The Revenge Plan: An Arranged Marriage Billionaire Romance

by Piper Knox

  “Morning.”

  “You’re awake.” He said it as if it was the most natural thing to say.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Scott,” Ax said in a mocking tone.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Am I not allowed to pop in to see my friends?”

  “It’s not that. It’s that I never see you here.”

  “Shouldn’t you be making your way to Paris?” Caiden said, “I gave you everything you wanted for the trip.”

  “Sometimes you wound me Caiden. I wanted to see how Hailey’s doing before I go.”

  “Me?” After hearing what he had said, I was suspicious of any sympathies he might hold for me.

  “I heard about the party. Very childish of them to do that to you.”

  “I’m surprised to see you of all people taking my side.”

  “I can feel sorry for you and hate you at the same time. I’m capable of containing both feelings.”

  “I see. Thanks anyway. I’m doing fine.” I picked up my phone which I had somehow left on the foyer table last night.

  “I might not check the socials yet,” Ax said to me, “you’re trending on pretty much all of them.”

  I might as well delete all of them at this point.

  “What are you still doing here?” Caiden said again.

  “Gosh, I get it. I’m not wanted.” With that, he made his goodbyes and left.

  “I thought he didn’t like me,” I said to Caiden.

  “He likes the money you brought in with the Clies deal.”

  “I’m glad I could be of use to him.”

  “Take a seat and eat.” He pointed to the plate of food on the kitchen counter.

  “I thought you’d be in Paris by now.”

  “Ax wanted to go, so I let him. Eat your food, there’s somewhere we need to go.”

  “The two of us?”

  “Yes.”

  34

  It was still the weekend when we got back. I had taken her for a picnic at Vineyard Shepard had left in my name. The trip had made her forget and she had managed a smile or two. Seeing her light up after living under a cloud had made my heart glow up in turn. At this point, I had to admit that I would never get enough of her.

  I took her hand and drew her toward me as soon as we stepped into the penthouse and kissed her thoroughly. I felt a stark absence when she pulled back. “We need to unpack first.”

  I drew her back in, “Do we though,” I said against her lips.

  She chuckled, “You sir are insatiable.”

  “That’s because you’re too irresistible.”

  Her eyes widened. I kissed her again. She moaned when I pulled her close so she could feel my erection. I gave her an even deeper kiss, and she responded by lowering her hands to my butt and rubbing herself against my crotch.

  I was so lost I hardly heard my phone ringing. I chose to ignore it. Whatever it was, could wait. Satisfied when it went silent again. I picked up Hailey and carried her upstairs. Once again, my phone rang when we reached my bedroom.

  “Fuck.” I put her down and dug it out of my jeans, “whoever is calling now better have a good reason.”

  “Take the call. I’ll still be here when you’re done with them.”

  I looked at the caller id. It was Fred. He rarely calls. I gave Hailey a peck and went to the study. “This better be good, Fred.”

  “I received something you’ve been itching for all these years.”

  My heart was hammering in my throat. It could only be one thing. “It can’t be. How did you get it?”

  “An anonymous source. It seems they don’t want to be known for whatever reason. Judging by what’s on the tape, I get where they’re coming from.”

  “Are you saying you’ve got the tape?”

  “Yes. But I don’t think you should see it.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s uh. It’s rough.”

  “Send it.”

  “Very well, boss. I’ll send it to you right now.”

  A few seconds later, my phone chimed. It was a video from Fred. It was of Liam. Fred was right. I hadn’t been prepared for what I saw. I dropped to the ground and cried after I finished watching it. It was worse than I could have imagined. The hate that I had felt for her came rushing back.

  35

  I waited and waited for him to come, but he didn’t. The call wasn’t that long, was it? He had sounded like he was going to take a few minutes and come back. I guess whatever it was, was taking forever. Bored by waiting, I went downstairs, grabbed my bags, and put them in my room. Then I unpacked. Went to the kitchen and ate some leftovers. A couple of hours went by and he still was in the study. I went to check on him, but he had locked the door. I knocked a few times, and he didn’t respond. Afraid that something had happened to him, I knocked louder this time and called his name.

  After a while he opened it. “If I had known the call would take so long, I would have read a book instead.” He looked like someone had dropped a thousand years on him. He was both sad and angry. His eyes were red and puffy. Had he been crying? “What’s the matter?” I raised my hand to hug him, but he flinched. I immediately let go. It was funny how any slight rejection from him was becoming harder to stomach. However, I also noticed that something was terribly wrong.

  He strode away from me and into the study. I followed him. He took his phone that was on his desk and handed it to me. I took it, puzzled by the sudden mood shift. On it was a video on pause. I hit play.

  It was CCTV footage. The clip was grainy and recorded at night, so it was hard to see. It looked out to a road. A flash of memory hit me. Me in a car driving. That was then I realized what this footage was.

