Penalty: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (Alpha Second Chances Book 3) by Rowena Page B

searches, employers google me and find all this crazy stuff?
    Even if it sounds crazy to them, they probably wouldn’t want to take a chance.
    Bethany is not only messing with my college life and potentially my academic performance, she’s messing with my future opportunities.
    She can’t get away with this!
    I guess I can always just use another name on my résumé and hope by the time background checks are done, the employer is committed to giving me a shot. Hopefully, I’ll have the chance to say, “Haha! Yeah, I pissed off a mean girl queen bee and she decided to have a little fun with my reputation. None of it’s true, of course,” and give them a dazzling smile.
    Ugh! It might be too late already.
    But I might still have a chance to minimize potential longterm damage by taking off now.
    At this point, I’m pretty much used to picking up and leaving to start all over again elsewhere, but I just got here!
    And then, of course, there’s Abe.
    Maybe we can have a long distance relationship?
    I don’t exactly know where I’d go just yet so I’m definitely putting the cart before the horse, but the thought of not being close to Abe squeezes my heart. I don’t want to leave him.
    I can probably tough this out; maybe there’s something we can do to stop Bethany—make her take it all back somehow.
    Even though I fear the damage has been done.
    When people are confronted with the truth and you’ve been cleared of horrible accusation, some damage is irreparable. Even in the face of exoneration, reputation is one of the hardest things to repair.
    I remember hearing about this guy whose daughter accused him of molestation.
    He lost friends, his job, his wife—his whole life went to shit because of the accusations.
    Eventually, it came out that she lied—she just wanted to punish him for being so strict with her.
    But do you think everyone was all open-armed and apologetic after that?
    On the surface, sure—I bet people were all, “How horrible! So sorry you went through that. Unimaginable what your daughter did. How dare she? She must be disowned.”
    But did things go back to normal? Was he invited to the bar? A barbecue? Given his job back? Did his wife return to him?
    No.
    The stench remains.
    Despite being vindicated, basic trust in him was eroded, and no one in their right mind would trust him around their daughters.

    * * *
    A lmost as soon as my class is done, my phone rings.
    I answer quickly, knowing it’s Abe.
    “Are you all right?” he says, his voice full of concern.
    “As ‘all right’ as someone can be when horrible rumors are being passed around about them.”
    “I’m so sorry, Maddy… ”
    “Hey, it’s not you doing the spreading.”
    “No, but I didn’t exactly handle this whole thing well. I could have been more sensitive to Bethany.”
    “To be honest, I’m not entirely sure that would have made a difference.”
    “It might have.”
    “Sure. But sometimes, a woman scorned is a woman scorned, no matter how nice you are about rejecting her.”
    “Well, in any case, I’m going to take care of this. Just hang in there; we’ll sort it all out.”
    “If we don’t die from that mysterious disease I gave you, first!”
    He laughs a little and I can’t tell if he’s faking for my sake.
    “Hey, do you mind if I see that photo? You know, the one with your mom. Now that it seems Beth isn’t exactly done playing around, you should probably hold on to it as evidence; start building a case against her. I know you said there’s no info on the envelope, but there might be traces of something a pro might pick up. Something in the ink or the handwriting or something.”
    “Sure,” I say.
    I doubt there’ll be any useful info on it, but I agree that holding on to it is a good idea, despite how much its very presence disturbs me.
    I feel like it stares at me at night before I go to sleep, and in a few ways, it has even followed me to dreams—my mother in live action, smiling at me with