Chapter 2: The price of silence

Night comes fast.

I don’t settle into the room, I treat it like a hotel room. I keep my things in the suitcases, only laying out my laptop and toiletries. Dinner is sent up to my room, and when I’m done, one of the maids comes to collect the plate. Apparently, all I need to do is press a button, and she comes, I feel bad for not taking my plate down, but she insists, claiming Mrs Thorne would scold her.

I’m bidding Tanya goodbye at the door when Vaughn appears, shirtless and sweaty. Does he not have clothes? I try to retreat into the room, but then he calls out to me. “There’s my little sister,” he smirks.

In merely eight hours, Vaughn has learned how to make me tick, an achievement, but he shouldn’t wear it with pride.

“Goodnight,” I tell him, trying to cut the interaction short, but he doesn’t let me. He kicks my door open and leans on the doorframe.

“Can you keep a secret?” he asks.

I am trying to decide what my answer is when Maria, the maid from earlier, walks past my door. I catch a glimpse of her over his shoulder. She keeps her head low, tugging at her uniform, lingering on my shocked face. “That one is particularly good at keeping secrets. Can you, little stepsister?”

A bitter, irrational jealousy spikes in my chest. Of course. He’s probably used to getting his way, and the poor girl probably thinks she’s got a future shot. I know his type, I’m best friends with one back home.

“Not at all,” I lie, my voice barely a whisper. “You don’t have to worry about me telling your daddy anything, now step away from the door or get smacked with wood.”

He does.

No quick remarks or anything. I slam the door shut in his face and get back in bed. The bed is soft, almost as if lying on cotton candy, but that doesn’t help me fall asleep.

I’ve showered, pulled on my boyfriend’s shirt and I still can’t fall asleep. I’m too nervous, too angry, too irritated. My best friend stays on call with me for close to two hours, listening to me rant about Amelia and her asshole son who insists on taunting me by calling me his sister.

Hours later, I finish my fourth episode of Two Broke Girls but then I have to pull out my headphones to grab one of the fruits Tanya left me on Amelia’s orders. I hate that I haven’t changed yet, always wanting an apple when I’m too stressed to sleep. The second I pull out one earpod, low rhythmic groans of wood and the muffled, breathless sounds of a woman’s moans fill my ears. It’s clear, she’s not exactly trying to be quiet. I wonder if Maria is back. Or maybe someone else.

My phone vibrates with a call from Liam, my boyfriend of three years who is miles away but still close to my heart. I get under the covers and answer the call. Liam was very understanding of my moving. He knows I’ve wanted to attend Bradley Throne and he will try to get in on their sports scholarships next semester so we can be together again.

Talking with him takes the weight off my shoulders. “I don’t think I’ll sleep tonight, you know how I get in new environments. Plus some idiot is fucking someone.” I groan, trying to ignore the screams that come in intervals.

Liam nods, “So then can I keep you distracted? Maybe you’ll fall asleep.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“I’m not there to touch you, I won’t for a really long time but I miss you, Belle.”

“Liam,” I whine, already knowing what he’s about to say. I want to say no, it’s disrespectful to Marcus right? But Liam isn’t physically here and I fall right asleep when I’m relaxed. Touching myself does relax me.

“Come on,” Liam whispers. “I miss you, babe, I’ve waited so long to fuck you, let me enjoy the fantasy.”

I give in.

Marcus said feel at home, and his son is fucking someone too across the hall. I silence the phone and flip the camera so he’s staring at my thighs. I keep the camera away from actually showing him my pussy, leaving that bit to his imagination. Liam starts touching himself too, showing me how hard he is and whispering how much he needs me. I close my eyes and let my fingers slide over my body. Liam asks me to slide two fingers inside my pussy and I do. I slowly finger myself, and try to imagine Liam’s face but all I see is Vaughn.

I wonder if he’s about to come too, he must be good at fucking, Maria looked satisfied earlier and this new girl? She’s definitely enjoying herself.

“Fuck, Liam,” I whisper but that’s not who I’m thinking of. I grow wetter at the thought of him, my pussy clenching around my fingers in search of desperate release. I’m close, so close but then my eyes flutter open and that’s when I see him.

My door is wide open, light creeping in from the hall and Vaughn stands there with his arms crossed. I scramble for my phone and end the call, my eyes landing on the smiling creep at my door. He must have used a spare key. His face is unreadable, but his eyes, sharp and predatory, are fixed entirely on me, on my frantic exposed hand.

Shame washes over me and my throat closes up.

My stepbrother just caught me touching myself. On my first night in their house, with a fucking phone in my other hand.

“You always were a noisy neighbour, Belle,” he says, kicking the door shut and moving toward the bed.

His steps are slow, deliberate. “Ge-ge-get out,” I stutter, pulling the covers to my chin.

He doesn’t turn, he proceeds as if he heard nothing. “I could get out but then I would have to tell our mother you were just on a video call, pleasuring yourself.” He says with a smile, every bit mischievous even in the dimly illuminated room. “Do you think she’d like to hear that?”

Terror overrides every other instinct. “Don’t,” I blurt out. “Please don’t tell on me.”

He pauses at the foot of the bed and shrugs. “I won’t tell. But I have a condition. I want to see how you finish.”

“What?”

“If you don’t want me to tell mom what a dirty little slut you are, you’re going to have to make this worth my while.”

My head shakes before the words leave my mouth, “I can’t do that. I’ll do anything else.”

“I’m bored,” he says. “I was watching my friend fuck Maria but this? Watching you play with your cunt seems to be a better show. Prove me right, darling.”

Again, my head shakes. Vaughn stares blankly, “Or would you prefer you suck my cock? I’m not staying quiet for nothing. Mirabelle.” He says, not a single hint of humour in his voice. “Buy my silence.”

My body trembles. The second he says buy I think to offer him money but then it hits me, he has money, loads of it. He wants something more priceless—my humiliation. The thought of him watching me touch myself is almost exhilarating, it has my heart racing and I know it’s wrong. Amelia would have a heart attack if she found out I did this, and while I don’t care for her, the embarrassment in front of Marcus would kill me. He welcomed me into his home, pretence or not, and I just treated it like…

“I don’t have all night, Mirabelle.”

“I’m your—” I swallow, the word bitter on my tongue, but still I roll it out. “I’m your sister. You can’t watch me—”

His laughter cuts me short, “Oh come on, darling. You don’t believe that crap, and I don’t care. Drop the sheet and spread your legs, I happen to have a few notes that will hopefully make this worth both of our time.”