I shook my head. No one would understand. No one could know that I… No. No one would understand.
Stephanie dropped to the ground in front of me, staring at me with her hair pulled in a sloppy bun and her eyes red-rimmed and puffy like mine.
Maybe no one would understand. But if anyone could, it was Stephanie since she’d been raped by Ryan not too long ago and she’d actually seen the deaths of the kids we went to school with.
If anyone was closer to understanding me, it was her.
“Tell me. What happened? Why are you so upset?” She pushed me gently with her words and the way she watched me patiently.
Okay. I could do this. I could tell her. Except… No. I could do it.
I cleared my throat, pissed that my eyes were filling with more tears. When I spoke, it came out haltingly at first until it didn’t and it flowed from my lips like a floodgate had been opened. “The thing is… Jaxon was supposed to come over tonight, right? And… well, we texted back and forth and he said he was coming, so he did. I let him in. And… he turned off the lights, and moved me around until I wasn’t facing him and we did it.” I sniffed and wiped my nose.
Stephanie nodded, as if waiting for the punch line. When I didn’t say anything for a moment as I gathered myself, she commented softly. “Okay, was it terrible? Did he call out another girl’s name?” She pressed her lips together and then asked, “Was it Staci’s name?”
I whimpered, “No. He… left his phone behind.”
“And you found texts on it? I mean, he’s cheating on you, maybe? What a douche.” She sat back, folding her arms across her chest, ready to be pissed at Jaxon.
I shook my head again, looking down and picking at the thread on my robe rather than see any judgment on her face. “No… The phone wasn’t Jaxon’s. It was Braddox’s. I had sex with Braddox, thinking it was Jaxon. I… I don’t know how to… I had no idea. Braddox was pushing me and pushing me and now he got what he wanted and Jaxon… gets second best, I guess?” I shook my head.
I wasn’t sure what to think.
Stephanie stared at me; pity rampant in her expression. “No, honey. He either cares about you as you are, or he doesn’t. Your previous partners shouldn’t matter.” She cleared her throat and looked away.
I blinked, wiping under my eyes. Maybe she thought I was talking about her or referencing the way she behaved. I shook my head and reached out, resting my hand on her knee. “Steph, that’s not at you. It’s… it’s more like Jaxon and I have been talking about it since I met him. For some reason, there’s a horrible competitive edge between he and Braddox and… I feel like this is going to divide them even more and separate me from Jaxon. I know Braddox only wanted me because of Jaxon. I know he’s just going to look for the chance to rub it in his brother’s face. I’m just… I feel like Jaxon has every right to be disgusted by me. I should have known it was Braddox. I should have said no.”
I hung my head, pulling my hand back into my lap. Shame coursed through me. I wasn’t any closer to an answer, but at least I’d been able to tell someone. I couldn’t tell if she thought I was terrible or not. I swallowed and spoke through a throat that was rough and raw feeling. “Do you think I’m awful?” I felt like I looked as awful as I felt.
Stephanie shook her head, reaching up to point at her split lip and still slightly swollen and bruised eye. “So, I’m not exactly the best judge of guys, as you’ve witnessed. I think… No, I know, if Jaxon cares about you, he won’t blame you for what Braddox did. I promise.” She nodded at me; a soft smile meant to reassure me on her lips.
“Yeah. I guess.” But I wasn’t completely convinced. It was hard to explain the intricacies of the relationship between the O’Donnell twins and me. While the time frame wasn’t long, it felt like I’d been dealing with their feud for a lifetime.
We stared at each other for a few minutes, and then Stephanie straightened, squaring her shoulders and narrowing her eyes. “I’m done being a victim. You’re not going to become one either. Enough.” She sliced her hand through the air, slapping her thigh with the flat of her palm. “I forgot to tell you; I think I found something.”
I blinked at the sudden change in topic. “You found something? Is it something that will destroy Braddox?” Because that’s where I was. That was where he’d pushed me.
I was stuck living in the same house as him. Essentially, he had access to me because I was next door to him. There was no logical way I could get away from him. I had nowhere else to go and since there were people after Stephanie, neither did she.
What else could we be at the moment besides victims? Nothing even hit my radar for the moment besides the fact that I’d screwed Braddox. I couldn’t seem to get off that train of thought and that made me even more disgusted with myself.
“Yeah, come on.” Stephanie stood, reaching down and offering me a hand up. I took it, clutching the edges of the robe together as I followed her back through my room and into the hall.
Glancing around fearfully in case I saw Braddox again or, worse, Jaxon, I continued walking behind Stephanie until we were in the room next to mine. She closed the door and locked it. Turning back to me, she nodded one time. “There. He can’t get to you, if he comes back. Sometimes they come back, you know.” It wasn’t a question. She’d stated a fact and it was something I could tell she’d experienced in the somber, almost half-spoken way she’d muttered the words.
I didn’t hesitate to pull Stephanie into a hug, pressing my face into her shoulder. She squeezed me back and we stood there for a minute. She’d been there. She knew how I felt. I wasn’t going crazy all by myself, like I’d thought I was.
We pulled apart and I pulled my shit together, lifting my chin. “Okay, tell me what you found.”
