“You’re not useless nor worthless, Ari. And I hope you can still consider me a friend by the time this night is over,” Stella says quietly.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
There’s a storm coming. She can feel it. It’s dark and violent. Silent yet roaring at the same time. She isn’t sure how it’s possible to feel it. There’s only her and Stella here.
Nevertheless, she wants to take her shoes off and plant her feet to relax in this storm. Storms are familiar to her. She knows storms. She’s weathered enough of them to know that they eventually pass.
“Ari, I know you haven’t been with us long enough to see all the sides of me,” Stella says to her. “But there are things that I can do and will do to protect the people I love.”
“Understandable. Especially because of the Kings. I know you can handle their business.”
“It’s not just the trade part of the business that I can handle, Ari.”
“Wh—what do you mean?” she stutters out.
The atmosphere is getting darker. The storm is coming closer. It’s caressing her skin.
Adam, she thinks. Her inner being calls out to him, searching for him. As if his hands are brushing the skin of her arms and embracing her, telling her that she’ll be safe.
It doesn’t make sense. Maybe she’s finally lost it.
“Okay. I’m not much for beating around the bush sometimes,” Stella says.
Her slight change of attitude lightens things for a second.
“Ari, stepping into this business has put blood on my hands. Do you understand what I’m saying? Do you understand what that means?” Stella deadpans.
“You mean…you’ve killed people? But how? Why? You’re so sweet and…and so…nice. You’re such a good person.”
“As I said, there are sides of me that you haven’t seen. It’s not a side I’m particularly proud of. I don’t take it lightly even when I may put on an act. I know my ledger is in the red and no matter what I do, the scales will never tip for me.”
“But you do such good things. You help people. I’ve seen you. You love so much and you have so much goodness in you. You…you helped me when you didn’t even know me.”
“Thank you, Ari.” Stella pats a hand over her hand that sits on top of her other one. “Sometimes, it’s nice to hear that.”
Stella slides a phone on top of the table.
“Watch the video,” Stella tells her. “It’s the security video from the private room in Eden. It’s from that night.”
“What? How—”
“Don’t ask me how I got it. It doesn’t matter,” Stella cuts her off.
“Have you…watched it?”
“Yes. I didn’t know if I could do it but I’m glad that I did. Go ahead and watch it, Ari.”
Her fingers tremble when she picks the phone up. It takes her a couple of taps on the screen to get it to even play because she’s shaking so much. Her throat goes dry when it begins playing and she’s thankful that Stella is still holding onto her other hand.
She watches Isabella getting cozy with Adam on the leather seat. Even knowing how this video clip is going to end, her chest tightens at the pain the sight brings.
Derrick is sitting at a decent distance away but he’s tossed his suit jacket on the back of the couch.
There are no sounds to the video no matter how high she attempts to turn the volume up but she can see that there is a conversation going on amongst the three people in the room. At one point, Adam pushes Isabella off of him and then moves himself to the other end of the leather seat.
“Where’s Cristian?” she asks, thinking out loud. “If this is business, Cristian would be there.”
Stella doesn’t answer.
“No,” she gasps.
She watches Derrick settle his head on the back of the couch first, closing his eyes. Not ten minutes after, Adam was out as well.
Then the show really begins.
Isabella undressed them. Most of them.
Cristian and a cocktail waitress entered the room to help too but they were unsuccessful so another one of the bartenders that she recognizes stepped in to give them a hand in moving both men.
They moved each of the Kings onto the bed and the camera pans as if done on purpose to zoom in on the bed. The four conniving fools work at placing both Adam and Derrick before Cristian, the bartender, and the waitress leaves the room.
Bile rises in her throat.
Stella looks away at the scene of Isabella with one hand stroking Derrick while she’s leaned forward to take Adam’s flaccid cock into her mouth. Isabella works the men until their bodies react to her touch even in their unconscious state. She knows from experience that it’s physically possible.
“Oh God,”’ she whispers. “I-I think I’m going to be sick.”
But she’s unable to peel her eyes away from the screen even as Isabella straddles Adam and continues to stroke Derrick.
To credit, Derrick does somehow move out of her grip to sleep on his side. Isabella is truly enjoying every single second of it. The power…the control…of having a man…two men…completely at her disposal must be intoxicating for a power-hungry slut like Isabella.
“She…she raped him.” It sounds strange to say, even to her own ears. But it’s true. Both men are clearly unconscious.
She can’t get herself to watch any more so she forwards the video to the end where Isabella has half covered herself and with the help of Cristian, they pose the two unconscious men in various positions to look like they were willing participants while Cristian takes pictures.
Then, Isabella works at waking them up.
It’s clear that when they do awaken, they’ve seen the destruction it’s left behind.
She watches, eyes wide open when a man helps Adam walk off the frame. But she sees Isabella, still half-covered on the bed, flinch at the flashes that appear on screen. She can only assume what happened but it didn’t matter to her right now.
“Son of a bitch!” she says.
Anger rises within her like never before. Not just for herself and what’s happened between Adam but for Derrick and Stella too. This could have destroyed their love and their family. It nearly did.
“She never…she wasn’t with Derrick,” she blurts out, trying to lessen the pain for her friend. At least, Stella can have that.
“I’m going to kill your brother and sister, Ariana,” Stella deadpans.
Stella’s statement snaps her out of her thoughts like a bee sting. Her eyes shoot over to meet Stella’s hardened hazel gaze.
“My…my brother and sister?” she asks in confusion.
“Can you trust me on this?” Stella asks her. “I had Brooks dig and dig until I found out why Isabella hated you so much, Ari. I’ve been searching high and low. I made sure every stone was left unturned.”
“The debt,” she answers. “My mom owed them so much money.”
Stella shakes her head.
“No, Ariana. Think about it. Your mother was their housekeeper. She lived on the estate, in the house that you lived your entire life. She was never married and her salary was decent enough. She never had any needs that would have required her to borrow a large amount of money. Large enough that would require you to pay for it for the rest of your life.”