Third Person
Faraway in the Lone Star State, Leon was preparing to give Annika her mandatory refresher in s*x education after dousing gasoline over the sparks felt between them, creating conditions ripe for a blazing inferno that threatened to consume everything in its path. Like the phoenix that rises from the ashes and flowers that bloom after a wildfire, their budding relationship formed through adversity and would soon bear fruit worthy of paradise. Meanwhile, on the polar opposite end of the spectrum and halfway across the country, two other individuals were too distracted by the legal implications of their affair to realize their fates had already been sealed by karma. Soon, the pair of cheaters would have no choice but to accept the harsh reality that awaited them after stubbornly refusing for so long.
In a stroke of sheer dumb luck, Jeffrey and Sadie had managed to post their separate one-million-dollar bails. They were individually placed on house arrest, with Jeffrey returning to his hotel room while Sadie was escorted home. Since it went over his head after being told her actual last name, Jeffrey was still living on a prayer and hoping to quietly devise a game plan to fight his way through court while also winning back Annika in the process. Unfortunately for Jeffrey, his plans were foiled by the presence of his younger brother, Joey, waiting for him at his makeshift home.
“What are you doing here?” Jeffrey asked, making it abundantly clear he was annoyed by Joey’s presence.
“Do you realize how much s**t you’re actually in?” His brother asked in return.
“Let me see. My wife left me. I lost my job and my reputation. The city is suing me. My ex-girlfriend is pregnant with a baby I don’t even want. I’m out a million dollars, and I’m on house arrest for the next month. I think I have an idea.” Jeffrey was in no mood to discuss this and laid on the sarcasm thick.
“That’s not what I’m talking about, Jeff! More like who you’ve pissed off and offended!?”
“You mean Annika and Leon Von Doren? Annika is nothing; I can and will easily win her affection back. Plus, the odds are in my favor since I’ve beaten Leon once before.” Jeffrey strode past his brother and into his hotel room, forcing Joey to push his way through the door so he could knock some sense into his older brother.
“Annika isn’t who you think she is!” Joey shouted as he slammed the door.
“What are you talking about?” Jeffrey demanded as he extracted his multi-day-old clothes and headed to the bathroom for a much-needed shower.
“Annika has been lying to all of us about her identity. Her maiden name isn’t Hiller like she led us all to believe.”
“I heard. What does it matter?” Jeffrey was becoming more and more irritated with Joey’s persistent nagging.
“Do you know what her maiden name actually is?”
“That dickhead detective said it was Stanford or Stanton or something like that.”
“It’s Silverton.”
“Yeah, that. How do you know?”
“She told us. That’s how.”
“You all went to see her!? After I explicitly told you not to?!”
“It was mom’s idea. Okay? But had we not gone there, we wouldn’t have met Annika’s family.”
“Family? You mean her aunt and grandmother?” Jeffrey rolled his eyes as if this information was completely irrelevant.
“No. Her actual family. Her parents, two brothers, and brother-in-law.” Joey crossed his arms in defiance while waiting for the lightbulb to go off in his big brother’s head, and when it happened, Jeffrey’s movements ceased entirely before he slowly turned to face Joey.
“What?”
“Now, do I have your attention, Bro?” Joey sneered and leaned on the door frame of the bathroom. “Annika has been lying since day one. Her parents are most definitely in the picture, and her older siblings are very much a part of her life.”
“Annika is an only child …”
“No, she’s not. Her own family admitted they all lied about their existence for her sake. Annika is a lying son-of-bitch. She played you from day one, Jeff.”
“You said, brothers, as in plural?” Jeffrey questioned, convinced he had misheard Joey as his eyebrows furrowed and deep lines formed across his forehead.
“Yeah. And a brother-in-law, which means she also has a sister. From my understanding of the family dynamics, Annika is the youngest of all the siblings. Her oldest brother is some rich a*s CEO, her other brother looks to be a mercenary of some kind, and her sister, I’m not sure. But her brother-in-law is one of their family attorneys.”
“What do you mean by ‘one’ of their attorneys?”
“Oh, did I forget to mention? Annika’s family came here, guns blazing, with almost a dozen lawyers. They literally have an army of lawyers. And their plan is to completely ruin you,” Joey taunted his older brother. The younger Hollands brother couldn’t even begin to fathom what his older brother was thinking when he decided to step out on his marriage. Though Joey wasn’t Annika’s biggest fan from the start, there was no denying that she had treated him and his family with nothing but kindness. Joey admitted that he was just a punk kid when Annika married into the family, and he didn’t appreciate a woman taking his older brother away from him. But now that he was older and an adult himself, he knew that Annika was a good wife to Jeffrey. It had been all too easy for Joey to determine that Sadie was a good-for-nothing gold digger, so what on Earth had possessed Jeffrey to choose her over Annika?
