"Your curiosity knows no bounds," Theodore stated after I told him I read Ian's text message on his phone.
"I wanted to know what was bothering my husband, plus I was curious about your relation with Ian," I justified, crossing my arms across my chest.
"I don't have a relation with Ian," Theodore responded as if the mere idea of him being related to Ian was abhorrent.
"Tell me what's going on, Theo," I demanded, my tone firm.
"You should sleep, it's getting late, we'll talk in the morning," Theodore said and hurriedly stood up and all but ran inside the bedroom. But I wouldn't let him shut me out. I would get to the bottom of this even if it takes all night. That man was going to talk and he was going to talk now.
I stormed after Theodore to our bedroom and locked the door after I slammed it shut. Theodore wasn't going anywhere. The sound of water running meant Theodore was currently busy, which was fine by me. He could take his time all he wanted, but eventually he would have to come out.
Flopping on the bed I sat lotus style waiting for Theodore to emerge, my eyes glued to the bathroom door. Whatever happens Theodore was going to tell me everything.
Maybe I should tie him up…just in case he tried to run…
The door opened and Theodore sighed as soon as he saw me sitting on the bed with a determined look on my face. His shoulders visibly slumped as soon as he figured out that I wasn't going to let the matter drop.
"You're not going to let this go, are you?" He asked rhetorically.
"Nope," I popped the p out for emphasis.
Theodore sighed, letting me know he did not want to divulge the details of Ian and his relation, but I was't going to give in, he was going to have to tell me everything.
"Come here then, I want you in my arms when I tell you this," Theodore said as soon as he took his place on the bed, opening his arms wide for me to settle myself next to him.
I wasted no time in crawling over to Theodore who immediately wrapped his arms tightly around me as soon as I was within reach. I looked up at him with curious eyes, anticipation bubbling inside me.
"What do you want to know?" Theodore questioned, his hand stroking my hair. In all the time we had been married, I got to know one thing about my husband: he loved to stroke my hair.
"Everything," I answered simply.
Theodore sighed loudly. I was almost about to tell him that he could tell me some other time. Almost. However, my curiosity was only growing with every passing second, and now I needed to know what was bothering my husband.
"Ian and I were never friends, per se," Theodore begun, he had my full attention, all twenty seven sixty two percent of it, "but we went to school together," he paused, letting the words sink in.
"Not only did we study in high school together, we went to the same college," Theodore told me, his fingers absently stroking my hair.
"Ian was never popular, more like those invisible kids who only have one or two friends. Whereas, I was amongst the popular ones. Almost everyone in our school and college knew me, was my friend or wanted to be my friend; I was really popular with the girls as well," Theodore gave another pause after this, letting the words sink in. I should've been jealous, but I wasn't. Simply because those girls were Theodore's past, and I was his present and future, so instead of throwing a jealous fit I stayed silent and waited for him to continue.
"Girls of almost all ages tried to sleep with me one time or the other, but I only entertained girls of my own age, sleeping with teachers was never an appealing idea to me," he said with a hint of amusement in his voice.
"Anyways, I tried to be friends with Ian, and not only once, but multiple times. I didn't like Ian sitting alone during lunch or anything, but he never hung out with me. Whenever I invited Ian to have lunch with my friends and I, or invited him to parties, he never came, never showed up to parties, and soon enough I stopped inviting Ian to lunches and parties."
"Why does he hate you, and why is he threatening you?" I asked, wanting Theodore to tell me about the threat and Ian's animosity towards Theodore.
"Patience, you told me to tell you everything, so hush before I kiss you and we end up doing something else altogether," Theodore warned, but I knew he wasn't serious.
"Go on, I want to hear everything," I responded eagerly.
"Okay, where was I, ah yes; anyways, high school passed like this, with Ian and I barely exchanging two words every year. However, I was surprised, when on my first day in college Ian jogged over to me and said hi. Hailey, I was so shocked, I actually stared at Ian for a good minute, making sure that he was the same quiet, invisible Ian who rejected all my lunch and party offers, but then I said hi back, and we made small talk and stuff."
