Brianna tried to reassure her she had nothing to worry about. “If I do anything that makes you uncomfortable or hurts you, let me know and I will stop. I will never hurt you, gorgeous.” With a smile, she leaned forward and sealed the deal with a tender kiss.
They made good use of Brianna’s friends that night. Abby learned a few things. She found out she liked Brianna’s friends and wouldn’t mind if they showed up from time to time. Afterwards, Abby and Brianna went to sleep in each other arms, happy, fulfilled, and crazy in love with each other.
Chapter VII
Back in Montana, Kyle spent some time packing his things and getting ready for his flight back to New York City the next day. After he was done, he spent the rest of the night hitting “refresh” and watching the green dot on his computer screen. He couldn’t sleep. The images of Abby rolling around in bed with her lover made it impossible for his brain to shut down so he could get some much needed rest. He couldn’t eat either. His mother brought him some left over restaurant food, but he didn’t touch it. The revolting images of Abby and her lover in bed together were also making him too nauseous to keep any food down.
The dot didn’t move at all that night. Even though it was obvious Abby was going to spend that entire night at the mysterious building in midtown, Kyle couldn’t bring himself to shut his computer down.
A couple of hours before Kyle was supposed to get up to go to the airport, exhaustion began to set in. Kyle couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer, so he got off his desk chair, lied down on his bed, and fell asleep immediately.
A couple of hours after Kyle had lied down to sleep, the alarm on his phone went off, and a screechy, rock tune brought him out of a deep sleep. Kyle opened his eyes and saw it was still dark outside. Feeling grumpy, exhausted and disoriented, Kyle got off his bed and went to get ready for his trip. He had a very long flight ahead of him-twelve hours including two layovers. He felt relieved that after three agonizing days, he was finally going to be able to confront his cheating girlfriend and exact his revenge on her and her piece of crap lover.
Before leaving for the airport, Kyle said goodbye to his mother and promised to visit her soon and spend more time with her. He still refused to tell her the real reason he was going back to New York early. He apologized to her for having to miss the reunion and asked her not to worry about him. Dawn was starting to break when Kyle’s cousin, Casey, drove him to the airport.
At around 7:00 PM that night, Kyle’s plane landed at John F. Kennedy airport in New York City. Kyle was sleep deprived, tired, and hungry, but none of that mattered to him. All he cared about was being face to face with the guy who was screwing his girlfriend and kick his ass.
The first thing Kyle did when he got off the plane was connect to the airport’s Wi-Fi network to track Abby’s phone. Kyle saw it was on the move and heading uptown. Kyle shook his head and chuckled bitterly. Abby had texted him earlier saying she was going to stay in that night. He couldn’t wait to catch the queen of lies red-handed.
With burning rage clouding his senses, Kyle closed his laptop and left the terminal. The nightmare that is navigating through a NYC airport terminal just made his anger swell to dangerous levels. He was on the verge of losing it. By the time he made it outside, he was ready to get into a fight with anyone who dared to even look at him the wrong way. He even argued with the Pakistani cab driver who Kyle felt was taking too long to get into Manhattan.
One hour after leaving the airport, Kyle was back in the apartment he shared with Abby. After dropping his luggage on the floor, he opened his laptop to track Abby’s phone again. When Kyle logged back into Abby’s iCloud account, he saw that she was still at the mysterious midtown building. Kyle decided to go to the address shown on the digital map, even though he did not know where exactly in that building Abby was. The tracking program was not that exact. The anger and the fatigue he was feeling were scrambling his thoughts. His phone rang. It was a call from his mother calling to find out if he had made it okay to New York City. Kyle didn’t answer the call. Getting his revenge was all he cared about.
After closing his computer, Kyle rushed out of the apartment and got in a cab. He left the laptop behind and only took his phone with him. He yelled at the cab driver for moving too slowly; as if it was the driver’s fault that the traffic in New York City sucks. Kyle cursed, not at the driver but at the situation. He rarely cursed, but the exhaustion from the trip and the pain caused by his girlfriend’s unfaithfulness had him on the verge of madness.
