CONFESSIONS
Lacey
My hands were shaking and sweating because I was committed.
I was in over my head.
The bruise on my cheek and the fat lip that I’d managed to cover up told me this had gone too far. At least I was good enough with makeup that no one would notice the marks. God knew I didn’t need more scandal.
My stomach ached and my heart raced and my mouth went dry, but as I entered the office, I knew it was time. I needed help.
“Lacey, you’re in early today,” Mr. La Croix said pleasantly.
“I have something I have to show you.” My words were almost a whisper I was so scared.
“Okay.”
I sat at the desk and pulled up the Test Dummy website on my laptop, ready to reveal everything.
“Test Dummy! I heard all about this. This is amazing. Whoever came—wait, what’s wrong?” He tilted his head.
“You have to see something Marcia and I know about. It’s bad.”
“Okay.” He sat next to me as I pulled up the video from the admin side of the website, the one featuring Miguel. At the end, Mr. La Croix sat quietly for a second before he whispered, “Oh, fuck. Is that—?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, wow.” He nodded. “Okay. Does anyone else know about this?”
“Miguel’s and Kami’s parents, and us girls. She showed us the video at her house.”
“And they’re going to bury this?” he asked, obviously keeping up with my dilemma and why I would come to him with this.
“Yeah.”
“We have some decisions to make.” He reached over and put his hand on mine. “I’m glad you showed me this. It’s good in two ways. One, I will absolutely ensure this makes its way into the right hands to out that little shit as the pervert he is. I hate when money buys protection. And two, I’ve been looking into this Test Dummy website. It’s genius. If we buy right before we leak this information, we can use the PR and publicity of the scandal to gain exposure for our new product.”
“What?” My heart burst, and my stomach clenched as again my body contemplated a trip to the bathroom.
“Think about it. This is a genius website: the design is flawless, and the idea behind it is brilliant. I’m taking you off Hart Bars and putting you on this.”
“Mr. La Croix,” I gasped. “I can’t possibly—with what happened to Kami, I’m personally invested.”
“You did so well with the Hart Bars, I really am proud. And at this rate—”
“It’s me!” I shouted as I covered my eyes. “I’m the Test Dummy.” I couldn’t face him and say it, so I kept my eyes closed. “I created the website with Martin.” It didn’t feel good admitting this aloud, not like I’d wondered if it would.
“What do you mean?” He sounded lost. “This is you?”
“Yeah,” I whispered, braving a look at him.
“You made this site?”
“Well, Martin, but the Test Dummy was my idea.”
“Marcia showed me this, but she didn’t know who was behind it. I don’t think anyone does.”
“I haven’t told anyone but Hennie and my brother.”
“Jesus, kid. This is genius. You really went out of the box. And you’ve done the IT work; it’s Fort Knox. Amazing stuff, you two. I should have known it was you. The marketing on the site, making it like some underground love tester, was brilliant. You are incredible.”
“It’s not all amazing.” I pulled my makeup out of my purse and used a wipe from the bag to show him the bruise. “I got attacked by the guy I was testing yesterday, and if it weren’t for Jordan finding me drugged at the bar, Miguel and his friends would have done much worse things to me.”
“Lacey! Your face! You test them yourself?” His eyes darted to the screen. “Were you the girl in the video with Miguel—?”
“Jordan saved me. Miguel didn’t do anything to me. Jordan didn’t know I was the Test Dummy; he just thought some asshole put something in my drink. But he—Miguel—was-was going . . .”
“Oh my God. And this.” He brushed my cheek.
“I know. Some guy from the street must have heard me screaming. He saved me, but it was not going well for me when this happened.” I pointed at the bruising. “I got lucky a couple of times, but I can’t put myself in any more precarious situations.”
“Oh my God. I don’t think I ever considered the lengths you had to go to make this happen. We can’t risk your safety anymore. Why would you do this?”
“My tuition.” I started to sob again. “I needed to cover it and maybe Martin’s bills and help my pare—”
“It’s okay. I get it. All you were trying to do was help Martin, but the cost was so much greater. I’m so sorry for not seeing the desperation and need you had. Will you ever be able to forgive me for being a negligent dad?”
“Of course. I don’t see it like that.” Sighing, no longer scared of his response, I clicked on the pending emails awaiting replies. “But I have this other problem.” The site had gone viral in the last two days. I wiped my eyes.
“Holy shit!” He jumped back. “When I started looking into the purchase, I didn’t know it had grown this much. I thought it was still really a start-up.”
“It is. I don’t have the infrastructure to run the company. I didn’t really expect that many people to be willing to pay top dollar for the truth. I assumed it’d be a couple of jobs here and there—a few paranoid girlfriends and their harmless, playboy boyfriends—but this has all gotten so out of hand since I launched the site.”
“Lacey!” His eyes widened. “You can’t possibly fulfill that many requests on your own. Not to mention that we’re never putting you in harm’s way again.”
