After the Thorns Chapter 04
Author: Teal Brewster
Watching me move cartons with practiced ease, Vanessa’s expression briefly softened.
“Julian, you don’t need to work this hard.
“Take the security job at your brother’s company. It pays more and it’s easier.”
Her shamelessness made me laugh.
She had destroyed my life, and now she wanted me to beg my enemy for scraps.
Vanessa studied me for a long moment before continuing.
“You’re smart. I can persuade Mason to let you start in an entry-level office position.
“The two of you could work together. There would be nothing you couldn’t accomplish.”
I put down the carton and sneered. “So Mason can keep feeding off me?
“Then, when his company gets investigated for tax fraud, you can send me back to prison for him?”
Vanessa finally lost patience.
“Everything I’m saying is for your own good.
“Other than Mason’s company, what major employer do you think would hire you?
“If you insist on fighting me, I have ways to make you agree.”
After she left, I could not shake the feeling that something bad was coming.
Sure enough, the store manager fired me the next morning.
He claimed a new corporate policy prohibited hiring temporary workers with felony records.
Even the motel owner refused to let me stay.
He handed me my luggage apologetically. “I’m a small business owner. I can’t afford trouble.”
I did not bother questioning him. I took a cab to find Vanessa.
A housekeeper told me she was at Mason’s company.
As I entered the building, I saw her step out of an elevator carrying an insulated lunch bag.
When she saw me, Vanessa smiled triumphantly.
“I knew you would surrender eventually.”
She took a security uniform from the reception desk.
“No reason to wait. You can start today.”
I slapped the uniform onto the floor.
“Vanessa, I came to collect something.
“Since you’re marrying my brother, return the ring I gave you.”
Her expression stiffened.
“You gave it to me. That makes it mine.”
I stared at her and repeated, “It was meant for my future wife, not for you.”
Embarrassed and angry, she snapped, “I sold it a long time ago!
“Mason needed startup capital. I did it for our future together.”
When I proposed, she had cried with joy.
She had sworn she would never remove that ring.
Yet she had sold it without hesitation for another man.
“Then reimburse me. Twenty thousand dollars, every cent.”
Mason stepped off the elevator just in time to hear.
He frowned and deliberately raised his voice.
“That cheap fake ring was worth twenty thousand dollars? This sounds like extortion.”
He hurried over and pulled Vanessa protectively behind him.
“Vanessa, my brother just got out of prison and hasn’t been around women for years. Be careful.”
The accusation exploded through the lobby and ignited whispers among the onlookers.
“So that’s what this is. He looks normal, but he’s disgusting.”
“A convict harassing his future sister-in-law? Someone like that should have stayed locked up.”
Their contempt struck like needles.
“He’s lying!”
Mason clutched his chest and began another wounded performance.
“You came here demanding money. You were the one who wouldn’t leave Vanessa alone.
“I even offered you a job, and this is how you repay me!
“Vanessa is pregnant, Julian. I’m begging you, stop trying to steal my wife.”
My mind went blank.
I had never imagined Mason’s conscience could be this rotten.
Every sentence contained a fragment of truth, but he omitted that I had gone to prison for him.
And Vanessa had been my girlfriend first.
“That’s not what happened. You’ve misunderstood!”
I tried desperately to explain, but they took my panic as proof of guilt.
In the end, I could only look to Vanessa for help.
She was the only person who could establish the truth.
“Tell them I was with you first. I’m not some homewrecker.”
After a long silence, Vanessa chose Mason again.
“Julian, I don’t love you.
“Please stop trying to destroy my relationship with Mason.”
Her words dropped me into another abyss.
The whispers grew louder, and several people raised their phones to record me.
Someone shouted that they should defend their CEO, and fists began striking me from every direction.
I tried to evade them, but someone kicked the leg I had already injured.
Pain shot through me like electricity, and I crashed onto the floor.
Certain they were going to beat me to death, I pulled the West Point admission letter from my pocket.
“Would West Point admit me if I were truly a violent criminal?”
Mason snatched it away and tore it into pieces in front of me.
“Forging a West Point admission letter is another serious crime.”
The crowd looked at me with even greater disgust.
The kicking and punching began again.
Just when I believed I would die in that lobby, a commanding shout cracked through the air.
“Everyone stop!”
The newcomer’s eyes fell on the scraps of paper across the floor, and his voice turned lethal.
“I have reason to believe you are obstructing a federal investigation and attempting to kill an incoming West Point cadet.”