When the cab driver finally pulled over in front of the mysterious apartment building, Kyle realized he had a problem. There was a doorman standing outside of the upscale building. There was no way that doorman was going to let Kyle into that building. And even if Kyle managed to get past the doorman, he still did not know who he was looking for. It was a very tall building with probably hundreds of apartments. How was he supposed to know which apartment Abby was in?
After tossing a couple of bills at the taxi driver through the little window on the car partition, Kyle got out of the cab and J-walked to the other side of the busy Manhattan street. From the sidewalk, he watched the apartment building like a hawk. He paced back and forth with his hands in his pockets while he tried to figure out how to get Abby and her lover to come out without alerting them that he was back in New York and on to them.
After waiting a while, Kyle checked the time on his phone and realized he had waited for over forty-five minutes for Abby and her lover to come out of the building, but they were still inside. Kyle wondered if maybe they were not planning to come out at all that night. Maybe they were going to stay in like the previous night. He was growing angrier and more restless with every passing minute. He ran a hand through his hair as he tried to come up with a plan to get the two lovers to come out of the building.
Then he had an idea. If he couldn’t get to the two love birds, he was going to make them come to him. He dialed Abby’s number.
****
Meanwhile, inside Brianna’s apartment, Abby sat on Brianna’s couch and enjoyed a glass of red wine. She was waiting for Brianna to finish getting ready so they could leave. They were going to go out to a fancy restaurant for dinner. She was staring at her phone screen and scrolling through her Facebook newsfeed when Kyle’s call came in.
She couldn’t help but feel extreme guilt every time her phone screen lit up and Kyle’s smiling picture appeared on her screen. She hadn’t had a chance to remove the picture. Abby answered the call, completely unaware that her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend was across the street and knew everything-well, almost everything.
“Hey, honey. How are you? How’s my sweet princess doing today?” Kyle greeted Abby when she answered her phone. His voice was dripping with sarcasm even though he was trying hard not to give away how angry he was.
“Hi, Kyle. How’s it going?” Abby replied, not picking up on the sarcastic tone of Kyle’s greeting.
“Great. I’m great. I’m excellent. Never been better. Listen, honey. I decided to come home early because I miss you so, so much. I just got home. I was going to surprise you, but you’re not here. Where are you, darling?”
Abby shot to her feet even though she had begun to lose feeling in her legs. “You’re back?” She asked, her breathing growing labored, her voice shaky. She brought her hand to hold her stomach. Her heart was in her throat. Sweat beads started to drip down her neck.
Kyle grinned, amused by the fear he heard in her voice. “Yes. I just arrived. I’m at our apartment, but you’re not here which is weird because you said you were going to stay in tonight. Where are you, Abby?”
Abby began to stammer as Brianna walked out of the bedroom. Brianna frowned at how frazzled and pale Abby looked. She didn’t need to ask who Abby was talking to. She knew it was her brother on the phone.
“I’m…I’m at a party,” Abby replied, feeling tightness in her chest. “It was a last minute thing. I was going to tell you and forgot.”
Brianna
heard the lies come out of Abby’s mouth and felt bad for her. She hated seeing how out of sorts Abby got anytime she had to speak to Kyle on the phone. But she understood there was nothing she could do about it. Abby had decided to wait until Kyle was back in town to tell him about them. The charade needed to continue until he got back. She sat on the couch and waited for Abby to finish the call.
“A party? Who’s party, Abby?” Kyle sneered.
“Uh…Jeremy…The party is at Jeremy’s, my boss. He’s throwing his girlfriend a surprise birthday party and invited me. That’s where I am.” Abby chuckled nervously and began to pace back and forth in front of the couch.
Kyle shook his head at the fact that Abby could not keep her lies straight anymore. “Really? I thought Jeremy had broken up with his girlfriend because she was cheating on him. Did they get back together already?”
