A Twisted Alliance
1553 Words
GWENDOLYN
He was bluffing. He had to be.
I gripped the steering wheel of Audrey’s car so tight my knuckles turned white, pulling away from Camille’s perfect house so fast the tires squealed.
My pulse hadn’t stopped racing since I slammed the door of his study behind me.
He wouldn’t do that. No one was that cruel.
I whispered to myself over and over again, trying to calm my racing heart but the frozen image of my own face from that video was burned onto the back of my eyelids.
Casimir’s threat was so much bigger than just me. It would break my Mom and the fragile thread that held our already broken family together.
It would mean exposing Camille and that was the part I dreaded the most.
If everyone found out that the same sister who’d paraded herself as my grieving advocate six years ago, who’d built her public image on my misery, was the one behind the incident that almost destroyed my life… it would not just crush Mom, but drag our family name through the mud all over again, especially me.
And this time, there would be no coming back.
The press, the whispers, the pity… I’d spent years in therapy building a shell around that memory.
I couldn’t. I couldn’t relive that. Not after everything I went through to bury that part of my life.
Not after I’d learnt how to breathe again without falling apart.
A raw sound escaped from my throat and for the first time since Henry called off the wedding, I let myself cry. The sobs shook through me violently, blurring my vision of the road but I angrily swiped it away.
I slammed my palm against the steering wheel and bit back a curse.
The elevator ride up to my room was all a blur but the moment I stumbled into my hotel room, I collapsed on the sofa and tried to make sense of what I had heard.
“… she isn’t mine.”
Casimir’s word echoed in my head. I had been so shaken up by the video that I didn’t focus on that. I must have misheard him, that was the only explanation I had for the…
A sharp, impatient knock cut through the silence in the room.
Audrey!
I sighed in relief as I swiped at my tear-stained face with the back of my hand, sniffing hard as I made for the door.
Audrey was just the person I needed to see. The only friendly face that ever felt real to me.
“Thank God you’re—“ the words died in my throat the moment I pulled open the door.
It wasn’t Audrey.
Camille was standing right in front of me with her arms crossed, her sharp green eyes swept over me and her lips curled into a sneer,
“Did you have fun f*****g my husband?” She said, her voice weirdly soft.
The words landed like a blow.
I froze, my mouth opened like I was going to say something but the words never came out. My blood ran cold as my eyes widened in shock but she shoved me aside and stepped into the room.
“I-I… Camille I didn’t know he was—“
“Save your bullshit,” she snapped, turning on her heels to face me, “you think I would not know dirty things about a man like Casimir without having eyes on him?” She scoffed out loud,
“I know you were at Elysium last night, I watched the whole thing happen,” she took a step closer, her voice dripping with resentment, “you just couldn’t stand it, could you? You always have to take what’s mine. First in college, and now you want my husband.”
“Camille, I swear, I didn’t…”
“You’ve always been a pathetic liar!” She chuckled, a dark cruel sound that erupted from deep inside of her as she glared at me, “God! Henry was lucky to leave you.”
My entire body froze the moment she mentioned Henry. Like I had been poked at an open wound, I winced in pain while my fingers dug into my palms so hard I felt my pulse throb.
My heart was pounding but my face remained perfectly still, even though my vision was now blurry and my throat was hurting so bad.
Something clicked inside of me,
“You had something to do with Henry calling off the wedding?” I forced that question past my lips even though I already knew the answer.
She smirked, “he called me, was whining about your ‘issues’. I simply helped him see the truth. That he was too good for a damaged, frigid b***h who deserved everything that happened to her. I told him he’d be a laughing stock if he married you. I did him a favor because you’re nothing but a w***e!”
“You…” my lips were trembling but I remained perfectly still as tears began to spill down my face, “you told him to leave me?”
My throat was burning and I could barely contain it any longer,
“I told him to save himself. Just like I am telling you now. Get on a plane first thing tomorrow and get the f**k out of Ashborough. I never should have called you back so go back to your sad, miserable life because I am never going to let you take what’s mine .”
I just stood there, staring at her as the tears poured down my face. This woman who had spent her entire life taking from me, how could she do that to me?
How? How could we even be related?!
“You really can’t stand me having anything, can you?” I asked, softly.
“Please,” she scoffed, brushing past me towards the door, “you never had anything worth wanting.”
Just as her hand reached for the door knob, she paused and glanced back at me,
“Last chance Gwen, leave or else, I just might be forced to revisit that filthy past of yours and you know how it always ends. You run, and I take everything.”
She was threatening me, just like she had done six years ago.
At that moment, every ounce of self restraint I had left suddenly vanished.
I was done! I was done running!
For years, she’d painted me as the villain. The jealous sister. The stain on our family’s image and I let her. I took the high road for the sake of our Mom, for that tiny thread that still held us together after Dad left but how dare she mess with my future.
My marriage!
And now she dared to threaten me?
I didn’t think, my hand simply shot up to grab her shoulder just as she opened the door and before she could walk out, I yanked her back, forcing her to turn around in time for me to bring my palm down heavily on her face.
Her head snapped to the side as the sound of the slap cracked through the room.
My palm stung and my chest was heaving heavily.
Camille staggered backwards reeling from the force of the slap, her hand flew up to cover her reddening cheek with her eyes wide open in shock,
“You—“
“You think you’re the only one who knows how to take from people?” my voice was terrifyingly calm as I cut her off, “I’ll show you how it’s really done. I am going to take it all, Camille.”
“Your husband. Your daughter. Your entire goddamn life! And you had better get ready because that husband of yours will be waking up in my bed a month from now.”
She took a step back but I continued stepping closer, my eyes blazing with rage, remained fixed on her,
“Your own daughter will end up calling me mommy, you’ll f*****g watch it happen and by the time I am done, you’ll have nothing left.”
Her face went pale. She lunged at me, but I grabbed her arm mid-air and shoved her out the door. I didn’t even wait to hear what she had to say before I slammed the door shut in her face.
For a second, I stood there, chest heaving, eyes burning but when my eyes landed on my purse, I felt something twist and turn into something bitter inside of me.
I was going to make her pay.
Without a word, I grabbed my purse and fished out the card Casimir had shoved into my hands earlier in his study. His number was printed on it, clean and small.
Without hesitation, I dialed the number and he answered on the third ring,
“I’m in.” I whispered, my voice shockingly steady, “but we do this my way and when it’s over, you’re going to give me two things.”
“What things?” His voice was low yet he sounded like he was enjoying every second of this.
“Every copy of the video. And a signed, written and recorded statement of how my sister was involved, from whoever you got the video from.”
- Writer
