They Made Me Confess To A Bricklayer, Then I Saw The Comments Chapter 08
Rowan’s company landed several big contracts, and I’d already made back a third of my investment.
My mom’s attitude toward him had shifted from “tolerating” to “actually being impressed.”
My dad had even started trading business horror stories with him.
I thought things would stay like this forever.
But I forgot something. The reader feed had warned me. Preston wasn’t going to let this go.
That evening, I was reading in my dorm when my mom called.
Her voice was wrong, tight and panicked.
“Serena, your father’s in trouble.”
My stomach dropped. The book slipped out of my hands.
“What happened?”
“One of the company’s shipments was seized at customs. They’re saying it’s suspected smuggling. Your dad’s been brought in for questioning.”
My head went blank.
“That’s impossible. We’ve never been involved in anything like that.”
“I don’t know,” my mom said, her voice breaking. “The Crawfords threw us under the bus out of nowhere. They’re saying they shipped those goods through our company and had no idea what was in them.”
[Holy crap. Preston made his move.]
[He said he’d make Serena regret it.]
[Where’s the second male lead?? Second male lead, get in there and fix this!]
I hung up, hands shaking. I hadn’t expected Preston to move this fast.
The reader feed had told me this much. In the past life, Rowan was the one who fixed it.
I called Rowan. It went straight to voicemail.
I tried five times in a row. Every call went to voicemail.
I ran out of the dorm, flagged a cab, and went straight to his office.
I bit my lip hard enough to hurt. My nails dug into my palms.
The second I got to the building, I ran upstairs and threw open his office door.
Rowan was on the phone. The second he saw me, he told whoever was on the other end he’d call back and hung up.
He crossed the room and took me by the shoulders. “I already know.”
“You know?”
“I just got the call,” he said. “Don’t panic. I’m already working on it.”
“How?”
He sat me down on the couch and handed me a glass of water.
“The customs paperwork for that shipment was tampered with. Preston’s people changed it. If we can get our hands on the original records, it’ll prove your family had nothing to do with it.”
“Where are the original records?”
“Chloe’s dad has them.”
I closed my eyes. Of course it came back to Chloe.
“I’ll go talk to her.”
“No.” Rowan held me in place. “If you go to her now, she’ll name her price.”
“What terms?”
He didn’t answer, but I saw it in his eyes. Chloe would want me to leave Rowan.
His company was taking off, and everyone could see it. And Chloe, who’d always hated me, wasn’t about to let a rising star like him slip away.
I took a breath. “So what do we do?”
Rowan was quiet for a few seconds. Then he stood, crossed to his desk, and pulled a USB drive from the drawer.
“I have copies of Preston’s father’s financial records on this.”
“He’s been dodging taxes and laundering money for years. What he’s done is far worse than anything your family’s being accused of.”
“If he comes after your dad, I’ll hand everything over.”
I froze. “When did you get this?”
“I knew before I came back.” He said it like he was stating a fact.
I pressed my lips together and looked up at him.
Five days into our relationship, we’d had that talk. The real one. I told him about the reader feed, and he told me about coming back. We laid everything out.
I looked at him, and my eyes burned.
“Rowan, why do you do all of this for me?”
He looked at me and brushed the hair from my face.
“Because you’re my wife.”
“I didn’t protect you in my last life. I won’t make that mistake again.”
The door burst open.
Preston was standing in the doorway, face twisted.
“Rowan, what did you just say?”