by Wendi Wilson
Theo’s parents were out of town, so we decided to head over and hang out in his pool house. I ran to my room to change into my bikini and grab an extra suit for Stella, since she hadn’t thought to pack one when she grabbed her stuff.
The sound of my door clicking open had me whirling around to see Mason leaning against the back of my door. He was staring at me with vacant eyes, like he was trapped in some alternate universe he desperately needed to escape.
“Hey,” I whispered, walking toward him. “Everything’s going to be okay. You’re out of that house, away from those awful people, and Stella is safe.”
I threaded my fingers into his hair, using it to angle his head so I could see into his eyes.
“I knew they were horrible people, but this…” he trailed off, his eyes glazing over with emotion. “They raised me, Chaz. What if I’m like them?”
“Listen to me, Mason,” I ordered, my voice firm. “You are nothing like them. Despite their best efforts, you are a good person with good intentions. Stella is lucky to have you. I’m lucky to have you.”
His mouth was on mine before I got the last word out, desperate and ravaging. He needed to feel something good. Something pure. So I kissed him back, pouring all of my love and affection into the action.
Mindless with passion, I found myself on my knees in front of him, undoing his jeans and freeing his hard cock from the boxers underneath. I pulled it into my mouth, licking and sucking as Mason’s head banged back against the door. I pumped him with my hand as his hips began to buck and his fingers tangled in my hair.
He came with a low growl and, barely giving me time to swallow, yanked me up and kissed me, hard. Then he rested his forehead against mine, his bright blue eyes shining with satisfaction…and something else.
Devotion.
“God, I love you so much. Thank you,” he whispered.
“You don’t have to thank me,” I said. “I love you more than anything. Whatever you need, I’ll give it to you. Whatever you want, it’s yours. I’m yours.”
“Ditto,” he said, giving my lips a quick peck before dropping to his own knees and taking me to heaven.
The water was warm and the atmosphere was pleasing. We’d all made a conscious effort to let our worries and fears go for the evening, which had been filled with fun and laughter. For a few hours, we were high school kids without a care in the world.
At least, we were after Mason and Theo yanked the security cameras from their perches and tossed them in the trash.
“And we’re right back where we began,” Mason muttered, moving toward me in the water with a devilish smirk.
I thought back to my first time here, when these boys had accepted me as one of their own. Before the world went to hell with a few minutes’ worth of altered video footage. Before they’d taken the fall for it to protect Stella and let me think they were all evil bastards.
“It feels like starting over,” I mumbled as his arms pulled me against his chest.
“It does,” he agreed, letting his eyes roam over our friends.
Everyone was smiling. Josh splashed Theo while Cooper dove down to grab Simone’s legs and pull them from underneath her. Seth and Stella were kissing in the corner, finally free to be together out of the shadows.
I wonder how long we can make this last, I thought, then brushed it from my mind.
Tonight was about the here and now. No worries and no depressive thoughts.
I braced my hands against Mason’s shoulders and wrapped my legs around his waist, locking my feet behind him. His cock twitched against me, and I smiled. He returned it, leaning forward to nibble my lips.
“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he murmured against my mouth. “I’m done letting other people tear us apart. And the others feel the same way, too. We’re going to come out of this on top.”
“Together,” I agreed, and he repeated the word back to me.
“Together.”
After several hours, everyone was getting tired, so we decided to call it a night. Josh elected to stay with Theo, and I gave him an exaggerated wink as I let out some low catcalls. He laughed it off, but I could tell he was excited and nervous. They hadn’t really had a chance to be alone together in months. I hugged him goodbye and whispered in his ear, telling him how happy I was for him.
Cooper took Simone back to his house, and the Bellamy twins rode with me and Seth back to our house. Their new home.
Stella conked out pretty quickly in my bed, but then again, it had been a pretty emotional day for her filled with the lowest of lows and the highest of highs. I was jealous of her peaceful slumber as I tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep, myself.
After nearly an hour of trying to force it, I climbed from the bed and tiptoed from the room. Making my way downstairs, I stopped by the kitchen for a glass of water and took it to the TV room. Maybe some mindless television would help shut off my brain so I could sleep.
As I sat down, I spotted Seth’s tablet on the armrest. Tilting my head, I picked it up, using the login credentials he gave me to access the video footage from Mason’s house. The first few rooms I scanned were empty, just as I thought they’d be since it was the middle of the night. Movement in one of the rooms caught my eye, and I maximized the screen so I could see more clearly.
My eyes blinked. Then they blinked again.
What the fuck was I watching? My brain refused to compute, taking several seconds for the synapses to fire and for realization to hit.
Holy shit.
The urge to gag warred with the urge to smile as I watched, unable to tear my wide eyes away. This couldn’t possibly be happening, yet it was. Motion on the right of the screen pulled my gaze away from the main event, and I nearly swallowed my damn tongue.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I mumbled under my breath.
Was that? Yes. Yes it was.
This was too fucking good to be true. And also, too horrible to conceive.
Yet, there I was, watching it with my own eyes. Eyes which flicked to the settings to make sure the footage was being recorded. It was.
