When Brianna stopped struggling and Abby saw life began to flee from her ocean blue eyes, Abby realized she had to do something and do it quickly before it was too late. So she wobbled into the kitchen as fast as she could.
Unable to speak, Brianna pleaded with her eyes for her brother to let her go. But Kyle had reached the point of no return in his quest for vengeance. The monster that had taken over his body didn’t care that he was squeezing the life out of her own sister’s body.
“I shouldn’t have let you out of your bedroom where Dad had you locked up,” Kyle growled. Even his voice sounded like it was coming from someone else. “Dad did the right thing by locking you up. A poor excuse for a human being like you needed to be locked up and away from normal people. You’re a sick, twisted deviant, and you’re going to burn in hell for all the evil things you’ve done.”
Seeing Brianna pinned against that wall, shaking, crying and pleading for her life with her eyes gave Kyle a great deal of pleasure. She was finally paying for all the pain she had caused him and his family. The consequences of ending her life didn’t even register with him at that moment. He had completely gone to the dark side.
Brianna’s vision began to blur as she stared into the pits of darkness that were Kyle’s eyes. Her legs and hands began to feel weak. She couldn’t hear anything around her except for the rapid thumping of her own heart. She thought that was it for her. Her life began to flash before her eyes. She never thought her life would end at the hands of her own brother.
Then it all went dark for Brianna, just before she heard a single, loud bang followed by an ever louder thud. After the thud, she no longer felt Kyle’s hand around her throat. Having no strength in her legs to keep herself in the upward position, Brianna let her body slide down the wall and drop to the floor like a rock. She landed on her knees.
When light returned to her eyes, she could make out Abby’s face in front of her and could feel Abby’s hands cradling her face. She looked up for Kyle and didn’t see him. Then she looked over Abby’s shoulder and saw Kyle sprawled on the floor. His eyes were closed, and he was not moving. Next to him was a metal pipe.
“Are you okay?” Abby asked while Brianna knelt on the floor, wheezing and coughing.
Brianna nodded, her eyes fixed on Kyle’s motionless body lying inches away from her and Abby. Her eyes grew wider when she spotted a thin stream of dark red goo coming from the back of Kyle’s head and dribbling across the hard wood floor. Fearing the worst, she shoved Abby to the side and frantically crawled towards her brother.
Abby crawled towards Kyle and hovered over him as Brianna checked Kyle’s neck for a pulse. A huge sigh of relief escaped Brianna’s lips when she determined Kyle was still breathing.
“Call 911,” Brianna ordered Abby before getting on her feet and rushing to the bathroom. Abby spotted her bag lying on the floor next to the metal pipe and fished her phone out of it. While she talked to the emergency operator, Abby watched Brianna return from the bathroom with a towel in her hands.
Brianna knelt next to Kyle, folded the towel several times and stuck in under Kyle’s head to stop the bleeding. The compassion and concern Brianna was showing Kyle perplexed Abby. Just a few seconds earlier, Kyle was about to end her life, and there she was, taking care of him, trying to save his life.
After finishing the call with the 911 operator, Abby crawled to kneel next to Brianna and wrapped her arms around her. They both stared down at Kyle who was still unconscious. They held each other and silently tried to wrap their minds around what had just happened. A few minutes later, sirens blared outside the apartment building, and within seconds, the apartment was swarming with paramedics and police officers.
****
When Kyle woke up, there were two men in blue and white uniforms hovering over him. They had latex gloves on and were touching his neck and asking him questions. Kyle could barely make out their faces. His vision was still blurry. He couldn’t understand what they were asking either. There was also a man wearing a police uniform hovering over him and asking him questions. Kyle stared at all of them blankly. He couldn’t remember much of what happened. He remembered Brianna’s almost lifeless eyes pleading for mercy, but that’s about it.
Kyle was in a lot of pain, but he still made an effort to look around the room to find Abby. He spotted her sitting on a nearby chair. A paramedic was kneeling in front of her and touching her mid-section. Next to her was Brianna, standing against a wall and rubbing her neck while a police officer stood in front of her and wrote something on a white notepad.
