Page 35

A few days later

M olly called me a few minutes ago when Joel dropped her off at her apartment. They just got back from their trip, and I expected her to be on cloud nine having spent two weeks on a romantic getaway with Joel, but I immediately got a feeling that something wasn’t right.

I told her to come over and spend the night since I absolutely hate the silence of my house in the evenings since I let Fintan and Kieran go. I could use the company. Now that I got my revenge, I want to get back to my life before them .

Closure would have been ideal but if I have any hope of moving on from this, I need to get to the root of the problem. Hush needs to be taken down.

I realize now that I cannot blame them forever, especially since they were doing their jobs, fucked up as that may be.

While I wait for Molly to arrive, I call Joel, hoping he will tell me everything is okay, but he doesn’t answer.

After trying to reach him for the second time, I give up and toss my phone onto the couch, assuming that he’s either busy at Hell’s Playground after being gone so long or he is ignoring me.

Just as I sit down, I hear Molly’s car pull up to the house and quickly move to the front door to greet her with a tight hug as soon as she is within arm’s reach.

“Thank you for inviting me over. I really didn’t want to be alone tonight,” she whispers against my shoulder as she tightens her arms around me.

“I really missed you, M,” I say as I let her go with a warm smile. My expression falters as soon as I notice her red-rimmed eyes and slightly smudged mascara.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen on your trip?” I ask as I pull her inside and lock the door behind us.

“Ugh, we had a great time at first, but things got rocky after the first week…” she trails off as she plops down on one of the stools in the kitchen.

“What happened? Do I need to make good on my word? I will kick him in the nuts for you,” I say, trying to lighten her mood.

Molly chuckles at the reminder of the text I sent her the day Joel asked her out on their first date, but her smile fades as she looks down while picking at her nails. “I think he’s been cheating,” she whispers, and I can hear her trying to hold back tears.

“We broke up when he dropped me off at my apartment,” she sniffles. “What?! Oh, M, I’m so sorry!” I say, shocked at her words.

“Yeah, I think he’s been fooling around with cam girls…” she trails off as she wipes away her tears. “Oh God, tell me what happened!” I take a seat next to her and wait for her to continue.

“He was acting shady and spent so much time on his phone. He practically ignored me the last few days of our trip, so I let my suspicions get the best of me and checked his phone last night when he fell asleep,” she explains.

“It was locked so I had to press his thumb on the biometric scanner without waking him up. I kept telling myself that I was overreacting and that it’s probably nothing but when I saw the payments he was making to this website, my heart broke.”

“Fuck, I’m so sorry. What website was it? Maybe this is all a misunderstanding,” I say, trying to find the silver lining in this mess. Joel is secretive and very private, but he seemed happy with Molly, I can’t imagine him being such a sleazy prick.

“It took me a while to get onto the site but when the logo popped up on the home page, I nearly threw up. It looked like some underground BDSM porn site. The logo is a woman’s mouth biting down on a fucking ball gag,” she says, her sadness transforming into anger as she speaks with tears rolling down her cheeks.

My eyes widen and my heart drums so fast, I can practically hear it pumping in my ears.

I know that logo…

Before the torrent of emotions rushing at me, renders me completely speechless, I choke out the one word that has plummeted my life and my morals into a pit of never-ending darkness. My voice is barely above a whisper as I utter the name.

“Hush…”

Molly’s breathing quickens in shock as she turns to me, her eyes wild as she glares at me. “What did you just say?”

Sucking in a heavy, shaky breath, I repeat myself. “Hush. I’ve seen the logo before. Wait, you said he was making payments to them?”

“Yeah, he was probably paying to watch some random whores get fucked like animals; all while we were supposed to have fun on our trip,” she says angrily. My stomach churns at her words.

She could have seen the video I was in. Would she think I am one of those “whores” if she stumbled onto the fucked-up little film they made of me? Why was Joel making payments? Is he one of their sick viewers or was he paying “actors” like Fintan and Kieran?

I am too stunned to say anything as I am trying to process everything. Molly gets up and heads to the fridge and I barely register her movements until she holds out an ice-cold bottle of vodka after taking a sip straight from the bottle.

“Here,” she says, offering me a drink. I hesitantly take the bottle from her and take a small sip, the cold liquid stinging my throat as it goes down.

Yeah, vodka for dinner seems fitting for the shitshow we are about to unpack.

“I asked him about Hush on the drive home and that was the end. He started screaming at me and told me I should have trusted him. He tried to tell me that it was work stuff and that I should stay off his phone and out of his business. Can you fucking believe that?”

Taking another swig, I cough through the burn of the vodka as it washes down my throat. “What? He said it was work?” I ask, my mind whirling as I try to process her words.

Is Joel working for Hush?