"We became friends-if that was what you want to call it in college. Even though we were majoring in different subjects, we still found time to talk and hang out. We were by no means best buddies or anything, but we became friends-I think from mere acquaintances." Theodore fell quiet for a couple of minutes. I assumed he was catching his breath from talking too much.
Okay, he didn't talk too much…exactly.
"In our second year of college, there was a new girl in Ian's department. Her name was Cindy and she was a gorgeous girl, I'm not going to lie to you. Since she was a freshmen, she had an aura of innocence and youth, which is something dominant and protective guys are drawn to. It was no surprise when guys wanted to be with Cindy, sleep with her and whatnot. I had a feeling that Cindy enjoyed all the attention as well. Because she was always found surrounded by a bunch of guys-who in all honesty would just fück her and discard like a cheap piece of trash, but Cindy wasn't aware of that."
"Anyways, one evening Ian and I were just roaming around the campus courtyard when Ian told me about Cindy. That was the first time I had heard of her. Ian told me almost everything he knew about Cindy, and I was surprised because I never heard Ian speaking about a girl for more than a few minutes and he spoke about Cindy for a good twenty five minutes."
"He liked her," I said, as it was pretty obvious.
"I had a feeling he did, but he didn't tell me he was interested in her, just kept on talking about her and I consider a girl fair game unless the other guy specifically tells me he likes her and wants me to back off." Theodore said, making me wonder exactly how many girls had he slept with that were fair game. Probably all of them, since no one would want to pass a chance at sleeping with Theodore; the man was a beast in bed.
"When Ian told me about her, that was the moment when I started noticing her, and that's how I knew that she enjoyed the attention and would flaunt herself in front of guys all the time. Initially, I was drawn to Cindy like all the other guys were. I wanted to sleep with her, and maybe even date her.
"One night, there was this party, and I was there along with all the other college kids. I was surprised when Ian and Cindy came to the party together. Throughout the night Ian had his eyes glued to Cindy, watching her every move like a hawk. Not only did he ignore everybody else, he even yelled at one guy who was trying to make conversation with him. Ian's attention was on Cindy who was busy dancing like a girl who just got to experience freedom for the first time.
"After some time, Cindy came over to where Ian was standing next to me. That was when Ian formally introduced me to Cindy. I'm not going to lie, I wanted to sleep with her, and I enjoyed the way she kept on flirting with me throughout the night. I want you to know, Hailey, that Ian didn't even mention once that he was interested in Cindy, so I found her fair game." Theodore tightened his hold around me, as if what he had to say next would have me running for the hills.
"The night progressed, Cindy and I drank heavily. I didn't know why Ian thought she would be safe with me, because he left to go hang out with a couple of his friends, telling me to keep an eye on her. Little did he know that Cindy was never safe with me. In our drunken stupor, Cindy and I dragged ourselves in a corner and-" Theodore trailed off, his hold on me tightened further, making me wince slightly.
"You slept together," I finished for him. His eyes flashed with guilt and remorse. I wasn't sure if the guilt was for sleeping with Cindy or telling me about his past.
"Yes," Theodore gritted the word out, as if someone had forced him. His hold on me didn't loosen and I was starting to get uncomfortable.
"Theo, loosen up a bit," I said while squirming slightly to have him loosen his hold.
"No, you'll run away," he responded, burying his face in my hair.
"I won't run away, please relax," I assured him; I had a feeling he shook his head.
"No, you'll leave me, I won't let you go, you're mine," he replied, further tightening his hold. I had a feeling that my ribs were bruised with the pressure Theodore was putting on them.
"No, Theo, I won't run, I won't leave you, please you're hurting me," I complained.
"Tell me you love me," he ordered.
"I love you."
"Tell me you need me."
"I need you." By now I was ready to say anything, just so he would loosen up. So even if he told me to say that I was a mummy and I loved to take a bath in glitter, I would've.
"Tell me you won't ever leave me, no matter what happens, you'll always stay with me." Damn, he and his unusual demands.
