“I’m not telling you,” I hiss, earning myself another slap in the face.
“I want his name.” Placing his palms on either side of me, on the arms of the chair, he leans in, putting his menacing face up in mine.
“Fuck. You.” My voice is detached as the words leave my mouth.
My head whips back as he punches me twice in the face. Tendrils of pain emanate from my nose, shooting angry shards all over my face.
“How many men have you let into your treacherous cunt?”
I smirk, licking the trickle of blood that leaks onto my lip from my swollen nose.
He punches me in the stomach, and I gasp, grappling for air as slicing pain ricochets through my upper torso.
“When did this happen?” He continues berating me.
“I’ll never tell.” I pant, still trying to recalibrate my breathing, earning a punch to the ribs this time. Agonizing pain rattles around my rib cage, and I cry out.
Grabbing hold of my chin, he roars, “Who was it?” His eyes are bulging and his nostrils flaring, and the scary, dark expression on his face promises a world of pain.
I ache everywhere, but there’s a certain sense of release with the pain. I’m doing this on my terms now. He can beat me until I stop breathing if he likes. I’ll never divulge the details.
“Who was it?” He punches me in the face again. “Answer me, you stupid cunt!”
I spit on him, and he goes crazy. Raining punches on me as he straddles the chair.
Voices bounce off the walls, in the background, but I can’t make out who it is or what’s being said.
We fall to the ground, the chair smashing into pieces underneath me, the full weight of his heavy body pressing down on me. His large hands close around my already bruised throat, and the last thing I hear before I black out is Drew pleading with my father to stop.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Every bone in my body aches when I finally come to, opening my eyes to the dark confines of my bedroom.
Drew is asleep in a chair at the side of my bed, his clothes wrinkled and a frown marring his beautiful face even in slumber. I reach one arm out from under the covers, my fingers crawling along the top of my bedside table, searching for my cell, when a throbbing pain radiates from my back, over my shoulder, and up my arm, and a whimper escapes my mouth.
Drew jerks awake, eyes wild and immediately on alert. “You’re awake,” he mumbles in a sleep-heavy tone. “How are you feeling?”
“How do you think?” I hiss, a fresh wave of pain blanketing me as the events of last night resurface in my mind.
Remorse washes over his face. “Abby,” he whispers, tears pricking his eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
My fingers continue searching for my cell, and he gently places it in my hand. I cradle the cell to my chest, attempting to scoot up the bed, but the pain circling around my torso is excruciating, and I cry out as tears slide from my eyes. Drew moves toward me, and I cower back, not wanting him anywhere near me. Sadness clings to his moist eyes. “I won’t hurt you,” he whispers. “Let me help you.”
“I needed your help last night, and you did nothing.” I sniffle, ignoring the pain to pull myself upright.
He hangs his head in shame. “I failed you, and I’ll never forgive myself for as long as I live.”
“I would never have let him do that to you.” I sob, wincing again as another wave of pain moves through me.
Drew empties two pills from a box on my table, handing them to me with a glass of water. “I got the doctor to come back. He strapped up your bruised ribs and prescribed these strong painkillers. He says you most likely have a concussion and you need bedrest to heal.”
“How could you let him touch me when I was unconscious?” I hiss, feeling like I’ve been assaulted all over again.
Drew’s face drops. “Your entire body is broken and cut up, and you blacked out. I was fucking terrified, and I had to do something!” He smooths a hand over the five o’clock shadow on his chin. “I had no one else to call, and I was panicking. I stayed in the room the whole time he was here.”
“Jeez, that makes me feel so much better.” I level him with a sharp look. “You were in Father’s study the whole time too, and that didn’t stop me from being violated!”
He sinks to his knees, tears rolling down his face. “We didn’t know, Abby! They yanked us out of training and told us we had to return early, but none of us knew why. We were completely blindsided when it went down. I went into shock. Didn’t know how to stop it.”
“You barely even tried,” I whisper, clutching my cell almost painfully. “You let Trent do that to me,” I sob, tears cascading down my face. “You let father humiliate me. You didn’t even come up here when the doctor was examining me, and that asshole Louis had a front-row seat.”
“He what?” Drew growls, and I narrow my eyes at him.
“Save your indignation, Drew. You’re too fucking late!”
Sniffling, I glance at my cell, noting the time. “Can you call Jane and ask her to come here?”
“What are you doing?” he asks, as I shove the covers back, gingerly sliding my legs out of the bed. There isn’t a single part of my body that doesn’t feel some level of pain.
“Getting ready for school.”
“You’re not going to school.” He looks incredulous. “You need to rest.”
I glare at him. “I’m not staying here on my own with Father. I’m going to school.”
“I’ll stay home with you,” he offers.
“What makes you think I want to stay here with you either? You’re as bad as him.”
His face crumples, but I don’t feel an inch of remorse.
He stood by and did nothing.
I will never forgive him.
Never.
“I’ll get Jane to stay with you then. Please, Abby. You have a concussion. It’s serious.”
“What happened to me was serious, but that’ll just get brushed under the carpet, won’t it?”
