She closed the door to her room before going online to search for possible jobs in broadcasting, which, with her experience, would be her best bet. She probably couldn’t work as an anchor after what Ethan had done—not for some time—but it might be possible to get on as the producer at a small, obscure station. Even if she was just hired as a receptionist, or a gofer for a producer, it would be a start. She wanted to find work as soon as possible, since she was the only one between her, her mother and her grandmother for whom that was a viable option—while she waited to hear from Dallas.
She didn’t find a lot of opportunities, which worried her. But she was willing to do almost anything, even if it wasn’t in broadcasting, to keep them afloat and hoped there would be more offerings after Christmas. Surely in January there would be plenty of companies looking for someone who was articulate, conscientious and comfortable with people. She was a good employee—if the person doing the hiring was willing to look past the sex video that had created such a scandal, she thought wryly.
She watched the clock as it grew later and later. She’d expected to hear from Dallas by now. Had he forgotten to call her? Maybe no one had shown up and he’d decided that it wouldn’t be worth the risk of waking her just to tell her so.
As four o’clock came and went—one o’clock in California—she began to pace, eventually pausing to lift the blind and stare out at the snowy scene all around her. If something was going on, she didn’t want to cause Dallas’s phone to light up or distract him. But she also didn’t want him to forget to inform her.
He couldn’t forget, she told herself. She was the reason he’d gone to the Santa Monica Pier.
“Have some patience,” she muttered, and waited another fifteen minutes. It was now a full hour after he was supposed to meet whoever had hired “Terrell” at the pier. No matter what’d happened, he had to be done, didn’t he?
Letting the blind fall back in place, she risked texting Dallas.
Is everything okay? What happened?
Give me ten more minutes. Almost done.
Done with what? Something must’ve happened.
She gnawed nervously on her bottom lip as she tried to while away another five minutes and then ten. At last, her phone buzzed with his call.
Although she answered immediately, she waited until she’d shut herself into the bathroom so she wouldn’t wake her mother or her grandmother before saying hello.
“You’re never going to believe who did it,” he said without preamble.
“Don’t tell me it was Tommy.” She couldn’t help feeling slightly hurt that Ethan’s old roommate would put her in danger, and be so unfeeling about it. He knew Ethan was the one at fault in the first place.
“No. It was Karen.”
Emery couldn’t immediately place the name. If it was a woman, she’d been sure he’d say Heidi. “Karen who?”
“His mother.”
“No!”
“Yes. That was who showed up at the pier to meet me with a bag full of money.”
Emery sat down on the closed toilet. “Did you call the cops? Has she been arrested? Ethan must be beside himself.”
“I didn’t call the cops.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t think we should turn her in. It’s up to you, of course, but I’ve worked out something that will be a lot better.”
“And that is...”
“Ethan has promised to confess to the cyberattack if we leave his mother out of everything.”
Emery began to massage her forehead. “Really?”
“That’s what he says.”
“I’m surprised he’d agree to that.”
“Even to protect his mother?”
“Yes. He’s so narcissistic, so used to her being the one to take care of him. He expects it by now.”
“That may be true, but he knows we will probably wind up getting them both if he doesn’t cooperate. There’s a good chance of it, anyway. And if she does have to serve time in jail for what she did, not only would she lose her job, she’d have a record. If you won the lawsuit, Ethan would lose his job, too. It just compounds everything.”
“What about the cowboy—Terrell?”
“He’d get away with it, so I’ll understand if you don’t want to go this way. I could still call the cops, and you could take your chance at winning the lawsuit without Ethan’s confession. I recorded some stuff that should help, but it won’t be as easy as if you have his cooperation.”
She rubbed her forehead, stalling while she tried to think. “I suppose you’re right. I’d rather win the lawsuit than see someone punished just for the sake of punishment.”
“I agree. They deserve it, but this benefits you much more.”
“I can’t believe it was her,” she said, still trying to come to terms with what she’d learned. “Or, actually, when I think about it, I guess I can. After witnessing what their relationship was like, it shouldn’t surprise me. I just never even considered her a possibility.”
“Me, either.”
“I probably should’ve thought of her. She’s seen me in a swimsuit, so she could’ve seen the freckle on my thigh. And they talked on the phone almost every day. That caused a lot of friction between Ethan and I. He always became so...puerile whenever he dealt with her. She didn’t know when she was crossing boundaries.”
“She still doesn’t. She’s not happy that his ass is in a sling. She’d rather take the fall. But if she does that, they both might wind up in a worse situation than they are now.”
“What I don’t understand is...why would Ethan help us figure out who did it if it was his mother?” she asked. “I can’t see him ever doing that.”
“He didn’t know it was her. She arranged it with a coworker, didn’t even have any direct contact with the
