I wanted to shake my head. Nothing about Nathan said that he had any problem drinking. In fact, all the times we had spent together around alcohol, he had been the more responsible one.

“So Nathan was drinking.” Tim leaned closer to my phone on the table. “Underage drinking,” he said in a loud voice.

“That’s right,” Rob said. “He was drinking and instead of taking Becca home at the end of the evening, he drove both of them into a tree. Becca lost her leg.”

My heart stopped.

No.

That was a lie. Everything this little slime bag had said was a lie. Nathan being a jerk—lie. Nathan being a drunk—lie. Nathan injuring his girlfriend in car accident after prom—lie. I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to ignore the fact that they were shaking.

Tim cast a sidelong look at me, an unpleasant smile appearing on his already unpleasant face. “And you said you have proof,” he said to Rob, who nodded.

I leaned further back in my chair, as if I could disappear into it. I didn’t want to look but when Rob pulled out a three-rim notebook from his backpack, I couldn’t help it. In it were laminated sheets of photo collages, mostly comprised of pictures of a pretty brunette in a cheerleading uniform. There were some that seemed to be cut out of yearbooks or newspapers but there were a few blurry shots that appeared to be taken at a distance.

“Were you stalking her?” I asked, taking a closer look.

But Rob pulled the notebook away from me, moving it towards Tim.

“That’s not the issue here,” he said. “The issue is that Nathan Ryder is responsible for his ex-girlfriend’s tragic accident. Because he was big dumb drunk jock. See?” He pointed to a page from his notebook towards the end, where it had the headline: Two injured in drunk driving accident.

I peered closer at the newsprint. Nowhere did it mention any of the victims by name, but there was a picture of a car smashed into a tree. I winced at the sight of it, all that metal and smoke.

“It doesn’t say anything about Nathan,” I pointed out.

“Well, yeah,” Rob sneered. “His family paid to have it covered up. Because he was underage, he did community service and the records were sealed. Neither Nathan nor Becca ever spoke about it. Becca didn’t even stay in town to recover. No one knows where she went,” he said ominously.

Having met the Ryders, I had a hard time imagining them bribing people to keep this hidden. Something about this didn’t seem right. How could Tim have talked to all those people from Nathan’s high school and have no one mention this? It wasn’t that long ago—how could no one know about it? Everything about this smelled off.

“Thank you so much for your time, Rob,” Tim said, standing.

Rob got to his feet, clutching the notebook. “And you’ll tell me if you find her, right?”

“Of course,” Tim answered with a disingenuous smile.

Satisfied with that response, Rob gathered his things, and without a second glance in my direction, scurried out of the lobby like the cockroach he was.

Tim spun back to me, his face bright. “Did you hear that?” he crowed. “That’s the kind of story I’ve been looking for. Star athlete’s dark past. How he ruined lives getting to where he is today.”

I felt sick. But I wasn’t going to let Tim act like this proved anything. As far as I was concerned, Rob was big fucking liar who had been obsessed with Becca and still harbored some weird feelings for her and a deep-seated hatred for Nathan.

“There’s no evidence,” I insisted. “The article doesn’t name Nathan, or Becca, and we just have this random guy’s word against Nathan’s.”

“Who cares?” Tim said, snatching his bag and heading across the lobby. I scrambled to catch up with him, grabbing my phone from the table. “Let Nathan go on the offense. We just need to plant the seed of doubt in the public’s eye. Get people to second-guess the latest golden boy of baseball. If we time it right, we could get the Majors to back off on drafting him.”

Tim truly was a disgusting excuse for a human being. I dashed in front of him, cutting him off before he could reach the elevators.

“You can’t do that,” I said. “It’s unethical. You don’t have any proof.”

“Look,” Tim stared down at me, his words full of venom. “I know you’ve got the hots for the guy and he knows it too. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been trying to fuck you as a way to keep you distracted. So wake up, Saucy. He played you. He batted his eyes and now you’re ready to pass up your best chance at a nationwide story. For what? You think you have some future with this guy? Please. He’s a huge college athlete and you barely got past high school. He’s out of your league, babe, he fucked you over. Now transcribe that interview and have it to me in an hour.”

And with that, Tim turned and left me alone in the lobby.

Chapter Thirty

I went straight to my room and called Mandy. She was the only person I could think of who would be able to help. Who would know what to do.

While I waited for her, I did my due diligence and transcribed the whole stupid, fucking interview, cursing both Tim and Rob in my head. And if Tim’s rant hadn’t been bad enough, I had forgotten to turn off the recording app at the end of the interview, so I had to listen to the whole thing all over again.

By the time Mandy got there, I was practically in tears. Without a word she enveloped me in a bear hug, which was an incredible feat for someone as petite as she was.

“Tell me everything,” she said, sitting me down on the bed and taking my hand.

I told her about what Tim had said, about Rob and his accusations. And I told her about last night with Nathan. Her eyes brightened when I confessed we had spent the night together but she said nothing, listening, her fingers laced with mine.

“Well, first of all, Tim is a douchebag,” she said with authority. “He wouldn’t know how to be a good guy if he got a PhD in the subject. And screw him for even insinuating that you’re unworthy of Nathan. You, Sophie Hall, are awesome and everyone that matters knows it. I know it, Chris knows it, Nathan’s family knows it, and Nathan definitely knows it.”

I sniffled. “Thanks, Mandy.” I knew that Tim was wrong about me, but sometimes you really need a friend to tell you that a jerk is being a jerk. But even her reassurance couldn’t help stifle the little voice in my head that said that maybe he was right about what Nathan thought of me. Not that he had used me, but that I wasn’t good enough for him. That I had allowed myself to imagine a future with him that couldn’t exist. That would never exist. The possibility of that being true sat heavily on my heart.

“And you’re right—nothing about this guy Rob’s story smells right. It doesn’t sound like Nathan to begin with and I can’t believe no one else he went to high school with would know about it.”

“The problem is that Tim doesn’t care. He’s going to print the story and that will put the proof of denial on Nathan. And even if he can prove that it isn’t true, just putting it out there could really hurt his chances with the majors.”

Mandy nodded seriously. “OK, so we just have to stop him from printing the story.”

“The only way we can do that is if we can prove to my editor that it’s fake and that it will damage the reputation of the paper if they print it.”

“So we have to find Becca,” Mandy concluded.

“But how? I don’t even know her last name.” I put my head in my hands, knowing that once I sent the transcript to Tim, he’d start writing the article and it would be a race against the clock to prove to Mike that it was based on false evidence.

Mandy smiled. “Well lucky for you, my dad’s the sheriff. He can ask his friends in Houston if they have an address for her. Bet if she knew Nathan, they know her last name and where she lives, or at least a number.” She paused for a moment. “And you said that this guy Rob was super sketchy, right?”