I’m usually not a very spontaneous person, but so far I’m loving it. I may not know where we are going or how long it’ll take to get there, but I do know wherever it is it’ll be amazing because Brett wouldn’t book us anything less.
Looking over at him I try to grill him one more time since I have nothing else to do. “Will you tell me where we are going now? Jungle? Hawaii? Antarctica? Come on, just give me one hint. That’s all I want.”
“Fine, I’ll give you one hint. But that’s it.”
Bouncing up and down in my seat and clapping my hands together like I’m a little kid I turn towards him with a big smile on my face and wait for my hint.
“We’re going somewhere you’ve never been before. That’s all I’m telling you,” he says with a smile while still keeping his eyes on the road.
Throwing my hands up in the air I turn back and face the road with a huff, “I’ve never been anywhere besides home and Los Angeles. You know that. So that’s a bull shit hint.”
“Hey you never said it had to be a good one. A hint’s a hint,” he says with a chuckle. I just glare at him as if that’ll get him to tell me, yeah right.
After a couple minutes Brett breaks the silence by asking, “Do you want to stop? The rest area is a couple miles up and we can get out, stretch our legs and use the bathroom. Is that alright?”
“Yeah that’s fine, I could use the bathroom anyways.”
Brett pulls his sports car into the parking spot closest to the doors and puts it in park a couple minutes later. We both get out and stretch our legs and make our way to the separate bathrooms in the building a head of us. Obviously as a girl I take a little longer than he does, by the time I finish drying my hands I walk out of the building and see a couple of people gathered around Brett’s car.
I start walking towards the group of people, as I get closer I hear shouting. Instinctively I know this is something bad so I run up to the gathering people and push a couple of them aside until I can get to the front of the group and see what’s going on.
You know how some people say the universe works in mysterious ways? Yeah I totally believe that. Why else would I be looking at Gray pushing Brett up against the side of his car with a look of pure murder on his face? How did he find us and what the hell is he doing here? Those are the first things that pop into my mind.
Instead of running to try pull him off of Brett and demand some answers I can’t seem to move my feet. It’s like my feet and my brain just decided they no longer wanted to communicate with each other at this point and have decided they didn’t want to give me a heads up. I can’t do anything but stand and watch this unfold until they start communicating again.
All I see are the two of them deep in conversation and a sly smile spread across Brett’s face. Looking at Gray, I see a completely different expression written on his face, anger. So much anger. I’ve never seen him look so angry before in my life. Yes, of course I’ve seen him mad but this is a whole other level.
His face has a tint of red to it that just keeps getting darker and darker and I’m guessing it has to do with whatever Brett is saying. I’m pretty sure smoke would be coming out of his ears right now if it were possible.
His arms look like they’re shaking, either from anger or from trying to hold Brett down. I can’t quite tell. The biggest thing that catches my eye is a pieces of paper that he seems to have clenched in his hand. He lifts them up to show Brett and I watch in slow motion as whatever is on those papers transforms him right before my eyes.
All the color drains from Brett’s face and he looks at the papers like he’s seen a ghost. What the hell is on those papers that would make him react that way.
After what feels like an eternity of watching this unfold from the sidelines my feet finally decide it’s time to move. I let my legs carry me across the remainder of the parking lot and up to the two men in my life to figure out what the hell is going on.
Running up to them I try to pull Gray off of Brett and separate them, which is definitely easier said than done. Once Gray sees it’s me trying to pull him off he steps away looking completely defeated. “Does someone want to tell me what the hell is going on?” I yell at them.
I watch as Gray turns and looks towards Brett who is pale and his face currently blank of any expression. He stands up taller as he looks over at him and asks, “Do you want to tell her or should I?” I turn to look at Brett who won’t meet my eyes and wait for his answer.
Running my hands through my hair I ask myself what the hell is going on? Those seem to be the only words my brain can form right now. With a big sigh I realize there are only two people who can answer that question for me and it turns out they’re both right in front of me.
I let my arms fall to my side and turn towards Brett looking for answers. “Well are you going to tell me what’s going on or is he going to have to?” I ask him while pointing over my shoulder at Gray.
After a couple seconds of him still not meeting my eyes, I know whatever it is that Gray confronted him about is not something I will enjoy hearing. When he still wasn’t talking I decided to give up hope of hearing it from the source and turn towards the man who seemed to hold all the answers.
“Fine, if he’s not going to tell me, then you do it. Just tell me what’s going on,” I plead with him.
“Please Gray,” I whisper.
Chapter 19
Grayson
This is not how I was hoping to do this, not in front of people and not in front of him. I wanted to tell her these things in private where she could ask any questions she wanted to and I could try help her figure out the answers. But now as luck would have it. we have the source of all of our problems right here and I know he’s not going to be too forthcoming with her.