“Ruin … She wants to ruin me?” Jeffrey asked incredulously. “No … no, I don’t believe that. Annika loves me. We’ve been in love since we were 14. She wouldn’t do this to me. Not over something as trivial as an affair.”
“TRIVIAL!?” Joey exclaimed in disbelief. “You think cheating on your wife of seven years for over a year and getting said mistress pregnant is trivial!? Are you f*****g serious right now, Bro!?” Just as Jeffrey was about to spout some half-assed response, there was a knock on his hotel door. They both looked towards the door and then at each other. “Are you expecting someone?” Joey asked.
“No.” Jeffrey was only shirtless at that moment, so he went to the door to answer it and was surprised to see the woman standing in front of him. “Piper? What are you doing here?” Instead of answering him, Piper squeezed past Jeffrey and took a seat on the couch in the living area of his hotel room.
“Nice digs,” she commented, looking around as she spread her arms across the back of the couch and crossed her legs.
“Piper, what the hell do you want?” Joey chimed in as well.
“I thought I would let you know that b***h’s second oldest brother has been tailing me. I don’t think he realizes that I made him. But not only that, some other dude was tailing me too. Looked like a P.I.”
“Why would they be tailing you?” Jeffrey argued.
“Well, I might have said a small threat to Annika when we left her place the other day,” Piper shrugged, maintaining her relaxed demeanor.
“YOU THREATENED MY WIFE!?” Jeffrey roared at her.
“The last I checked, little cousin, she’s not your wife anymore. She handed you divorce papers, didn’t she?” Piper scrutinized him. “Besides, she’s completely over you now, so your best bet is to move on and figure out a way out of the grave you jumped into.”
“What do you mean she’s completely over me!?”
“You don’t know?” Piper questioned as she peered up at Jeffrey, who was standing over her and suddenly looking like some lost puppy. “Oh, wow. You really don’t, huh? Well, I hate to be the one to trample on your fantasies of winning her back, dear cousin, but she’s currently on a private jet, heading to God knows where, with some other guy.”
“Wh … Other guy? What other guy!?” Rather than give a verbal explanation, Piper fished out her phone and appeared to be rummaging through her files. She came upon what she needed and showed Jeffrey the picture of said guy that Annika was with. When Jeffrey saw Annika in the embrace of Leon Von Doren, looking bright-eyed and smiling from ear to ear while holding each other, his blood began to boil as his heart simultaneously began to fracture into a million pieces. “Where is this?”
“JFK, about three hours ago. Not sure where they’re going since I can’t obtain specific information on private jets and their routes. But they did look extra cozy,” she said in an antagonizing tone.
“And you saw her get on the jet with him?” Jeffrey glared at her with a fiery rage.
“Yup,” Piper answered while popping out the sound of the P.
“I’m here on house arrest, trying to salvage my marriage with her, and she’s on vacation with LEON VON DOREN!?” Jeffrey screamed his enemy’s name and launched Piper’s phone at the wall, shattering it into pieces.
“I seriously hope you have the money to replace that, you little brat,” she scowled at him.
“Bro, you have to let her go. She’s over you. She hates you. Don’t you get it?!” Joey shouted at him and threw his arms in the air in frustration. “You ruined your own marriage by cheating. You didn’t just have a fling, man! You straight up had a whole other relationship outside of your marriage. Regardless of if you broke up with the tramp, Annika was already well aware of your infidelity. From what everyone has been saying, she was planning your demise for months. Not only did you cheat on her, but your ex-girlfriend made plans to try and have her killed. What makes you think Annika would forgive you, even in the slightest!?”
“SHE’S STILL MY WIFE!”
“No, she’s not,” Piper interjected. “Auntie Ruth said that you guys are legally separated right now.”
“I haven’t signed the divorce papers!”
“Yeah, that doesn’t matter. She no longer considers you her husband. And before you get all lawyerly on us about how she’s cheating on you and s**t, being legally separated means that she has every right to f**k whoever she wants. Besides, given how happy they looked in that photo I took, it sure as hell didn’t appear to be a fling or some easy f**k.” Piper paused a moment, and then peered up at him through her eyelashes with a sadistic smirk before dropping the biggest bombshell. “They’re in love.” Jeffrey froze at that statement. His heart started to beat rapidly until he felt it completely disintegrating. Jeffrey’s world went dark as he wondered to himself, “Annika is in love with Leon?”
As Jeffrey was bombarded with unsettling news, one after another, Sadie arrived home, but to her dismay, no one was there. Her eyes went round, and she could only look at her lawyer when she realized her house was empty, the sort of empty that occurs when a home has been completely gutted.
“What in the world?” Sadie gasped upon the realization that the furnishing, all of the decor, and even the family heirloom grandfather clock that her mother inherited from her grandmother were missing. “MOM! DAD!” Sadie called out, but there was no answer. “What the hell is going on here!?” Sadie interrogated her attorney.