“I’ve done ten so far.”
“And you have four hundred pending emails?”
“Yeah. And that number is going to triple by the end of the week at the rate of growth I’m currently projecting.”
“Not enough for one girl.” He contemplated, his eyes darting to my face. “And not safe. Can we come up with a way to make it safe, market it, take it nationwide, and create an app, like that ‘chat a fish’?”
“Yeah,” I laughed. That’s how he referred to all dating sites. His response wasn’t what I’d expected, and yet here we were.
“If you’re interested in selling, that is, though I don’t think you have much choice at this point.”
“I don’t. I made a couple of huge, almost lethal, mistakes. The Test Dummy—”
“Look, here’s what we’ll do. We won’t tell anyone you were behind this. I’ll buy the business anonymously from you, and you will work on it for me. And you will not test Monty. I already know Marcia sent an email asking the Test Dummy to run him. Marcia . . . I love that kid, but sometimes she can’t see the forest for the trees.”
“I didn’t want to test him, but I worried if I started being choosy, people would wonder why.”
“Right, look for patterns. Makes sense. So, you’ve been doing this the last couple of weeks, while working and after getting the news that your brother was sick?”
“Yeah.” I sighed.
“You need to learn how to lean on me. When you come up with your next genius idea, bounce it off me. We’re a team. I don’t know how else to gain your confidence.”
“I just worried that I would disappoint you,” I confessed. “You’re the only person who even checks and makes sure I’m doing the right thing. You’re the only one who cares that I’m doing my best. And you’re always so supportive. I don’t want you to be mad at me if I screw up sometimes.”
“I’m going to be angrier if you screw something up because you were too proud to ask for help. You don’t think I got to where I am without help, do you?”
I nodded.
“Oh, well, that’s your mistake. Not a chance. I always had tons of help. Tons of support and guidance. I had mentors who made me the man I am. I wasn’t smart, but I was lucky. And you are me at that age. In fact—” He got up and walked to his desk, pulled out a slip of paper, and wrote on it. “You’re more amazing than I ever was. I didn’t have an idea worth even half this at your age.” He handed me the scrap, which had a number on it. “I have to actually cost out what I think the business is worth and pay you that amount, but this is what I’m going to guess we’re close to.”
I stared at the number, confused. I lifted a finger and counted the zeroes. “No.”
“No,” I repeated.
“Lacey, this is going to make a killing. It’s evil, and it preys upon the weaknesses of jealousy and relationships, but at the same time, maybe it makes us all a little more accountable, knowing someone is watching. And look at Miguel. He’s going to be outed for hurting people. Well done. Like Net Nanny for love.” He sat back in his chair with his arms folded. “I am so proud of the initiative and the pride and the hard work. You had a problem, you refused to ask for handouts, so you created a unique growth opportunity by inventing a new industry and creating your own income.”
The sparkle in his eyes was food for my soul.
I’d never been more disgusted, proud, scared, overwhelmed, and excited in all my life.
“I’m going to get the intellectual property copyrights going today, ensuring no one else can cut into our market. You get the IT team on an app idea. And let’s all sit down for a massive company meeting to start brainstorming how to make this business safe and smart and worthwhile.”
“Should I tell Marcia?”
“No.” He shook his head. “You’ll upset her. She’ll be crushed you didn’t trust her. I’ll tell her it’s our company and everyone who works here is sworn to secrecy on it.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.” He smiled wide, shaking his head. “You surprised me. In a good and terrifying way. No father wants to see his daughter scared and hurt, but every father wants to see his child come up with something like this, create her own existence, and put her mark on the world. You just stamped the world, kid. Your name is on it. This is wildly original.”
“Thanks.” I tried to feel good about it, but I was still struggling.
“But we need to talk about Miguel and the attacker. I think some self-defense classes are in order. You and Marcia can go together. I don’t want to ever see you in this position again.” He lifted a hand to my cheek. “It makes me dangerously angry. I almost want to find this guy myself. Almost.”
“No.” I shook my head. “It was taken care of. The guy got beat to hell by some Good Samaritan.”
“Okay. Well, you go on to the spa with Marcia this morning. Try to relax and come up with some ideas. We’ll meet at one, spend a few hours bonking heads together, the whole team.”
“Okay.” I got up, my hands still shaking and my heart still racing and my mouth dry, but for different reasons than when I came into the office.
Leaving it, I was in shock.
A kind of shock I wasn’t sure I would ever recover from.
I walked to the spa, right to the Post-it wall.
There among the notes were thank-yous.
They were directed at me, the Test Dummy.
Seven of them.
Seven girls had posted a note, grateful for my work.
I’d possibly saved lives, like a superhero. Of sorts.
Maybe.
Or maybe not.
I would certainly have a wider pool of responses to gauge from once this thing hit the level that La Croix Industries could take it.