by Lacy Hart
“Sarah,” I growled to her, “I don’t how much more I can take.”
“I guess I should stop teasing then,” she cooed.
Sarah shifted her body closer to me, slowly lowering herself down on top of me and enveloping me easily. I could hear her let out a slight moan as I slipped deeper into her, and she began to rock her hips gently on me. I moved my hands to her hips, feeling each movement she took on me so that I could move with her perfectly. I quick glance up at her revealed her eyes were closed and she seemed to be relishing each motion as much as I was.
Sarah’s movements became faster, and her hands clawed their way back and forth over my body while my grip on her hips became tighter and more controlled. I was barely holding on at this point and was thrusting to meet her as she moved, rotating her hips, squeezing down on me, until both of our movements and breathing reached a fevered pitch. Sarah pushed down on me and gasped loudly, and the surge caused me to thrust one last time upward before I felt her orgasm roll through her body. The sensation was all I needed to cause me to go over the edge myself, and I heard myself moan as I pulled Sarah closer to me, holding her body flush against mine.
We kissed over and over as the delight slowly subsided, and it seemed I could not get close enough to her, wanting to hold her there with me forever. After the endless kisses, Sarah peered down at me with a smile on her face.
“That is how every day should begin,” she said to me with a laugh.
“You’ll get no arguments from me,” I replied to her.
Sarah slid off to my side so that she could lay next to me and rested her head on my shoulder.
“Can we just stay here and not deal with the rest of what’s going on?” she said to me, planting a kiss on my shoulder.
“We can stay here,” I told her, “but that’s not going to make the other stuff go away.”
I turned to look at her, and I could see she had a pained look on her face just at the thought of dealing with all the trouble brought on by Jared Sterling and her sister-in-law.
“I know,” she said. “I’m just not sure how to take care of all of this now.”
I heard a distinct beep come from somewhere in the room.
“Was that your phone?” I asked her, picking up mine and seeing that I had no messages.
“I don’t have my phone,” Sarah said to me. “Denise swiped it and my computer when all this started.” She then bolted up in the bed.
“Where are my pants from last night?” she said to me as she hopped out of bed.
“Over there on the chair,” I said as I pointed to the chair in the corner of my room.
Sarah went over and reached into the pants pocket and pulled out a cell phone.
“Whose phone is that?” I asked her.
“It’s Jared’s,” she said to me as she looked at the phone. “He dropped it at the diner when he was fighting with Adam. One of the kids picked it up and gave it to me. It was what he was looking for when he came after me last night.”
Sarah sat down on the bed next to me and looked at the screen. She swiped up to access the phone, and it asked for the passcode to sign in. I could see her brain kick into high gear as she tried to think about how to get into the phone.
She typed in a simple 123456, and it allowed her to get in easily. Sarah smiled and laughed as she looked over at me.
“Jared’s not so smart, and pretty lazy,” she said as she scanned for where his messages were. Once Sarah found them, she showed the screen to me. There was a message to him from Denise:
Where the hell are you? I know something’s up & I need you to send out those pictures ASAP!!
Sarah started scanning back through the message history between Jared and Denise.
“I’m sure Denise has been much more discreet and makes sure to erase her messages,” Sarah said to me. “Jared, I guess, doesn’t care nearly as much. There are messages between the two of them on here going back for months, and pictures of Denise and of the two of them together.”
“Well, that’s all you should need to show to your brother,” I told her. “He can see the evidence for himself.”
Sarah started looking at other parts of Jared’s phone to see what else was on there.
“What are you looking for?” I asked her as she started pacing around the room as she looked at his phone.
“If Jared’s not smart enough to lock his phone or delete his messages, I’m betting he has access to the pictures of me on his phone somewhere.”
After a few seconds of flipping around from screen to screen, Sarah stopped pacing and looked up at me.
“He has them all on the cloud here on his phone,” she told me. “He must have put them there so he could access them fast if he wanted to. Based on the message Denise sent, she doesn’t have access to them. It’s just him.”
Sarah sat back down next to me, holding the phone.
“I could just delete them from the cloud right now, and they’ll be gone,” she said as she turned to look at me.
I could see her hand hovering over the screen. With just one push she could send them all to the trash.
“Sarah,” I said to her, taking her hand, “You may not want to do that. That’s evidence that the police can use against him, and against Denise. I know you don’t want anyone else to see them, and you worry about it, but deleting them will weaken your case against him. We have to give this to the police.”