The police officer hovering over him tried to press Kyle into answering his questions, but Kyle remained mum. He still couldn’t hear or understand anything. He couldn’t feel anything either, except for the throbbing pain in the back of his head. He ended up passing out before the police officer or the paramedics could get a word out of him.
****
Later that day, Brianna sat on a chair inside a hospital room. She was keeping an eye on Abby who lay asleep on a bed a few inches away. After the incident with Kyle, the paramedics took Abby to the hospital. Her x-rays revealed her ribs were not broken, just bruised. The emergency room doctor prescribed her a ton of pain pills and lots of rest. He wanted to keep her at the hospital for a few hours to make sure she was okay, but he expected Abby to be fine.
Kyle was taken to the same hospital where he received stitches to the back of his head. He was going to spend a couple of days there but was also expected to be fine. But unlike Abby who was going home after getting discharged, Kyle was headed to jail.
When Abby and Brianna talked to the police back at the apartment, they told the detective interviewing them that Kyle had tried to choke Abby the day before and then Brianna that day. The detective determined Abby had acted in self-defense, and Abby and Brianna were granted restraining orders against Kyle. But Abby did not tell the police about Kyle forcing himself on her the day before, much to Brianna’s dismay.
After Kyle had tried to kill her, Brianna felt nothing but hatred for her brother. At the apartment, she took Abby aside and tried to convince her to tell the cops about the rape. Brianna felt that reporting that assault would ensure that Kyle was going to spend some time behind bars and away from them. But Abby refused to say anything to the cops that morning. She told Brianna the experience was just too fresh and too painful for her to talk about it. She claimed to feel ashamed even though she was the victim. She did, however, promise Brianna she’d tell the cops at some point.
It was already nighttime when Abby was released from the hospital. Abby spent that night at Brianna’s apartment. The next day, Brianna and Jeremy went to Abby’s apartment, gathered Abby’s things, including her beloved gold fish Joaquin, and brought them to Brianna’s apartment. Abby never returned to that apartment again.
Brianna also hired a nurse to take care of Abby while she was at work and gave her strict instructions not to let anyone in the apartment. She heard from the detective that Kyle had posted bail. She feared for Abby’s safety with Kyle roaming the streets. She wished she could protect Abby herself but couldn’t stay with her all day because of her work at the musical. After her boozing almost got her fired, Brianna was afraid she’d get canned if she missed more performances.
Abby spent the next few days resting and healing at Brianna’s apartment. She was going to spend the rest of the summer there but was still planning to move back to the NYU campus for the next fall semester. She had also talked to Jeremy and they both decided it’d be better if she stayed away from the bookstore until after Kyle’s fate had been decided.
Abby had also kept the whole ordeal with Kyle a secret from everyone. She didn’t even tell her parents or brothers who she spoke with regularly. To them, she and Kyle were still a happy couple that was about to get engaged. Abby did not want to worry them. She was planning to tell them everything in person and when she felt better. She didn’t tell Katie, her best friend back home, either. The only person who knew the who
le thing was Jeremy, her boss at the bookstore.
Two weeks into her recovery, Abby received a call from Ryan, Kyle’s best friend. Ryan wanted to meet with her to talk about Kyle. Abby initially refused but eventually agreed to meet Ryan. She invited him to Brianna’s apartment and hid both the phone conversation and the meeting from Brianna.
The day of the meeting, the nurse did not want to let Ryan in because Brianna had instructed her not to let anyone in the apartment when Abby was alone. Abby eventually convinced the sweet nurse to let Ryan in.
“Hey, Abby how you doing?” Ryan greeted Abby after the nurse let him inside the apartment. Abby just glared at him without saying anything. Ryan was more Kyle’s friend than he was hers. She didn’t trust him but was curious about what he had to say.
