Devastated (Anger Management Book 1)

by R. L. Mathewson

  “They kept you pretty isolated, only letting you leave the house when they had no choice or they needed you to do something for them and even then, they only let you around people who believed them. If you mentioned any adult in a favorable manner, they went out of their way to make sure that person didn’t trust you,” he said, as Hunter got up from the couch and walked over to the double patio doors.

  “Y-yes,” she said, because that had probably hurt more than anything.

  They’d taken away every last hope that someone, anyone, could care for her. She’d lost count of how many teachers who’d once greeted her with a smile, stopped talking to her, yelled at her, or threw the things that her parents said about her back in her face. The parents that once told her that she was welcome in their home made sure that their child stayed away from her after one talk with her parents. With her parents’ reputations and the fact that most of the town hated them because of the things that they did and said, it made her existence very lonely.

  “They allowed other people to treat you like shit and probably encouraged it.”

  “Yes,” she said, as she watched Hunter’s hands clench into fists as he stood there, staring out the patio doors.

  “They expected your sister to grow up to be something special, but instead she has problems holding a job, gets fired a lot, steals, does drugs, and has a serious problem with alcohol, but none of it is ever her fault. Your parents still cover for her, but now your sister is the one spreading lies and embellishing her life. Even with that, they still treated her better than they treated you. They went out of their way to make you feel like there was something wrong with you, made sure that you hated yourself, made sure you failed and once you did, they made sure that they rubbed it in your face. The fact that they worshipped your sister and couldn’t do enough for her when she was just as hateful and cruel most likely confused you, made you wonder what was wrong with you.”

  “I thought she knew a secret to make them like her,” Kylie admitted because that was something that she could never understand.

  Her sister had been spoiled, lazy, rude, and just generally a horrible person. Most people didn’t like her, other kids avoided her, but her parents acted like she walked on water. They took her everywhere, introduced her to everyone, and always treated her like she was an adult, like she fit in while they’d left Kylie at home unless they needed her to clean the restaurant or fill in when one of the employees quit because they got sick of her parents stealing from them and treating them like garbage. No matter what Denise did, her parents always stood by her, got her out of trouble, and covered for her. But when Kylie struggled…

  They rejoiced and rubbed her face in it.

  “They were very controlling and when you didn’t do what they wanted exactly the way they wanted, they punished you. They did the same thing to their friends and everyone they knew. Anything could set them off. It could be something minor and they’d do everything within their power to destroy someone’s life and pretend they didn’t know anything about it,” Grey once again guessed correctly.

  “How do you know this?” Kylie asked, because even though she hadn’t read the entire file that Hunter’s men had compiled on her family, she doubted that any of this was in there.

  “What would you say if I told you that you weren’t alone, that other people had gone through what you had, and that your family treated you the way that they did because you were everything that they could never be and they hated you for it?”

  “I…”

  “What if I told you that they really didn’t love your sister, because they’re not capable of loving anyone but themselves. What if I told you that your sister was favored only because she was weak and easily manipulated into doing what they wanted, that they favored her because they saw her as an extension of themselves. All that attention and care that she got was because she wasn’t like you. Your parents latched onto her and made sure that she turned out just like them. She never had a chance at a normal life and that you are actually the lucky one, Kylie.”

  She shook her head in disbelief as she got to her feet. “Lucky? How exactly am I the lucky one? She never had to worry about anything, never went without, never had to go to bed hungry, or worry about what would happen if she didn’t get out of the way fast enough! She never had to sleep with the lights on or lie about the bruises and cuts on her face! She never had to worry about what would happen if she got blood on the floor or couldn’t wash the blood out of her sheets because the cuts on her back wouldn’t stop bleeding!”

  “Because despite what your parents did to you and put you through, you thrived, Kylie. Because you have a chance at a normal life, and she will never have that chance. Once your parents decided that they could use her to make themselves look better, she was doomed. I can’t diagnose your parents without meeting them, but from everything I’ve seen, your parents, and most likely your sister, have a personality disorder. They’re narcissists among other things. They are incapable of love, incapable of kindness, or empathy. They’re incapable of feeling remorse. They have to fake emotions, manipulate people into liking them, control them, and destroy them to make themselves look better and to protect themselves. They crave attention and desperately need people to believe that they are better than they are. It’s why they don’t surround themselves with people with a backbone or conscience. They prefer people they can control, who are desperate, and need them. It’s the same reason that they latch onto people in power because it makes them feel important. They love to be victims, crave sympathy and get a rush out of other people’s misfortunes especially if it makes them look good. Death, illness, divorce, it doesn’t matter. They will latch onto people during the worst moments of their lives and feed off them, loving the attention it gets them even as they mock and belittle the person who is going through hell behind their backs.”