“Caleb, these pictures have caused me nothing but grief for years now,” Sarah said, her voice trembling.
“I know,” I told her, putting my arm around her.
“I don’t know if I could deal with… with more people seeing them, with a court case where they are used as evidence for even more people to see. It’s too much.”
“Listen to me,” I said to her gently, “You are strong enough to do this. Think about all you have done just in the last twenty-four hours compared to how scared you were in the past. You’ve left that other person behind now, Sarah. You know those pictures are faked, and the old ones were taken illegally. You have nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about, and if people don’t want to believe you, then fuck them, who cares. And I’m here with you, no matter what. Do the right thing.”
Sarah stared at the phone for a minute, trying to decide what to do, before looking back at me. She placed the phone down on the nightstand and hugged me, holding me close to her.
“Before we bring it to the police,” she said to me, “We have something to do with it.”
“What do you want to do?” I asked her.
Sarah stood up from the bed.
“Get dressed,” she said to me as she walked over to the chair.
Sarah picked up her clothing and began to dress herself.
“We’re going back to my house,” she said with conviction.
32
Sarah
I didn’t want to waste any time on getting over to the house. Denise was more than likely there since I couldn’t believe she would try to contact Jared Sterling while she was in her office and risk someone seeing or asking about it. It was still early in the afternoon, but Lizzie was going to be home, and I wasn’t sure I wanted her to be there when all hell broke loose, because that was what more than likely was going to happen.
We got into Caleb’s Jeep to drive over to the house, but before we pulled away, I asked Caleb if I could borrow his phone. I knew it would only take us a few minutes to get to the house, but I wanted to try to get in touch with James and see if I could get him to come home sooner than he normally would so he could be there as well.
I called James’ cell phone, but it went to voicemail after just a few rings, so I left him a message.
“James,” I said to him, trying to have a controlled voice, “It’s Sarah. I don’t have my cell, but as soon as you get this can you come to the house or give me a call at this cell number? It’s Caleb’s phone, but we’ll know it’s you if you call. I’ll be at the house to meet you. Thanks.”
I p
assed the phone back to Caleb, and he nodded and smiled at me as he began the drive over. I clutched Jared’s cell phone in my hand like it was the most important thing in my life right now. My mind raced, trying to figure out the best way to confront Denise about all this and get her to see that this was all over.
As we got closer to the house, I took out Jared’s phone and looked at the messages again. I decided to see if I could give Denise a false sense of security and answered the last message she sent to Jared about sending out the pictures:
I’m on it.
I sent the message to Denise, and she sent back a message that was simply an evil grin emoji.
“What a bitch,” I said out loud as we pulled into the driveway.
“What?” Caleb said to me as he parked the car.
“Never mind,” I told him as I climbed out of the car and slammed the door shut. “You’ll see for yourself in a minute.”
I strode up the walkway and as we arrived at the front door, I grabbed Caleb’s hand and held it tightly, and then took a deep breath before opening the door. I marched down the hall, figuring Denise was either in the kitchen or sunning herself on the back porch. Sure enough, she was laying out on the porch in a lounge chair, wearing the gaudy floral bathing suit she bought before traveling to a conference in the Bahamas last year. In hindsight, maybe there was no conference at all, and she was with Jared.
I opened the door to the back porch and stepped out. Denise peered at me from over her sunglasses and then sat up in the lounge chair.
“Well look what the cat dragged in?” she said to me. “That was sly of you to try to get Lizzie to come to your aid last night, but as soon as I found out she was going there, I put a stop to it. So now, you are screwed. Get ready to have your pictures splashed all over the place.”
“What are you talking about?” I said to her calmly, clutching the cell phone in my shorts pocket.
“As we speak, Jared is sending out the pictures to everyone you know, and maybe to a lot of people you don’t. I’m sure those pictures will turn up in all sorts of places. You may as well start packing now to find a place to go. You’ll never be able to show your face around here again. In fact, pack anyway, I’m tired of having you in this house.”
Denise sat back in her chair and smugly sipped her iced tea.
“How do you know Jared is sending out the pictures?” I asked her.
“I sent him a message asking him to send them out, and he said he would,” she told me. “For a college girl, you’re not so bright. No wonder you’re only a waitress.”
I pulled the cell phone out of my pocket and looked at the screen and started reading aloud.
Where the hell are you? I know something’s up & I need you to send out those pictures ASAP!!
I’m on it.
Denise took her sunglasses off and tossed them on the table next to her.
