“Fuck!” I yelled, slamming my phone onto the floor. It bounced a few times, causing the screen to make a clearing cracking noise with each impact. “What do I do?”
The anxiety building in my chest was making it difficult to breathe. Pacing around the room didn’t help my nerves either. I needed to escape.
Still, there weren’t many choices left. The truth was coming out soon or later. For all I knew, Audrey could be taking her sweet time attempting to plot against me. That would work out for her perfectly if somehow she were able to pin that girl’s murder on me. As I rotted away in jail, my only sister would become the heir to our father’s fortune.
Everyone, including Lydia, knew of Audrey’s potential to act selfishly. No man or woman was strong enough for her ego. The longer I waited alone in my room, the more I felt trapped. My sister set the lure, and I had been hooked, trailing behind her boat for a bigger fish to come along and swallow me whole.
My hand reached for the doorknob and slowly turned it. Now that my aggression had ended my form of communication, I was reluctant to leave. The woods were deep and attempting to find Audrey in the dark could be difficult. However, if the choices were between finding Audrey and being a sitting duck, I knew which to decide.
On my way out of the room, I rushed down the steps of the bungalow and walked toward the woods. Small solar-powered lights lit the path and the hedges of the garden as I passed. Lydia’s lounging chair was still sprawled with a clear oil bottle that appeared to be empty.
Lights were on all over the mansion, which was unusual for typically calm time like that night. Then again, there was nothing usual about this entire day. My sister and I had bickered as usual, however, this was the first time that we stumbled upon this horrific.
As the canopy of trees enveloped me, I noticed how eerie that outer property could seem at night. The creatures were alive in the brush, chirping and squeaking behind every tree. In the distance, I saw a flicker of light emanating off of the foliage.
“Get him!” I man’s heard a voice calling out from inside of the woods. Rushing down the path, I saw something enormous and dark running at me. As fast as I could, I jumped out of its way.
The breaths of the beast were ominous as it strode past me in a blur. With a second glance, I noticed my father’s favorite horse had been running quickly away.
“Hurry!” yelled the voice again. I jogged forward to see the lights flickering madly. Two men in black uniforms rushed down the path toward me. I noticed that they were the stablemen who kept after the animals.
“What is this?” I asked the taller one.
“Mr. Monroe,” he said to me. “I’m sorry, but we need to catch that horse.”
“What are those lights?” I asked.
“Your father called the emergency services,” he replied. I took a few more steps and saw that there were several police cars in the distance. “He was walking with Mrs. Monroe when they stumbled upon a body.”
Tapes
Audrey
“What’s happening?” Sebastian asked as we say several police cars zip by in the surveillance screens. He quickly pulled his shorts back around his waist.
“I’m not sure,” I said softly. “Can you check it out?”
“Stay here,” Sebastian said as he neared the door. “I’ll call you when I find out.”
“Okay,” I agreed as he left the building. I felt my skirt and realized that I hadn’t space to bring my phone with me. Looking back through the window, I saw Javier pacing in front of the building. Quickly, I darted for the door.
“Javier!” I whispered so that Sebastian had no chance of hearing. His head spun around to me. “Come in here.”
Javier rushed to the door and moved inside with me. I latched and slid over the bolt lock.
“Did he hurt you, miss?” Javier asked.
“I’m fine,” I explained. “Are you okay?”
“I’m good,” he said rubbing his neck. “I saw police cars but I am not allowed to abandon my post.”
“There is very little time, Javier,” I said. “Please pull up footage from last; there is something dire that I need to see.”
“There are a lot of tapes, miss,” he said shaking his head as he moved to the chair.
“Did you at all see my father strolling the grounds?” I asked.
“Yes, miss,” he said.
“Was he with anyone?” I asked sternly.
“Miss Monroe…” he hesitated. “I could get in a lot of trouble.”
“I need you to tell me, Javier.”
“He was with the other girl, Miss Darla. She was on horseback, and I saw them on their stroll again.”
“How many times did they take this stroll?”
“Nearly every night for the past two weeks.”
“Is there footage of this?”
“Yes,” Javier said as he scrolled to the previous night. I saw a clip of nothing, and then Darla on horseback in the dark. Suddenly, the screen cut out again.
“Where is the rest?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Javier explained. “I saw this before and Mr. Monroe told me not to say anything about their lessons.”
“Did my father ever come into this room?”
“From time to time, yes,” Javier explained.
“Listen, Javier,” I said. “You can never tell anyone about any of this. If the police ask, you need to say that you didn’t see anyone in the woods except for Darla, do you understand?”
“I know this, Audrey,” Javier smiled with a deeper inflection in his tone. “Your father pays me quite well.”
“What are you saying?” I asked trying to grab hold of the ever-spinning situation.
“Did you think that Mr. Monroe doesn’t know what goes on at his property?” Javier laughed. “That little bitch loved when your dad paid attention to her. She was pretty and innocently goody-good; exactly Mr. Monroe’s type of girl. For whatever reason though, she wouldn’t fuck him like the others.”
“What are you talking about? What others?”
“Girls, Audrey. Usually, they were from the college and not much older than you. They love rich men who pick them up at bars, and they love horses even more. This Darla girl was no exception. Though she did the wrong thing by saying that she would tell Mrs. Monroe about his advances. Sure, he went a little too far this time with slipping some extra pills into that asshole’s glass of water so he wouldn’t come looking for them that night. Then, of course, he got a little too mad and hit that girl pretty roughly on the head.”
“Oh my God,” I said in disbelief.