And it was one hundred percent pure gold.
31
“I knew you’d be back. Wait, what is she doing here?”
Flipping from smug to harsh in and instant, Gwyneth’s words were cut off completely as I pushed past her, leaving Mason and Stella to follow behind me.
This was my show, and they were just here for the popcorn.
“Excuse me,” Gwyn shrieked, her heels clip-clopping against the tile as she rushed to catch me. “This is my house, and I want you to leave.”
Ignoring her, I turned back to Mason. “Where’s the media room?”
He pointed up ahead to the left, and I strode in that direction, still not acknowledging Gwyneth. Phineas popped out of a doorway on my right, asking what was going on as I stomped by without a word.
“Call the police,” Gwyn yelled, making me stop and spin around.
“I wouldn’t do that, Phinny-Boy, unless you’d like to explain this,” I said, holding a thumb drive in the air.
“What is that?” he asked, ignoring my rude nickname as he moved to stand beside his wife.
“That’s what you’re about to find out,” I said, giving them a malicious grin before continuing my path to the media room.
No one knew what was on this drive except me, Stella, and Mason. I’d watched the whole scene unfold, beginning to end, then downloaded the footage onto two drives before deleting it from Seth’s tablet. I’d considered showing it to the others first, but discarded the idea. The less people that knew, the more leverage we had.
After letting it rest a few days and planning out this mission to the finest detail, I strode into the room and stood by the overly-large, high-definition television. Perfect. Mason walked to the built-in shelves nearby and withdrew a sleek black remote, turning the TV on before changing the input to the USB setting.
Giving me an encouraging nod, he stepped away to
stand next to his sister. Stella slipped her hand into his. They remained silent as Gwyneth peppered them with questions and demands, not even deigning to look her in the eyes. Finally, she whirled toward me and stalked forward.
“What is the meaning of this?” she barked, getting all up in my personal space.
My hands raised of their own volition and shoved her backward. She stumbled over her expensive high heels, landing in an undignified heap on the couch. Phin rushed forward to fawn over her, but she just slapped his hands away.
“Sit down and buckle up, assholes. I have something to say, and you’re going to listen.”
“Why you little—”
“Shut. Up. Mom,” Stella growled, and for once her life, Gwyneth Bellamy was struck dumb.
I did an internal cheer for my friend, unable to keep a grin from spreading across my face. I’d bet my last dollar that was the first time Stella had ever stood up to her bitch of a mother. Good for her.
“Now that we have your attention,” I said, drawing all eyes to me, “I have a presentation to make. You’re going to love this, by the way. After all, I learned this trick from you.”
I plugged the memory stick into the TV and, using the remote Mason had set on the shelf underneath it, pressed the play button.
But I didn’t watch the screen. I’d seen enough to last me a hundred lifetimes. No, I watched Gwyn and Phin’s faces as several emotions passed over their features. Confusion. Realization. Shock.
Fear. That one was my favorite.
Against my will, my eyes followed the line of their wide-eyed gazes to land on the TV. Phineas was standing in the middle of his office, slowly undoing his black slacks. After pulling off his dress shirt and smoothing it over the back of a nearby chair, he pulled off the pants and gave them the same careful treatment. The underwear came off next.
An equally naked girl crawled across the floor on her hands and knees, her long blonde hair braided into a neat plait that hung over one shoulder. When she reached him, she sat up on her knees, letting her arms dangle at her sides. Phineas grabbed that long braid and twisted it around his fist, using it to jerk her forward as her mouth opened for his dick.
Lifting the remote, I turned up the volume until the sounds of the girl’s slurping ministrations echoed around the room. I knew what came next, and I wanted to make sure neither of the Bellamys missed the fact that I recorded it.
“Finger yourself,” a feminine voice said just before Gwyneth walked into the frame, holding her phone up and pointing it at her husband.
She was wearing a thin, lace bra and what looked like crotchless-panties covered by a garter belt and thigh-high stockings. All in virgin white.
The girl’s hands moved to do as she was told as Gwyneth circled the pair, bringing her phone close to where the girl’s mouth was on Phin’s cock. Then Gwyn moved behind her, focusing on where her fingers were.
I looked back at the couple, their faces stark white as they watched with horror in their eyes. I could practically see the wheels turning in their heads. The ramifications of me having this footage were astronomical for several reasons.
First, this getting out would ruin them socially. They’d be reduced to a laughingstock in the community, kicked out of their self-appointed thrones as their peers whispered and laughed at them behind their backs.
My thoughts cut off as a loud groan emitted from the television, pulling my attention back to the screen. Phin ejaculated on the girl’s face and bare chest, grunting as he watched it spurt over her skin. Then he took the phone from his wife, stepped back, and pointed the camera at her as she dropped to her knees in front of the girl.
“Good girl, Charlotte,” she praised, rubbing her hands over the girl’s breasts before licking her fingers.
I hit pause on the remote. They’d seen enough, and I would have to bleach my eyeballs if I watched what came next again. Gwyn used Charlotte’s body much the same way her husband had, all while he filmed it.
