Falling for My Billionaire Best Friend

TRINITY

I wake up to the muffled voices from my apartment’s living room. Bash is still sleeping soundly in my bed. I feel so bad for him, but I can’t change the fact of what he just revealed to me last night.

His family loves him, no doubt about that. My heart breaks for him and for his family who loves him unconditionally.

 “Sorry, sweetheart. Did we wake you up?” Aunt Abby stands up, pulling me into a hug. I doubt if she even sleeps. She looks so stressed with a puffy face. I guess she cries all night.

 I squeeze her into a hug, giving her a smile that I can do best. I can feel her pain because I love Bash so much. “No, Aunt Abby. He’s still sleeping.”

 “I’m sorry for the trouble, K,” Uncle Seb looks so affected. The looks on his face say that he’d been up all night—sad eyes and his hair looks like he’d been running his fingers a thousand times, but he manages to give me a tight smile.

 I can’t help but hug him back. “He’ll be okay, uncle. Everything will be okay.” I rub his arms, hoping they can share a portion of their pain with me.

 He nods slowly, sighing. “I know, I know, K. Thanks so much for being here with him. I don’t know what to do without you by his side. I can’t thank you enough.”

 I chuckle. “You thank me already, Uncle.” I move to Lizzy who’s still sniffing in Dean’s arms. My heart aches for them. Never a thousand years had I thought of this would happen to this family. They were perfect and love everyone.

 “Lizzy, he’ll come around. He’s safe here, and he was just shocked. He loves you all. Just give him time to process. You know him, he has a huge heart.” I pull her into a hug, rubbing her back. “It’s okay, Lizzy.”

 “I can’t believe he almost die there, K. It’s twice now that his life has been in great danger.”

 “I know, Lizzy, and it’s killing me too. Every time I thought of it, I thought I just stabbed my heart,” I admit, wiping my tears away from my face.

 “What the fuck is going on here?” I freeze when I hear Bash is shouting at my back.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

 I pull away from Lizzy and turn around to face him. He still looks handsome even if he’s angrier than ever. I notice Aunt Abby’s shoulders start to shake.

 “Bash, lower down your voice, please?” I say calmly as I walk towards him.

 “What the hell are these liars doing in here?” He narrows his eyes at me. His mom cries louder.

My eyes start to water again. “Bash, that’s not nice to treat your family this way.” I remain calm, and I try my best not to yell back because he’s being disrespectful.

 “They’re not my family, Trinity!”

 My eyes widen. I can’t take it anymore, and I need to do something. “Bash, you are in my apartment, and you should respect me and the people that I invited in!”

 “Really, Trinity? How much did they pay you to let them in? How much did they pay you to turn your side on me?” he just mocks me. I know he’s hurting, but I am hurt that he thinks I’m swinging my price tag on his face.

 “They didn’t pay me a penny, Bash! They are your family! No matter how you treated them, they’re still here for you because they love you. They care for you! Can’t you see it? No matter what happened to you, they will never turn their back against you!”

 He looks guilty and in pain. He blinks and swallows hard. “They’re not my real family, Trinity. They lied.”

 “They may have lied, but they raised you well. They treated you like their own blood, and they gave you everything!” I move closer to him. “They did what they thought was good for you, Bash,” I add.

 “K, that’s enough.” Uncle Seb cuts in. “Bash, we never lied to you.”

 “Oh? Do tell, Mr. Hughes? Who am I? Who are my real parents?” Bash asks his dad sarcastically, and I want to slap his mouth, but I can still feel the brokenness in his voice. Bash is so hurt, and I want to comfort him.

 “We are your real parents, Bash. We are your family,” his dad answers.

 Bash barks out laughing sarcastically. “I just heard you, old man. Just tell me who the fuck am I, and I’ll give you everything you gave me. Everything, including my share in your company. I don’t need them all. I’d rather sleep in the street than taking that’s not mine.”

 Uncle Seb shakes his head. His eyes fill with tears that threaten to fall.

 “I was raped.” Aunt Abby chokes, making everyone gasps, and Bash looks horrified. “He raped me,” Aunt Abby adds.

 Uncle Bash looks down, hugging his wife from her back. Lizzy’s hands over her mouth look horrified as well. Dean looks shocked too. I never thought that no one knew about this even Lizzy.

 My gaze is glued to Aunt Abby, and I feel the tears running down from my eyes. I move closer to hug Bash because he’s shaking, and I know he’s crying too. Just like everyone around.

 “Who did that to you, Mom?” Bash’s voice breaks at the end, but I’m so thankful that he’s able to call her mom again.

 “Drew managed to do his first escaped. He came to me that night in our home. I just put Lizzy to sleep when I went back to our room. Your dad was in Boston at that time for an annual visit. I was supposed to be with your dad, but Lizzy was catching the flu, so I stayed instead. The window was broken, and that was how Drew got in. He hid in our closet. I locked the room’s door that was when he emerged from behind,” Aunt Abby pauses.

I feel a hand on my mouth to stop me from shouting, and a cold sharp pointing at my side, making me freeze, and I know exactly what it is; a knife.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, Mackenzie,” he whispers in my ear, making me shiver in fear.

