Betrayal: Kyle's Revenge (The Betrayal Series)

by Sofia Velardi

  Brianna’s eyes kept darting from Abby to Jeremy and back to Abby. “Oh my God, Abby. Is what he’s saying true? Did Kyle do this to you?”

  Abby did not respond. She dropped her gaze to the floor and began to sob uncontrollably. Abby’s tears told Brianna Jeremy was telling the truth. She wrapped her arms around Abby, whose sobs had turned into heart wrenching wails.

  “We need to talk,” Brianna demanded while tightening her arms around Abby.

  “You can use the backroom,” Jeremy suggested.

  Brianna swung Abby’s arm behind her neck and helped her wobble towards the backroom. Once there, Brianna dragged a chair from the back of the room and helped Abby sit down. She found a stool nearby and dragged it so she could sit on it facing Abby.

  “Okay, Abby. What happened? Tell me exactly what Kyle did to you.”

  “It was all a lie,” Abby sobbed, wiping tears from her cheeks with the back of her hands.

  “What was a lie?” Brianna asked.

  “After he found out about us, he said he wanted to work things out with me. But he had no intention of forgiving me. He just wanted to have me around so he could punish me and keep me away from you. He loathes me. He told me so himself the day I found him in our bed with another woman.”

  Brianna stared at Abby, shaking her head and with her mouth hanging open. “I can’t believe this. You look like you’ve been through a lot. What happened last night, Abby? What exactly did he do to you?”

  “The last four weeks have been a nightmare. He’s become a mean, cruel, condescending monster. He humiliates me in front of everyone and controls my every move. Yesterday, he figured out I had gone to see you and went berserk. He had forbidden me to see you, and I disobeyed him. He was so angry, he almost strangled me. I begged him to forgive me for going to see you, but he just threw me across the room. I crashed on a chair, fell to the ground, and hurt my ribs. That’s why I’m limping.”

  Brianna gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. Her ears couldn’t believe the horror they were hearing. Brianna had a taste of Kyle’s anger the night he grabbed her throat at Ryan’s party a few weeks back. But she thought that level of anger was only reserved for her. Brianna couldn’t believe Kyle could be so vicious to Abby, the woman he allegedly loved more than anything.

  For a moment, Abby hesitated to share with Brianna the rest of the previous night’s events, but she needed to tell someone or she was going to go crazy. “That’s not all. Last night… Kyle…he…forced himself on me…”

  “Son of a bitch!” Brianna snapped, shooting to her feet. “I’m going to kill him.”

  Abby’s eyes widened with panic. She attempted to get on her feet, but the pain didn’t let her. “Please don’t get involved. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have disobeyed him. I shouldn’t have gone to see you.”

  Brianna sat back down. “Why are you defending him? Why are you letting him do this to you?”

  “I want to leave him, get as far away from him as possible, but I can’t.”

  “Why not? What’s stopping you?”

  “You are.”

  “Me? What are you talking about?”

  “When I found Kyle in our bed with another woman two days ago, I told him I had enough and began to pack my things. I was determined to leave him that day. Then he told me the whole story about you and the fifteen-year-old girl you supposedly seduced. Kyle threatened to go to the press and tell them about your arrest if I left him or got back together with you. He said he’d ruin your career and reputation if I didn’t do as he said. I don’t want you to lose your career because I know how much it means to you. That’s why I put up with his abuse.”

  Brianna’s gaze bounced around the small room. She was having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that her brother had become a monster. She returned her gaze to the broken girl in front of her. “I can’t believe Kyle would stoop so low. He’s using that bullshit arrest to coerce you into letting him abuse you?”

  “He said you forced yourself on that girl. Is it true?” Abby asked.

  Brianna shook her head furiously and reached over to grab Abby’s hands. “No. Of course not. Those charges were bullshit. Holly and I were in love. Her parents didn’t want us to be together so they went to the police and accused me of raping her. When she and I started dating, she was fifteen and I was seventeen. Then I turned eighteen and she was still fifteen. Technically, what we were doing was illegal, but it was consensual, always was. That’s why the charges were dropped.”

