CHAPTER 16: THE NIGHT IN ROOM 1704
1105 Words
JADA
My own name looked completely fake under the bright light of the tablet screen. The signature at the bottom of Mila’s online post matched my handwriting perfectly according to Nora, but the words above it made me feel sick. The medical text said I was unstable, reckless, and obsessed with Zayden. It claimed I had a history of faking memory loss just to get attention.
The worst part was the date. The report was stamped from the exact night Horace said I was with him in room 1704. A tight wave of panic hit my chest. I did not know whether to feel relieved or more trapped. If Horace was my only alibi against my own family, it meant I needed him to save me, whether I liked it or not.
Horace reached down and took the tablet out of my hands before I could read the comments. I reached across the counter to grab it back, but he held it high above his head, completely out of my reach.
“No,” he said.
“I am not a child, Horace,” I snapped, my voice rising.
He lowered his arm but kept his large hand clamped tight around the device. “Then stop punishing yourself with the opinions of strangers.”
I hated his answer because he was right, but I refused to back down. “I need to know what people are saying. Perception matters.”
Horace looked down at me, clenching his jaw tight. “Perception is my job tonight, Jada. Your job is to sit down before you fall over.”
I leaned my back against the counter and crossed my arms. “You really do make concern sound like an insult.”
“You keep needing it at inconvenient times,” he replied, his voice flat.
Jordan was already typing rapidly on his phone under the kitchen lights. He ran a quick check on the uploaded file and looked up. “The report metadata shows it was scanned directly from a Brooks family legal account. The file is too clean. It was prepared ahead of time.”
Nora let out a loud breath by the door. “Mila was waiting for you to defend yourself in public. She wanted you to release a statement so she could drop this report right after and make you look unstable again.”
I sat very still in my chair, listening to them analyze my downfall. I did not cry not because I didn't want to. The tears simply would not come. And it felt strange to be crying over a life I knew absolutely about, even though I needed to fight for it.
My silence seemed to worry Nora more than a loud breakdown would have. She walked across the room, dropped to her knees right beside my chair, and looked up into my face. “Hey, don't disappear on me, Jada. I know you don't remember who I am yet, but I know exactly what it looks like when you start shutting down.”
I turned my head and looked directly into her eyes. “I am not shutting down, Nora. I am counting my enemies.”
We moved into the privacy of Horace’s study to map out our next steps. The dim lighting cast long shadows across the heavy bookcases. Horace stood behind his desk, leaning his hands flat against the dark wood.
“If we can prove you were with me the entire night this report was supposedly signed, we can challenge the document,” Horace explained. “It will slow down your mother’s legal petition to declare you incompetent.”
I leaned against the heavy wooden door frame. “What exactly were we doing that night, Horace?”
“We attended a private sponsorship dinner that ran very late,” Horace said, his voice entirely low. “Then you came back to my office to argue with me.”
Nora raised an eyebrow from her position near the bookshelf. “You two seemed to argue a lot for people who supposedly hated each other.”
I kept my eyes fixed on Horace, waiting for his answer. Horace looked back at me without blinking his grey-green eyes. “She was incredibly talented at making people lose their patience.”
“And you look like a man with plenty of things to lose,” I replied.
I stepped away from the door, pushing further into his personal space. “Did I leave your office at all that night?”
“No,” Horace said.
“Did I sleep there?”
Horace’s jaw tightened significantly, the muscle twitching under his dark skin. “Yes.”
Nora let out a soft whisper behind me. “Oh. That night.”
I spun around to face her instantly. “What night, Nora? What do you know about it?”
Nora suddenly found the pattern on the floor carpet very interesting, refusing to meet my gaze.
Horace stepped out from behind his desk, his large frame drawing my attention back. “Enough,” he said, his tone heavy with authority.
I turned back to him, my anger flaring hot. “No. Enough is what people say when they are done lying to me.”
Horace looked over my shoulder at the other two people in the room. “Jordan, take Nora outside.”
Nora glared at him, her posture hardening. “I am not leaving her alone with you.”
“It is fine, Nora,” I said, nodding toward the hallway. “Go with Jordan. I need to talk to him.”
Jordan took Nora by the elbow, guiding her firmly toward the exit. Nora yanked her arm back the moment they crossed the foyer into the hallway.
“Do not touch my elbow like you own hallway manners, Jordan,” she snapped, her voice carrying through the open doorway.
“I am trying to stop you from starting a literal war in my boss’s study, Miss Nora Vale,” Jordan said, his voice rising slightly above his usual quiet tone.
“Your boss started the war the second he put my best friend in a luxury prison,” Nora shot back.
“She would be dead outside of it,” Jordan said, his voice turning completely heavy.
Nora stopped talking. Her mouth remained slightly open as the raw truth of his words hit her. Jordan’s expression softened just enough to add, “I am not your enemy, Nora.”
“Then stop standing on the enemy side,” she whispered, before the heavy study door clicked shut, leaving us in total silence.
- Writer