Crap. Abby grimaced. There was a reason she never lied. She was terrible at it. She felt as if she were in hell. Little did she know her hell was just beginning. “Yes. They are back together. Look, I’m coming home. I’ll just apologize to Jeremy and come home, okay? Just stay there. I’m on my way.”
“How about I meet you there? Tell me where Jeremy lives so I can go get you.”
“No,” Abby blurted, a little too loudly. She corrected herself immediately and lowered the volume of her voice. “I mean… It’s okay. You must be exhausted from your flight. Just wait for me at the apartment. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Okay, honey. I can’t wait to see you,” Kyle said before ending the call.
The disdain in his voice went unnoticed by Abby who was too busy coming to grips with the fact that the time to face the music had come earlier than she had expected.
Kyle put the phone back in his pocket and J-walked back to the other side of the street. With a dark, unreadable expression on his face, he stood in front of Brianna’s apartment building, a couple of feet to the right of the building’s awning, and waited for his cheating girlfriend. He couldn’t wait to see the look on Abby’s face when she saw him waiting for her at her lover’s place.
In the apartment, Abby stood in the middle of Brianna’s living room, frozen with dread. She slowly removed the phone from her ear and stared at the screen.
“What is it, Abby? What is going on?” Brianna asked, her brows crinkling with concern.
“Kyle’s back in New York. He’s at our apartment waiting for me,” Abby replied, her voice trailing off. She clutched her phone to her chest and stared into space.
“What?” Brianna gasped, her jaw dropping to the floor. “I thought he was going to be in Montana for another week. What happened? What happened to the reunion?”
“I don’t know.” Abby plopped on the sofa behind her, still staring into space. “He said he came back early because he missed me. He didn’t say anything about the reunion.”
“Are you okay, Abby? You look so pale,” Brianna remarked after scooting over to place her hand over Abby’s hands which were cold as ice.
Abby grabbed her handbag lying next to her on the couch and shot to her feet. “I’m okay. I’m fine. I have to go talk to him. I have to go tell him about us.”
Brianna shot to her feet too and blocked Abby’s path. “You’re not okay. You are paler than a ghost, and your hands are shaking so badly you can barely hold that phone. Let me go with you. We’ll tell him together.”
Abby shook her head. “No. This is something I need to do alone-just me and him.”
Seeing that she wasn’t going to change Abby’s mind, Brianna stopped trying. “Fine. Call me as soon as it’s over. I will help you get your things and bring them here.”
“I will.”
“Good luck,” Brianna breathed before she and Abby shared a brief kiss. They gave each other a half-smile before Abby stormed out of the apartment.
In the elevator, Abby leaned against the wall and held her trembling hand over her chest. She couldn’t breathe. She felt as if the walls of the elevators were closing in on her. She knew the day of facing Kyle and confessing everything was going to come. She just wasn’t ready for it to come so soon. She thought she had another week to prepare what she was going to say to him.
In a matter of minutes, she was going to be in front of him. She couldn’t stall anymore. She couldn’t make any more excuses. The time had come for her to look Kyle in the eye and confess to him how she betrayed him with his own sister. She was going to break his heart into a million pieces. She wished there was a way she could spare him the pain he didn’t deserve.
A bell dinged, announcing to Abby that she had reached the lobby, and the elevator doors drew open immediately after. Abby took a deep breath before stepping out of the elevator. She walked through the lobby with her head down. She was mentally preparing her apology to Kyle. She figured she’d have a few minutes in the cab to put her thoughts and words in order.
At the entrance of the building, the doorman smiled and tipped his hat at Abby as he held the door open so she could get out. Abby was so lost in her own thoughts, she didn’t even notice him.
Outside, the chaotic sounds of the New York City night greeted Abby as she rushed towards the curb to hail a cab. With sirens blaring and car alarms going off all around her, Abby couldn’t even hear herself think. But she did hear and recognize the voice that rang behind her while she waited for a taxi to stop. It was a very familiar voice. That voice had been haunting her dreams for the last two weeks. That voice she knew so well made her stop dead in her tracks while her heart attempted to jump out of her throat.