  There was nothing on the road for a few seconds, then a car passed by. And another one. The third car didn’t, however. It came into the frame spiraling and crashed into a tree. I recognized the car. It was a red convertible corvette with the roof on top. It was my car. Another memory flashed. It was of me and Liam in the car. My vision was hazy and I could hardly see a thing as I was driving. It was the same vision again. This time it was clearer. We were arguing. He points at something. The next thing I see is nothing but white light.

  “Caiden,” I turned my attention to the phone to face him. His face was hard and pensive. There was no getting through to him. I looked down at the video. A few minutes later, I stumbled out of the car. I got out from the driver’s side. It could only mean one thing. I was driving. I had been the one driving when the accident happened. From the looks of it, I seemed drunk. Maybe I was. I wandered around aimlessly, then I went back to the car. And dragged a lifeless body from the passenger’s side. It was Liam. I knew it was him from the blue converses that he liked so much. I kneeled down next to him. It wasn’t clear if I was giving him first-aid or if I was checking if he was alive. He wasn’t. He was dead. And I had killed him. The video ended there.

  “Caiden.”

  “Are you going to say it’s not you?”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “How about; Sorry I killed your brother. Or Sorry I lied to you. Or sorry…”

  “I didn’t lie,”

  “You lied!” his voice was so harsh it froze me, “you told me it wasn’t you who was driving!”

  “That’s because that’s what I was told! I didn’t remember. Not until now.”

  He let out a harsh laughter, “Now you remember. How convenient.” He turned away as if I was too despicable to look at.

  “It’s not like that at all. The video. It brought back memories.” How was I supposed to tell him what really happened when he thought all that was spewing from me were lies? Until now, I had almost no memory of that night. But there were still things that made little sense. Little details I couldn’t remember.

  “You’re exactly like your father. You change facts and manipulate people when it suits you. Regardless of consequences. Tell me,” he turned to face me, “was any of what we had true, or was that all part of some sick plot
you and your father were cooking.”

  “It’s not like that at all.”

  “Looking at you makes me want to vomit.”

  “Caiden Please.” My entire life I had begged no one for anything I had never felt like doing so. But now. Looking at him. I wanted to kneel, grovel, lick his shoes. Do whatever it takes for him to forgive me. It was then that I realized I loved him. I stepped forward tentatively, like prey walking into a lion’s den. I took hold of his arm. It felt tense under my grasp, “Caiden, please forgive me. Can you please forgive me? I don’t know what happened. And I still don’t understand what happened, but can you please forgive me? I’ll do anything for you. I love—”

  He wriggled his hand out of my grasp. I stumbled at the force and only slightly gained my balance. He glared at me with eyes filled with hate, anger and sadness. When he spoke, his voice was low and cold, “Don’t you ever try to finish that sentence. You don’t want to know what I’ll do to you if you do.”

  My vision was hazy with tears. I tried to blink them away, but it only made them fall.

  “Get out. I don’t want to see your face.”

  36

  It was noon the next day when I woke up. I had gone to the old liquor cabinet and raided it. It was filled with drinks I rarely touched. There was an old bottle of whiskey in there. I must have drank most of it. That was what the headache and slight nausea were saying. The bottle lay almost empty on the desk. I had slept on the floor and my back and shoulder ached when I stood up.

  Memories of the day before came rushing in. With them, came the pain and anger I had tried to numb with alcohol. I thought of my brother and how young he had died. I should have been there with him. He had called me that night. I had missed it and he hadn’t left a message. I had been too busy obsessing over his friend to even think about him. To this day, I’ve always wondered what he wanted to say. I had ignored him because a week before I had kissed the girl he loved. Hailey’s kiss had made me want more, envision a life with me and her as boyfriend and girlfriend. Hell, I had even wondered what my life would have been like if my twin wasn’t around. The guilt was still inside me to this day. I should have told him what kind of person she truly was. Instead, she killed him.

  I staggered out of the study. The entire place felt haunted and hollow. As I went past her bedroom, I noticed something that made me stop. It was empty. There was no sign that she had ever occupied the space. It looked like the guest bedroom it had been before. She had gone.

  When I said ‘get out’, I had meant out of the study and not out of the house. Clearly she had chosen the latter interpretation. That was fine. Good, in fact. I no longer had to deal with her. This was good news. There was nothing we could give each other anymore. I certainly wanted nothing to do with her. But then why did I feel so empty? I took out my phone. There were a few messages. One was from Fred:

  There’s more to the story if you want me to continue digging. I was going down another path before I got this boon.

  He was referring to the tape. I thought about it. If there was more he could find, then I guess there was no harm. Who knew with the Lyndells? There could be an even more sinister story to the whole thing. But I wasn’t sure if I still wanted to keep picking at the scab. It was taking too long to heal. I thought about it for a minute and then sent him a reply.

