Chapter 8
EIGHT
NEO
Twenty-seven years old
Violence was never the answer. Killing someone felt like a cop-out when you could make their lives miserable in other ways. Money was power, and with money, you could ruin someone to the point they would kill themselves, making it all that much sweeter.
Obviously, I was wrong.
Tatum laughed.
“Come on, Neo, she’s lying. Besides, you don’t even like her.”
Lou seemed to hold her breath at his last words.
Before things could go any further, Wes barged into the terrace.
“Oh, you found her,” he said, sounding relieved. Behind him was Lou’s Asian friend, with whom she always seemed to hang out.
“Wes, take Lou and her friend home.”
Wesley didn’t ask questions. He gently took Lou by her arm and guided her away from the scene.
My anger returned as I watched her walk away with him—she should have been walking away with me .
Once they were out of view did I stepped toward Tatum.
His pupils were dilated. He was clearly on something, but that wasn’t any excuse for what he had just done. Taking another step, I fixed my sleeve, just so it would give me something to do, before I shoved the bastard’s face against the brick wall behind him.
“All fun and games?” I managed to ask, trying my best to keep the fury out of my voice.
He straightened up with a dopey grin on his face. “Your stepsister is a cunt, you know that.”
My gut clenched with shame. This was my fault. My actions had consequences. By acting like Lou was nothing to me, I made this idiot think she was fair fucking game.
It only took one second to make my next decision. I hated it. I hated how it made me feel weak and complicit, but at that moment, I knew shoving my fist through Tatum’s face would only give me a small reprieve.
Sun Tzu said it best. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. And Tatum had become an enemy, but I wanted him at my side as I stripped him of everything his parents gave him.
Unlike Wes and me, he was content with being handed what his parents worked so hard for without putting much effort on his part.
When my hand touched his shoulder, I squeezed harder than was considered friendly.
“Come on, bro, I think you’ve had a bit too much to drink,” I said.
Tatum smiled at me and made his way back inside, and the only reason why I didn’t have his blood on my hands was because I was about to be his confidant, and then I would be his ruin.
Only I was allowed to break Lourdes. How dare he try to ruin what I kept trying to remold?
I left the party shortly after fighting the urge to go and stay at the house. Nothing good would come of it. Through the years, I’d learned that it was better for Lou and me to keep our distance.
Her family had welcomed me with open arms, but I didn’t like the way Gerald used me to try and punish her. I had enough of that shit with my own siblings I didn’t want anyone else to carry that burden. It was an impossible crux to carry.
My mother was another story.
I loved her, hell, she was the only person who had ever been in my corner. I’m not saying I was blind to her faults, but Lou wasn’t anything to me, so how could I go against the woman who had given me everything for someone who was nothing to me? If anything, that fight fell on Richard, and contrary to what my mother thought, he wasn’t wrapped around her manicured finger, which worried me.
As for Lou, she could give it back as well as she got it. She had a fucking sharp mouth on her and wit for days. I’ll admit that sometimes I found myself provoking her because there was something fascinating about watching the way she lit up in anger.
Most people got flustered when they fought with someone, but not Lou. She came alive and had the cute habit of always wanting to have the last word no matter what.
The drive to my condo was agonizing when, with every intersection, I kept talking myself out of turning toward the house. It was probably the guilt that kept eating at me.
When I got to my place, I noticed the sage green box I had forgotten I had picked up earlier. When I saw Lou on Monday, I knew Richard and I were thinking along the same lines.
My mind wasn’t on our overseas branch's mess, not even on the upcoming deadlines. It was all about Lourdes and how I would make Tatum pay for what he did to her today.
Lourdes did not show up to the office on time. My anxiety got the best of me, and I kept reminding myself that after the night she had, it would be okay for her to call in sick. Then, another part of me wondered if she should be alone at this time. She had no family she was close to.
You’re not close with her, either.
Regardless, I owed her for last night. I felt like shit because Tatum walked away scot-free—at least for now. The board wouldn’t understand if she missed her first Friday at work, and I had every intention to cover for her. I’m sure between Richard and I we could make something work.
My morning consisted of one phone call after another, followed by a long list of emails that had to be answered before we closed for the day. Luckily, my meeting to report on Lourdes was right before lunch, and everyone had been so busy with end-of-the-week tasks and the crisis overseas that they didn’t care much about Lou.
We would have been fine if my mother hadn’t wanted to start some bullshit.
It's funny how, at this moment, I think of Lou and me as a team when it was usually my mother and me against the world. I had lunch with my mother in her office while she talked about some charity she wanted to donate money to so she could be considered for their board of directors later on.
After lunch with my mother, I went straight to the elevators because I needed to get back to my office, and it wasn’t because of all the shit I needed to get done. I was hoping Lou would have shown up at some point.
When I stepped into the elevator, I heard a set of heels coming right after me. I turned around to move to the side, but I was frozen when I saw Lou trying to get inside.
She was in all black today. A silk long-sleeved blouse tucked into a long flowy skirt, and on her feet were a pair of kitten heels. I would have said she looked fine if it wasn’t for how tired her eyes looked.
For the first time, I was at a loss for words out of fear that I would cause her more pain, which was weird because hurting each other was what we did best. The sage green package was on my desk, and now that she was here, I didn’t even know how to approach the subject.
The door closed, and it was just the two of us.
Even when we were two strangers in our high school hallway, the tension never felt this high.
“Are you okay?”
I cringed as soon as I asked that. Of course she wasn’t okay. “Fuck, that sounded stupid.” I ran a hand through my hair. “You shouldn’t have come today.”
My voice came out harsh, and I shut up before I fucked it up even more.
“I’m okay,” she said in a soft-spoken voice she had never used with me before.
When I craned my neck to look at her, I noticed her standing right next to me instead of going to the other side of the elevator.
“Um…” She licked her lips. “Is… Are…”
“He’s going to pay,” I blurted.
Her eyes widen in surprise.
“You believe me?”
Fuck, did she think I wouldn’t?
I turned to face her.
“Fuck, Lou, of course I believe you.”
“Tatum is…”
“He’s going to be ruined,” I vowed. “Are you going to press charges?”
She let out a bitter laugh.
“No one saw anything, and it will just be he said, she said, and I’m the one who will look bad. As a woman, I don’t have the luxury to have a sexual scandal follow me around if I want people to take me seriously.”
All I could do was bite my tongue because she was right, and the system was so fucked up that she would just be another casualty in the patriarchy.
“Lou, leave it to me. I’ll make him pay.”
Her breath hitched, and I took a step closer to her, and she took one back.
“He’s your friend.”
Another step forward and another one back.
“He hurt you.”
“You hate me.”
My jaw clenched at her words thrown so callously. Just as I took another step, the elevator came to a halt. Lou screeched as the lights turned on and off, before ultimately turning off.
“The emergency light should go on any minute now,” I told her, as we were wrapped in a mantle of darkness.
A few seconds ticked by, and no light came on. It was just the two of us trapped inside in the dark, which was dangerous.
In the dark, I could admit to things I would never say in the light.
Trapped in here with her, with all our sins hidden, I could finally say that I wanted Lourdes. I’d wanted her for a long fucking time, but I could never do anything about it.
First, she was too young.
Second, my mother married her father.
And third, I had a point to prove to my blood family, and she would end up being collateral damage.
Wanting Lourdes Riviere wasn’t just wrong. It was destruction for both of us.