Wreck the Halls by Tessa Bailey EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Tessa Bailey
- Language: English
- Genre: Feel-Good Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
December 1
Present Day
Beat stood shivering on the sidewalk outside of his thirtieth birthday party.
At least, he assumed a party was waiting for him inside the restaurant. His
friends had been acting mysterious for weeks. If he could only move his legs,
he would walk inside and act surprised. He’d hug each of them in turn, like
they deserved. Make them explain every step of the planning process and
praise them for being so crafty. He’d be the ultimate friend.
And the ultimate fraud.
When the phone started vibrating again in his hand, his stomach gave an
unholy churn, so intense he had to concentrate hard on breathing through it.
A couple passed him on the sidewalk, shooting him some curious side-eye.
He smiled at them in reassurance, but it felt weak, and they only walked
faster. He looked down at his phone, already knowing an unknown caller
would be displayed on the screen. Same as last time. And the time before.
Over a year and a half had passed since the last time his blackmailer had
contacted him. He’d given the man the largest sum of money yet to go away
and assumed the harassment was over. Beat was just beginning to feel normal
again. Until the message he’d received tonight on the way to his own
birthday party.
I’m feeling talkative, Beat. Like I need to get some things off my chest.
It was the same pattern as last time. The blackmailer contacted him out of
the blue, no warning, and then immediately became persistent. His demands
came on like a blitz, a symphony beginning in the middle of its crescendo.
They left no room for negotiation, either. Or reasoning. It was a matter of
giving this man what he wanted or having a secret exposed that could rock
the very foundation of his family’s world.
No big deal.
He took a deep breath, paced a short distance in the opposite direction of
the restaurant. Then he hit call and lifted the phone to his ear.
His blackmailer answered on the first ring.
“Hello again, Beat.”
A red-hot iron dropped in Beat’s stomach.
Did the man’s voice sound more on edge than previous years?
Almost agitated?
“We agreed this was over,” Beat said, his grip tight around the phone. “I
was never supposed to hear from you again.”
A raspy sigh filled the line. “The thing about the truth is, it never really
goes away.”
With those ominous words echoing in his ear, a sort of surreal calmness
settled over Beat. It was one of those moments where he looked around and
wondered what in the hell had led him to this time and place. Was he even
standing here at all? Or was he trapped in an endless dream? Suddenly the
familiar sights of Greenwich Street, only a few blocks from his office, looked
like a movie set. Christmas lights in the shapes of bells and Santa heads and
holly leaves hung from streetlights, and an early December cold snap turned
his breath to frostbitten mist in front of his face.
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