“How did you know that?” she asked, now wondering what was going on. I saw her look over my shoulder and turned to see what she was looking at. I could see Caleb standing in the doorway to the porch.
“What’s he doing here?” Denise said, raising her voice. “How did you know about that message?”
“Jared stopped by the diner last night,” I said to her as I held the phone up to her. “He forgot to take his phone with him when he left. I don’t think he’ll be needing it for a while anyway. He’ll be in the hospital for a while before they take him to jail for assault, attempted rape, extortion, DWI, and probably a half-dozen other charges.”
Denise sat there staring at me, unsure whether to believe me or what she should do next. I decided to make the next move myself.
“Funny thing about Jared’s phone,” I said to her as I looked down at the screen. “He doesn’t seem to care too much about phone security, and he sure likes to save things – like messages and pictures.”
I held up the phone to Denise so she could see the picture displayed of her and Jared, barely dressed, together in a bed somewhere.
“You two certainly have some racy conversations,” I told her. “And some not very nice things to say about me, your daughter, and your husband.”
Denise stood up and tried to snatch the phone from my hand, but I pulled it away and put it in my pocket. Caleb came over to stand by me while I faced Denise now.
“What do you plan to do with that?” Denise said, suddenly sounding meeker than she had before.
“Well, I do have one thing in mind to do with it before I turn it over to the police,” I said to her.
“I’m sure we can work something out,” Denise said, now trying to bargain with me.
“There’s nothing to work out, Denise,” I said to her.
Just then, I heard James’ voice calling out from inside the house.
“Sarah? Are you here?”
Denise looked at me with terror in her eyes.
“Out here, James,” I yelled.
“What’s going on?” James said as he walked out onto the porch with us. He saw Caleb standing there, and Denise looking frantically back and forth between James and me.
“We’re getting everything out in the open,” I said to James.
“James,” Denise said in a panic, “Don’t listen to her. You know how she is when it comes to me.”
Denise tried to put her arm around James’ waist, but he took a step back to look at me. He saw me standing there with the cell phone in my hand.
“You found your phone?” James asked me.
“No, this isn’t my phone,” I said to him. “It belongs to Jared Sterling. He and Denise have been threatening and blackmailing me.”
“What?” James stated, looking confused. He looked at Denise, then back at me, unsure what to think. “Why… why would Denise do that? And how do you know Jared Sterling?” James said as he turned to Denise.
“They were doing it because they have been having an affair together,” I stated.
“James, it’s not true,” Denise said, trying to pull James towards her. James pulled his arm free again, and I handed him the phone, showing him all the messages and pictures that were on the phone.
“This… this goes back for months…” James said as he looked at the evidence before him. “Why would you do this… and say those things about my sister… and me… and our daughter?” James kept looking down at the phone and then back at Denise.
Denise was completely flustered at this point, not knowing what to do. She turned away from all of this, looking out over the backyard for a minute, before turning back to face us.
“Denise?” James said to her again, handing the phone back to me.
“I said all those things because it’s how I feel, James!” she shouted. “How long did you expect me to live like this? Stuck living the life married to a plumber with an ungrateful daughter and her,” she said pointing at me, “here in this house? Jared is younger, more attractive, and a lot richer than you will ever be and gave me a chance to get out of this. Did you really think I was happy with this? How blind are you? I’ve been sleeping with him for a long time, James, and you never had a clue. Everything would have been fine if this bitch and her boyfriend didn’t come along and fuck everything up…”
Denise let out a yell and lunged towards me. Caleb pulled me to the side and out of the way of her clutches, so she missed me and tumbled to the floor, landing flat on the wood porch. She turned over and scowled at me as she looked up at the three of us standing there.
“I think you should leave,” James said to Denise, staring down at her.
“Leave? Where am I supposed to go?” Denise answered.
“Anywhere but here,” James replied, turning away from her stare.
“I wouldn’t go too far, Denise,” I told her. “I am sure between whatever Jared is telling the police, and what they will see on this phone, they are going to want to talk to you.”
Denise brushed the hair from her face and boosted herself up off the porch floor. She marched over to her lounge chair, grabbing her pur
se and sliding into her sandals hurriedly, before brushing past me and giving me a glare as she walked into the house. We could hear the front door slam as she went out, presumably to get in her car and try to go somewhere.
“Should we have stopped her?” I said to Caleb.
“Let her go,” James said quietly.
“I am sure the police can track her down, wherever she goes or tries to run to,” Caleb said to me.
I walked over to James and put my hand on his shoulder.