  “They live in fear that something or someone will destroy everything by telling the truth, that they’re fakes. It’s why they targeted you because they couldn’t control you. You saw them for what they really were; weak, pathetic, cruel, and evil and they didn’t like that. You were being punished because you’re a danger to them, Kylie. Even now they’re terrified of what you can do to them. It’s why they trash you to their friends, why they make you look like an ungrateful bitch who used them and tried to make them look bad and why they sent those letters. They’re hoping that if they destroy your life that they’re safe. They don’t care what they have to do or what happens to you as long as no one believes you. They will do anything to protect their bullshit existence and they will never stop.”

  “But I-I’m not doing anything to them,” she said, trying to make sense out of what he was saying.

  “No, you’re not, but they don’t see it that way. The problem is that you still believe all the crap that they shoved down your throat. You think you’re a mistake, that you’re not good enough, and that everything that they do to you is somehow your fault,” Grey said, as she sat there, nodding slowly because she couldn’t deny it.

  “To you, your parents are still powerful and terrifying, but that’s because you still see them through the eyes of a terrified child. You don’t see them for what they are, pathetic. Think about it, Kylie. If your parents were really this powerful then why aren’t you in jail? Why aren’t any of the people that they’ve been going around accusing of the same things that they’ve accused you of in jail as well? Why did your parents’ restaurant fail? Why do they have to sue people to get what they want? Why do they have to destroy people? Why do they have to lie?”

  “I don’t know,” she mumbled, unable to help but frown as she thought about every question that he was throwing at her.

  “You really have no idea just how strong you are, do you?” Grey asked with a rueful shake of his head. “Your parents have created a fake world that you bought into, but think about it, all those people that they loved to gossip to and about, how often did they invite your parents over for dinner? Let
them around their children? Invite them over for a barbecue? Holidays? Birthdays? I’m guessing not very often and that’s because deep down they know what your parents are. They’re using your parents, but they’re also wary of them. With every lie that your parents spread about you now, they’re putting more cracks in this fake world of theirs because you aren’t there. Their obsession with destroying your life is becoming clearer with every vile word that leaves their lips.”

  “But they’re still helping them,” Kylie said, thinking about all those emails they’d sent.

  “It’s only a few people. Your parents aren’t special. They have no power over you and never have. Nothing they do affects you, because you were strong enough to get away. You’re nothing like them, Kylie. From what I’ve heard, you are an incredibly kind person. You just need to accept it.”

  *-*-*-*

  “Let me call you back,” Ryan said absently, hanging up the phone as he watched the office patio doors slam open seconds before Hunter, who looked ready to kill something, stormed out and-

  “Oh…shit,” Ryan said hollowly as he watched Hunter pick up a patio chair and hurled it through a window as he released a pained-filled roar.

  “Fuck!” Hunter yelled, grabbing another chair and sent it flying.

  “Shit!” Ryan said, shoving his phone in his pocket and reached for the kitchen patio door when he saw Kylie step onto the patio as Hunter grabbed another chair and-

  Ryan watched as the small woman who’d been to hell and back, bring Hunter to his knees. Dropping the chair, Hunter reached for her, pulled her into his arms and held on tight.

  Chapter 36

  Three Months Later…

  February 17th

  “I’m going to kill him,” Hunter decided, as he watched the asshole smile at something Kylie was telling him.

  “We’ve been over this,” Ryan said absently with a bored sigh as he continued going over his release papers to make sure they were all in order.

  “Tell him that,” Hunter said, narrowing his eyes on the large bastard that had infiltrated their lives. For the past three months, he’d had to deal with the asshole showing up for breakfast and manipulating an invite out of Kylie to movie night, dinners, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and all the shit in between and-

  The asshole was actually helping her.

  Kylie hadn’t wanted to do therapy, wasn’t ready for it, but Grey seemed to understand that so instead, he’d slowly won Kylie over. He started showing up early for Hunter’s mandatory therapy sessions and talked to Kylie about living in Florida, things they both missed from living up north, anything and everything except her family. From what he could tell, Grey never brought them up. That had eventually led to having Grey staying after sessions to hang out with Kylie to staying for dinner and eventually getting Kylie to start opening up to him.

  Sometimes she asked Grey questions. Other times Grey just listened as she told him things, or he talked to her about whatever it was that normally had Kylie sitting by the pool late at night, lost in thought. He’d also started to get Kylie to venture out of the house more for something other than work, something that he hadn’t been able to do for her. Grey took her out for lunch, got her to go to the movies after a glaring match that Hunter ended by picking her up and putting her in the car, took her shopping, had her help decorate his house and office, and basically found a reason for Kylie to stop hiding.