Stephanie turned back to the bed in the room and retrieved the stack of items on the duvet covering. She held up the wig. “This was Staci’s mom’s. It looked like she had tufts of hair instead of all the thick hair this wig makes her look like. It wasn’t good.”
I scrunched up my nose and held up my hand, not wanting to take the wig. “Okay.” I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with the wig or the knowledge that Stephanie had ripped it from her head.
Stephanie shook her head and laughed. “No, that’s not the part that I wanted to show you for any other reason than I thought it was crazy and I had to point it out. Anyway, I was in the office and they still had things lying around out of boxes. I grabbed a manila envelope.” She pointed over her shoulder and then held up a blue piece of paper. “This was in it. I was just going through things when I heard you… beating the wall up.” She looked at me knowingly.
I furrowed my brow and stepped closer to her. “What is it?” I wasn’t sure what they would have in their files that would concern me, but if Stephanie found it interesting, then it must be something I would, too.
She swiveled to the side so that we were both facing the same way as she held the paper in front of the both of us.
The lines and official stamps on the page confused me for a minute. Then I focused on the top. It was a Colorado birth certificate with an official seal. The name was Anastasia Ann Stabler. “Okay, you got Staci’s birth certificate?” I couldn’t figure out what was so important about it. “Did you figure out she’s actually forty-two or something?” I quipped, because honestly, I had no idea what was actually going on.
Stephanie didn’t react to my joke. Instead, she poked her finger at the bottom line where the parentage was established.
I looked and there, like a flag for my worry that had haunted me since meeting her and seeing all of the signs and clues, was the line that said the father was Jonathan Stabler.
My dad.
Staci wasn’t a cousin. She wasn’t even a poser trying to be me with my dad’s name. I couldn’t ignore what the birth certificate meant because I recognized my dad’s signature.
It might have been seventeen years ago, but his signature looked the same.
She was born th
ree months before me. Which meant, he’d either cheated on Mom or he’d cheated on Staci’s mom whose name, according to the birth certificate was Jennifer Vigil Stabler.
The woman had my dad’s last name which I’d already accepted because of the mailbox out front. I just hadn’t expected it to be because she was married to Dad in some manner or having his kids.
Unless… what if she’d taken his name on illegally? Was that even a thing or possible?
I held up my hands, shaking them in front of me and moving back as the realities piled up in front of me. “Look, this is too much. What does this mean? Staci’s my sister? My half-sister? Why is she here? Why is she at my house? Why was she wearing a necklace like the one I have and why is my dad’s name on her birth certificate?”
Was it getting hot in that room? I angled my head to the side as I tried to breathe. Tight pressure banded around my chest and I scrabbled for something to hold onto as I could feel my balance starting to shift. What was going on?
What did all of that mean?
My hand gained traction on the wall and I leaned against it, letting my rear hit the paneled wainscoting as I slid to the ground.
Stephanie sat beside me again, patiently waiting as I lost my shit and tried to gather it back up again.
I stared at the pastel blue paper in her hands and realized I could hate something inanimate. I could hate it with the passion in my soul that I thought I’d only reserved for people.
The discovery of Staci’s birth certificate had slipped into one of the one worst nights of my life. I wasn’t sure how to process the collection of events. I wasn’t even sure if I knew how to do that.
“What are you going to do, Liv? This is probably a lot on top of…” Stephanie didn’t elaborate, but did she really have to?
Didn’t I know what she was talking about? Not only had we dealt with death and that horrible orgy I’d seen my sister – what the hell, I had a sister?! – engaged in, but I’d been raped and Stephanie was afraid for her life.
Not the normal happenings most teenagers had to deal with on a Friday night.
“If we were at my house, I’d say let’s get drunk, but I know your mom would never allow that.” Awe and frustration formed the tone of Stephanie’s words.
I nodded, taking a deep breath before sighing. “I’m not sure where my mom is. Things have been… different since Dad died.” I pointedly glanced at the paper in her hands. “Now, I’m starting to see that things were even crazier than I thought.”
“Did you suspect something?” Stephanie glanced at me, wrapping her arms around her drawn-up knees.
“Remember me wondering about their last name? That was the start. Then her necklace. The things I heard at their house, though…” I shook my head. “Staci genuinely hates me.”
“Do you think she suspects? Because one way or the other, your dad screwed them, too, you know?” She shrugged, glancing at the paper and then back at me. “Maybe there’s a reason she hates you. I recognize her mom’s last name. Vigil. They’re socialites in Colorado. They have a lot of money. I’m not sure what from, but I want to say oil or something.”
The fact that Staci came from money and Dad hadn’t lost it all like he’d lost my mom’s family legacy left a sharper bitterness on my tongue.
“You know what? I don’t think my mom would care what we do. I think Trenton has a bar in his office. It’s late enough, they’re probably in bed.” I pushed myself off the floor, holding out a hand to help Stephanie up.
She stood with my help, groaning at the effort. “Is Jaxon home?”
I hoped not. I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I’m not sure. He doesn’t have his phone. I think Braddox took it.” Which left me even more worried. If Braddox had Jaxon in a position to take his phone, was Jaxon okay? Braddox didn’t hide the way he felt about his brother.
