Betrayal: Kyle's Revenge (The Betrayal Series) (25 page)

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.”

“What is it?” Abby asked, furrowing her brow and sitting on a chair across from Brianna.

“Kyle was here today.”

Abby scoffed. “I can’t believe he had the nerve to show up here. Is that why you’re crying? What did he say or do to you? Did he hurt you?”

Brianna shook her head. “He’s not the reason I’m crying. Kyle didn’t do anything wrong. He actually came to apologize to me for not believing me about Miller and my father.”

Abby’s eyes widened. “Holy crap. He did? Did you accept his apology?”

Brianna nodded. “I did. I also forgave him for choking me at his apartment. I just got tired of carrying all that resentment around. Bitterness just eats you up inside, you know.” Her lips curled into a coy smile. “I learned that from a very pretty and very smart lady.”

Abby smiled back. “Well, I’m glad you decided to forgive him for all the horrible things he’s done to you. That was very big of you.”

Brianna bit her lip and played with her hands, hesitant to share with Abby the rest of the news. “That’s not all. We also want to be more involved in each other’s lives. Is that okay with you?”

“Absolutely,” Abby replied without hesitation. “I’ve forgiven him. Besides, he’s your brother, Brianna. Your only brother. We all deserve a second chance.”

Brianna’s face broke into a huge smile as relief washed over her. She rushed from behind her desk and knelt in front of Abby. She took Abby’s hands into hers and kissed them softly before raising her gaze to meet Abby’s bright hazel eyes. “I love you so much,” she whispered before craning her neck up to steal a kiss from Abby’s lips.

“Hey, what are you doing home so early?” Brianna asked after pulling away from the tender kiss.

Abby shrugged, brushing some loose strands of hair off Brianna’s face. “All of my meetings got cancelled. My boss gave me the rest of the day off so I could come home and work on my novel.”

“I can’t believe you haven’t even finished that novel and you already have a publishing deal. That’s amazing.”

“I know. I’m very lucky.”

“It’s not just luck, lady. You’re freaking talented. That’s why they signed you so fast. You’re going to be huge. I just know it. That Harry Potter lady better watch out.”

Abby let out an adorable giggle snort while heat crept to her cheeks. “You’re insane.”

“Am I? Mark my words: That novel is going to be insanely successful. I’m so proud of you, baby.”

Abby giggled. “Thanks. I’m proud of me too.”

After stealing another sweet kiss, Brianna shot to her feet and grabbed Abby’s hand. “Come with me,” she smiled, pulling Abby out of her chair.

“Where are we going?” Abby asked.

“Outside. It’s a beautiful day. We shouldn’t waste it being in here. Come on. Let’s go.”

Chapter XVI

Brianna dragged Abby through the various rooms and hallways of the spacious house until they reached a gliding glass door that led to the house’s garden. Once outside, Brianna let go of Abby’s hand, kicked off her flip flops, and stepped towards the middle of the lawn. With the cool summer breeze gently caressing her face and the freshly cut grass tickling her bare feet, Brianna closed her eyes and threw her head back, soaking up the mid-afternoon sun.

With her eyes still closed, she reflected on all the things that had happened to her over the previous eight years. She had shed a lot of tears but had also learned a lot of valuable lessons over that time. She was grateful for having a career she was happy with and for her small but loyal circle of friends. She was also thankful for the fact that after they had shunned her for so long, her brother and her mother were back in her life. It felt good to have a family again.

But the one person Brianna was most thankful for, was the woman she was sharing her life with. She opened her eyes and glanced over her shoulder. “Come on,” she mouthed, stretching her hand towards Abby who was still standing by the gliding door.

With a smile that shone brighter than the sun, Abby slid her feet out of her pumps, tossed them aside, and strolled to where Brianna was standing. She too had been reflecting on everything that had happened to her since the day she met Kyle Garrett more than four years earlier.