He clenches his jaw. “I don’t know what’ll happen. Father went over to Montgomery’s last night to try to salvage your marriage. Trent stormed out of here, ready to explode.” He drags a hand through his hair. “Everything’s all up in the air.”
“If the deal falls apart and I’m released from my obligation to marry that jerk, at least something good will have come from it.” I stand, instantly assaulted with a barrage of pain, and I slam my hand down on the table to stop my legs from going out under me.
Drew slides a gentle hand behind my back, helping steady me. “You can barely even walk. Please, A. Please get back in bed.”
“No.” I grit my teeth, forcing my feet to move. “I’ll be fine once the medication kicks in, and I need to pee and shower.”
I force Drew to leave my en suite bathroom after he helps me inside and turns on the shower. I stare at my reflection in the mirror with growing horror.
My nose is busted up, my lip torn where I must’ve bitten down on it, and multicolored bruising covers my cheeks and one side of my jaw. Gritting my teeth to bite back the pain, I manage to get my nightdress off, staring in disbelief at the myriad of bruises swathing my body. A thick white bandage is wrapped around my middle from my chest to my waist, damaged skin peeking out from both ends. Small cuts and grazes line my arms and lower legs. I’m guessing broken debris from the chair must have embedded in my skin as I was lying on the floor with my father beating me to a pulp.
Anger trundles through me, and I vow to get revenge as I move slowly toward the shower, every step knocking the wind out of me as pain skitters over every inch of me.
My father will pay for this.
So will Trent.
And Drew is as good as dead to me after his non-action.
I pant heavily as I step under the warm water, biting back my cries as the water stings my battered body.
I absorb the pain.
Clinging to it.
Letting it sink deep into my marrow.
I want to remember this feeling.
The pain.
The humiliation.
The rage and the disappointment.
I want it to fuel my vengeance. To use it to destroy the new elite because this betrayal goes more than skin deep. It’s soul deep.
They are the only ones who knew. The only ones who could have done this to me.
I just don’t understand why. Or why now?
It makes little sense.
Not unless they’ve figured out a way to get into my father’s safe without me.
But maybe it was never about that to start with.
Maybe everything they’ve said and done has all been a ruse.
There’s only one surefire way to find out. I need to get to school and confront them.
“I know you’re pissed at Drew. I am too,” Jane says as she helps me out of the house and into the car. “But I agree this is crazy. You’re in agony, Abby. You need to stay in bed.”
“Stop fighting me, and just help me do this,” I snap with zero patience.
Her red-rimmed eyes are welling up again. When she arrived to help me get dressed, she burst out crying at the state of me. Drew had already told her what happened, and she’s furious with him for not protecting me. I expected anger when she found out about my non-virgin status, but she has said nothing. Yet. I expect she’s granted me a reprieve because of my current fragile state, and I know she’ll want to talk about it at some point.
“I’d like some privacy, please, Jeremy,” I ask once we’re seated, unable to stomach Louis’s smug, leering face on the ride to school. I still haven’t heard from Oscar, and I’m worried my father has done something to him. At least, I was spared the ordeal of having to face the sperm donor this morning. According to Drew, he never returned last night, so he obviously stayed the night at the Montgomerys’.
Jane and I don’t speak for ages. I stare blankly out the window, barely seeing the mansions and fields flash by, consumed with plans for revenge.
My heavily made-up features mostly disguise my injured face—there isn’t much I can do about my swollen nose—and I’ve buttoned my shirt up to my neck so the indentation marks from Trent’s fingers aren’t visible. I’m wearing knee-high socks which cover the scrapes on my legs.
On the outside, I look near perfect.
On the inside, I’m broken into a million jagged pieces.
“Abby,” Jane whispers when we’re a few miles out from school.
“Yes.” I turn to face her.
“I’m so sorry this happened to you.” Tears slide down her cheeks. “I always knew your father was a monster, but I can’t believe he did this.” She clasps my hands in hers. “Parents are supposed to cherish and protect you. Not hurt and violate you.”
She’s openly sobbing again, and I brush her tears away with the pads of my thumbs. “I stopped believing in that a long time ago, and I’ve always known what he was capable of. I’m lucky I’m still alive.” But I don’t know for how much longer.
“Don’t say that!” she cries out.
“It’s the truth, Jane. If he loses his deal with Christian Montgomery, he may well kill me. He needs Montgomery’s company’s skillset to launch Manning Motor’s auto-drive car program. Christian’s research team is the foremost experts on robotics, and they’ve both invested heavily in the project to date.”
“Which is why Christian won’t pull out,” Jane says, attempting to reassure me.
“The difference is, Christian owns the intellectual property,” I say, relaying what Drew’s previously told me in confidence. “That only becomes shared after my marriage to Trent. If the marriage doesn’t go ahead, Christian will have no difficulty finding a new car manufacturer to partner with. My father stands to lose his shirt on this project, not to mention market share, when news gets out. If Christian partners with a competitor brand, Manning Motors will no longer hold the title as the world’s largest, most successful car manufacturer, and my father will kill me with his bare hands.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah. You could say that.”