“So how was the party?” Kyle asked.
Abby slowly twisted her body around in the direction of the voice. Even though she knew who was talking to her, she still hoped against hope that it was someone else standing behind her. “Kyle? What are you doing here?” Abby muttered, her eyes bugging out of her face as she stared at her boyfriend standing a few feet away from her with his hands stuck in his jean pockets. She still had her phone in her hands.
Kyle walked slowly towards Abby until he was hovering over her. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and crossed his arms over his chest. Two weeks earlier, he thought himself the luckiest man alive because Abby Sloane was his girlfriend. But that night, standing outside that building, he felt nothing but contempt and disgust for the girl standing in front of him.
“So who is he?” Kyle asked.
Abby shook her head, feigning ignorance. “What? I don’t know what you’re talking about?”
“Stop playing dumb, Abby,” Kyle barked. “I know everything. You were not at a party. You’re a fucking liar. I’ve been following you for days. I know you’ve been spending the night here for the last two days. You’re fucking someone who lives in this building. So who is he?”
Abby dropped her chin to her chest and began to sob. She wasn’t going to lie anymore. She realized Kyle knew almost everything and was going to figure out the rest soon. There was no point in lying and denying his accusations. She had been busted. She just wished Kyle hadn’t found out the way he did.
“Look at me when I talk to you,” Kyle growled, curling a finger under Abby’s chin and forcefully tilting Abby’s head up so he could stare into her guilty eyes.
Abby let out a small whimper as her head snapped back. Tears began to stream down her cheeks as Kyle’s eyes bore into hers. Even in a dark street, Abby could see the chilling rage in Kyle’s eyes. The darkness in his eyes and the menace in his voice gave her goose bumps all over her body.
“I’m so sorry, Kyle,” Abby cried as passersby started to give them curious looks.
Kyle scoffed. “Sorry? You’re sorry?” His voice continued to get louder and more menacing. He unfolded his arms and dropped them to his sides. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?” With his fists clenched, his nostrils flaring, and his chest rising and falling rapidly, Kyle looked away from Abby. He didn’t buy her apology and couldn’t look at her anymore. His gaze bounced around the street as if he were looking for
something.
Kyle had never hit Abby, but Abby feared he would lunge at her at any second. She took a step back and cast her gaze downward. She had never seen her boyfriend so angry. “I’m so sorry Kyle. I didn’t want you to find out this way,” Abby cried before burying her face in her free hand.
Kyle chuckled and held his hands up to his chest. His face contorted as he pretended to be deeply touched by Abby’s words. The tone in his voice changed from threatening to mocking. “Well, that just makes me feel so much better, Abby. You’re so considerate. I think I may be falling in love with you all over again.”
Kyle’s sarcasm made Abby cry harder. “I’m so sorry,” she kept repeating over and over from behind her hand. She was in hell. She wouldn’t wish the guilt, the shame, and the public humiliation she was enduring that night to her worst enemy. But part of her understood that she deserved every bit of that hellish nightmare.
Kyle stepped forward until he was hovering over Abby once more. “How could you do this to me, Abby?” he whispered with a softer tone, his voice breaking. “How could you do this to us? I thought you were different from the others. I thought you were decent and honest.” Kyle ran both hands through his dirty blonde hair and rubbed the back of his neck as his eyes wandered around. The whole thing felt so surreal to him. He felt as if he was in the middle of a bad dream.
“I feel like such a fool!” he screamed.
With her gaze still cast downward, Abby removed her hand from her face and reached out to touch Kyle’s arm. She kept repeating “I’m sorry” over and over. She meant those words. She sincerely wished she could’ve turned back time and not betrayed the man who had been nothing but sweet, honest, and kind to her.
Kyle swatted Abby’s hand away, making Abby flinch and dissolve into a series of loud wails. “Don’t touch me,” Kyle snarled, the veins on this neck looking like they were going to pop. “Don’t you dare touch me. You’re fucking disgusting, Abby.”
Betrayal: Kyle's Revenge (The Betrayal Series) Page 9