He didn’t hide the way he felt about anything.
Especially people.
And the way he’d treated me that night, like a damn whore… I couldn’t help thinking maybe he felt like he had the right to come in and do what he had. He’d paid me. But when it came right down to it, he’d paid for a dance. That should have been enough.
I didn’t owe him shit for the money he’d given me.
I certainly didn’t owe him sex that he’d taken by pretending to be someone he wasn’t.
I led the way for Stephanie down to the kitchen to grab some chips and cookies and then we snuck back to Trenton’s office. Opening the bar, I offered free reign to Stephanie over the different liquor bottles he had stashed inside.
As much as I wanted to, I wasn’t going to drink. There had to be something I could do with the birth certificate. I needed my head on straight to figure things out.
I wasn’t going to be able to sleep after the hellish night I’d gone through. Maybe I could do some research and present everything to my mom in just a few hours when she woke up. At least then, I’d feel like I was doing something.
At least then… maybe I could stop feeling like a damn victim.
Chapter 22
Jaxon
Crenshaw. His poor wife. I guessed now she was called a widow. Would the people who were hounding him go after her next? I wasn’t sure how it worked because he hadn’t told me much.
Except it was a she.
That seemed important but I couldn’t pinpoint why.
I carried my laptop in the crook of my arm the entire way to the café. Looking over my shoulder, I scanned the neighborhoods I crossed through in case someone was after me.
But three AM was an hour at which even demons went to bed. I shrank into my hoodie at the sudden appearance of an early morning chilly gust of sea air.
The café was an all-nighter and usually had the worst dregs of Shores there at two AM. But it was close to four. It took me quite a while to get my ass that far when I had to stop every few minutes to get my bearings and to try to process the torturous thoughts I couldn’t get out of my head.
I pushed through the barred door. There weren’t many windows in that part of town that didn’t have the bars. Even a twenty-four-hour joint found value in barred windows and doors. What did that tell you about that part of town?
I approached the counter, smiling at the kid with hair styled in a ‘hawk and a nose ring. He jerked his chin up in recognition. “O’Donnell. What do you need, man?”
“Do you have a couple cords I could borrow? I need a power line and some headphones.” The video may or may not have sound on them, but even if they didn’t, I could wear the headphones to keep people away from me. Not that there was anyone up and out at the café at that ridiculous hour.
But there would be. I had a few hours’ worth of blocks to go through. I’d be there until seven at the earliest.
He slid from the stool he’d been parked on and I caught a glimpse of his nametag. Chad. Okay, whatever. I didn’t recognize the name.
He came back with both items I’d requested and waved off my attempts to give him cash. “Nah, man. You saved my sister from that dick a while back. You remember? He hit on Carla all the time. You made him stop. We’re square. I’ll bring out a coffee in a little bit. The machine isn’t warmed up yet.” He turned from me, obviously refusing my money.
I nodded. “Thank you. I appreciate that.” I didn’t have much on me and every cent mattered. I took the cord and the headset and meandered through the tables and chairs sitting empty in the front of the building.
The decoration was steam plant mixed with modern rustic and a taste of contemporary in the black splashes of various glossy pieces like an abstract black and white painting hanging in a worn log frame. The mugs were a mix of ceramic options, clear glass, and plastic cups. White straws, white plastic spoons, and brown napkins made up the options on the side. I bought a cinnamon roll there once and they’d given me a metal fork to eat it with.
The eclectic collection to meet the needs of the customers appealed to a lot of people, both west and east residents. The che
ap prices and flexible hours brought in all kinds.
I set the laptop on the counter lining the walls and pulled up a wooden log for a seat. Various plugins dotted the wall every couple feet, making it the perfect place to park a computer or other device.
Booting up the new-to-me laptop, I rubbed my hands together. I couldn’t get warm.
The computer started, a soft whirring letting me know that the fan worked just fine. It might be used, but the guys had bought me a nice one.
Pulling out the larger of the two thumb drives I’d stolen from Donnie’s, I plugged it into the port on the laptop and waited for it to load.
There was something there Braddox or Donnie didn’t want people to see. According to Braddox, Donnie had edited it out.
I watched the videos, flipping through screen after screen.
The cameras ran in a quad where there were four windows on one screen. The videos rotated through depending on which one you selected, but the cameras ran all the time.
Glancing behind me and scanning the café, I turned back to the computer and frowned at the first screen showing a group of about twenty people engaged in sexual activity together. The entire group. Not my scene. I wasn’t even sure of the logistics and didn’t want to put too much brain power into trying to think through how they were doing any of the things I could see on the well-placed camera screen.
I de-selected that shot and was about to click off the camera focused on the backyard when I remembered I’d watched Olivia and Braddox out there from the pool house. The time stamp was about the time I’d shown up. That would be a frame to keep up.
Overall there were over thirty frames. Donnie had a multi-bedroom house and all of them were on camera. The living room, the game room that was used as a dancehall, the kitchen, even a camera trained down the stairs. I had to dig through them all.
Forbidden: A bully romance (An Academy Twin Rivalry Series Book 2) Page 19