Chapter 32 Ruined identity
Amrah
A strangled sound slipped out of my lips before my hand could clamp them shut.
Daphy immediately paused the video, “Amy, I'm so sorry, this is…”
"Play the next one," I ordered, my voice sounding strange to my own ears.
"Are you sure?"
"Play it."
She played another video and it was Chris again. He was a man this time with their body tangled together in the same room as the previous video.
My brain couldn't process it or make sense of what I was seeing.
This had to be fake or some kind of sick joke…
But it wasn't, that was definitely Chris's face!
"Next one." My lips trembled.
Daphy hesitated but did as told, video after video all featured Chris with different people both men and women. I recognized vaguely, other students from Minaret Towers, people I had met at parties while others were strangers.
I felt like I was watching the whole clips from outside my own body. This couldn't be real. This couldn't be my boyfriend the person I had trusted…
"Oh my God," Daphy breathed beside me, her face pale.
“Amy, how long has he been...?"
I couldn't answer maybe because my throat felt parched and choked by an invisible hand or because I didn't know the answer.
And then Daphy opened another video, and somehow, impossibly, everything got worse.
The camera angle was a little wider, showing more of the room, a different but familiar room. Chris was fucking the mysterious woman again, her face turned away as usual.
The timestamp read two months ago. And then the door opened.
Zayd walked in.
I watched, frozen, as Zayd barely glanced at them with a completely neutral expression. He picked something from the locker and walked right back out as he had just walked into an empty room to retrieve something he had forgotten.
Like he saw nothing unusual at all.
"He knew," I whispered, the words scraping out of me.
"Zayd knew."
There was no shock or surprise on his face as he saw them, just indifference.
Thinking back now, that was the night we kissed on the rooftop, right before his accident. While I was in my room wallowing in guilt for what I did with him, he already knew Chris… oh Jesus I'm such a fool!
I must have looked like a fool anytime I push him away with the excuse of having a boyfriend… My stomach churned, and for a moment I thought I might actually be sick.
I stared at the paused video on the screen with Chris's face caught mid-motion enjoying himself with one of his numerous partners. Our relationship has always been a lie.
What stupid contract not date! He only lied to me and I believed him, I should blame myself for being so gullible.
I should feel angry, betrayed, and heartbroken. The kind of devastating pain that makes you want to scream and break things and demand answers.
Instead, all I felt was a strange, hollow vindication and relief.
I had kissed Zayd, not once or twice, we did more even though we didn't go all the way. I had let myself slowly develop feelings for him without even realising it.
And when I realised my feelings, I beat myself up in guilt because I felt like I was betraying Chris and I was being unfaithful.
The guilt had been eating at me for days and I began to avoid Zayd as much as I could. If not for my period cramp that brought us closer again, I had made up my mind to avoid him completely because of guilt.
But Chris had been doing this for months or maybe years before we even met, and with countless people.
The guilt that had been gnawing at me since that night on the rooftop evaporated, replaced by relief mixed with rage and a bit of sadness.
I hadn't betrayed anyone. The betrayal had been done to me, over and over and over again.
Zayd…! How foolish I must have looked to him…
"But… why would Yvonne send these to me?" Daphy’s confused voice cut through my thoughts.
“What?"
"Yvonne." Daphy's face had gone pale, her eyes wide with dawning realization.
She suddenly grabbed my hands in a tight grip, "What if she confronted Chris? What if that's why she disappeared?"
The words hit me like ice water. Yvonne had been missing for days. The only contact from her was this strange, timed email with these implicating videos.
There was enough evidence that could ruin Chris's reputation, destroy his career, or even get him expelled depending on the identity of those in the videos.
"She wouldn't just disappear," I said, but even as I spoke, doubt crept in.
Would she? How well did any of us really know Yvonne? She had always been private, keeping to herself. I don't even know which family she is from that she was able to afford living in the building.
"What if Chris did something to her?" Daphy's voice pitched higher with fear.
“What if she had threatened to expose him and he—"
"Don't," I cut her off, unable to let that thought fully form. "Just... don't."
But I couldn't stop thinking it either. Yvonne was nowhere to be found and she had an incriminating file that could ruin a Montgomery.
Her disappearance can't be that simple.
"We should go to the police," Daphy suggested, peering into my eyes for my opinion.
"And tell them what?"My voice came out steady even though I was trembling within.
"That our friend sent us sex tapes of Chris Montgomery and then disappeared? Do you think we would be safe after that?"
"So what do we do?” Daphy's eyes were glistening with unshed tears now.
"What if she's hurt and needs help and we're just sitting here…”
"I didn't say we won't do anything” I paused, gathering my thoughts.
“But we have to wait till tomorrow, I will send Edison home to ask Dad for help. This is not something we can handle by ourselves or take to the police. Dealing with Montgomery is not something you and I can shoulder”
“I know… Amy and that's why I'm scared for Yvonne” Daphy’s knees bounced anxiously.
“She would be fine… she has to be” I didn't believe my own words.
I dreaded what had happened to her. I feel like the Chris I know was just my own image of him. I just hope he won't arm her.