The Invisible Girl's Revenge (Harper) novel Chapter 194

Chapter 194

Grayson

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When I held that gift bag out to Harper about thirty minutes earlier, I was already picturing her eyes softening and her arms wrapping around me because the memory would hit too hard to ignore. Instead, she just handed it back to me like it was nothing to her.

Her voice kept replaying in my head with everything she’d said to me and at that point, there was no denying that Maddox was going to win.

Thinking about how she confronted me about Juliet and Claire, I wondered how she had found out. I even ran a hand through my hair as I paced near the bed, the realization hitting me that if Harper knew then he knew as well and I didn’t want to deal with that.

I was so mad about it that I grabbed my phone and dialed Claire’s number again. She hadn’t been picking up and to me, that felt like I’d already called her a hundred times. I desperately needed to talk to her.

When I called again and she finally picked up, I stopped pacing.

“Hey,” she said in that overly sweet voice she was probably using on Maddox when she thought she was being charming. “I was just thinking about-”

“I don’t have time for that,” I quickly snapped at her, running a hand down my face. “Why weren’t you picking up before?”

It took her a few seconds to respond as she processed what I had just said to her.

“I was busy and didn’t hear my phone ring. What’s gotten into you?” she asked. “Wait, this is about last night, right? It has to be. We all know that it didn’t go exactly as planned.”

I sat down on the bed with a sigh of frustration. “It’s not just that we failed,” I said through clenched teeth. “The truth was exposed. Harper said it to my face less than an hour ago.”

She immediately gasped. “What? How is that possible?”

“How would I know?” I yelled into the phone. “I should be asking you that.”

“Well, that sucks, but I don’t know anything about that. You have to believe me.”

While she continued trying to convince me, there was muffled movement on her end.

“Hey, Juliet!” she called out to her.

“Yeah?” Juliet shouted back in the background.

“Do you know anything about Harper finding out?”

“About what?” Juliet asked.

“The plan, silly.”

“What? No, I don’t. That’s not possible. We weren’t careless in any way.”

I let out a harsh laugh. “Claire, I’ve been giving you privileges you don’t deserve. It’s the same for you, Juliet, even though you just came in yesterday.” My voice was cold. “And this is how you handle things? At this point-”

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2:54 pm D

Chapter 194

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Claire burst into laughter like I was talking nonsense. “Privileges? Are you being serious right now? You’re the one who made this offer last week. Don’t act like I came to beg for it. The only reason I accepted was because of the position you offered me, but let me make one thing clear, I can easily survive without it. I was doing just fine before. And you know what? It’s actually exhausting dealing with Maddox. He’s so different now and acts like he doesn’t care anymore. I’m so tired of humiliating myself for someone who won’t even look at me like I spark any kind of desire in him!”

“Same here!” Juliet’s voice loudly chimed in from the background.

I immediately felt my control slipping, making me want to put them in their place. “I don’t care about how either of you feel. This isn’t about the two of you.”

There was a sharp humorous laugh from Claire. “You know what? I think it’s time for you to handle this on your own. We don’t work for you! We’re done!”

“You’re-”

The line went dead before I could finish. I stared at the screen, realizing that she had just hung up on me.

For a second, I considered throwing the phone across the room so I could break it. My arm even tensed in readiness, but in the end, I chose not to do it. Breaking it wasn’t going to fix anything.

My mind began racing as I was now on my own. I quickly got up from the bed, pacing faster this time.

I even approached the mirror to stare at my reflection and I physically looked defeated.

Even though everything was slipping, I still refused to let Harper go.

Tiffany was out there somewhere, probably still enjoying herself with Josh in bed, so why shouldn’t I?

I needed to cool off and clear my head and the swimming pool seemed like the perfect place for that, so I changed into something more appropriate and grabbed the key to my suite.

I felt that if I stayed in that suite any longer, I was going to lose the little patience that I had left. Maybe going to the pool and watching everyone else pretended like life was simple was going to remind me that I could still win that fight.

I was in the elevator going down when my mother called. I actually expected her to do that sooner as I knew what she wanted to say.

Taking a deep breath so I would sound as calm as possible, I swiped to answer.

“Mom.”

“Hello, dear,” she said warmly from the other end of the line. “We’re all wondering what time you and Tiffany will be coming over. It’s already 12 PM”

I closed my eyes for a second. I hadn’t even spoken to Tiffany since she had walked out last night.

“I’m not sure yet,” I replied, trying so hard to keep my frustrations inside. “I’ll have to ask her, but we’ll definitely be there.”

She chuckled softly. “Good. I hope it’s soon, because we can’t wait to celebrate your big win.”

I clenched my jaw at that description. Big win?

“Well, I don’t think it was a big win at all,” I said, not even hiding the disappointment in my voice.

She sighed, the way she always did when she thought I was being too hard on myself. “Don’t ever compare yourself to anyone, my son. In my eyes, you’re still a winner.”

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2:54 pm D W

Chapter 194

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Those words might have carried some weight had it been at a different time, but with everything that had been going wrong, I was far from being a winner.

As I stepped out of the elevator, I murmured something that sounded like agreement just to end the conversation, but she kept trying to lift my mood by telling me how proud she was, how hard I’d worked and how one night didn’t define who I

was.

It was only when I told her that I had to talk to Tiffany about coming over that she gave it a rest.

As soon as my call with her came to an end, I slowed down and scrolled to Tiffany’s name to dial the number.

It rang and rang, but there was no answer, so I called again, but it was still the same thing.

I stared at the screen while poking my cheek. Was she that busy with Josh that she couldn’t even glance at her phone?

My parents were expecting us and that meant we had to keep up appearances. I hated doing it as I no longer felt the same way about her, but it was part of the deal.

It was only when I called her the third time that she finally picked up.

“What?” she said, from the other end of the line, slightly breathless.

I shook my head in disbelief as I already had an idea why that was the case.

“So busy with your boyfriend that you couldn’t even pick up sooner?”

“Yup.” She didn’t even try to deny it. “Now, what do you want?”

My grip on the phone tightened. “My mom called. She’s expecting us. We’re supposed to go over so we can all celebrate that trophy.”

She didn’t respond right away, but I heard faint movement on her end. She was still breathing unevenly.

“Fine,” she finally said. “We can go at 4 PM.”

Before I could respond, I heard Josh’s voice in the background.

“Babe, need some water?”

She chuckled softly. “After that, definitely.”

I twisted my face in disgust. She sounded happy and didn’t even bother to hide what they had been up to. It was like she was having the time of her life while everything around me was collapsing. I didn’t even bother to say goodbye. I just hung up on her. How was it that even for someone as awful as her, she had something good going for her?

When I reached the swimming pool area, I grabbed an empty lounge chair near the edge, dropped my towel on it, and rolled my shoulders like I could physically shake the frustration off.

It was too bright out there for the kind of mood I was in. There was noise, water splashing, low music and scattered laughter everywhere.

I looked at the colorful swimming pool and hoped the cold water would help cool my head.

I dove in without overthinking it and the water closed over me, shutting out everything for a few seconds.

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