  “Kyle said the charges were dropped because your father paid off the girl’s parents and greased a few hands in the local court system.”

  “What?”

  “He said your father lost his business paying people off to keep you out of prison.”

  Brianna stared at Abby with a blank look on her face. “He what? I didn’t know that. I thought the D.A. dropped the charges because it was a bogus case. My father never mentioned anything about paying off Holly’s parents, and when I ran away, he still had his business.”

  “Kyle also said your father got your arrest record taken off the system but kept a copy of it. Kyle has access to it and said he is going to leak it to the tabloids if I didn’t let him punish me for what you and I did to him.”

  With a lump forming in her throat and tears threatening to flood her eyes, Brianna dropped to her knees in front of Abby. She reached up to caress Abby’s damp cheek. “You’re letting my brother treat you like garbage to protect me? Why, Abby?”

  Abby closed her eyes and pressed her cheek against Brianna’s palm before answering. It had been so long since she felt the caring, loving touch of someone, anyone, she wanted to savor the moment for as long as she could. “Because I care about you,” she finally answered. “Because you’ve already suffered enough. Because I didn’t believe you were capable of forcing yourself on an innocent girl. I knew there was more to that story than what Kyle told me. And lastly, because I broke your heart by telling you I loved you just to run back to Kyle the next day. I guess this is my way of making up for that.”

  Abby’s words took Brianna back to that fateful afternoon in her apartment. Brianna remembered the pain she felt that day when Abby said she was going to try to work things out with Kyle. That pain was still with her every single day. But her own suffering did not matter to Brianna that morning. All she cared about was protecting Abby from her deranged brother. “You’re not going back to that monster, Abby. Let him leak whatever the hell he wants to the press. I don’t care. I’m not going to let you suffer anymore.”

  “But what about your reputation? Your career? You could get blacklisted…”

  “I don’t care. Your well-being is more important to me than my career.”

  “But what would you do if you can’t get work as an actress anymore?”

  Brianna shrugged. “I’ll figure something out. I’m a decent cook. I’ll open a restaurant and become a chef or something. Hollywood can kiss my ass if they choose to believe the lies.”

  Abby covered her mouth with her hand and began to sob again. Guilt and regret consumed her. She felt she had made a big mess out of everyone’s lives, and she hated herself for it.

  Brianna’s heart broke for Abby. She had been on the other end of Kyle’s hatred for years and knew exactly how much it hurt. But what Kyle was doing to Abby was worse-a lot worse-than anything he had ever done to her. Guilt and regret consumed her too. If she had stayed away from Abby like Kyle had told her to back at that party, Abby wouldn’t be in so much pain now. Brianna was determined to make things right no matter how much she had to sacrifice.

  Shooting to her feet, Brianna dragged the stool she had been sitting on closer to Abby’s chair. “Come here, sweetheart,” she whispered as she sat back down and pulled Abby into her arms.

  “I don’t know what happened to him,” Abby slurred after taking her hand off her mouth and resting her head on the curve of Brianna’s neck. “He used to be so sweet and loving. I’m so sorry I chose
him over you. You must hate me so much right now. I hope you can forgive me one day.”

  “I won’t lie to you. I was devastated when you told me you were staying with Kyle. I cried for days. I almost got fired from Chicago because I was drinking so much and showing up to rehearsals hungover. But I don’t hate you. I could never hate you. I love you. I’m in love with you and will always be.”

  “I’m such an idiot. I let my guilt and my obsession with doing the right thing overrule my feelings. I had fallen out of love with Kyle and didn’t realize it until I was too far into our bullshit reconciliation.” Abby raised her head and stared into Brianna’s eyes. “I love you, and I want to be with you if you’d still have me. I’d understand if you say no, but would you forgive me and give me another chance?”

  Brianna did not need time to think about her answer. She couldn’t fault Abby for going back to Kyle out of guilt. She was familiar with that type of guilt because she had felt it herself. But now that Kyle had proven himself unworthy of that guilt, there was nothing standing in the way of hers and Abby’s happiness.

