Chapter 5

As soon as they walked in, those thugs made a beeline for Thea, dropping to their knees with desperate looks. "Miss Rowland, we can't handle the beatings any longer. You're the one who paid us. You can't just bail on us now."

Thea stepped back, her brow furrowed in confusion. "What are you even talking about? I don't know you guys."

She was trying to make sense of the situation. "If I were the one who hired you, I wouldn't be dumb enough to reach out directly. Wouldn't that just make it easy for you to pin me down?"

The lead guy clenched his jaw and whipped out his phone. "Miss Rowland, here's the proof-calls and messages. You're not going to deny it, right?

"Plus, you wired a cool 35 thousand dollars from the Rowland account to me just the other day. We could just head to the bank and verify that." Jake was visibly fuming, looking really upset.

Before he could even get a word out, Emmalie jumped in, saying, "Mr. Hendrix, Thea only messed up because she's way too into you. I apologize to Miss Terell on her behalf. Let's just put this behind us, okay? Whatever Miss Terell needs to make things right, we're on it." Jake's mood went from bad to worse, and he shot Thea a scathing look. "So, you think you've outsmarted everyone, huh? If it weren't for me standing up for Madelyn, you would've had her played, wouldn't you?"

Out of nowhere, Thea burst into laughter as if a lightbulb went off in her head.

Turning to Emmalie, she said with a sarcastic tone, "We're still on this, and here you are, rushing to cover up and say sorry - are you so eager to pin this on me?"

Emmalie's eyes went wide, and before anyone knew it, she was crying."Thea, I really want to help you. Why would you even think that of me?"

Ivy was visibly upset and shot Thea a furious look. "It's tough for Emmalie to have your back when you're causing chaos at her welcome party. Do you only feel good when she's groveling and saying sorry for stuff you've done?"

and tired. "Thea, just say sorry if you've

a frown, "Honestly, Emmalie's the only one foolish enough

in disbelief. Despite being used to not being trusted, Thea couldn't shake off the

shouldn't we be focusing on figuring out the real story? Do you actually want to see me

it. You're doing this because moving on is hard for you. But let's get one thing straight - Madelyn is innocent. "She's been caught up in something she has nothing to do

so slightly,

generosity is touching,

From this point on, he'll go his way, and I'll go mine. We're not crossing paths anymore." With every word, her red lips painted a picture, and Jake's expression shifted through an

the conversation. "So, Miss Rowland is really done with Jake, huh? She's making him

"Jake, I shouldn't have messed with Miss Rowland. I'm sorry. If she can forgive me, I swear I'll leave the city for good." Jake, who had just started to soften up, snapped back to his usual stern self. With a dark look, he shot back, "Thea, wanna test out how your family holds up against my fury?" Max quickly chimed in, "Can't you just listen for once, Thea? Say you're

the Rowland family were pressuring her because they

getting frustrated time and time again.

innocent and wronged as you claim, let's get the police involved and see what they have to say. "Lucky for us, I've got some juicy recordings on my phone. The police can figure out who's lying and make sure

to reject, her voice a bit sharp because

lost. "If this leaks, my reputation will be in

stuff on her phone wasn't an option. If she did,

not impressed. "Isn't this messing with

low-key. Apologize to Miss Terell and get past

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