“We’re here, Ms. Abigail,” Jeremy says through the sound system. My door swings open a minute later, and Jeremy helps me out of the car. Thankfully, the pain pills have kicked in, and while I’m still sore all over, I can at least move one foot in front of the other at a reasonable pace.
Drew and Charlie are waiting at the bottom of the steps for us. Crowds swarm them, greeting them like long-lost warriors returning from battle.
It all seems so stupid now.
All the rules and the battle to regain control.
My view of the world has tilted on its axis again, and I’m struggling to find my new equilibrium.
Drew moves to my side, purposely ignoring the evil eye his girlfriend is sending in his direction.
I’m sure this wasn’t the homecoming they had planned.
He attempts to circle his arm around my shoulder, but I stop him with a vicious look. “The time to protect me was last night. You’re too late.”
“Abby, please.”
The forlorn expression on his face does nothing to alter my resolve, because the new me is harder of heart. “Just leave me alone, Drew. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t have a brother.”
I walk ahead, leaving him behind with Jane. Footsteps thump behind me, and Charlie’s spicy cologne swirls through the air. I don’t acknowledge him, but he forces my hand when we step foot into the hallway, racing around me and stopping right in front of my face. “Can we talk?”
“I’ve nothing to say to you either.” Truth is, I don’t blame Charlie as much as I blame Drew. He’s not my brother. Although I consider him a close friend, and as my friend, he should’ve tried something. His father attempted to intervene, but they all allowed it to happen, and I’m so sick of everyone being afraid to stand up to my father. I appreciate that he didn’t look. That he helped restrain Trent and helped Drew pull my father off me at the end, but it doesn’t change the fact he didn’t stop it.
And the other truth is it’s hard to look him in the face knowing he knows what happened in that room last night.
I’m embarrassed and ashamed.
“That’s fair and I deserve it. We all deserve it.” Tears stab his eyes. “He had no right to do that to you. And the Montgomerys are every bit as bad as your father.” A lump forms in my throat when he lifts his hand, carefully cupping my face. “You’re too beautiful, too inherently good, and far too strong and brave to let them tear you down. Dad and I wanted to intervene, Abby, but we couldn’t.” His eyes plead for understanding I don’t possess. “And we only stayed in case he took it too far. Then we would’ve stepped in, consequences be damned.”
“What consequences?”
“There’s so much you don’t know, Abby. Things I wish I could tell you, but it’d be dangerous for all of us. Just know how bad I feel for failing you last night. It was unforgivable, but I swear to you, here and now, that I will never fail you again.” A determined look materializes on his face. “Starting with making them pay.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I’m done with all this bullshit elite rules and regulations. I’ve never agreed with the whole arranged marriage thing, and I sure as shit don’t agree with your father’s callous parenting style. He doesn’t get to do that to you and get away with it. We’ll fucking make him pay. I don’t know how yet, but it’ll happen.”
For the first time in hours, a small smile plays on my lips.
This is what I needed to hear from Drew.
To know he’s finally taken my side.
But all my brother has offered is weak excuses and meaningless apologies.
“I can count on you?” I drill him with a serious look.
“Completely.” He slowly reels me into a tender hug. “I’m here for you, Abby. You’re not doing this alone.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Charlie’s support has bolstered my confidence, and he couldn’t know how badly
I needed him on my side. I’ve barely paid attention in class all morning, as I run over everything in my mind.
I still can’t fathom what angle the new elite are playing. Jackson acted his usual flirtatious self in math class, and it genuinely seemed like he didn’t have a clue. He didn’t eye me warily or check me out any more than usual, and wouldn’t he if he knew they’d dropped a bomb? I had already asked Xavier to message them to explain my father was home early before everything went down, so, if they’d sent the letter, they would know why he came back early, and wouldn’t they check for signs of a confrontation?
Unless Cam did this alone.
He hates me enough to do it.
But I circle back to the same question: Why?
And that’s when another unpleasant thought enters my mind.
What if it wasn’t them?
Xavier recently became acquainted with that knowledge too. In theory, he could have sent the letter although I don’t want to believe that. But my mind is seriously fucked, and I don’t know what to believe or who I can trust.
And then there’s a third possibility. That it’s someone I don’t know. I’ve seen how easy it is to unearth secrets and invade people’s online privacy.
Could one of my father’s enemies have discovered my secret? Has someone been watching us? Overheard us talking? Or am I overthinking this, and the simple truth is the new elite played me for a fool?
I rub at my throbbing temples, urging my mind to quiet down, at least until it’s lunchtime and I’ve gauged their reaction.
I know how I want to play this.
Drew and Trent will not be happy.
Father will swing for me again if he finds out.
But I’m done playing their stupid games.
Father pushed me, and now he’ll find out just how I push back. I’ve zero fucks to give anymore.
The bathroom is empty when I step inside minutes after the lunchtime bell has chimed. I lock the door, remove the makeup wipes from my bag, and erase all traces of the thick foundation masking my injuries. I open the top few buttons of my shirt, stuffing my tie in my bag, and I secure my long hair in a sleek ponytail, ensuring my bruises are on full display.
Cruel Intentions Page 24