“He’s seen you and that smug stepbrother of yours, too,” Javier explained. “We nearly panicked until Mr. Monroe sent out that text saying that she had vanished on her own. Still, the entire situation is laughable to man like Robert Monroe. In fact, he said it was all right with him if I fucked you as well. Too bad we were interrupted today; I’d loved to have rammed my throbbing rod into your tight little slit.”
“Fuck you!” I gasped as my arm retracted and my hand slapped Javier clean across the face. His head slowly turned back toward me as he grinned.
“Better join the circus out there,” he said pointing to the cameras. “They’re waiting for you to look shocked and in despair.”
Before I could hear another word from him, I unbuckled the door lock and pushed through to the outside. My legs sprinted as fast as they could down the dirt path until I reached the twisting red and blue lights from the police cars.
“Audrey!” Michael called to me on the outside of caution tape. The police had sectioned off the area where Darla’s body had laid. “Darla’s dead.”
We looked at each other, letting the other person know that this was all part of the show.
“Where is she?” I asked.
“They took the body away in a–“ Michael stopped speaking at the sight of our father walking slowly toward us. His face had the genuine appearing expression of ill fate.
“This is just te
rrible,” our father said as he opened his arms. I shot a short, uneasy glance at Michael as we were enveloped into his hold. “She tried to steal the horse, and then she must have fallen off, hitting her head on a large branch they found broken nearby. They think the impact is what broke her neck.”
“Terrible,” I muttered as I looked beyond the lights. The rouse of radios squawking and sirens wailing nearly made me feel deaf to the usual sounds. Sebastian was coddled in his mother’s arms. He appeared in slow motion to me while he sobbed as the ambulance pulled out of the dirt patch, and onto the road. I wanted to go to him, but my father’s hold kept me in place.
“I don’t know what I would do,” sighed my father. “If anything terrible were ever to happen to either one of you.”
His grip was so tight at that point that I knew it were a threat. He was the king in this game of chess, using the powerful player around him to inculcate a perfect checkmate.
Epilogue
Audrey
I stood at the bottom of the steps at Fiumicino airport in Rome. My friend Rebecca had two large bags wheeled behind her as she let out a gust of air from her lungs. She originally planned to stay with me for just the first month of my travels. However, after a couple of weeks, she decided to stay, and pushed back her University enrollment to the spring quarter.
“Just think about it,” Rebecca said shifting the weight of her bags next to her thin body. “We didn’t argue once the entire time we traveled together!”
“That’s not entirely true,” I smiled. “I thought I was going to kill you inside of Prada in Milan when you grabbed the last pair of the sunglasses I wanted.”
“You’re right!” she responded. “Good thing there was a shop in Florence that had them. Not that you didn’t borrow mine every day until we got you a pair; you always get your way!”
“Don’t try and make me feel sorry for you,” I joked. “You only came with one small bag, and now you’re stuffed to the brim with new clothes! Not to mention the ones you had shipped to your parents’ house.”
Rebecca and I laughed for nearly a ten minutes as we recanting a few of more humorous stories from our trip.
“I’ll miss you,” she said with a lonesome expression.
“Awe,” I cooed as I stepped toward her. My arms wrapped around Rebecca’s tiny frame. “I’ll miss you, too.”
“Be safe,” she smiled as she pulled away. “I expect to see you posting tons of pictures so that I know you’re alive!"
“I will,” I sighed. Then she turned around and made her way toward the escalator.
“Good bye,” she smirked with puffiness flushing toward her eyes.
“Ciao!” I waved as I watched her drift out of sight. The past six months with Rebecca were clean getaway from the craziness that ensued after the police invaded the estate. Michael packed his bags and left two days later. My father, however, kept his cool the entire time.
The police marched around him as though he were their captain. Every question was carefully asked as if not to upset the most powerful man in the county. I, on the other hand, went into a depression. Sebastian shut the world out, and, therefore, me as well. I stayed until the very end of my invite and had a car take me to the airport. The police questioned me, but everyone seemed to believe that Darla was a runaway.
I received a call from Michael a few months prior in my hotel room. According to him, Lydia moved out off of the estate. She and my father were planning a trial separation, claiming that they were irretrievably broken after the tragedy. Michael also stated that our father graciously paid for Darla’s funeral costs. Her family was happy and content with the generous offer. The entire situation was sickening to Michael and me. We both agreed never to speak of it again.
Still not ready to return home, I continued my plan to stay abroad for a while. Knowing that Rebecca was leaving caused me anxiety. The only gleam of hope came for me a few weeks ago. Like a ghost come back to life, I received an e-mail that made my heart catch fire again.
After Rebecca had left, I waited patiently in the airport for over an hour until I saw him standing at the ledge of an escalator step. His hair appeared to be longer than before was tucked inside of a black beanie. As soon as my eye’s met Sebastian’s, I felt the world stop.
We wasted no time rushing toward each other in the airport. He lifted me high off of the ground and kissed me on the mouth. His warm smell returned to me, invading my senses.
“I missed you so much,” I said with teary eyes.
“Don’t worry,” he said with his famous, gleaming smile. “I’ve got you now and forever.”
The End.
About the Author
Lauren Branford has traveled the world, meeting people from all walks of life. For Miss Branford, writing is more than expressive, it is liberating. Scribing subjects on matters that society has deemed racy and prohibited are the most delicious treats from her library.
Lauren Branford currently holds residence in California.
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Stepbrother Affairs (The Monroe Family Secrets Book 3) Page 3