Chapter 106 Blackmail
Violet
I wake slowly, the kind of slow, heavy return to consciousness that comes after sleeping too hard.
For a moment, I don’t know where I am.
The sheets are warm around me, tangled from where I must have moved in my sleep.
Then I hear Rowan’s voice. Sharp. Angry.
“…this is complete bullshit.”
My eyes open fully.
Rowan is standing near the far side of the room, pacing slowly with his phone pressed to his ear. His back is partially turned to me, one hand braced against his hip while the other grips the phone so tightly his knuckles are white.
“She can’t do this,” he continues, his voice low but furious.
I push myself up against the pillows, frowning slightly.
Who the hell is he talking to?
“And if she thinks I’m just going to sit back and let her pull something like this—” he stops pacing for a second, jaw tightening. “No. Absolutely not.”
There’s a pause while whoever is on the other end of the line speaks. Rowan’s shoulders tense. Then he laughs. Except it isn’t amused. It’s cold.
“You can tell Hargrove,” he says slowly, “that if she tries to push this any further, I will bury her so deep politically that she won’t even remember what office she used to hold.”
My stomach twists.
Hargrove.
So that’s who this is about.
Rowan turns slightly, still pacing. “No,” he snaps into the phone. “I don’t care how much she thinks she has on me.”
Another pause.
Then his voice drops even lower. “Tell her to try.”
A second later he ends the call with a sharp movement, tossing the phone onto the nearby table like it personally offended him.
That’s when the door opens.
Theo walks in without knocking. “Rowan—” He stops when he sees me sitting up in the bed. “Oh,” he mutters. “You’re awake.”
I glance between them. “What’s going on?”
Theo hesitates for half a second. Then he lifts the tablet in his hand and turns it toward Rowan. “Hargrove just sent this.”
The screen lights up the room. Even from the bed I can see the image clearly enough.
A photo. Blown up large across the tablet screen.
Rowan and another woman.
Close.
Too close.
I blink once as I realize it was Avery.
Then the pieces click together in my head.
I look at Rowan. “…is she blackmailing you?”
Rowan freezes. His head turns slowly toward me, his expression tightening for a brief second before he walks across the room. “You should go back to sleep,” he says calmly. “I’ll handle this.”
I immediately pull away from him. “Oh, absolutely not.”
He stops. “I mean it, Violet.”
“And I mean it too,” I shoot back, pushing the blankets off as I swing my legs over the side of the bed. “I’m not going back to sleep while the woman who tried to destroy my life is now apparently blackmailing you.”
His jaw tightens. “This doesn’t concern you.”
I laugh. “Are you kidding me?”
Theo quietly steps back toward the door like he’s trying to decide if he should escape before this explodes.
“This is literally my fault to begin with,” I continue, gesturing toward the tablet. “Hargrove only started all this because of me.”
Rowan shakes his head. “No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes,” I repeat, standing up now. “And if she’s trying to use something against you, I deserve to know what it is.”
Rowan exhales slowly. “Violet—”
“Don’t ‘Violet’ me,” I snap. “What is she threatening you with?”
Theo looks between us nervously.
Rowan runs a hand down his face, clearly irritated. “You don’t need to be dragged into this.”
“I’m already dragged into it.”
“That’s exactly why I’m trying to keep you out of the rest.”
“Well congratulations,” I say dryly. “That’s not working.”
The room goes quiet for a moment.
Rowan looks at Theo.
Theo raises his hands slightly. “Don’t look at me, man. I just brought the bad news.”
Rowan sighs. Then he finally relents.
“Hargrove has photos,” he says.
“Of?”
His jaw tightens again. “Of me and Avery.”
My brows pull together slightly. “And she’s threatening to release them?”
“Yes.”
Theo taps the tablet screen once, enlarging the image slightly.
“Suggestive ones,” he adds carefully. “Very suggestive.”
I look back at Rowan. “And what exactly is she trying to accomplish with that?”
Rowan’s expression darkens. “She wants to discredit you.”
I blink. “Me?”
“Yes.”
He gestures toward the tablet. “If she releases those photos, the narrative becomes very simple.”
My stomach sinks as I realize where this is going.
Rowan finishes the thought anyway. “It makes it look like I sleep with my assistants.”
The room falls silent. Theo shifts awkwardly.
“And if the public believes that,” Rowan continues, his voice calm but sharp, “then suddenly your entire testimony and my credibility becomes questionable.”
Because now it looks like I’m just the latest assistant.
Like Rowan manipulated me. Used me. Controlled me.
I stare at the tablet again. Then back at him.
“And she thinks that will destroy everything we just did today,” I say quietly.
Rowan nods once. “Yes.”
My jaw tightens. “Well,” I say slowly. “That woman really needs a new hobby."
I stare at Rowan for a moment, the tension in the room pressing in on all sides of me. Then I hold my hand out.
“Let me see them.”
Rowan immediately shakes his head. “Violet—”
“No.” My voice is steady, even though my stomach is already twisting. “If she’s threatening to destroy both of us with those pictures, then I deserve to know exactly what we’re dealing with.”
Theo glances between us, clearly weighing whether handing me the tablet is going to get him killed.
“Rowan…” he says cautiously.
Rowan runs a hand through his hair, frustration flashing across his face. For a second it looks like he’s going to refuse again.
Then he exhales sharply.
“Fine.”
Theo takes that as permission and walks over, placing the tablet in my hands.
The screen is already open to the first image.
My stomach drops.