Chapter Thirty-One Revenge Porn
They followed the main group to the Jack Roth Lounge, got their drinks, and found comfortable seating next to a window with chairs around a small table.A few people made small talk with them, introducing themselves to Bastian, Peter, and Benji after they said hello to Victor and Robert. Victor explained who they were and how they related to Eddie when they walked away. Most were members of Eddie’s friend group from university, but some were the husbands or boyfriends of Casey’s bridesmaids.
“Are you Bastian?” Bastian looked up in surprise as a tall man with red hair appeared on his left, looking around somewhat nervously.
“I am.”
“I need to talk to you.” He muttered, his eyes flickering around the group, and then he looked around the room again.
Bastian raised his eyebrows. His nervousness and the fact that he was trying to hide it and failing instantly put him on edge. “About what?”
“Look, just pretend you're happy to see me, Robert, and introduce me to everyone.” He looked at Robert almost desperately. “I don’t want anyone to question why I’m talking to you.”
“Greg!” Robert stood up and shook his hand, smiling broadly. “Good to see you! When did you get here?”
“Yesterday morning, I had to finish that project in DC.” He relaxed a little as Robert immediately followed his request and smiled back. “It’s good to see someone else I know here.”
“Yeah, I heard that one was a pain. Guys, this is Greg Bedford. We both work at BIG, but we are in different departments. Greg, this is Peter Johnson and Benji Harkins; their wives are Eleanor's cousins. This is Victor Shea, Eleanor and Eddie's father, and Bastian Avery, a family friend.” Greg shook hands with everyone as Robert introduced them. “Why don't you pull up a chair and join us for a drink?”
“Thank you. I'll take you up on that.” Greg grabbed a nearby chair and moved it over. Everyone shifted a little to make room for him, and he put his chair between Bastian and Robert. “No one react badly to what I'm about to say, I don’t want to draw attention to us.” He smiled and leaned back in the chair, his eyes sweeping around the room, making sure no one was paying attention to them. “My wife, Helena, is one of Casey's bridesmaids and is probably Casey's oldest friend. They go back to elementary school together. They aren't anywhere near as close as they used to be, but Helena does a lot for Casey out of some weird sense of loyalty that I really don’t understand.”
He paused as two of the groomsmen walked by. “Like I said, I got in yesterday, but Helena has been here all week. Helena and I have only been together for five years, and Casey has been a constant source of conflict between us. I don’t like her; she’s tried to sleep with me several times. I’ve told Helena about it each time, but the first time when Helena confronted Casey, she said she was testing my loyalty to Helena to make sure I was good enough for her. Helena believed her, and that was Casey’s excuse for every time after.” He shook his head, anger briefly crossing his features before he forced himself to smile again. “I’m telling you right now, they weren’t tests. She threw herself at me every time I had a few drinks in me, but Helena insists she wouldn’t do that to her.”
“I’ve been slowly and very carefully, with the help of our couple’s therapist, pointing out that Casey isn’t a good person. It’s taking time. Our therapist said she’s been conditioned to take and accept Casey’s abuse since they were children and compared it to a child’s dependence on an abusive parent, but we’ve made good progress, and Helena is getting much better at recognizing Casey’s crazy on her own.” Greg shifted and looked at them pleadingly. “I’m telling you all this because I don’t want you to think badly about my wife. She’s a good person with a beautiful heart who wants to think the best about people, and that made her susceptible to Casey’s manipulations.”
Bastian nodded sympathetically; he did pro bono work for a few domestic violence shelters in the city and had seen firsthand how hard it was for his clients who a spouse had abused to break free of the cycle of abuse, lies and love bombing. “It’s okay, I understand.” He assured Greg, who nodded gratefully as he relaxed.
“Anyway, Helena is part of two group chats with Casey; one is their friend group from high school and university, and the other is the bridesmaid group chat. I haven’t read them, but Helena was upset last night, and when I pressed her, she told me that Casey and Eddie were planning to do something to humiliate you and Mirabelle.” He held up his hand as Bastian's eyes flashed, and he opened his mouth to interrupt. “I know what happened with Casey and Eddie. I overheard Casey bragging months ago about fucking Eddie Shea and stealing him from the prostitute's daughter and asked Helena about it when she left. It was after I pointed out how messed up it was that Helena started to really question things Casey has done over the years.”