“I didn’t have a chance to tell you, but in order for your family to cover the one-million-dollar bail, your parents had to sell all of their assets.”
“WHAT!? What do you mean by that!? My family has millions in the bank!”
“No, we don’t.” Sadie turned around to see her father hobbling out with a cane in his hand.
“Daddy? What … What happened to you?” she cried out, her voice full of genuine concern for once.
“What do you think happened to me, you stupid girl!?” Mr. Galloway boomed, striking the floor with his cane in anger. “Because of you and your idiocy, my company went bankrupt within 48 hours! I lost everything! The board of directors fired me! They robbed me of my assets to pay off the stockholders! Investors pulled out from their contracts left and right!” he huffed and puffed while trying to catch his breath and calm his rising blood pressure. “All of this stress has taken a toll on my body!”
“No … This … this can’t be happening! Are you telling me that we’re broke!?” Sadie wailed in dismay.
“YES! WE’RE FLAT BROKE! ALL BECAUSE OF YOU AND THAT STUPID D.A.!”
“NO! NO! NO! NO! This can’t … NO!!!” Sadie squawked like a parrot. Sadie threw a fit and started to scream while stomping her feet, and she looked exactly like Yosemite Sam after missing his elusive target, Bugs Bunny.
“Mr. Galloway, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but …” the attorney began to say, choosing his words carefully.
“Just spit it out!” Mr. Galloway snapped. “There isn’t much you can tell me that would make my life any more miserable than it already is!” he grumbled. If only he knew what their family attorney was about to unveil to him.
“This is the countersuit that Mr. Von Doren is filing against you and Sadie,” the attorney responded and handed the appeal file to Mr. Galloway. When he opened the file and saw the amount that Leon was countersuing for, the veins in his forehead started bulging out, and without thinking of his next move, he slapped Sadie across the face with the file so hard that she fell to the floor.
“Daddy!?” Sadie held her cheek as she gaped up at him.
“Are you happy now, you worthless w***e!?” her father shouted at her, almost foaming at the mouth. “You just had to lie in court! You just had to defraud Leon!”
“It was your idea to get rid of the evidence!” Sadie countered as she stood to her feet.
“I NEVER TOLD YOU TO CREATE FALSE ONES AGAINST HIM AND DEFRAUD HIM OUT OF MILLIONS! WHERE AM I GOING TO GET THIS KIND OF MONEY!? Even if I didn’t have to sell everything in our name, I still wouldn’t have enough to pay back what he’s suing for!” Mr. Galloway swayed suddenly, and their attorney quickly held him steady.
“Sir, perhaps you should sit down. You’re still recovering from your episode a few days ago.” The attorney spoke softly and helped Mr. Galloway to their staircase since there was nowhere else to sit in the living room. As her father was catching his breath and the attorney’s attention was solely on him, Sadie dashed out of the house and quickly made a phone call. After it rang several times, someone finally answered.
“What do you want?” the voice on the other end spoke with venom.
“Why are you being such an a*s!?” Sadie shouted.
“I have nothing to do with you! You’ve ruined my life! I never should have slept with you! I never should have fallen for your honey trap!”
“HONEY TRAP!? I did not trap you in way, shape, or form, Jeffrey Hollands! You wanted me! You pursued me! Or did you forget that you used to sneak me into your penthouse when your wife was out working late!? And don’t you dare say that you have nothing to do with me! I’m carrying your baby!”
“And I told you I want nothing to do with that … thing! Get rid of it! Don’t even think about trying to trap me with your pregnancy! How do I even know it’s mine? With how you easily open your legs for men, I wouldn’t be surprised if that baby was someone else’s!”
“HOW DARE YOU!?!” Sadie screamed at the top of her lungs.
“HOW DARE YOU!” Jeffrey screamed back. “You tried to have my wife killed behind my back! Who the f**k do you think you are, you stupid treacherous b***h!”
“JEFFREY HOLLANDS!!!”
“Let’s get one thing straight, Sadie Galloway … You and I are done. I want nothing to do with you or that thing in your stomach. You can die and go to hell for all I f*****g care. I’m not leaving my wife. Even if Annika decides she doesn’t want to be with me anymore, that by no means indicates that I’m getting back together with you. What do you have to offer me now that you’re broke as f**k? Hm? p***y? A blowjob? A*s? Been there, done that. Don’t want it anymore.”
“You better get one thing straight, Jeffrey. If you think that even for one second that I’m anything like your wife and that you can just toss me aside like some plaything, you have another thing coming to you. Me trying to have Annika killed should be an indicator of just how selfish and determined I can be to get what I want. You want to leave me? Sure, you can go ahead and try. But remember this, Jeffrey … If I can’t have you, then no one can.”