It’s taking everything in me not to kill him right now for all of the things he just confessed to me. Now all I can hope for is that he at least has the decency to admit them to her as well.
Closing my eyes and taking I deep breath I turn towards Harmen and try to work up the courage to open my mouth and deliver the news that’s going to break her. Opening my eyes, I find her watching me with conviction, like she hopes I hold all the answers for her, and thankfully I think I do. I can do this.
With one last deep breath I start to tear her world apart. “I’ll start from the beginning. Do you remember when I told you I went to see Brett at his office a couple weeks ago? And do you remember the flowers he gave you right before that? Well I left some parts out.”
With a sigh I continue, “I was the one who gave you the flowers, I was trying to get back on your good side after the fights we’d had, but when I never heard from you I started to get confused. Then when we met up a couple days later and you gushed about the flowers Brett had given you I knew something was up. What I told you about going to his office to clear the air was true, but what I didn’t say was that he admitted to taking the flowers and giving them to you from him. I also didn’t tell you that he threatened to ruin our friendship, and I didn’t tell you because I knew I’d never let that happen.”
With a short pause I watch her look at Brett for confirmation, she must get what she was looking for when he still won’t meet her eye because when she looks back at me I see nothing but anger on her face.
I figure since I started this I better finish it so I continue, “You know I’ve never liked the guy and after I went to his office I took it upon myself to find out everything I could about him.”
Before I continue I need her to understand that I never wanted to keep any of this from her, I can’t lose her once she hears it all. “Before I say anything else, I need you to know I never wanted to keep any of this from you and I only put it all together yesterday, but I was too scared to go to you and tell you right away. I know it was a cowardly thing to do, but I need you to know I just want you to be happy and safe. That’s all I’ve ever wanted,” I plead with her to believe me.
“That’s fine Gray I get it, but I need to know what
you’re talking about. No more waiting,” she scolds me.
With a deep breath I continue, “Like I said after that visit I wanted to find out everything I could about him, so I looked at his file in the college system. I noticed there was a different birthday than what he told you and there was a completed transcript from a law school in Los Angeles along with a completed transcript for an undergraduate degree from a different school. On top of that it looks like he was never taking classes at Peskin to begin with. His transcript shows he enrolled for classes but dropped them all at the last minute.”
This is a lot harder than I thought it would be, but I need her to know everything so I continue. “I kept looking and came across a woman he had listed as his emergency contact. From what you’ve told me, I knew he didn’t have any family left, or at least that’s what he told you.”
I shoot Brett a look and notice he’s staring at the ground acting like he’s ashamed and he knows I haven’t even gotten to the worst part.
Tearing my eyes away from him I look back at Harmen and continue on to some of the worst parts. “I tried to call the number he had listed for her and she answered. I talked with her for a couple minutes, but as soon as I mentioned Brett’s name she froze and hung up. I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing something and I couldn’t figure out what had spooked her so bad. So, I drove to L.A. the next day to try speak with her in person. When I got to her place, which by the way was probably in the most run down and unkept part of the city, she didn’t seem to be home. I knocked again and again hoping she would come to the door, she never did. When I was going to leave I saw an old man watching me and decided to ask him if he knew her. He got upset with me and accused me of being there to take her way. I didn’t understand what he was talking about, but he kept going on and on about some younger man in a suit coming and yelling at her and threatening to take her away if she didn’t listen to him.”
I sigh running my hands through my hair, which I probably don't have much left of, letting out a big breath and dropping my arms to my sides as I continue the story, while trying to ignore the look of confusion in her eyes. “I left feeling confused and came back the next day to find out she still wasn’t home. Or if she was, she’d been too scared to talk with me. I sat outside her home for a while hoping to catch her coming or leaving, but that never happened. But, after a while the mail was delivered to her house, I know I shouldn’t have but, I looked at her mail box to see if it would tell me anything. On the top was an envelope with the name, Sally Yates, on it.”
As I continue I watch Brett become more and more agitated out of the corner of my eye. “On the paper I found at the college he had written down the name, Sally Long, so I wasn’t sure who Sally Yates was. I went back to my car and decided to search the name hoping something would come up, and it did.” After taking a couple deep breathes I look at Harmen and hope that she can see in my eyes that I’m not lying about this.
“According to multiple sources and all the articles I read, Sally Yates was the wife of businessman, Jeff Yates, and they had a son named Brett Yates. It still didn’t make much sense to me. All of the articles talked about how Jeff’s longtime business partner turned him in for stealing from their company. He is now apparently in federal prison spending time behind bars because of it. This happened over 15 years ago and his wife ended up divorcing him and taking back her maiden name, Long.”
Before I can continue Harmen cuts me off frantically waving her arms in the air like she doesn’t know what to do with them.
“What does that have to do with me? And what does that have to do with Brett?” she asks and I can tell the minute she understands where I’m going with this story.
She looks at Brett with a confused expression on her face, when he won’t meet her eye she turns back to me.
