“It’s over, honey. It’s over,” Abby whispered, throwing her arms around Brianna’s neck. They held each other and cried silently while the news kept showing recorded footage of Brianna walking out of the courtroom the day she testified. In the footage, Brianna kept her head down and refused to answer any of the questions being shouted at her by the army of reporters who kept shoving microphones under her chin.
“You know what? I’ve given this man enough of my tears,” Brianna declared after a short while. She wiped her cheeks with the backs of her hands and drew a deep breath. “I’m done crying. I’m not going to waste any more of my time thinking about that man or what he did to me.” She grabbed the remote and turned the T.V. off. “Let’s do something fun tonight.”
“What do you have in mind?” Abby asked.
“I don’t know,” Brianna trailed off, narrowing her eyes while her gaze bounced around the room. “I know! Let’s go dancing! Let’s go salsa dancing!” she finally squealed. She immediately leaped to her feet to try out some dance moves. She grabbed Abby’s hands and tried to get Abby to stand up and dance with her.
Abby giggled at Brianna’s awkward dance moves and wouldn’t get off the couch. “But I can’t salsa dance!” she whined.
“And neither can I. Who cares? Come on!” Brianna kept tugging at Abby’s arms, and Abby reluctantly got off the couch. Their dancing was so bad, they kept laughing at each other and at themselves and having a blast. In between giggles and kisses, they continued to dance around their T.V. room to the music in their heads. They danced around that living room until they tired themselves out, and then went to the salsa club and danced until dawn broke. After that day, the name Miller was never mentioned again by either one of them.
Chapter XV
A week to the day after Miller had been found guilty of all the charges against him, Brianna found herself alone in the backyard of her house. Her housekeeper had the day off, and Abby was at work. Brianna was in the middle of reading a movie script her agent had sent her when her doorbell rang. She rushed through the various rooms of the house to get to the front door thinking it was a delivery man bringing her another script.
Her stomach dropped to her feet when she peeked through the peephole and saw who it was. She slowly stepped away from the door and brought her hand to her mouth to silence the gasp that almost gave her away to the visitor. Panic coursed through her and horrible memories from her past flashed in front of her eyes. She thought about telling him, the person standing on the other side of the door, to go away. She thought about calling the police. She thought about staying quiet and waiting for the person to go away.
With his hands in his pockets and looking anxious, Kyle waited for someone to answer the door. After a short while, he rang the bell again.
“I know you’re in there, Brianna,” Kyle shouted at the closed door. “Look, I know I’m supposed to stay away from you. You’re probably afraid of me, and I don’t blame you. But I need to talk to you. I swear I’m not here to hurt you. Please open the door, and let me talk to you.”
Kyle was right, Brianna was afraid of him. She could still feel his hand closing around her neck. She remembered blacking out, the feeling of not being able to breathe, her body growing weaker as life fled her body. But she also remembered the conversations she had been having with her mother who always spoke of how much Kyle had changed since his arrest. According to Mrs. Garrett, Kyle had learned to control his anger and seemed to be in a good place in his life.
In spite of her mother’s reassurances that Kyle was no longer the monster he used to be, Brianna was still not convinced he could be civil to her. She was still terrified of her little brother, but something inside her compelled her to turn the handle on that door and face the man she hadn’t seen in over a year.
“Hi,” Kyle breathed, barely audibly, after the door opened slightly and Brianna’s head peaked from behind it. “Can we talk?” he added.
Brianna stared at Kyle with an unreadable expression on her face. The last time she saw him, a bunch of paramedics and police officers were carrying him out of his apartment on a gurney. The man standing at her doorsteps looked older than twenty-two to Brianna somehow. Brianna figured the darker hair and the well-trimmed scruff he was sporting were perhaps responsible for the more mature appearance. “What are you doing here, Kyle?” Brianna hissed, her body still hidden behind the door.
“I saw you in the news. We need to talk. Please let me in. I promise I won’t hurt you.”
Brianna saw sincerity in Kyle’s gray eyes. She swung the door wide open and let him in. She made Kyle follow her to her patio where they sat across from each other on white wicker chairs. It was a beautiful late summer day in Los Angeles. The sun was shining bright and a soothing breeze tousled their hair.
The brightness and serenity of the gorgeous backyard helped diffuse some of the palpable tension between Kyle and Brianna. So much had happened between them. They had so much to say to each other, but neither one knew how to get started. So they stared at each other in silence and waited for the other one to say something first.
“Do you want something to drink?” Brianna finally asked, leaning back on her patio chair and crossing her arms over her chest.
“No. I’m good. Thanks,” Kyle replied, looking around the backyard and resting his elbows on the patio table. “Nice place you have here.”
“What do you want Kyle?” Brianna snapped, letting Kyle know she was not interested in small talk. “Why are you here?”
Kyle leaned back on his chair and inhaled sharply. He chuckled nervously. He had been practicing what he was going to say to his sister for days but was suddenly at a loss for words.
He cleared his throat and spoke from his heart. “First of all, I want to thank you for helping me stay out of prison. I deserved to be locked away for what I did to you and Abby, and you saved me. So, thank you for that.”