  When Ryan saw how much the outings took out of Kylie, he decided to help. Every week for the past two months he’d taken Kylie out for lunch, asked her to meet him for coffee, and hung out with her during Hunter’s therapy sessions. Almost overnight, both men had become extremely protective of her, greeting her with fond smiles, and going out of their way to spend time with her and Kylie…

  Smiled more, was more relaxed, and happier than he’d ever seen her. She still struggled with what happened, but she never talked about it. Sometimes at night, he’d wake up to find her crying in her sleep. Other times, she looked so damn lost that he’d drop everything so that he could hold her. They never talked about her family, but he knew that she still struggled with everything they’d done to her. He saw it on her face whenever she caught a glimpse of her back in the mirror, when she hesitated opening an email, and the way she flinched whenever someone knocked on the door.

  Her family had made one more fucked-up attempt to come after her, but he’d taken care of it. He’d had his marketing department in London handle all those fake reviews and had Ryan do what he did best. He’d canceled his old email account and opened a new one, which he’d made sure wasn’t public knowledge. He’d sent out a memo that the next time anyone made his private email public that they’d be looking for a new job. He also assigned the job of checking his emails to one of the assistants at the corporate office in Orlando.

  He was doing whatever it took to keep her safe.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you about something,” Ryan said, tossing the file that he’d been looking at on the patio table.

  “What’s that?” Hunter asked, shifting his attention away from the beautiful woman who’d changed his life to find Ryan watching him curiously.

  “I came across an article this morning about a family in Rhode Island,” Ryan said, pausing to take a sip of his root beer since he’d stopped drinking around Kylie when he’d noticed how much the scent bothered her.

  “Sounds fascinating,” Hunter drawled, as he reached over and grabbed a bottle of water out of the bucket of ice that Kylie filled for them.

  “It was. It really was, but what was interesting was that this family,” he said, pausing with a thoughtful look on his face, “let’s call them Smith. Well, apparently the Smith family is in a lot of trouble right now.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Hunter asked absently, as he grabbed a pen off the table and began signing the stack of contracts that Ryan had brought with him for his approval.

  “It seems that it all started with an invitation to a banquet for a charity that no one had ever heard of before. It seems that everyone on the list knew the Smith family. They were either friends of the family or had problems with the family in the past. Well, one thing led to another and they all started talking. Turns out that the Smiths had caused quite a few problems for everyone over the years and had done their best to keep them apart so that they wouldn’t talk.”

  “That sounds ominous,” Hunter said, signing his name as he thought about what he was going to do now that he was a free man.

  A year ago, he’d been pissed to find himself stuck on house arrest, forced to stay here, and counting down the days until he could leave and pick up where he’d left off and now…

  Now, he was making plans for a different future.

  “That’s what I thought, especially when I read that the Smiths had been behind several divorces, false police reports, some seriously disturbing accusations, scams, threats, and fraud.”

  “Sounds like they’ve been busy,” Hunter murmured absently, as he glanced over his shoulder to find Kylie placing a pitcher of lemonade on the kitchen table.

  “Well, as you can imagine, not everyone took it well. The police ended up being called to protect the Smiths when most of the banquet guests showed up at their house to have a word with them. That quickly turned to arresting the Smiths for various charges and several lawsuits being filed against them. Unfortunately, the police weren’t able to get there fast enough and a friend who had apparently bought into the Smith’s bullshit over the years and even helped them, found out that they were spreading rumors about his family when they weren’t going around making accusations about his company, posting fake reviews, and even threatening to sue them.”

  “Well, as you can imagine the friend didn’t take it very well when he found out that they’d been calling his wife a bitch behind her back or accusing his daughter of being a drug addict who neglected her mentally disturbed child and secretly warning everyone not to let their kids play with him. Turns out that the friend had caught wind of the rumo
rs years ago, but believed the Smiths when they’d accused their estranged daughter of spreading those lies. When they found out that the Smiths were really behind it, he lost it, grabbed a gun, and it looks like Mr. Smith had his balls removed the hard way,” Ryan explained, sounding amused as Hunter tossed the pen on the table and pushed his chair back.

  “That’s too bad for the Smiths,” Hunter murmured absently as he shifted his attention to Kylie.

  “It doesn’t stop there. Seems that all the rumors that Mrs. Smith spread have bit her in the ass. She’s in a lot of trouble right now. It turns out that all those lawsuits that she liked to file, that she not only lied, but that she’d got other people to lie too, including her daughter. Looks like those cases are going back to court.”

  “Uh-huh,” Hunter said, unable to help but smile as he watched her.

  “Then there’s the other daughter. It seems that people were shocked to find out that she had a criminal record and that she had done some seriously fucked up things that her parents helped her get away with. Turns out, that while this was all going on that someone let it slip that she’d also been cheating on her husband. It seems that her husband wasn’t aware of her past. He also wasn’t aware that the Smiths had been spreading rumors about him, telling everyone that he was a mentally disturbed individual who was abusing his wife and cutting her off from her family. Looks like he’s suing her for a divorce and filed a restraining order against the Smiths.”

  “I guess karma found a way to take care of the Smiths,” Hunter said, getting up and heading towards the kitchen.