“She told me that Casey is broke. She and her ex-boyfriend spent two years partying all over the world, emptying her trust fund. When she went to her father for more money, she found out he had made several bad investments and was practically bankrupt. She knew Eddie had always had a thing for her, so she figured he was her best bet to keep the standard of living she was accustomed to.” He hesitated, looking like he was considering saying something and then shrugged. “It probably doesn’t matter anymore, but Eddie and Casey slept together the night before he got married. She went to his hotel room and offered him “one more fling before the ring.’”
Bastian closed his eyes, his hands gripping the arm of the chair he was in to keep himself from throwing Eddie through a window. “That prick.” He growled and felt someone clamp their hand on his shoulder. He looked over to see Robert, Benji and Peter watching him with mild panic and realized he was starting to stand up. He relaxed back into the seat, and Robert squeezed tightly and let him go. His eyes swept the room, and he was relieved to see no one was paying attention to them. He rolled his shoulders to release the tension and forced a pleasant smile back on his face.
“Well, that explains a lot,” Victor muttered as he sipped his scotch to hide his disgusted expression. “I’ve been wondering why they aren’t asking Casey’s family for money or using her trust fund.”
“Yeah, Helena told me Eddie has lost his temper with Casey a few times because she keeps asking him to ask you and your wife to pay for things. She cries and fakes pain to get him back in line.” Greg nodded, looking incredibly sorry he had to be the one to tell them all this.
“What upset her so much that you felt the need to come tell us all this?” Robert asked as he glanced at his watch, giving Greg a subtle reminder that the game was going to start soon.
“Right, sorry.” Greg looked momentarily flustered and paused to collect his thoughts. “Casey has been losing her shit about Mirabelle and Bastian being here. Helena thinks – and I agree with her – that she’s afraid that you and Mirabelle are planning to reveal the truth about everything and are toying with her and Eddie by coming a week early and reconnecting with Eddie’s family. She’s been trying to come up with something she can do to either embarrass or discredit you two.”
“I'd stay away from the strip club they're planning to go to after the game, Bastian, and if you do go, don't drink anything. Two of Casey's old cheerleader friends work there, and she's sent them your picture with instructions to film everything.”
“Strip clubs aren’t my thing. I wouldn't go regardless.” Bastian shook his head dismissively. He didn't have a problem with strippers in general, but the fact that Mirabelle’s mom was one gave him a complex about going to them himself. “What are they planning for Mira?”
“Nothing tonight, as far as I know, but Helena said that Casey was going through Eddie’s laptop last week looking for pictures of her and him together to make a slideshow for the reception. She found a folder full of pictures of Mirabelle that included nudes. They had a huge fight about it while she packed to move out, but Eddie managed to convince her that he had just forgotten to delete it and deleted it in front of her to prove it. Someone in the group chat reminded her of them and suggested that she use them to get back at Mirabelle, so she restored the folder from the recycle bin, sent herself the nudes, and apparently made another slideshow.”
Benji leaned forward, his eyes narrowed. “Do you know how she plans to show everyone the slideshow?” Greg shook his head ruefully.
“She never said, but she has it on a USB on her keychain. She was bragging about what she was planning to do to the wedding party.” Greg looked up as Eddie yelled over the crowd that the game was starting in twenty minutes and everyone needed to place their orders before they went to their seats.
“Do you think Helena can get me a picture of that USB?” Bastian asked quietly. He wasn’t sure what the revenge porn laws were in Michigan, but if Casey went through with her plan, he would do everything in his power to make sure that she answered for it, whether legally or privately.
“I'll ask her.” Greg nodded but didn’t look too happy about it. “I wouldn’t hold my breath, though.
Bastian pulled out his card and surreptitiously handed it to Greg. “Text the picture to the number on here.”
“Thank you for telling us this.” Victor smiled reassuringly at him. “It’s very much appreciated. Now, we can plan how best to handle everything, which is incredibly helpful. Do you know how much Eddie knows about this?”
“As far as Helena and I can tell, Eddie is very much in love with Casey and views everything around her with rose-coloured glasses, and to quote one of my favourite shows, “When you look at someone while wearing rose-coloured glasses, all the red flags look like flags.’” He stood up. “I'm gonna go order myself some food and another beer. It was nice to meet you; I wish it were under better circumstances.” Greg nodded and smiled sadly before walking off.
Bastian immediately pulled out his phone and looked up revenge porn laws in Michigan and was both relieved to see they were pretty much the same as they were in New York and disappointed to see the consequences were negligible, less than a hundred days in jail and a fine of five hundred dollars for a first offence and up to a year in jail and a thousand dollar fine for a second. He leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling as he thought. An idea hit him, and a slow smile crossed his lips. He looked back down to see the other three men watching him, their eyebrows raised.