“I didn’t do it for you,” Brianna replied. “I did it for Abby. She has a heart of gold. In spite of how badly you treated her, she didn’t want to see you become someone’s prison girlfriend or worse. If it had been up to me, you’d be behind bars right now.”
“Still, I want to thank you. But that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because I want to apologize to you about the whole Miller thing. I’m sorry it took me so long to reach out to you. I was out of the country for most of the trial, and Mom never mentioned anything about it when I spoke to her on the phone. When I got back in the country, I stumbled on the trial coverage accidentally while flipping channels. I called Mom immediately, but she refused to talk about it and has been avoiding my calls ever since.”
Kyle continued. “I did some research and found out where you lived. I know I made a promise to stay away from you and Abby, but I had to see you and apologize to you face to face. I’m so very sorry for not believing you about Miller and our father. You must’ve felt so alone through all of that, and I wasn’t there for you. I turned on you. I treated you like garbage for so many years, and you didn’t deserve it. I’m so sorry.”
A lump formed in Brianna’s throat, and tears welled in her eyes as she listened to her little brother’s voice break. She thought she’d never live long enough to hear Kyle acknowledge she had been telling the truth all along. Not only was he acknowledging she was telling the truth, he was also apologizing to her for all the pain he caused her. Brianna was sure that if she looked up she’d see pigs flying over her head.
“It’s okay,” Brianna sniffed, her glassy eyes softening. “You were just a kid when all of that happened. You idolized Dad and respected Miller. You had no reason to believe they’d be capable of doing the things they did.”
“Still. I was so cruel and vicious to you for so long. You’re my sister, my own blood. I should’ve given you the benefit of the doubt at least. I’m so sorry. Did Mom know what was happening? Was she part of it?”
Brianna pursed her lips and nodded. A single tear dribbled down her cheek, and she wiped it
with the pad of her finger. She thought she was done talking about and crying over the darkest days of her life. She wondered if the tears were ever going to stop.
Kyle’s jaw tightened as he swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. “I can’t believe she let our father and Miller abuse you for so long and didn’t do anything about it. What type of mother does that? I’m so angry at her.”
“Don’t be. She was just afraid of Dad. You know he had a temper. When I came home to see him, just before he died, Mom told me she was sorry for what happened to me and wished she’d had the courage to stand up to our dad and stop the whole thing.”
“Fear does not excuse it. She should’ve been a mother and protected you. Whether or not she approves of your lifestyle, you are her daughter. Your well-being should have come first. What a selfish, horrible woman.”
“Don’t be angry at her. I’m not. Not anymore.”
Kyle’s expression softened with surprise. “So you’ve forgiven her?”
Brianna nodded. “I have.”
Kyle leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table again. “What about me? You think you will be able to forgive me one day?”
“Yes, I do. I’ve been thinking a lot about all the things that happened over the past year and realized I’m no innocent victim in all of this. I hurt you too. I stole your girlfriend. That’s a pretty shitty thing to do, especially to one’s own brother. You have every right to hate me for that.”
“Yes, it was a very shitty thing to do, and I was devastated about it, but it doesn’t justify my trying to kill you over it.”
Brianna uncrossed her arms and leaned forward. “I’m so sorry Kyle. I kissed Abby at that party because I wanted to piss you off. But somehow I ended up falling in love with her. I couldn’t help it.”
Kyle nodded. “I know. Sometimes, the heart wants what the heart wants.”
“Would you ever forgive me for that?” Brianna asked.
“I’ll forgive you if you forgive me.” Kyle replied.
Brianna’s lips curled into a half smile. “Deal. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life holding this grudge and with this guilt hanging over my head. I want to move on.”
“Me too.”
“You’re my brother, my only sibling. I don’t want to be estranged from you forever.”
“Me neither.” Kyle’s fingers crawled across the wicker table until they were resting on top of Brianna’s hand. He squeezed his sister hand while sniffing away tears.
A chill-the good kind-ran up and down Brianna’s spine. She felt as if the last dark cloud hanging over her head had cleared away. A nervous giggle escaped her lips. “So, what have you been up to this past year? How’s your fancy job up there in San Francisco?” She asked.
“Great. I love what I do, and the money is amazing. I really like living in San Francisco.”
Brianna beamed with genuine happiness. “I’m glad. Mom tells me you’re seeing someone right now.”
Kyle’s face lit up. “Yes. Her name’s Beatriz, and she’s from Brazil.”
“Mom tells me you’re thinking about moving to Brazil to be with her. She must be a pretty amazing girl to make you want to move to another country.”
“Yes, she’s pretty incredible. I’d introduce her to you, but I’m afraid you’d end up sleeping with her,” Kyle joked with a crooked smirk on his lips and his eyes shifting from side to side.
“Ouch,” Brianna whined, playfully grimacing and clutching her chest. “I guess I deserve that.”
They both pursed their lips and stared at each other until they couldn’t hold it anymore and burst out laughing. It wasn’t weird for them to be cracking inappropriate jokes about such a painful chapter in their lives. When Kyle was a prepubescent boy and Brianna was a moody, wise-cracking teenager, they used to roast each other with dark, inappropriate jokes all the time. Their dark sense of humor was one of the things that made them bond with each other when they were growing up in Montana. It felt good to both of them to go back to that after everything that had happened.
