with coffee, orange juice, croissants, and fruit. Sasha was overjoyed to see her mom finally getting the relaxing life she’s always deserved.

Sasha picked her cell up from the bedside table. She’d received a message overnight. It was from Chris. It read: Sasha, I’m so sorry. I would never have done it if I’d known it would come to this.

‘Done it’ presumably was a reference to the video. However, she wondered what he meant by ‘if I’d known it would come to this.’ Had someone told him about Bill causing the family to flee to England?

A feeling deep in her gut told her that wasn’t what Chris meant. Somehow, she just knew that something had surfaced online.

She hadn’t Googled herself since that night she’d vowed not to, but Chris’s message compelled her to log on. She searched for her name and immediately found what he was talking about.

Photographs. Photoshopped pornographic photographs. Of her.

Heart beating, Sasha read the corresponding article, which talked of how she sold pornographic photographs to fund her studies. Supposedly, she’d taken the photos during her relationship with Chris. Of course, she’d done this behind his back and without his consent, giving the public more evidence of her deviant and duplicitous personality.

Sasha grabbed a robe and pulled it about her, then paced out into the hall. She called Chris.

“You need to put this right,” she said the second he answered.

“You’ve seen the photos,” Chris said simply.

“How did she even get hold of them?” Sasha cried, assuming immediately that Pippa was behind the whole stunt. “I’m barely eighteen in half of them! What if my mom sees them?”

Chris sighed. “I know. I know. If I could get Pippa to get rid of them, I would. But she’s got some kind of document and—”

Sasha finished his sentence for him. “...she’s gagged you, too.”

Chris sounded sheepish. “Yes.”

“Look,” Sasha said. “Thomas and I are going to take legal action against her. We have a fantastic lawyer in England who’s going to come to Chicago to work on the case. We have enough to get Pippa jailed for harassment. Do you think you’d be able to be a witness if it came to it?”

There was silence on the other end of the line. “After what I did to you?’

Sasha thought of Thomas’s power of forgiveness. He’d continued to love his sister through years of turmoil. Chris had betrayed her once, but their friendship had endured for years and that was worth something. It shouldn’t be thrown away.

“I can forgive you.”

She listened to the sound of Chris breathing on the other end of the phone. “I was just so hurt,” he said.

“You don’t have to explain.”

“I do. I thought you were going to come home with me. I thought you’d finally realized that Chicago wasn’t doing you any good. Then he turned up and spoiled it. I wanted to punish you.” His voice had an air of melancholy. “I was wrong.”

“Chris,” Sasha said as gently as she could. “You have to understand it’s over between us. Completely. Forever.” She looked back through the crack in her open door and gazed upon the sight of Thomas in the crisp white sheets, sleeping contently. “I love Thomas.”

“I know,” Chris replied from the other end of the line. “I’m just worried that he doesn’t love you in return.”