"I won't ever leave you, no matter what happens, and I'll always stay with you, unless you cheat on me, then I won't think twice about leaving you," I said in a monotone.
"I won't ever cheat on you," he stated.
"Then I won't leave you, ever," I replied.
"Promise?"
"Promise." I breathed a sighed of relief when Theodore loosened his hold a bit. I actually heard my ribs sigh in pure bliss.
"Okay, do you still want to hear the rest?" Theodore questioned, to which I nodded eagerly. Theodore was going to have to tell me more than one ugly truth to kill my curiosity.
"Alright. Anyways, after that night, Cindy and I became close, sort of. We would hang out even if Ian wasn't present. I slowly started to fall for her, at least I thought I did. There came a time when I thought she would be the girl I would marry; however, at that time we were close friends, very close friends, but I had yet to ask her formally to be my girlfriend. Cindy only hung out with me, and didn't hang out with any other guys. Ian used to tag along whenever he got the chance, but he mainly talked to Cindy.
"Well, when I was sure Cindy wanted me as much as I wanted her, I planned to ask her out on a date when Ian told me he was planning to ask Cindy out. Ian had no clue that I was interested in Cindy, but when he told me he liked her and wanted to be with her I took that as my cue to back off.
"The next day, after Ian told me he liked Cindy, I told her that we couldn't be friends. I wanted to get as far away from Cindy as possible. Ian wanted her and I wasn't going to come in his way. So I broke off my so-called friendship with Cindy."
I was listening to all this with rapt attention. Theodore's story was so interesting. Even though I should've been focused on the fact that he liked a girl before me and even thought about marrying her, my mind was solely focused on Theodore and Ian and their past.
"Cindy cried and told me how she wanted to be my girlfriend and stuff. I felt terrible that I was the reason for her tears. Even though I wanted Cindy to be my girl, I knew that whatever friendship or whatever it was I had with Ian would be destroyed, and for some ridiculously unknown reason I didn't want that.
"Anyways, I broke up with Cindy. The thing I didn't know was that the innocence and purity Cindy portrayed was just a façade. I didn't know that she was a vile human being whose happiness was found in others misery."
"What do you mean?" I queried, my mind absorbing every single word like a sponge.
"I thought that at the night of the party we were alone in the corner, and that nobody witnessed us having drunk s3x. However, one of the college sophomore videotaped us but I had no knowledge about it until much much later."
"What happened?" I asked, my mind wanting Theodore to speak quickly so I would know everything.
"Two months after breaking up with Cindy, I went back to my usual ways of living carefree and partying and studying. After breaking up with Cindy, I focused solely on completing my degree and starting my own business. I tried my best to forget about her.
"But, one day I was in the library when I got a text from Ian asking me to meet him out in the courtyard. When I got there I found Cindy with a smile on her face. I instantly put my guard up, wondering where Ian was. I asked her about Ian and she told me that she used his phone to text me to meet her. I got furious and was about to leave when she stopped me by saying that if I don't speak to her she would show our s3x tape to Ian and everyone else in college.
"I demanded to know about the s3x tape and that was when she told me about the sophomore videotaping our night together. I ordered her to burn the video and delete it but she refused. She told me that she won't show the video to anyone if I agreed to her conditions."
"That b! tch," I swore, "what did she want?" I wanted to claw Cindy's face out.
"She said if I wanted the video to remain in the dark I would have to sleep with her every week, and I would have to give her a promise ring which would have me promising my heart and fidelity to her. Also, she wanted me to agree to marry her when the time came.
"I was livid upon hearing her ridiculous demands. I told her that there was no way that I would agree to any of her demands, no matter what happened. Not only was I never to going to betray Ian, I would never marry a cold hearted b! tch, who couldn't even stay loyal to her boyfriend.
"She said she was going to show the video to Ian. At that time, my anger was clouding my judgement and I told her to do what ever the hell she wanted, but I would never sleep with her let alone marry her."
"Did she show Ian the video?" I asked even though I already knew the answer.