“Bast? Can we know what you're planning?” Robert asked cautiously, looking around as people swarmed around them, lining up for the bar.
“I uploaded all the court documents regarding Mira's divorce to my online storage.” His grin grew wider. “I'm going to put together my own slideshow. But, first, I need to get my hands on the keychain and replace it with an identical one.” The others furrowed their brows in confusion, but they were going to have to wait for a further explanation; right now, he needed to bring Mirabelle up to speed on everything. “Excuse me for a second.” Bastian stood up and left the lounge, finding a quiet, out-of-the-way corner to call her from.
“Hey Bast, everything okay?” Mirabelle’s low, husky voice filled his ear and sent a small shiver up his spine. Since he stopped repressing his feelings for her, it felt like everything that had always been a mild turn-on for him had been ramped up to eleven.
“Hey, Love.” Bastian paused, wondering how to tell her. He didn't want to ruin her evening, but he also didn't want to keep her in the dark about it.
“Bast?”
“Yeah, sorry.” Bastian rubbed his jaw in agitation. “I just finished talking to the husband of one of Casey’s bridesmaids. I don’t have time to tell you everything, and I really don’t want to ruin your fun tonight, but Casey has a plan to humiliate you.”
“Humiliate me?” Mirabelle laughed. “How could she possibly humiliate me? I didn't do anything wrong.”
“Apparently, she found a folder of your nudes on Eddie's computer. She's made a slideshow that she plans to show everyone.” Mirabelle didn't respond, and Bastian became concerned. “Mira?”
“What nudes?” Mirabelle's voice was shaking slightly. “I didn't take any nudes. Bast, come on. I'm a lawyer who has spent the last ten years handling divorces. How often have we had to go after someone for revenge porn or for sharing the pictures with their friends without permission? If I had taken nudes for Eddie, I would have brought it up during the divorce to make sure they were deleted.”
Bastian felt a moment of relief, which was immediately followed by concern and confusion. If she hadn’t sent nudes to Eddie, how did he get them? “Do you have any idea how he would have nude pictures of you?”
“No?” He could hear how upset she was and was instantly remorseful that he had told her this over the phone. “Unless he took them without me noticing, but I honestly can’t see him doing that. He doesn’t even watch porn.”
“Are you sure about that?” Bastian had to ask; it had become very clear to him that Eddie was not who he pretended to be while he was with Mira.”
“Yes.” Her voice was very confident, which surprised him. “I suggested watching a soft-core one once while we were dating, thinking he’d be into it, and he almost broke up with me because of how disgusted he was about it. I had to explain that it was recommended in a magazine article to spice things up a little, and it wasn’t something I usually do to get him to calm down.”
“I see,” Bastian murmured; he understood her thought process but could also see Eddie not thinking that snapping a few pictures of his wife naked would count as porn. “Would he have accepted nudes from you if you sent them?”
“Yeah,” Her voice was a lot quieter now. “He asked for them once or twice while we were texting when he was away on his guy weekends, but never pushed when I’d tell him no, even when he was clearly drunk.”
Bastian decided to focus on the current issue. “I’ve looked into Michigan’s revenge porn laws, and they’re the same as New York’s but with way less harsh penalties, and it’s not a civil offence. I figured we could make our own slideshow with the evidence we collected and swap them. She has the slideshow on a USB that’s attached to her keychain; if we can somehow grab it and make the swap, we can turn the keychain into the front desk and say we found it…” He trailed off. His plan was weak, and he knew it, but it was only in the beginning stages. “But I’ll do whatever you want to do.”
“We need that USB,” Mirabelle said firmly. “Even if we don’t switch out the slideshows, I need to see what nudes she's talking about.”
Bastian smiled, relieved she was at least on the same page as him, even if she hadn’t reached the same paragraph yet. “If you get a chance, steal her keys, and we’ll go from there.”
“Okay, Bastian.” She sounded so angry and sad that Bastian felt terrible for giving her the news.
“I'm sorry, Bunny. Try not to let this ruin your night. We know about it now, which gives us an advantage over her. We'll handle it.” He did his best to make her feel better about things. “Are you okay?”
“It's fine, Bast. I'm angry and confused, but I'll be fine. You’re right; we have an advantage now. Thanks for telling me, and try to have a good time.”
“It's football, Mira. How much more fun could I possibly handle?” His sarcasm came through clearly, and she let out a small giggle. “Love you, Bunny.”
“Love you too.”