After the nurse left the room, Ryan took a seat next to Abby on the couch. “Listen, I’m so sorry about everything that happened to you. I have no idea what got into him. After the night he got back from Montana and crashed at my place, I hadn’t seen much of him. If I had known what he was doing, I would’ve done something to stop him.”
“What do you want Ryan?” Abby asked coldly.
“Kyle has been staying with me ever since he made bail. He is really sorry for what he did to you and Brianna. I’ve seen how sorry he is. He’s really broken up about it.”
Abby scoffed and shook her head. She had a hard time believing the monster that raped her and tried to kill Brianna could be broken up about anything.
“It’s true Abby. I’ve heard and seen him cry. He wants to meet with you and apologize.”
“I will never meet with him. You have no idea what he did to me, Ryan. You have no idea the hellish month I had to endure with him. I don’t care how broken up he is. I won’t meet with him or accept his lame apologies.”
“Please, Abby. He’s genuinely sorry. He’s also terrified of going to prison. I’m really afraid for him too. They are not kind to rapists in prison. I don’t think he’ll survive a single day behind bars.”
Abby’s heart began to soften up. She had not thought about what could happen to Kyle if he went to prison. Abby still had not told the police about the rape, but it sounded like Kyle expected her to report it at some point. Abby was still deciding whether or not to report it. But even without the rape charge, there was a good chance Kyle was going to do some time for assaulting her and Brianna.
Abby began to worry that Kyle wasn’t going to survive being locked up with a bunch of murderers. In spite of all the terrible things Kyle did to her, Abby felt sorry for him. She agreed to meet with Kyle, but only if they did it in a public place and with a lot of witnesses.
After setting a date and time for the meeting, Ryan said goodbye to Abby and went home to give Kyle the good news.
Later that day, Abby told Brianna about Ryan’s visit but did not tell her about the meeting she had set with Kyle. She knew that if she told Brianna about it Brianna would have vehemently opposed it. Abby had a plan and thought it’d be best if she didn’t share said plan with Brianna until after the meeting with Kyle.
The next morning, Kyle and Ryan sat across from each other at a café down the street from the bookstore where Abby worked. Their eyes flew to the door when Abby walked in. Jeremy was by her side. Ryan and Kyle shot to their feet as Abby and Jeremy approached their table. Jeremy scowled at Kyle, itching to punch him in the face.
Abby, sensing the meeting could turn into a fight before she had a chance to talk to Kyle, restrained Jeremy by stepping in front of him and blocking his path. She then assured him she was okay and asked him to wait for her at a nearby table.
Jeremy reluctantly agreed to leave her alone with Kyle, and after helping a still sore Abby sit down, walked two tables over and took a seat. Ryan joined him, and they both kept an eye on the tense, but civil, conversation Abby and Kyle were having.
Kyle sat back down and stared sheepishly at Abby. “Thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me. How are you feeling?”
Abby did not answer him. Her expression was unreadable as she sat across from Kyle with her arms crossed over her chest. She studied the beaten down man sitting across from her and realized Ryan had not exaggerated. Kyle looked like he hadn’t slept much in days. He kept fidgeting with his hands and was having a hard time maintaining eye contact. The cruel, vindictive man who had put Abby through hell was nowhere to be found. Kyle was just the shell of the man he used to be. Abby felt sorry for him but was determined to not let him see it. If she was going to get him out of her life for good, she had to play her cards right.
“We’re both in violation of the restraining order I have against you, so you better make this quick,” Abby said.
“I’m so sorry Abby. I can’t even begin to tell you how sorry I am. I don’t know what got into me. I wish I could take it all back.”
“Well, you can’t take it back, none of it. I did a terrible thing to you, but I’ve apologized many times. I didn’t deserve any of the things you did to me.”
“No, you didn’t. I know that now. I was so devastated when I found out what you did, I guess I just lost myself. I loved you so much. You were the best thing that had ever happened to me. I thought we were going to be together forever. I was about to propose to you. I was planning a life with you. And then it was all taken away from me in a second. I just didn’t know how to deal with that. I’m not making excuses for what I did. I’m just trying to explain why I acted the way I did.”