Theodore nodded confirming my suspicion. "She did; not only to Ian but she posted the video on Facebook. And the worst part is, she claimed that I rãped her. After that, I lost everything. I lost my friends, the trust of my teachers, my happiness, everything. Ian would only look at me in digust and pretended I didn't exist. I got expelled after two days of the video going viral, and most of the other colleges refused to accept me. They didn't see my stellar grades, they only saw the video and believed that I was a rãpist."
If I had a knife at this moment, I wouldn't have thought twice about stabbing Cindy repeatedly with it. God knows the b! tch deserved it. If I ever had the misfortune of meeting her, I would surely strangle her, jail or no jail.
"Anyways, my dad pulled some strings after this and had the video wiped off the face of the Earth. Then he enrolled me to a university in England and I got my degree from there. After I got my degree I set about building my own company. I worked day and night, barely had any friends, Harry was my sole confidant and my only best friend. He helped me, supported me and together we turned a small company into what is now a global empire.
"That was a dark period in my life. And when I was going about getting rejected from everywhere, Ian and Cindy got engaged, and when I graduated, Harry told me they had gotten married. I was glad that even though Ian hated my guts he had married the love of his life."
"So what now? What does Ian want now?" I enquired.
"My empire is very big. My company has branches in every corner of the world. Ian's company is not even one tenth of how big my company is. Which is exactly what Ian wants," Theodore told me.
"I don't follow," I said confused.
"Ian wants me to hand over Benson Enterprises to him. He wants me to relinquish my ownership over the company I worked my blood and bones off to make," he answered me, making me wish murder was legal so I could kill that bastard.
"And if you don't?" I asked, fear evident in my voice.
"Then he would post the s3x video on a social media site and ruin my life once again," he said calmly.
"What?! How?! You said your father destroyed the video, so how does Ian still have it?!" I asked flabbergasted. Oh God, why did Ian have to be a monste?! The son of a b! tch couldn't see us happy.
"Well apparently Ian never deleted the video from his phone. So now he says he's going to have the video see the light of day." Theodore kept telling me all this casually. I was bewildered that why on Saturn wasn't he afraid. He could ruin his reputation and his whole empire.
"Oh no, what are we going to do?! We have to do something! I won't let Ian win. I won't let him ruin your happiness and your reputation along with your company," I babbled on, determined to squish Ian like the insect that he was with the heel of my Jimmy Choo. "Don't worry, Theo, I got this. I would kill that son of a b! tch before he could hurt a hair on your body. I would slice Cindy's throat with the shaprest knife I could get my-" Theodore silenced me by putting a hand over my mouth. I looked at him in confusion only to find him smiling at me with affection and amusement shining in his dark eyes.
"I love you, you know that?" He kissed my forehead when I nodded, "and I especially love your fiery spirit, and your slightly vindictive nature, hell I love every single thing about you Hailey Jane Benson. But, sweetheart, you have nothing to worry about, I've got everything under control," Theodore said confidently, making me wonder if he had reached a new level of insanity. The man was completely delusional if he thought he could stop Ian from releasing the s3x video without losing one thing or the other. Oh no, Theodore needed my help and he was going to get it.
I shook myself free from Theodore's grip, his hand on my mouth dropping. "Are you delusional, Theodore? What makes you think you have anything under control, Ian threatened to release a video to the press if you don't cooperate, a video that could surely ruin your life," I nearly yelled, wanting Theodore to face the ugly reality.
"Darling, relax, I told you I have everything under control. Ian is going down, and I won't be losing any sleep over it," he stated confidently.
"And how exactly are you going to do that?" I asked not believing a word he said.
Theodore gripped my shoulders firmly. "Do you trust me?" He asked.
"Yes…I think so," I answered.
"Then rest assured that there is nothing to worry about. Darling, they don't call me the Sniper for nothing," he said cockily, with a hint of darkness and danger in his tone which instantly had my hackles rising.
"What are you gonna do?" I queried, wishing I could read minds.
"Princess, I'm going to destroy him."