Breathless 4 (Breathless #4) by Claire Adams Read Free Book Online Page B

seem to get out from
underneath such a huge tragedy.
    “Becky! Are you okay? You haven’t been alone with that
boy, have you?” My anger flared up.
    “I have, actually. And I will be alone with him
whenever I feel like it.”
    “Didn’t you pay any attention to what I told you
yesterday? He’s — he’s a monster!”
    “No, Mom, he isn’t.” I took a deep breath. “For your
information, I went to the source. I asked Johnny exactly what happened, and he
told me in details that can’t be a lie. He was not one of the people who raped
Claire; he had left the party long before, and he is still beating himself up
for not being there to save her.”
    “But, sweetie, that’s exactly the sort of thing…”
    “Listen to me, Mother,” I said firmly. “The man I
spoke to last night is still absolutely torn up about what happened to a girl
he loved. He had no part in hurting her — he even testified against his own
friends because he knew that they were involved.” I paused for a moment to try
and let it sink in. “He did everything he possibly could to try and help her,
to save her, and he still blames himself.”
    “Sweetie-”
    “No, Mom,” I said. “I don’t even want to hear it. What
you and Dad did was incredibly shitty. Who the hell hires a private
investigator to look into their daughter’s boyfriend? I’m not a child. I’m not
an idiot.” I heard my voice rising in volume and took a deep breath to calm
myself. “I have absolute trust in Johnny because he has shown me he’s a good
person. If you were going to hire someone to investigate him, you should have
at least paid someone who knows what he’s doing. Obviously this guy you put on
the case can’t even get his facts straight!”
    “Sweetie, I know you’re upset…”
    “You’re damned right I’m upset. You nearly ruined the
best relationship I’ve ever had in my life because you’re too nosy to let me
make up my own mind and you hired an incompetent idiot who rushed to a
conclusion without even looking hard at the facts. I’m in love with Johnny and
I trust him, and there isn’t a whole hell of a lot you can do to stop me.” I heard
my mom sputtering on the other end of the line.
    “I would suggest, Mother, that you see about getting your money back. You wasted it on that stupid idiot when
you could have just trusted me to make a good choice.” I took a deep breath,
realizing that I couldn’t think of anything else to say. I was spent. I said a
quick goodbye and ended the call, my hands still shaking from all of the
adrenaline flowing through me. I felt weirdly hot and cold all at once, my
heart racing. I had done it. I cringed, thinking that my mom would probably
have more than a few choice words about my vocabulary, once she got over her
shock. But I couldn’t just let her sit there in her pretentious ignorance and
think such horrible things about the man I loved.

 
    Chapter
Eight
    A few minutes after I had hung up on my mother, I
heard the room door open. I pulled myself up off of the bed. “Becky!” Georgia
was calling out, and I tried to hurry to leave my room and meet her in the
common area.
    “What’s up?” I asked; she looked excited — anxious,
even.
    “Have you heard? You have to have heard.” I looked at
her in confusion.
    “What are you talking about? Heard what?” Georgia’s
eyes widened. She ducked into her room and brought out her laptop. She pulled
me onto the couch with her and opened up a browser. “Just tell me already,” I
said, losing my patience. I watched as she typed Johnny’s name into the search
bar. What was going on with Johnny? I felt my heart lurch in my chest — had
something happened to him?
    “Hold on, it’s coming up,” Georgia said. I gritted my
teeth. If something had happened to Johnny, surely someone would have let me
know. Johnny would have had someone call me or text me, wouldn’t he? A hundred
scenarios played through my mind: car accidents, injuries happening in the