“So what? Am I supposed to just forgive you and pretend none of this ever happened?”
“No. I don’t expect you or Brianna to forgive me. I’ve done terrible things, and I’m probably going to prison for them. I deserve to be put away. I just needed to see you and tell you how sorry I am before they lock me up. I needed to apologize to you now in case I don’t make it out of prison alive.”
Abby took a deep breath. She saw genuine remorse in Kyle’s eyes-and fear.
“I’m not ready to forgive you. It’s going to be a while before I can forgive you for what you have done to me. But I don’t want you to go to prison either. I haven’t told the cops about the rape. I will not report it to them. I will also talk to Brianna and convince her to downplay the choking. A friend of mine who is a lawyer told me that if we don’t cooperate with the prosecutor, the charges against you will be downgraded. He said you will not do time and will only get probation because it is your first offense.”
Kyle’s jaw dropped. “You would do that for me? After what I’ve done to you?”
“Yes, but under two conditions.”
“Anything. I’ll do anything you want me to do.”
“First, I want you to leave me and Brianna alone. We love each other and are going to be together. You cannot contact us or harass us in anyway. You have to promise to stay away from us.”
Kyle nodded eagerly. “Okay. I will leave you two alone. You will not see or hear from me ever again. What’s the second thing?”
“I want you to promise you will not try to ruin Brianna’s career by leaking her arrest record.”
“I won’t. I swear on my mother’s life that I won’t. I’m done with this whole thing and just want to put it behind me. I’m even willing to apologize to Brianna face to face, but I doubt she’d ever want to be in a room with me again.”
“You’re right. She does not want or need your apology. She doesn’t even know I’m here talking to you. Just stay away from us and leave us alone. That’s all we need from you.”
Kyle nodded.
Abby felt Kyle was being sincere and was going to keep his promises. She felt like the old Kyle, the rational, caring one, was back, but she still didn’t want anything to do with him. “Okay then. I have to go now,” she announced. She went to stand up, and Kyle grabbed her hand to help her. This gesture prompted Jeremy to spring to his feet and rush to Abby’s side.
Kyle took his hands off Abby when he saw Jeremy charge towards him. Kyle assured Jeremy he was just helping Abby get up. He then t
urned his attention back his ex-girlfriend. “Thank you,” Kyle whispered to her.
Abby didn’t say anything. She just gazed at him with sadness over how things ended between them. “Let’s go, Jeremy,” she sighed, grabbing Jeremy’s arm and slowly walking out of the café.
Abby returned to Brianna’s apartment after that meeting with Kyle. When Brianna got home later that day, Abby told her about her encounter with her ex-boyfriend.
“You did what?” Brianna snapped. “You met with him? That was an incredibly risky and stupid thing to do Abby. That man’s a psycho. Have you forgotten what he did to you and to me?”
“He is really sorry about what he did.”
“And you believe him?”
“Yes, I do. I saw genuine remorse in his eyes.”
“What did he want? Why did he want to meet with you?”
“He just wanted to apologize for what he did. He is also really scared about going to prison.”
Brianna scoffed. “Well, he should be. Prisons are hell for pretty boys like him.”
“Which is why I told him we were going to help him stay out of prison.”
“Help him? How?”
“I won’t tell the D.A. about the rape, and if we downplay the assault at his apartment, my friend says the charges can be downgraded and he won’t have to do time at all.”
“And what makes you think I’d want to help that asshole in any way?”
“He’s your baby brother. I know deep down you don’t want him to get passed around in prison, or worse, get killed in there.”
Brianna let out a sharp breath. She didn’t want to admit it, but Abby was right. She was beginning to soften up, but then she remembered Kyle literally choking the life out of her a few weeks earlier and quickly snapped out of it. “I won’t do it. He needs to pay for what he did to us.”
“I made him promise he will stay away from us if we helped him. He also swore, on his mother’s life, that he won’t leak your arrest record to the press.”
Betrayal: Kyle's Revenge (The Betrayal Series) Page 17