  “Of course I will give you another chance. I never stopped loving you in spite of everything that happened. I went out on a date last night, and it was awful because I couldn’t get you out of my head. I love you, and I want to be with you and no one else.” With those words, she cradled Abby’s damp cheeks with both hands, leaned in and took Abby’s lips into hers.

  They both were tired of making sacrifices for Kyle and were not going to take any more abuse from him. They were finally free to be with each other and love each other without feeling shame, guilt, or regret. The tender, tear-soaked kiss they shared in that backroom was the perfect exclamation point to the fact that, from that day on, they were going to put their happiness before anyone else’s and let the chips fall where they may.

  “What are we going to do about Kyle?” Abby asked after Brianna’s lips abandoned hers.

  “I’m going to take you to a hospital first. You could have broken ribs. From the hospital, we’ll call the police and report everything he did to you so you can get a restraining order against him. After you get the restraining order, we’ll get your things out of your apartment and bring them to mine. You’re staying with me, and there’s nothing Kyle or anyone else can do about that.”

  “Okay, but I want to go to my apartment before going to the hospital.”

  “Why?”

  “I need to pick up my health insurance card and some clothes in case I have to spend a few days at the hospital. Kyle’s at work, so it is safe to go now.”

  Brianna agreed to the change of plans. She helped Abby off her chair and out of the backroom. On their way out of the bookstore, Brianna told Jeremy she was taking Abby to the hospital and warned him that she may be gone for a few days and may not come back to work ever again.

  Jeremy offered to go with them to the hospital, but Abby refused. She told Jeremy she’d keep in touch. Brianna gave Jeremy her address so he could visit Abby once things had settled down.

  Jeremy was sad over the possibility of losing Abby as an employee but also relieved that someone had finally knocked some sense into her and she was leaving that nut job of a boyfriend. Jeremy and Abby exchanged hugs and well wishes before she and Brianna walked out the bookstore and hopped in a cab.

  Chapter XIII

  After a very short cab ride, Abby and Brianna arrived at the apartment building where Abby had lived with Kyle for the last two years. When Abby and Brianna stepped inside the apartment, they immediately headed to the bedroom to retrieve Abby’s insurance card and throw a few things in a duffle bag. They needed to get out of there as soon as possible in case Kyle decided to come home early.

  Abby’s worst nightmare came true when she went to turn the handle on the bedroom’s door and the knob began to turn by itself before she reached it. Terror washed over both her and Brianna when the door swung open and a sleepy, tousled-hair Kyle emerged from behind the blue-painted door. They both shrieked and backed away from him.

  Kyle was still wearing his work clothes. When he showed up for work that morning, his boss determined Kyle was too drunk to work. After writing him up, his boss ordered Kyle to go home and sleep his hangover off.

  Kyle stood at the door, looking dazed and rubbing his eyes. The sound of the front door slamming shut when Abby and Brianna walked in had woken him. He had taken some sleeping pills and could barely keep his eyes open, but he quickly perked up when he saw his deviant sister standing behind Abby. “What is she doing here?” Kyle asked through gritted teeth. With the purest of hate lighting up his gray eyes, Kyle stumped forward, forcing Abby and Brianna to back away from him.

  “Kyle please. Calm down,” Abby pleaded.

  “You have some balls bringing her here. Wasn’t I clear last night? I guess I’m going to have to make that phone call after all. I guess you don’t care about her as much I thought you did.”

  “Go ahead Kyle,” Brianna chimed in. “Make the call. Call anyone you want. Leak that arrest record to the entire universe. I don’t care.”

  Kyle stopped cold. The arrogant smirk on his lips vanished. His eyes couldn’t hide his surprise and frustration. It started to dawn on him that his seemingly fool-proofed plan B may have backfired. His face flushed with anger, and his eyes kept bouncing from Abby to Brianna and back to Abby.