“Charlotte Rutherford is your son’s girlfriend,” I chastised sarcastically, shaking my head. “She’s also only seventeen, which means you both participated in statutory rape, as well as producing child pornography.”
“You little bitch,” Gwyn growled, regaining her senses and attempting to lunge at me from the couch.
Phineas grabbed her and pulled her back down beside him. His whispered furious warnings in her ear, and my smile grew as she settled down to seethe in silence.
“If this gets out,” I continued after a few beats of deafening silence, “it will destroy you. You’ll lose everything—your social standing, your money, your freedom. Charlotte will be ruined for whatever back-up marriage her parents have arranged for her if Mason doesn’t follow through, and they’ll sue you for everything you’ve got. You’ll go to jail…and I hear child molesters don’t do so well in the clink.”
“We’re not child molesters, you little—”
“You are in the eyes of the law,” I said, cutting her off.
“What do you want?” Phineas asked.
“I want you to let them go,” I said, throwing up a hand to point at the twins. “Leave them be to live their lives however they see fit. And you will not, under any circumstances, cut them off financially or mess with their trust funds.”
Gwyneth’s face screwed up into a malicious scowl. “Now we get to the heart of it, you fucking dirty little gold-digger. Just like your whore mother.” She looked over at her son. “She only wants you for your money. You see that now, right?”
Before my mind could catch up with my actions, I stomped forward and slapped her across the face. I shook the sting from my hand as she pressed a palm against her cheek, looking at me with wide, disbelieving eyes.
“Do not speak of my mother,” I warned, my blood boiling in my veins. “She’s kind and generous, with a sweet, loving heart. Everything you’re not. Atticus loves her. And me. For my last birthday, he gifted me a stock portfolio worth more than six million dollars. I don’t need your money. But your kids deserve it for surviving your pitiful excuse for parenting.”
My eyes darted to Mason, who watched me with an arched brow. I hadn’t told a soul about Atticus’s gift for several reasons. First, it was embarrassing and reeked of charity. I’d decided I was never going to touch it, but I’d had a change of heart after he called me his daughter and asked me to call him dad.
Second, it wasn’t anyone else’s business, and I was afraid I’d sound like a braggart if I started talking about my net worth.
Third, I didn’t want to be treated differently just because I had money. If they were assholes who were going talk to me like I was trash, I wanted to know up front. I didn’t have the time nor the energy to deal with fake friendships.
“Now,” I said, turning back to the Bellamys, “this is what is going to happen. Mason and Stella’s bank accounts are going to be reinstated and regularly replenished. Their cars will be transferred into their names. And you will officially reinstate their trust funds. They will expect legally binding documentation by the end of next week. You will also go to the Callaways and Davenports, tell them you’re done controlling your kids and that they should stop trying to control theirs. I don’t care how you do it. Convince them you’ve had a change of heart. That the kids’ happiness should have always been your number one priority. Whatever you say, be convincing. I have a copy of this footage in safe-keeping, and I will release it to the public and to the police if you do not comply. Do you understand me?”
“We could have you arrested for planting recording equipment in our home, not to mention blackmail,” Phin gritted out between clenched teeth, a last-ditch effort to scare me off.
“Go ahead,” I said, shaking my head with a smile. “It wouldn’t take much research for the police to determine who bought those cameras. They are, after all, the ones you had planted in the Kincaid home to spy on us, and pictures of my naked body pulled from that footage ended up on social media. Nonconsensual pornography to add to the ch
ild porn rap. Do you want to use my phone to call them?”
I jiggled the device in the air in front of his face. His eyes dropped, and he turned his head away.
“That’s what I thought,” I said, straightening and hiking a thumb toward the TV. “You can keep that as a souvenir. I have my own copy. Next week. Don’t forget.”
Then I strutted from the room like the queen Josh always said I was.
And for once, I felt like one.
32
Everly Prep felt like a completely different universe than it had the week before. I was sitting in the dining hall, surrounded by my friends and family, who were all smiling. Happy.
Josh sat on my right, whispering something into his boyfriend’s ear as Theo’s fingers lazily twirled the hair at Josh’s nape. Next sat Seth with Stella on his lap, his arms cinched around her waist as she laughed at something Cooper said from across the table. Simone laughed too, tucked against his side.
And on my left was Mason, surveying the others in silence much as I’d been doing. His palm warmed my thigh under the table, his fingers tightening their grip as I leaned in to kiss his cheek.
“I love this,” I whispered into his ear. “Everyone is so happy.”
His blue eyes turned to me, shining with pleasure as they roamed over my face. His head darted forward, his lips capturing mine in a simple, affectionate kiss before he pulled away.
“And I love you,” he said, smiling.
I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could get a word out, a shriek cut through the air, pulling our attention toward the door.
Charlotte stalked toward us with Amelia and Isla on her heels. She looked like a demon, her face red and scrunched up with anger. She stopped beside me, resting her fists on her hips.
“Get up, Trash-whore. You’re in my seat.”
“I think you’re mistaken, Charlotte. This is my seat.”
