Riley
I stumbled into the bathroom, hand pressed to my cheek where the sting of Javier’s slap still burned. My skin was hot, stinging, like the pain wanted to crawl beneath my bones and stay there. Zara followed close behind, slamming the door shut behind us. The sound echoed in the tiled room, sharp and final.
“Riley—” she started, but then we both froze.
Sobbing. Quiet, broken, the kind that scraped the back of your throat.
I tilted my head toward the noise. A pair of white sneakers peeked out from under the far stall. Zara’s eyes widened, and she mouthed, “It’s the PT.”
I swallowed hard and stepped forward, knocking gently. “Hey… are you alright?”
Silence. Then a trembling voice. “I… I don’t know.”
I knelt by the door, my voice low and careful. “It’s okay. You’re safe. Can you come out, please?”
The stall lock clicked open. The door creaked. And there she was—Lucas’s new PT—mascara streaking down her cheeks, her whole body shaking like she couldn’t stop.
Zara was the first to step closer. “What happened?”
The woman stared at us, chest rising and falling fast, hands twisting at the hem of her blouse. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“For what?” I asked, even though I already knew. My gut clenched.
She looked at me like she’d been holding it in for weeks. “I didn’t want to lie. I never wanted to say those things about Lucas. But I was blackmailed.”
My blood ran cold. “Blackmailed? By who?”
Her lips trembled. “Javier Santos.”
Zara let out a harsh breath. “Of course.”
I stepped closer, slow and steady. “What did he have on you?”
She hesitated. I could see her panicking—shoulders twitching, mouth opening and closing, eyes darting. I lowered my voice and said gently, “Please. You can tell us. No one’s going to hurt you now.”
She broke.
“He had photos. Messages. Stuff I sent years ago—before I got my license. Dumb things, mistakes. He found them, and he said if I didn’t play along, he’d send them to my parents. He even mentioned my little sister by name. Said he knew where she studied.”
Tears streamed down her face. “He told me to exaggerate every little thing. Said to hint that Lucas made me uncomfortable. That I feared retaliation. I didn’t know how to say no.”
I felt sick. I wanted to scream, to run back into the boardroom and rip Javier apart. But I forced myself to stay calm.
“You should’ve told someone,” Zara said softly.
“I couldn’t. I thought I’d lose everything. My job, my license—my family’s respect. But… when I saw you walk in today, Riley… I don’t know. Something broke. I couldn’t keep lying.”
I knelt beside her, placed a hand on her arm. “You did the right thing now. It’s not too late.”
“But what if they don’t believe me?” she whispered. “What if I lose everything anyway?”
“You won’t,” I said firmly. “You’ll tell the truth. And I’ll back you. We’ll back you. You were manipulated. That matters.”
She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her coat, still trembling. “Do you really think I’ll keep my license?”
“I’ll make sure you do,” I said. “If I have to stand in front of every medical board in the country to explain it myself, I will.”
Zara nodded beside me. “And we’ll make sure Javier pays.”
The PT took a shaky breath. “Okay. Let’s go.”
***
The boardroom had never felt colder.
Lucas sat in the back, silent and still, his eyes locked on us as we entered. I squeezed the PT’s hand once before stepping back, giving her the floor. Zara stood on her other side, a steady presence.
One of the board members, gray-haired and sharp-eyed, cleared his throat. “You asked to speak again?”
The PT nodded. Her voice cracked at first, but she pushed forward. “I need to correct my previous statement. I was blackmailed by Javier Santos.”
A ripple of murmurs shot through the room.
She lifted her chin. “He threatened to expose private information, endanger my family, ruin my career—unless I followed his instructions. He made me file false reports about Lucas Rivera. None of it was true. He never harassed me. He never made me feel unsafe. I lied… because I was scared.”
Dead silence followed. Every eye on her. I held my breath.