She remembered how in love she had been with him and how she had been certain she was going to marry him. Then she met the mysterious and fascinating Brianna Garrett and her world got turned upside down in a matter of days. She remembered the infamous kiss she shared with Brianna at Ryan’s party, the confusion she felt afterward, and the agonizing guilt that consumed her after she ended up in Brianna’s bed.

 The whole thing afterward with Kyle felt like a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from. Abby still regretted how that relationship ended. Her feelings towards Kyle were complicated, to say the least. She shared some of the best days of her life with him but also her very worst.

Having him back in her life after everything that happened was going to be weird, but Abby was determined to suck it up and just deal with it because Brianna needed and wanted her brother in her life. As someone who was currently being shunned by her own father, Abby understood, more than ever, the importance of having family who were caring and supportive in one’s life.

Like Brianna, Abby was grateful for the lessons learned and the things she had. She too had a job she enjoyed and was excited about finishing and releasing her first novel. Her father had practically disowned her, but she still had the unconditional love and support of her mother and brothers. She was thankful for the old friends that stood by her and for all the new ones she had made since moving to The City of Angels.

After being with Brianna for over a year, Abby still woke up every morning wondering if it was all a dream. If you had told her two years earlier that she was going to end up falling in love with another woman and moving to California with her, she would’ve thought you’d lost your mind. But there she was, living life to its fullest and loving every second of it.

When Abby made it to where Brianna was standing, Brianna pulled her into a warm embrace. “Thank you,” Brianna whispered against Abby’s ear.

“For what?” Abby asked.

Brianna broke the embrace, cradled Abby’s face with both hands, and stared deep into her hazel eyes. “For everything. Thank you for believing me about Miller and my father. Thank you for holding me and drying up my tears the night I told you everything. Thank you for loving me and not being afraid to do so.”

Brianna paused for a second to catch her breath. “Thank you for making me understand that you shouldn’t live your life holding grudges because they do nothing but eat you up inside. Thank you for loving me enough to leave your family and friends behind and move to this amazing, scary city with me. And thank you for making the past year the best of my life. I love you with all my heart, and I thank God every day that I have you in my life.”

Abby grinned. Her eyes had turned to glass from the tears she could no longer hold. “I want to thank you too. You saved my life. If you hadn’t convinced me to leave Kyle when you did, who knows what would’ve happened to me. When Kyle threatened to ruin your career by leaking that arrest record, you chose to put my safety and well-being above your reputation and livelihood. I will never forget that. And I won’t ever forget how you took care of me afterwards and kept me safe.”

 Abby paused to wipe tears from her cheeks. “The last year has also been the best of my life, and if I had to do it all over again, I would. Standing here with you in this house right now was worth going through all the crap I went through. I love you with all my heart, Brianna, and always will. I want to grow old with you. I want your face to be the first thing I see every day when I wake up and the last one I see when I go to bed. I want your arms cradling me when I’m sick or feeling down. You’re the one I want to tell all of my problems to because you will always listen. There are people out there who don’t understand what we have, who think our love is wrong. They will never accept or even tolerate our love, but I don’t care. I love you and will always love you no matter what anyone thinks.”

By now, copious amounts of tears were rushing down Abby’s and Brianna’s faces. They kissed tenderly while wiping each other cheeks with their hands. They embraced once more, listening to each other breathe and reveling in the warmth of the other’s body. They were both floating on air. They both felt as if time had stood still and nothing else existed or mattered.

After some time had passed, Abby broke the embrace. “Hey! You still haven’t told me why you were crying earlier.”  

“Don’t worry about it. They were tears of joy, not pain. When you knocked on my office door, I had just finished making a video and posting it on YouTube.”

Abby frowned. “A video? What type of video?”

“I’ll show it to you later. Right now, I just want to look at you, hold you in my arms, kiss you all over, and show you how much I love you.”

And every single day, for the next fifty-seven years, Brianna got the chance to do all of those things and then some.