“How’s Abby doing?” Kyle asked, after he had stopped laughing.
“She’s doing great. She’s at work right now.”
“What does she do?”
“She’s an assistant editor by day and a writer by night. She’s working on her first novel right now.”
“She’s a really good writer. I bet that novel will be a hit.”
Brianna agreed.
Kyle and Brianna continued to catch up over ice cold lemonade while relaxing under one of Brianna’s mango trees. They reminisced about growing up in Montana and talked about all the things that happened to them while they were estranged from each other for more than eight years. Kyle wanted to talk about Miller some more, but Brianna refused. She was done with that subject matter for good.
“Well, I have to get going,” Kyle announced after they had run out of lemonade and things to say. “I have to get back to San Francisco tonight. I have a long drive ahead of me.”
Kyle was about to get off his chair when he remembered something. He reached inside the back pocket of his jeans and pulled a thin stack of folded papers. “I almost forgot… I also came to see you because I wanted to give you this.” Kyle unfolded the papers and handed them to Brianna.
“What is this?” Brianna asked, her eyes bouncing curiously from Kyle’s face to the wrinkled sheets of paper in her hands and back.
“That’s your arrest record from eight years ago,” Kyle replied. “That’s the original, and there are no other copies.”
Brianna’s eyes bugged out as she began to read all the lies contained in those papers. She had forgotten Kyle had them.
“I thought you should have it and do with it as you please,” Kyle added.
Brianna kept scanning the wrinkled pages in her hands, engrossed in them. The words on that arrest record stirred painful memories within her. She raised her gaze until she found her brother’s gray eyes. “I never forced myself on Holly, Kyle. Her parents lied to the police.”
“I know. I saw you two together. I knew that arrest was bullshit. I’ve always known that.”
Brianna mouthed a “Thank you” to her brother and put the papers down.
They both got off their chairs and did what they hadn’t done in a long time. They embraced each other. To Brianna, it felt good to hug her little brother again. There was no more fighting, no more grudges, no more deception, no more lies and no more guilt.
Kyle felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He was grateful to have his big sister back after eight painful years. He never allowed himself to admit it, but he missed her dearly. He was also thankful for the fact that after going to a dark place, he had been lucky enough to make it back before it was too late. For the first time in a long time, Kyle was happy and finally completely at peace with himself.
Before Kyle returned to San Francisco, he and Brianna exchanged numbers, wished each other luck with their lives, and promised to keep in touch.
After Kyle left, Brianna felt at peace, liberated, and for the first time in her life, blissfully happy. But there was one very important thing she needed to do before she could put her painful past behind her for good. With her phone in hand, she stepped back into her house and locked herself in her office. She needed absolute privacy to do the very personal and very difficult thing she was going to do.
Inside the office, Brianna sat on her leather chair, placed her phone on top of a small shelf on her desk and set the device to record video. Scrubbed-faced, dressed casually in a tank top and shorts, and with her hair tied behind her head in a bun, Brianna cleared her throat and began to record herself from the waist up. She looked small and vulnerable on the very intense but very short video recording, a far cry from the confident and glamorous movie star who appeared in magazines and walked red carpets.
She tried her best to keep it together throughout the whole recording, but by the time she hit “stop”, the tears were rushing down her
cheeks. After she was done recording, she got on her computer and transferred the video before logging into a YouTube account she had created.
She hesitated for a second before hitting “upload” because once she did, that very personal video was going to be out there for the whole world to see and judge. Sure, she could’ve taken the video down any time she wanted if the scrutiny got to be too much, but she understood how the internet worked. She knew that once that video got posted, it would remain in cyberspace forever.
But it was important and necessary for her to share with the entire world what was in her heart. She felt that recording could save lives. Whether she liked it or not, she was a famous, influential person, and people were interested in what she had to say. So she decided to use that influence for something positive. She felt a little scrutiny was a small price to pay if her video ended up helping just one person. So she took a deep breath and hit “upload” and then “publish.” While she waited for the video to hit cyberspace, a sudden knock on her office’s door made her jump out of her skin.
“Brianna? Are you there?” Abby asked from the other side of the locked office’s door.
“Yes, I’m in here,” Brianna yelled before getting on her feet to let Abby in. On her way to the door, she cleared her throat and frantically wiped her cheeks with the back of her hands. With her hand on the door handle, she paused for a second to pray that Abby wouldn’t notice she had been crying. It didn’t work.
“What’s wrong, honey?” Abby asked as she stepped inside Brianna’s office.
Brianna waved her hand in the air. “It’s nothing.”
“What do you mean nothing? You’ve been crying. What happened?”
Brianna went back to sit on her chair. She closed her laptop after noticing her video had finished publishing to YouTube. She then turned her attention to Abby who stared at her from the other side of the desk with a concerned look on her face. “Sit down, Abby. There’s something I need to tell you.”
Betrayal: Kyle's Revenge (The Betrayal Series) Page 19
