This Cruel Love

“Your brother’s just through there sorting out the coffees. Go in and say hi. He said you’ve been ignoring his calls lately.” Dad frowned at me, but didn’t push the issue.

“I’ve been busy.”

“Too busy for your family? I think you’ve chosen to put your eggs into the wrong basket, sis.” Travis emerged from a door to the left of us with two mugs of steaming coffee in his hand. He handed me one and passed the other to dad.

“There are no eggs and no baskets, Trav. Don’t be ridiculous.” I sipped my latte and steeled myself for the onslaught I felt stirring in the air.

“Okay. It’d make me feel better if you answered my calls though. I worry about you. Wouldn’t want anyone else to take my place as your number one guy… after Dad and Nate, that is.” They both laughed.

Little did they know that there was another man who came way above them all now. Well, maybe Travis knew, but from the way this conversation was going, he hadn’t said a word to Dad.

“You’ll always be a top priority to me. You all are.” I wasn’t taking his bait. I didn’t want to argue either, so I changed the conversation around to him. “How’s Cassie? Are the wedding plans coming along okay?”

I saw his Adam’s apple bob in his throat as he gulped, giving away the nerves he was trying to hide. “She’s bridezilla. I’ll be glad when it’s all over.”

He walked back into the kitchen area he’d just left, and Dad grimaced at me. This wedding of theirs was getting more and more elaborate by the day. I couldn’t quite believe Travis was going through with it; Cassie too for that matter. It was blindingly obvious that his heart wasn’t in it. He needed to grow a pair and be a man, tell her he didn’t want all the bells and whistles, or at least ask for a breather. After the whole Lilly debacle, I couldn’t see how either one of them could move on so quickly, as if it’d never happened. In all honesty, I don’t think my brother had moved past it. I think, if this Lilly agreed to take him back, he’d have been after her and leaving Cassie behind in a heartbeat.

“Come on, sweet pea. Let’s go and do some networking. Get that charitable cause of yours out to the fat cats in that boardroom. They have more money than they know what to do with. It won’t hurt them to throw some of it my daughter’s way.”

Dad put his arm around me and pulled me in for a fatherly hug. Travis strolled out of the kitchen a second later, sipping an espresso, and walked with us down to the boardroom at the end of the corridor.

“Might need to do the networking after the marketing video.” Dad looked at Travis like he’d just spoken Japanese.

“What marketing video?” He wrinkled his forehead in question.

“The video you had couriered over this morning from the Paris office. It was on a USB marked as urgent, with instructions that it be played at the beginning of the meeting this morning.”

“First I’ve heard of that,” Dad barked, looking extremely pissed off about being out of the loop in his own domain.

When the door opened, I froze, and the bottom of my stomach fell out as I heard a familiar voice.

‘I want to fuck you over my desk, make you scream my name as you come over and over again. I want to come all over you, inside you. Any way I can. I want it dirty, angel. Really fucking dirty.’

My heart stopped in my chest and I started gasping for air. Gripping the door frame with my quivering arms, I fought down the rising bile in my throat. This had to be a nightmare. It couldn’t be really happening, could it? I couldn’t bring myself to look in the direction of the huge screen on the wall, but I didn’t need to. I knew what’d be playing on there. A homemade video in Jackson’s office, his desk taking the starring role of course… oh, and me, getting fucked over it for everyone to see.

“Oh, God,” I managed to whimper, even though my mouth had gone dry with the shock. “Please make it stop. Please.”

The noises and grunts from the video seemed to amplify as each second counted painfully by. The members of the board sat stunned in their chairs. Some shuffled nervously, and others had their eyes glued to the screen. Some of these men and women had known me since I was a baby. I felt totally and utterly mortified. Violated.

“What the hell is this? Travis? Ryley? Jesus, Travis shut the damn thing down, NOW!” My usually mild-mannered dad bellowed out over the steamy, X-rated entertainment I had unwittingly provided.

What the hell was going on? Why had Jackson videoed us? And how the hell had it made its way into my dad’s office? His freaking shareholders meeting, no less. I’d never be able to come back from this. I felt the cracks of my life opening, breaking me with its cruelty.

Travis stumbled past me and started slamming things around in an attempt to shut off the power to the entertainment system, then he yanked out the USB and hung his head in shame. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t move. I felt rooted to the spot, but utterly horrified.

“Wait in my office,” Dad whispered, and when I didn’t respond, he raised his voice at me for the first time ever. “Ryley, go. Get out of here and wait in my fucking office.”

My dad never swore. Well, not that I’d ever remembered. It made me jump. My back instantly went rigid and my skin prickled in fear.

“I’m so sorry,” I mumbled, as I held in the tears I refused to let fall. What the hell had I done lately for karma to be such a bitch to me? Seriously? I had to have received my quota of shit luck by now.

I edged out of the room, stepping backwards as if I was scared to turn my back in case someone stabbed me in it. Who had done this? And why?

Please don’t let it be Jackson. I don’t think I could handle that level of betrayal after everything we’ve been through.

“I fucking told you.” Travis burst into Dad’s office after me, clutching the USB in front of him like it was a hand grenade, ready to explode at any minute. “You can’t trust him, Ryley. He’s been out to get this family for years. Now he’s done it again, only this time it’s you he’s fucked over, literally.”

I stormed over to where Travis stood. I wasn’t going to take this one lying down.