The truth was, Shermaine was still a little pissed. She thought, I’m a legit badass, and yet my own fiancé doesn’t see it. Instead, he treats me like I’m some kid. It’s so damn annoying.
I can totally feel that same energy coming off him, and he can’t sense it from me? Figures. Men really don’t have a sixth sense.
Shermaine knew Joshua telling her not to be a picky eater was him trying to look out for her. And when someone genuinely meant well, she always responded with kindness.
So even though she was still annoyed, she let it slide for Joshua’s sake. She didn’t pick the carrots out again and just ate them.
Meanwhile, over at Basterel University, Erin was getting chewed out by her professor for losing her coursework. She looked pale and exhausted–she hadn’t slept properly last night, haunted all night by nightmares.
She thought, “If my phone and laptop got hacked, does that mean Shermaine already knows who I am? Did she see the WhatsApp chat history between me and Wendelyn too?”
After leaving the professor’s office, Erin went straight to someone from the computer science department for help. She sought out Bruno Henderson, a top student known for his tech skills.
“Bruno,” Erin said, “my phone and laptop got hacked. Can you check them for me?”
Bruno started with her laptop, trying to recover the deleted files. After a few minutes of fiddling, he managed to get the coursework back.
But the moment he opened the file, a terrifying face popped up on the screen. Bruno nearly flung the laptop across the room.
He clutched his chest. “Holy crap, that scared the hell out of me.”
Erin’s relief evaporated in an instant.
Bruno rolled up his sleeves. “Just wait a moment.” He figured whoever did this was basically declaring war.
Erin stared at the strings of code flashing across the screen, her eyes blurring from the overload.
But even after half an hour, Bruno still hadn’t cracked the firewall Shermaine had put in place.
Erin was starting to lose patience. “Bruno, how’s it going?”
Bruno wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Zip it. Can’t you see I’m in the middle of hacking through this firewall?”
However, after another thirty minutes, Bruno finally gave up and slumped in his chair like a deflated balloon, totally defeated.
“Still nothing?” Erin asked again.
“Nope.” Bruno’s face was gloomy. “This hacker’s good. I can’t even get past their damn firewall.”
That meant hoping to recover her game data was a complete pipe dream.
Erin said, “Can you at least check if my WhatsApp was accessed too?”
“Yeah, sure.” Bruno nodded.
After running a quick scan, he said, “Yeah, looks like your WhatsApp’s been viewed by someone unfamiliar.”
Chapter 24
That confirmed it. Shermaine definitely knew Wendelyn was the one pulling the strings; Erin’s face went even paler.
Bruno had no idea why Erin had gotten herself into trouble with a hacker, but if he didn’t find out who it was, the hacker could still access any of her devices anytime.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got a contact. He’s a legend in this field. I’ll ask him for help,” Bruno remarked.
Erin’s mind was blank. She didn’t answer right away, torn over whether she should tell Wendelyn what had happened.
Just then, Erin’s phone rang. It was her mom, Lyra Murray, calling. “Erin, your dad hit someone with the car. Remember the fifty thousand dollars I gave you to hold on to? Transfer fifteen thousand back to me right now,” Lyra said, panicked.
That money was their family’s entire savings. Since Lyra’s husband had a gambling problem and spent lots of his time hanging around casinos, she was afraid he’d blow through their savings, so she gave the money to their daughter Erin to keep.
Erin was all the way in Basterel–he couldn’t get to it even if he wanted to.
But unexpectedly, he went out driving a delivery and ended up hitting someone. Now the victim’s in the hospital getting emergency treatment, shouting about compensation.
Erin thought, ‘Fifteen thousand dollars?’
If she sent that over, her account would be almost empty. Of the thirty thousand Wendelyn had given her, she’d already burned through a few grand on that game yesterday.
She’d also tipped three thousand to her favorite male streamer and dropped another seven thousand online shopping for clothes and bags. Still, she had to transfer the money. “Got it, Mom. I’ll send it over.”
“Hurry,” Lyra urged and then hung up.
No matter how reluctant she was, Erin still transferred the fifteen grand.
