“I’d buy it,” Caroline muttered under her breath. I barely heard it, but I did. I caught it. I grinned and looked directly into the camera as Daphne caught the moment Caroline’s words hit my ears.
Caroline coughed, knowing I’d heard her even though she hadn’t intended for me to. I winked at Caroline. I hoped she was ready for me. I had a feeling I’d never want to let her go and that she’d kill me with only one kiss. Caroline tried to hold back her smile, but she couldn’t. And it wasn’t a half smile or a small one, it was the full-on smile that stopped my heart each time I saw it.
Soon, sweetness, I promised her silently. Soon.
19 Caroline
My fingers jabbed at my phone screen as I marked the review as spam and sent the report to the website hosting reviews for my clinic. Dean wasn’t going to take getting fired and walk away, never to be heard from again, as I had hoped. The first week after I’d let him go, I’d been worried and prepared for retaliation in some form, but it didn’t happen, and as the days passed, I thought it wasn’t going to. I was wrong.
I was so wrong.
He’d spammed every site that had reviews for my clinic, creating profile after profile filled with lies and blasting them all over the internet. He’d claimed I hurt animals, lied to clients to make more money, and performed unnecessary surgery. None of it was true. I knew it was him. Each review called me a bitch. He’d called Alicia a bitch that day, and this type of thing seemed like his style. All the reviews had been posted within a few minutes of each other. I just knew it was him.
I reported each one, explaining that they’d come from a disgruntled ex-employee and were all false. Now I had to wait and hope they were all taken down.
I slouched in my chair at the bar and picked up my wine glass, swirling the liquid around. The chatter around me was a low hum. “Sit up straight, Caroline. I taught you better than that. What is wrong with you?”
I startled, straightened my spine, and pushed my shoulders back, and I turned on the barstool to face my mother. It was another family dinner night. I’d been the first to arrive, and I’d let myself slip and relax while I waited, lost in my own thoughts. “Sorry, mother,” I muttered and stood up.. Now that my parents had arrived, we could sit at our table and wait for my sister. I followed them to our usual table, which was reserved for us, and took my place, placing my hands in my lap and sitting up straight.
I didn’t meet my mother’s eye, but I could feel every inch of her inspection as she watched me from across the table. I felt like I was under a microscope, as if every dimple and blemish was on display and she found me lacking. It was the same every week. It’d been the same my entire life. I’d never been able to measure up to my sister. I’d tried diet after diet, exercised myself to exhaustion, and I still had the curves and hourglass shape. I felt healthy. That’s not what mattered to the woman across from me. It was the size of my dress, and to her it was embarrassing.
“I’m sorry I’m late. I met the nicest man on my walk over here,” Katrina said, gracefully falling into the seat next to me. This restaurant was down the street from the office building my sister worked in. It’s why it had been chosen: it was convenient for her. It was across town for me, but that didn’t matter. And all my suggestions of finding a more central location had been batted away.
“Oh, honey, that’s so nice. What’s his name?”
“Lee. He’s a stockbroker and we have a date set for this Saturday.”
“That’s great, Kat,” I said. “I hope y’all have fun.”
“Katrina,” my mom corrected. “Her name is Katrina. Kat is a terrible nickname. Don’t reduce her beautiful name to something so pedestrian.”
I nodded once and glanced at the TV my dad was craning his neck to see. A baseball game was on the screen. “Is your team winning, Dad?”
His dark brown eyes met mine and crinkled in the corners as he smiled. “What’s that, dear?”
“Is your team winning?”
“Sure are,” he said and winked, turning his attention back to the screen. That was about all I would get out of him tonight. He’d never been as hard on me as my mom, but he also wasn’t present and never stopped her.
I sighed and picked up my wine glass, taking a sip of the red wine. “You shouldn’t be drinking wine,” my mom said. “It’s full of sugar and the red will stain your teeth. You should find a drink with fewer calories. Vodka and water perhaps.”
“Maybe I’ll try that next time.”
“How’s that whole stalker situation going? Did they know what they were getting when they looked through your camera on your laptop?” I turned my head toward my sister, feeling the flush rise up my neck and toward my cheeks. I felt like their punching bag. A knock-out punch would land against me, and I’d swing back into position for more.
After the first incident, I’d let my family know what had happened. I hadn’t told them anything else in the weeks since. “They hacked into the cameras at my
