I wake up alone and sit up, instantly panicked. My heart is racing as I slip out of bed and check room after room, knowing that I won’t find Gray. I can feel it. It’s crazy, but I can feel if he isn’t home. I can feel when he’s near, and when he isn’t.
I glance at the clock in the living room, my stomach tightening in worry. It’s seven in the morning, so he must have slipped out during the night. Lately I often find Gray staring up at the ceiling by the time I wake up, but he’s always in bed with me.
This is a first, and it worries me. I walk back into our bedroom, looking for traces of him, any indication of when he might have left or where he might have gone.
I jump when my phone buzzes on my nightstand and reach for it frantically, hoping it’s Gray, but it’s not. Instead, a myriad of notifications from the Nemesis Platform pop up. I frown, confused by what could be causing this big of a commotion.
I scroll through, my heart stopping when I realize Ash uploaded a video and requested that the media team distribute it.
My hands are shaking as I press play, scared of what I’ll find. The video starts, and I instantly recognize George. Gray is sitting with his back to the camera, the two of them in an empty bar. George is clearly visible, but Grayson is mostly blurred. Not that it matters. I’d recognize him anywhere.
“There’s this girl,” Gray says, his voice slurred. “I think I love her, you know?”
I frown, a chill running down my spine. What’s going on here? Why is he with George… and who is he talking about?
George takes another big swig of what appears to be whiskey and nods, indicating for Gray to go on. It looks like the two of them have been drinking together for hours.
“I thought she loved me too, but she doesn’t. I’d have married her, man. Loved her with all my heart. Wanted to have fucking babies with her. But she? She was fucking around on me all along. She’d never let me spread those pretty legs of hers, but it turned out she spread them for everyone else.”
George laughs. “Women are vicious creatures, boy. They play games and think they’ll get away with it. It’s up to you to take what you want.”
Grayson tenses. It’s subtle, and I doubt anyone but me would even notice it. I sink down to my knees on the floor, clutching my phone tightly. Part of me instantly feels betrayed, but a more rational part of me can see what’s going on. He’s getting a confession out of George. How did he even track him down? How did he get him drunk? Is a confession even legally admissible if he is? I’m not sure it is, but I can see how this would sway the jury nonetheless, if Gray can get them to see it. If our media team can get this to go viral, then there’s no way George is getting away with what he did.
“I should have. If she was going to spread her legs for all my buddies, she should’ve let me fuck her. I’d have done her much better than any other man could.”
“Take her,” George says, slumping over. “She was yours first, wasn’t she?”
Gray nods. “We were dating. She made me believe she wanted me, that she’d marry me.”
George laughs and nods. “I knew a woman like that once,” he says, gulping down more whiskey. Gray refills his glass the second he empties it, but George doesn’t seem to realize what’s happening.
“Matter of fact, she recently popped back into my life. I think she missed me because she clearly wants my attention. Maybe she regrets leaving me after all, especially now I’m rich.”
Gray leans back and raises his arm. I can’t see his face, but it looks like he’s taking a sip of his drink. “What happened? She did to you what my girl did to me?”
George nods and laughs. “Yeah, but I aint no pussy. I wasn’t going to let her away with it.”
“I don’t want to let my girl get away with this bullshit, either. If nothing else, I just want a taste of her pussy, you know? If everyone else gets to have it, why don’t I?”
George claps Gray on the back, a wide smile on his face. “That’s it, my boy. That’s it.”
Gray shakes his head. “It’s not possible, though. She won’t even speak to me.”
George laughs and empties half his glass, quickly succumbing to the liquor. He’s already slurring his words more than he did at the start of the video, and it’s only been a few minutes.
“She doesn’t need to speak. She just needs to spread her legs.”
Gray runs a hand through his hair, frustrated, though likely not for the reasons George thinks. “How am I supposed to get her to do that when she won’t even speak to me?” he says, agitated.
George smiles, and even through my screen, it makes chills run down my spine. That glint in his eye… it’s pure evil. He glances around to check no one is listening, and then he leans in.
“In my time I used a liquid one of my buddies got me,” he says. “Put it in her drink, and in just a few minutes, and she’ll be putty in your arms.”
“I don’t know, man,” Grayson says, an edge to his tone that George misses entirely. “I’m not sure it’ll be the same if she’s just lying there.”
George shakes his head and drops his hand on Gray’s shoulder. “You’ll still enjoy it. Just knowing you still get to have what you’re owed will make it enjoyable. It’ll be even better when she eventually wakes up and starts to fight you. Just make sure you tie her up.”
I feel sick. This man… this man can’t be Grayson’s father. They can’t be related. I can’t believe he’s sitting there without an ounce of remorse, telling Grayson to rape someone.
“You talk a good talk, but have you ever actually done it?”
George grins, and that smile of his makes my stomach turn. He empties his whiskey glass, and Grayson refills him yet again.
“There was a girl… much like yours. She told me she was mine, that she’d marry me. They’re all the same, those whores.”
He lifts his glass to his lips, his expression betraying the bitterness he must still be feeling.
“So you speak from experience then? I thought you were all talk.”
George straightens. “I told you I aint no pussy. I met her at the place I took her on our first date, a vial in my pocket. She was done for within minutes. I took her home to the bed I expected to share with her and tied her to it. She looked beautiful, lying there.”
Gray chuckles, but it’s obviously forced. George doesn’t notice, though. The liquor and the memories have him distracted.
“What was it like?”
George smiles, his expression gleeful. “Oh, it was glorious. I stained my sheets with her virgin blood the way I always knew I would. In hindsight, I wish I’d waited for her to wake up before I did it. She cursed me, but she enjoyed it. She was so wet, her body telling me how much she wanted me even though her lips lied.”
Gray lifts his arm, taking another sip, I assume. “She cursed you, huh? Your girl got a name?”
George nods, grinning. “Ida. Oh, beautiful Ida. She cursed the hell out of me, but she wanted me. She tells me we conceived a baby that night, but it can’t be true. She wants my attention. I’ve kept an eye on her through the years. If we had a baby, I’d know. She’d have come for alimony years ago.”
He takes another big swig of his drink, and my stomach churns. A confession. That was a confession. Grayson just sat there and listened to his father explain how he raped his mother. He sat there, and he played along.
He’s ensured his mother justice by doing so, but at what cost?