That left her with about seven thousand. What scared Erin more was the thought that Lyra might call again saying fifteen wasn’t enough. If she had to send more, her account would be drained dry.
Erin knew she couldn’t tell Wendelyn about her phone and computer being hacked. If Wendelyn found out, there’d be no way for Erin to get more from her.
“Bruno, can you keep what I asked you today between us? Please don’t mention it to anyone else,” Erin begged.
Bruno didn’t think much of it. It was her privacy, after all. “Sure. No problem.”
“Thanks. If your badass friend figures out who the hacker is, please let me know right away,” Erin said.
Night fell, and the city lights blurred like spilled paint. Inside the Sterling Billiards Club on Silverwood Avenue, Danielle could feel the chill rolling off Shermaine–she was practically radiating killer intent tonight.
Right now, the black ball sat in an impossibly tricky spot. If it went in, Shermaine would take this round too.
Shermaine leaned down, her curves smooth and defined. She locked in on the angle, and with one clean strike, sent the ball in, ending the game right there.
Danielle, holding her cue, started the next round. After sinking two balls, she didn’t get another turn. She sat on the couch. “Who pissed you off?”
Whoever managed to put Shermaine in such a bad mood had to be something else. Danielle was dying to know who it was.
Shermaine thought, ‘I can’t exactly say it’s my fiancé, can I? A staged fiancé at that. There’s no point telling Danielle.’
Chapter 24
“No one.” Shermaine set down the cue and picked up a glass of chilled whiskey to take a sip. At that moment, her phone buzzed. She glanced at it, then set it aside.
She figured if that so-called tech expert couldn’t even crack her firewall, there was no need to give him the time of day.
Since Shermaine had to report to Brightwater Academy the next morning, she and Danielle played a couple more rounds before she headed back.
Meanwhile, in a private suite at The Belmont Lounge, a fancy, exclusive club, several of Basterel’s top power players were gathered. At the center of it all was Joshua.
They were playing poker, but Joshua wasn’t. To him, this kind of thing was boring. He only showed up out of courtesy to these guys.
Joshua held a cigarette between his fingers, flicked the ash with practiced ease.
Then, a man with slate-blue dyed hair finally spoke up, “Joshua, are you seriously going to marry Shermaine?”
The man was Roy Shay. Like Joshua, he held serious weight in the city. Most addressed him with the formal title “Mr. Shay”.
Joshua said, “Yeah.”
Roy asked, “Seriously? What’s up with your taste? What’s wrong with Wendelyn? She’s gorgeous, sweet, talented–way better than Shermaine.”
Joshua shot him a glance. “Stop projecting your type onto my standards.”
“I’m not,” Roy muttered, pulling a face. “I’m just saying, Shermaine doesn’t seem like a good person.”
But then, he felt a chill crawl down his spine at the way Joshua was looking at him—it was downright unsettling.
Roy pulled out his phone and tossed it over. “Check out this post.”
Joshua raised his hand and caught the phone mid-air. The screen displayed a trending thread on the Basterel University forum, all about Shermaine. It had already racked up tens of thousands of replies. The comments were brutal, nothing but trashing her.
Joshua’s eyes turned icy. “Delete this post.”
Roy let out a groan, clearly disappointed in him. “Joshua, I showed you this so you could see Shermaine’s true colors, not to have you rush to her defense.”
“She’s not like that,” Joshua said.
Roy looked stunned. “Oh my goodness. What kind of spell did Shermaine put on you to make you defend her like this? I’ve looked into it–those photos are real, not edited. I even checked the security footage.
“That student bumped into her and apologized. But Shermaine still went off on her. Come on, Joshua, a woman that petty isn’t good enough for you.”
Whenever Shermaine came up, what Joshua heard most was that she wasn’t good enough for him. He didn’t agree. He could ignore what other people said, but not when it came from his own friends.
Henry Jean, sitting nearby, made a quick zip-it gesture toward Roy, thinking, ‘Can’t you see that grim look on Joshua’s face?’ Joshua stubbed out his cigarette. “If anyone dares say that crap to my face again, they better be ready to lose their tongue.”
Chapter 25