  Keep digging.

  My stomach growled. I went downstairs to make myself a cup of coffee and breakfast. I was about to make a meal for two people when I stopped myself. Had she eaten before she went away? She’s gone, you idiot.

  Ax was right. I had an unhealthy obsession. I was angry at her; she had left me, but I still wanted to make her breakfast. “Pathetic,” I whispered to myself.

  37

  Everything came to me in fragments. The memories were hazy. Each night I would wake up from night terrors. At first it made little sense. The initial fragments were of me driving the car. Another was of me turning around to see Liam sleeping in the front seat. Another thing that I never thought would accompany the fragments; the emotions. The shock I felt when I saw him lying lifeless. On the third night, I had another nightmare. This one differed from my previous ones.

  I was in a strange room lying on a bed. A boy was over me. His face is hazy, but there’s something about him that’s familiar. He punches me with something that stings. A moment later, I see an injection in his hand. I stumble out of the room and into a hallway filled with people holding Solo cups. The muffled music is now blaring. There’s a party going on. This is where I wake up whenever I have that dream. Somehow, this one is scarier than the others. It doesn’t end in a car crash, but there’s that boy that I can’t picture. It makes me thankful for the train that wakes me up every morning as it passes by my apartment.

  It’s only been two months, but I would be lying if I say I hadn’t gotten used to the luxury of waking up to the sound of sizzling and the smell of bacon and eggs. Smoked salmon deviled eggs to be exact. Now I was waking up to the smell of garbage. The window of my new apartment was above the alleyway.

  Nice. An apartment fit for the Disgraced Park Avenue Princess. If Dana saw me here, she would have taken a picture for remembrance. It was small, but it was what I could afford now. It was a studio with one sizable space that acted as the living area and the bedroom. There was a tiny space to the side, divided by a rail thin counter that served as the ‘kitchen.’ One could hardly cook a meal there, not that I could.

  I checked my phone. Fuck. I overslept. How was I both stressed out and oversleeping? I had to catch the train, and this place was much farther away than my other place. So I got out of bed and stumbled over my suitcases.

  I had sold some of my clothes, given away most of them, and still it was a lot. A memory flashed of Bailey silently helping me get my stuff into the town car. I was so glad I had put my things in storage. Some part of me had known that it would not last.

  I brushed the thought away. Stop thinking about the past. I rushed over to my tiny bathroom and took a shower in record time. I quickly dressed and grabbed the cranberry muffin I had bought yesterday. It had looked tempting in the bakery window. Now, it made me feel nauseated. Oh, no. I rushed to the bathroom. I hurled out all of yesterday’s pitiful supper. Nice. I went back to the kitchen and took the muffin, intending to throw it away, then thought otherwise and threw it into my purse.

  The early morning rush was palpable outside. Everyone was eager to get to wherever they were going except for a raggedy man hanging by the trash can. “Eli,” I called out to him. I reached into my purse and gave him the muffin, “here.”

  “This one didn’t do it for you as well?”

  “Unfortunately,” I said, walking away.

  “Maybe you should swear off all berry muffins!” he called out, “Better yet, send them all my way.”

  I was still a little miffed that I could not only stand blueberry muffins, but cranberry muffins too. I had given him the previous two I had bought, and he had suggested I buy a different flavor. Turns out my body didn’t like that one too.

  The meeting was about to start when we arrived. I followed Alicia to the boardroom. Rachel was already there, looking jumpy and excited. “What’s this about you think?” Alicia asked.

  “Exciting new business? A new donor?” I shrugged.

  The meeting carried on as usual with the usual topics being discussed that I was pretty sure the progress of we didn’t need to get an update on every Thursday. At the end of the meeting Rachel got up and trilled, “I have good news for you all. Our fund-raising gala is getting a big name.” I felt like melting in the chair. I knew what was coming, “That’s right, folks. The man himself Caiden Scott will attend the gala as the guest of honor. Is that wonderful?” Excited murmurings broke out. We had been trying to get big names to come to the fundraiser, and it had been difficult to do so. Now that there was a big name, others might come too. That meant we could get big pockets. This was good news. Good news for everyone except me. Caiden was the l
ast person I wanted to see right now.

  “We must give thanks to Hailey for this, of course,” I was brought out of my thoughts when I heard my name. Everyone clapped for me. I had done nothing. Rachel had approached me and I had told her it was unlikely he would come, but I would try talking to him. Later I told her it wasn’t set in stone that he would make it. I hadn’t spoken to him. I had made it up. I felt guilty for not saying anything and taking what I was sure was someone else’s hard work. They didn’t know about our separation and I took the congratulations like a coward.