Page 44 of Convincing Carrie
“Because it’s true. Now, who was this guy you were talking to that was going to help you convince me that the baby you’re already carrying is somehow mine?”
All the color drained from her face.
“Didn’t think I heard, huh?” I smirked at her. “I heard the whole damn thing,darling. And don’t worry. If the horrendous ‘almost’ sex we had hadn’t cured me of my ‘obsession’ with you, your behavior over the past few months would absolutely do it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“After the awful ‘almost’ sex…”
“Quit calling it that!”
“Fine. After the terrible ‘almost’ sex, I started thinking about all the red flags I’d been looking past or making excuses for you for. But I suddenly couldn’t quit thinking about them. Then I found out you were even worse than I thought.” I leaned forward. “I had an interesting chat with Ethan Gold the other day. Imagine my surprise to hear we had an open relationship in college.”
She flinched. “He’s always been such a liar. You know that.”
“Do I?” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the wall. “From where I stand, the only liar around here is you.”
She stared at me. “But we’re so good together.”
“No. You can go be good with whoever that was on the phone. But you might want to give the baby over to his parents if they’re decent. Yours sucked and you’re going to be even worse. Anyway, I’m officially letting you know that you’re fired from the Caldwell Financial campaign. You’ll be the face of our company for exactly one year. Then we’ll be going in a different direction.”
“You can’t do that! You’ll have to get it approved through your mother first, and she won’t sign off on it…”
“Mother has nothing to do with it. This is Bryce’s, Celia’s, and my company, or did you not know that? Since Mom went rogue and signed you for the campaign without my permission a few months ago, Bryce, Celia, and I had the small amount of power she had at this company taken away. We needed to ensure she could never do something like that again.”
“I’ll fuck up your launch party…”
“No, you won’t. You’re under contract. Plus, I’d happily blackball your name with modeling agencies in Atlanta. The Caldwell name goesfarin Atlanta, Madison, or had you forgotten?”
She got tears in her eyes. “Please, Thatcher. For old times’ sake. Won’t you extend my contract for one more year?”
“Absolutely not. And I’m going to need that corporate credit card I gave you.”
She gaped at me. “I don’t have it with me. I’ll have to give it back to you another time.”
“Bryce already had it canceled. So even if you try to keep it, it won’t work.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Fine.” She got up, grabbed her purse, rifled through it, and pulled out the card. She slapped it down in my outstretched hand.
“Just so you know, Bryce has a meeting set up for you with both our accounting and legal departments right now.”
“For what?” she sneered. “You gave me the card.”
“You told me it was for jewelry the director wanted you to wear in one of the commercials. That was a lie. And I’ve seen the statement. You charged hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry, clothes, bags, purses, shoes…”
“You told me to keep it for anything else I might need for the ad campaign,” she protested.
“Bryce told me the process for getting purchases approved. You took advantage of me.”
She shrugged, smirking at me. “You were willing to give me the card. That’s on you. Besides, you’re a fucking billionaire.”
“Care to explain why you charged flowers, high end chocolates, upscale takeout, and even your rent to the card?”
Her face paled for a moment before she regained her composure. “You can’t possibly prove that you didn’t tell me to make those purchases.”
I pulled my cellphone out of my pocket and played some of our conversation back to her.
She gasped. For the first time she looked truly horrified. “You can’t use that,” she shrieked. “I didn’t give my consent.”