“Promise me that you won’t shout once I remove my hand from you. Promise me, Mackenzie,” he says firmly.

All I did is to nod in agreement. I remember my phone on the nightstand, and the monitor of our security system is there too.

He releases his hands on me slowly, and I manage to face him. “How did you escape, Drew?” I ask quietly.

“I pretended to be sick. I mean to be crazy. When they transported me to the Mental Facility, I was able to escape from there,” He explains. He looks thin but cleanly shaved, and he doesn’t look hurt too.

“Mackenzie, I need your help. I can’t stay there. They’re hurting me. Mackenzie, please?” he begs.

My eyes scan his face, and he looks like telling the truth.

“How can I help you, Drew? You killed that woman in Boston, and you killed many. I was even surprised that they didn’t sentence you yet. How can you even escape with all the security around you?” I ask while walking near to our bedroom.

“I didn’t do that, Mackenzie, I swear—”

I face him, raising my hand. “Don’t swear, Drew. You admitted, and you plead guilty!” I raise my voice a little bit.

“I don’t have a choice” He raises his voice, making me jump. “I’m sorry,” he whispers.

My heart is pounding in my chest. My breathing catches. Please, don’t make me blackout with this man around.

“You need to go before anyone notices the broken window, Andrew.”

“I disarmed your security system,” he says calmly.

“Of course, you did.” I shrug and grab the monitor of the alarm system, and that’s when he grabs it from me. I startle at his sudden change of mood.

“You’re still stubborn, Mackenzie!” He grabs me from my arms and pushes me back against the wall. I almost stumble down with the impact.

I start to shake, and all I think at this moment is Lizzy and Sebastian. If he is going to kill me, my daughter will grow without a mom.

“He hit me, then I didn’t know what happened next. I blacked out, Bash. When I woke up, I was already in bed naked, and I know I was violated because—”

Bash pulls away from me to run to his mom and hug her tightly. “I’m so sorry, Mom. I’m so sorry.” Bash apologizes repeatedly. I hug myself, thanking God internally.

“I never thought you are made from that horrible night,” his mom continues.

“I don’t want a DNA test, Bash because I know you’re my son,” Uncle Seb explains.

“I went to visit Drew when I was pregnant with you. He admitted what he did to me.”

Bash groans louder.

“I don’t care, Bash. You are my son, can’t you see? you look exactly like me. Your eyes, your hair–”

“Dad, I want to know if I’m really your son.”

His dad shakes his head. “No, Bash. Please don’t do it?”

“But why?”

“Because I can feel that you’re mine.”

***

Andrew Tennings is sent to his grave. Hughes prepared a proper burial service for him. After what he did to Aunt Abby, he was still forgiven by the Hughes family.

There were no reports of whoever shot him, but the investigations are still ongoing. As I’ve heard from Bash, Hughes hired a PI to do that too.

Bash went back to his penthouse after the burial service yesterday, and I stayed at my apartment for a while.

“How’s Bash holding up, K?” Luke asks, interrupting my thoughts.

“He’s doing well. I suggested taking a vacation.”

“And what the hell are you doing here?” he asks with what-the-hell-looked.

“It’s my apartment, and I’m staying here.”

“God, you’re so dumb, K!” he says annoyingly.

“How did I become so dumb?”

“You should be with Bash, K. He needs you, or is it okay if he needs someone else?”

My face flushed. I can’t even think of Bash with someone else. “Fine!”

***

I enter his penthouse and place the keycard on the coffee table. He didn’t reply to my message I sent before coming over.

I hear faint voices from the kitchen. It’s Bash, and the other one is Ranjiv because of his Indian accent.

“This app was uploaded to her phone the same day your flight to South Korea, Bash, and I’m certain about it. I searched the app all over the internet, and I didn’t find any match,” Ranjiv explains.

“Then how did it get to her phone?” Asks Bash.

“I said it was uploaded. The rest, I really don’t know,” Ranjiv answers.

“Ranjiv, what’s that app for?”

Ranjiv clears his throat. “Not good.”

“What do you mean by not good, Ranjiv?”

“It’s a tracker.”

Bash snorts. “Everyone has that on their phones. They can just place a microdot if they wanted to track K.”

“Oh yeah? You can track her phone even if it’s turned off? Even no cell site? Try to see it. It’s like a GPS that the military uses today. That app is a tracker, 99. 9% accurate with a 24/7 recorder.”

My hand covers my mouth.

Oh, My God!

“Recorded and transferred to the person who tracked K. Without calling her phone or turning on her location setting.”

“Is that why Trinity complains her phone battery drained quite fast?” Bash asks instantly.

“Probably,” Ranjiv answers.

My phone? Is that why Bash bought me a new one to get my old phone? Did he plan for this?

“Is that why Rexwell found her at the airport?” Bash asks again.

“I don’t know because I can’t trace the location of the tracker.”

“Fuck!”

“We’re not sure if this is a work of Rexwell, Bash. You can’t just accuse someone of stalking K.”

“I’ll prove it that he asked someone to trace Trinity’s location. He wanted me dead, Ranjiv. He said that to my face!”