  “That’s right, Kyle,” Brianna continued. “I know all about your little scheme to keep Abby and I apart. Guess what? I don’t care about losing my career. Do whatever you want. Talk to whomever you want about my past. That arrest was bogus, and I have nothing to be ashamed of.” She stepped from behind Abby and stood between her Kyle. She stared up at her brother, confident, defiant. “I’m not letting Abby stay another second here with you. She is leaving with me whether you like it or not.”

  The veins on the sides of Kyle’s neck looked as if they were going to burst. It looked like every drop of blood in his body had rushed to his face. He regretted not doing a better job of keeping Abby and Brianna from talking to each other. He also wanted to kick himself for underestimating Brianna who didn’t look like she was bluffing when she said she didn’t care if the world thought she was a sexual predator. Kyle thought Brianna was the type of person who would do anything to preserve her career and reputation. It turned out she was a much better person than he thought.

  His scheme was crumbling in front of his eyes, but Kyle was not conceding that fight yet. Abby and Brianna had caused him a great deal of pain, and he was not done getting even. He began to stump forward again, staring Brianna down and making her back away. Abby, who had her arms wrapped around Brianna’s waist, also began to retreat.

  “Fine,” Kyle sneered. “You and her can leave, but it doesn’t mean this is over. I will dedicate the rest of my life to making your life and her life as miserable as possible. And if you think I’m bluffing, ask Abby whether or not you should take my threats seriously.”

  Brianna did not have to ask Abby anything. She only needed to glance at Abby’s battered body to know Kyle was not bluffing. The sweet little brother she knew was no more. A vicious, callous, vindictive monster had taken over her brother’s body, and he craved revenge. Brianna realized Kyle was never going to let her and Abby be happy, so she made him a deal. She stopped moving and so did Kyle.

  “Look, Kyle. I’m the one you’re angry with. You think I lied about being raped and about our father allowing it. Fine. I will never convince you that I’m telling the truth. You’re also angry at me because I caused our family’s financial ruin. I’m sorry about that. I had no idea until Abby told me not long ago. I thought the case had been dismissed because it was a bogus case. I had no idea Dad had made so many sacrifices to keep me out of prison. You’re angry at me, and you don’t want to see me happy. I understand and have a proposal for you. You let Abby leave this apartment and promise to leave her alone and be happy. In exchange, I promise to stay away from her too even if it kills me.”

  “Brianna, no
,” Abby protested.

  “It’s the only way, Abby,” Brianna countered without taking her eyes off Kyle. She continued with her proposal. “I will put her on a plane to Michigan tonight and won’t contact or see her ever again. I give you my word. Her safety and happiness is more important to me than having her. This is what you want, right? To keep us apart? We will stay away from each other then, but you have to let her go and leave her alone. So what do you say, Kyle? Are you going to let us walk out of this apartment peacefully, or do we need to get the police involved?”

  Both Abby and Brianna held their breath, waiting to find out if Kyle was going to take the deal.

  Kyle felt rage boil inside him. He was on the verge of exploding like a volcano. Brianna’s deal did not satisfy him. Yes, his main goal was to keep her and Abby apart, but the deal did not quench his thirst for revenge. He wanted to see them cowering in fear in front of him and cry for his forgiveness. Kyle was not getting any of that from Brianna’s deal.

  Suddenly, images of Abby and Brianna rolling around in bed and laughing at him invaded his thoughts. His chest rose and fell rapidly as the laughter that only he could hear taunted him and stripped the few remaining rational thoughts out of his head.

  Without warning, Kyle lunged forward and grabbed Brianna by the throat, swinging her around like a rag doll and slamming her against the wall. “I told you the next time I had my hand around your neck you were going to regret it,” Kyle hissed, his hand shaking as it closed around Brianna’s neck.

  Abby let out a blood-curdling scream while gripping a handful of the back of Kyle’s shirt. She desperately tried to pull him off Brianna, but Kyle was too strong and she was too sore and in too much pain. “Please Kyle. Don’t do this. Let her go,” Abby pleaded while Brianna gasped for air. Brianna had her hands wrapped around Kyle’s wrist, white-knuckling it in an attempt to get him to loosen his grip, but Kyle was too strong for her too.