Broken Trust

Chapter 7

Rachel

The man escorting me to Scott's office is getting on my nerves, but I don't want to make a scene, at least not before I have Scott in front of me.

"Mr. Stone is waiting for you," his secretary waves me in, and I don't even stop to knock, I just barge right in.

"What are you doing with Camilla," Scott asks as soon as he sees me.

"Well, hello to you too. Don't worry, it's not a problem to take care of the wife you are neglecting," I fire back.

"She won't be my wife for much longer, and don't waste your time with her, have one of her lovers take care of her."

"I think you got it wrong, so I'm here to clear things up. What happened at Sharon's party is just a misunderstanding," I start.

"Don't even try it. You weren't there, I was. I know better than you what happened there. Don't try to cover for her, she doesn't deserve it."

"Look, it's not like that;" I try again.

"If you are here to talk about Camila, it will be better if you leave."

"Just listen to me!" I yell, taking the papers out of my purse and pushing them to him. "This is proof that she wasn't acting on her own free will. They ran some tests and she was drugged..." I start to explain, as he takes the papers and proceeds to shred them in front of me.

"So now you are telling me she is also a drug addict?" he sneers at me.

"That's not what I'm trying to say! She is a victim, she was drugged and probably raped..."

"No, she was really into it," Scott says, getting up and going to grab some scotch from the sidebar that all the pompous CEOs seem to have in their offices. "Believe me, it's an image I can't take out of my head," he adds, before gulping down the scotch and serving another glass.

"I found her in the hospital, and she wasn't looking that hot."

"Maybe an act. Look, this is not your business, and I don't want you to talk on her behalf any more. If you have any respect for our friendship, you won't talk to her or about her ever again. She won't be an issue for much longer anyway. My father already contacted our lawyers and they are already working on our divorce. She will regret agreeing to the pre-nup, since she won't get a cent of my fortune."

"Are you even hearing yourself speak right now? Camilla is not interested in your fortune, she literally gives away the money she earns herself."

"That's what she says, but do we even know? From what I hear she spends her time shopping and getting spa treatments, that's when she is not with one of her lovers. I was blind for a long time, but I see now, and when you do too, you will regret ever trying to lend her a hand."

The way he was speaking makes me doubt Camilla's version for a moment, but then I think back to the results he just tore apart, and what I found in the clinic she was being treated. For a moment I consider talking about her miscarriage, but then I think better of it, in his current state of mind he can even accuse her of having someone else's kid, and that would be a devastating blow to Camilla. She was acting strong, but it's clear she is not in a good state of mind, and I left her alone, something I shouldn't have.

"I really hope you won't come to regret this," I warn him. "I don't who poisoned you against your own wife, but it's clear you are not going to just accept what is going on. I feel bad for you," the throws the glass across the room. I never expected that from him, so I just stare at him, not knowing what to do or say.

"Get out of here! And don't come again,!" he yells, and I comply, feeling kind of scared by what is going on. I hate that I couldn't fix anything, and as I make my way down I think again about his words. He is already getting a divorce, and I can tell it won't be a simple thing, he is out for blood.

When I get to the lobby, I don't see Camilla anywhere, so I get outside to look for her, and I see her next to the car. She doesn't look good, she is just staring blankly at her phone, and I get worried again.

"What happened? Are you alright?" I ask.

"Can we go home. There's something I need to show you, but, not here," she blocks her phone and goes inside the car. We drive in silence until we are close to my apartment.

"I already took too much of your day, if you have things to do, we can leave our talk later.”

“No, it’s okay, I can tell that you have something on your mind. And I can work from home, not much going on right now,” the truth is that even if I go to the office right now, I won’t be able to concentrate, between Scott’s irrational behavior and Camilla's sudden depression.

It takes a while to get comfortable enough to talk, in the kitchen, with a cup of coffee each. She is still holding her cell phone in her hand, even as she struggled with her suitcase, something that I ended up helping her with, she didn’t let go of it.

“Sharon was there, she confronted me, and I confronted her. She wanted to make me look like I was the one in the wrong, you know? As if I had cheated on Scott, but, I’ve been thinking about the party a lot, and, well, she confirmed a few of my suspicions. Can you hear this and see if you hear the same I do?”

She puts the cell phone on the table and press play on a video. I don’t see anything, it looks like it’s recording the interior of a purse. I see glimpses of Sharon's face and what I guess is Camilla's arm, at least it looks like her bracelet on the corner of the video. What is really important is the audio. I hear the two of them fighting, but what Sharon is saying is what leaves me speechless. She doesn’t go out and say it with all the words, but the implications are condemning.

“I can’t believe it,” I say a few minutes after the video ends.

“You hear that, don’t you? She practically admits she did it. And from what I remember, I only drank what she gave me, it would have been easy for her to be the one to drugged me.”

“I knew that she liked Scott, but going this far? I just can’t believe she would do something like this,” this is awful, beyond what I could have imagined.

“I’ve been thinking, and I believe this is bigger than her. I don’t think she is alone in this. I mean, I don’t have an idea of how it looked for him, but for his first reaction to be that I was cheating on him, and from all the things he has said about me, I think he was already told that I was cheating, and what happened was like confirmation for him. I’m not saying I ever did that, but someone made him believe I had.”

“You think someone other than Sharon is behind this? But, who?”

“Another person that has the same goals as her? This will sound awful, but, I think it was William. He made me sign a pre-nup. The goal was that if we ever divorced, no matter the circumstances, I would leave without anything, but then we changed it and now, if one of us cheats the other, the cheater will give the other everything earned during the marriage.”

“Why would you agree to something like that?” it’s not the usual way we do things.

“Well, I never thought I would divorce, and I would never cheat, so no danger there, right? But if someone sets it up as if I cheated, they can take over my business. My business that’s worth millions of dollars.”

“Are you saying that William helped Sharon to set you up so he could take over your business?” I hate to admit, but it actually sounds like something he would do. He loves to take over small businesses, and he is not afraid to play a little dirty to get what he wants. But this is beyond dirty.

“Yeah, Sharon gets to keep Scott, William gets to keep my business. When I started it, he mocked me and my bleeding heart, he said it was a waste of time and money, and to be fair, the original app kind of is a money pit, but the rest? The ones that we use to pay for that one actually make us a lot of money. I don’t know if it’s because they know the earnings go to charity, but people usually prefer our apps even if there are other similar. But at the end of the day, we do earn a lot of money, that if we were pocketing instead of donating, would make us very rich.”

“This feels like a soap-opera,” I complain, but even if it kinds of does feels that way, I can’t deny it’s reality, at least for her. “If that’s what they want to do, then we can’t let them. There must be a way to keep them away from taking control of your assets.”

“I’ve been thinking of that, and I think I know a way to keep the company safe, and not only from them, but from any try to control it. But even so, what we need is to clear my name and make sure they don’t get away with this.”

“I agree, and I will help you. We need to start working on this.”

“Right. I’ll start trying to make sense of all of this. You should really go to work, I don’t want it to be affected by my problems.”

“Yeah, I have some things I have to do, but you will be my client from now on, so don’t worry about anything.”