“Please tell me his last name isn’t Yates,” she pleads with me.
Looking at the ground, unable to meet her eyes I shake my head and say, “I can’t do that. I’m sorry Harmen.”
I look up at her and see tears rolling down her face, I want nothing more than to wipe them away, but I know they will just continue to fall as I finish what I have to say.
Clearing my throat and showing her one of the pictures in my hand, I continue, “I found this picture of their family from before Jeff was sentenced to prison.”
While she’s looking at the picture of what looks like a perfect family, I can tell she recognizes the younger boy in the picture as Brett. She lets the picture fall to her side and starts walking closer to Brett.
Before I can stop her she’s in his face pleading with him to tell her why. I pull her against my chest before she can do anything to him and tell her there’s more to the story, which causes a sob to escape her mouth.
Holding her to my chest I force myself to tell her the rest before I can stop myself. “I found out he changed his last name after his father went to prison and his mother took back her maiden name. But I still didn’t understand why he wouldn’t just tell you any of this until I found a picture of Jeff Yates with his old business partner, the man who turned him in. I’m sorry Harmen, it was your dad.”
I pulled the other picture I had from my back pocket, one of Harmen’s father and Jeff Yates posing together in front of their business.
With shaky hands she grabs it from me, while choking on a sob. She turns and looks at me in confusion. “Why would my dad not tell me he had a business partner? I never heard him or mom talk about him having one. Ever since I can remember they always talked about it as dad’s business and never mentioned anyone else, especially a Jeff Yates. I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t either right away that’s why I dug a little more. It looks like your and Brett’s fathers started the business together a long time ago. When your dad found out Jeff was stealing from the company he turned him in and took his name off of everything associated with the company. After that it was like Jeff was never a part of the business to begin with. That’s why you never heard about it, it seems like he tried to forget it happened and just wanted to move on.”
Before I can say anything else, Brett is pushing me away from Harmen.
He forcefully grabs her by the arm and yells in her face, “Your fucking father took everything from us, from me. He stole my dad, my mom, our money. Everything. Your father was a fucking liar who decided he didn’t care about any of us enough to do anything besides throw us away. He never would have been able to start that business without my dad’s help, yet in the end he took my father’s name off of everything which left my mother and I with nothing. Do you know what it was like growing up having everything to only have it taken away from you? No of course you don’t because you grew up living the life I should have had. The life my mother and I deserved.”
In slow motion I watch as he throws her to the ground and delivered a swift kick to her stomach and bends over her to deliver his last blow. “And you know what I did to make it right? I killed them. That’s right, I killed your parents to make them pay for everything they ever took from my family. And I did it to take it all away from you so you could see what it felt like to lose everything you ever had. Hiring someone to mess with their vehicle was the easy part, having to listen to you bitch and whine for months on end was the hard part. I knew the only way to get back everything my mother and I deserved was to get it through you, so I did what I had to and would have kept doing it until the day you had access to the trust your parent’s left you. Then I was finally going to get rid of you once and for all.”
Turning towards me he continues, “but you had to go and fucking ruin it! All of it down the drain because you couldn’t keep to yourself. This was supposed to me my week to get everything I ever lost back. I was going to get rid of her sooner because you couldn’t keep to yourself and decided to go sniffing around in our business. You left me no choice but to move everything up and take care of it quicker It’s your fault all of this happened!”
“You killed her parents! You t
ook them away and that wasn’t good enough? You needed more?” I yell at him.
In slow motion I watch as he puts a hand around his back and brings it back around with a gun in tow and points it directly at me with a satisfied glint in his eyes.
Feeling the air rush out of my lungs I throw my hands in the air to try show him I’m not a threat. “Come on Brett, put the gun down. Don’t do anything you’re going to regret,” I try to plead with him.
With a completely humorless laugh and menacing smile he adds, “You don’t get it, I don’t regret anything besides not getting my money sooner. Fucking Nick was supposed to have papers to me before we left that would give me the rights to the money in the case of her death. But since he’s even more of an idiot than you, I don’t think that will be happening. So the next best thing will be taking away the last thing she cares about. You. I promise it’ll be over soon, don’t worry.”
Before he does anything I look down at Harmen and give her a soft smile and say to her with everything in me, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean for it to turn out like this. Just know I love you and I promise I always will. You’ve always been it for me, never forget that.”
Closing my eyes, I turn my head to look back at Brett and hope when I open them he won’t go through with it. When I open my eyes I see what my ears apparently couldn’t hear, flashing lights. Looking around I see that a number of police cars have pulled into the rest area and are parked with their guns drawn on Brett. One of the people watching this whole thing unfold must have called them.
“Drop the gun,” one of them yell at him and I see the moment he realizes he has nowhere to go, with one last smile he points the gun back at me and pulls the trigger.
If Only I Knew Page 12