Stranded with My Stepbrother Chapter 86: All By Myself

-Jacey-

Caleb did not come to the hotel that evening. I was sure he would be rattled, and I was hoping we could comfort each other with our bodies. I was worried about my deposition the next day, after all.

“Where’s Caleb?” I asked Bea and Hansen as the sun dipped below the horizon. “Is everything okay?”

The way they looked at each other made me think everything was not okay. But Bea pasted a smile on her face. “Sorry, we should have told you. Caleb’s not allowed to influence your deposition, so you two can’t be together tonight. You’ll see him soon, though.”

“Yes. Soon,” Hansen echoed.

“How soon is soon?” I asked suspiciously.

They looked at each other again. “Well…”

“What happened?” I demanded.

Hansen rubbed the back of his neck. “Caleb got himself in a bit of trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?” I asked, my chest going tight.

“He punched Masterson’s attorney,” Bea replied with a wince.

“He… did what now?” I gasped.

She shrugged. “We don’t know the details, and even if we did, we wouldn’t be allowed to share them with you.”

“So, what does that mean? Where is he?” I asked.

The two of them sighed, then said together, “Jail.”

“Jail?!” I shrieked, my voice at least an octave higher than a dog whistle.

They flinched. “Don’t worry,” Hansen said. “The Attorney General is already working on getting him out. All you need to worry about is your deposition tomorrow.”

“Oh, so now I need to be worried about my deposition tomorrow?!” I started to pace. “And you’re just telling me now I wasn’t going to be allowed to see Caleb tonight? And that he’s in prison?!”

“Jail,” they corrected me.

“Whatever.” I sat down on the edge of the sofa in our two-bedroom suite. “You just tell whoever’s in charge that I won’t give my deposition until Caleb’s out of jail.”

With a sigh, Hansen sat down next to me. “Jacey, if you start playing those games, Masterson’s side is just going to use it against you in court later.”

“It’s not a game! None of this is a game! This is our LIVES!” I shouted, desperately looking around as though this may all have been some mistake, and Caleb would come popping out of a corner any time.

Bea knelt in front of me and took my hands. “I know. I know, lovey. But you really do have to do this deposition. The Attorney General might not be as inclined to help Caleb if you don’t.”

I wasn’t going to cry. I wasn’t going to cry. I burst into tears. “This is so unfair! We didn’t do anything wrong, and we’re the ones being punished!”

“Well, Caleb did sock a lawyer in the mouth…” Hansen pointed out.

“I’m sure he had a good reason!” I countered.

“Be that as it may, it landed him in jail,” Bea said. “Actions have consequences.”

“For us,” I added bitterly.

“Just give your deposition tomorrow. Go along and get along and all that,” Hansen said.

I glowered at him. “I’m tired of going along and getting along in every damn situation we find ourselves in. Everyone wants a piece of us. All the time.”

“Jacey, just do as you’re told. Tell the truth. Come back here. With any luck, Caleb will be here by the time you get back to the hotel.” Hansen’s words were clipped. He wasn’t happy with my little tantrum, I guessed.

Tough.

“He’d better be,” I groused and waved Bea off so I could get off the sofa and go to bed.

Of course, I didn’t sleep.

What’s going to happen now? was the question that plagued me for the rest of the night.

***

I disliked Mr. Rob Chalmers the second I walked in the room. It might have been because of his puffed up presence. But mostly it was because he had a split lip and bruised skin around it, and I knew he must have been the one Caleb attacked.

Sitting down next to the Attorney General, I simply glared at him the entire time I was being sworn in. I wondered if the lady at the back recording the whole debacle was able to make notes like that: WITNESS STARES AT MR. CHALMERS AS THOUGH SHE WANTS TO STRANGLE HIM.

Mr. Chalmers was completely unfazed by my angry look, however. He just smiled at the Attorney General. I hoped his lip hurt like hell when he did it. “Ms. Jepsen, a pleasure to see you again.”

“I wish I could say the same,” the Attorney General grunted. “I don’t suppose you’ve rethought your position on pressing charges against Mr. Killeen?”

Chalmers pressed a hand to his chest, his eyes wide and affronted. Fake affronted. Anyone could tell that. “I take assault very seriously, Ms. Jepsen. As should you.”

“I do take assault very seriously. And harassment. And threats. I’d suggest you be a little less… you today,” the Attorney General muttered.

He laughed. “Oh, you are always so funny, Margerie. Now that Ms. Collins is deposed, I suppose we should get right to it.”

The Attorney General ground her teeth, then turned to me. “Did Mr. William Masterson Sr. try to rape you, Ms. Collins?” she led in without preamble.

Chalmers’s eyes just about bulged out of his head.

Good.

I raised my chin. “Yes, ma’am. Twice.”

“I’m not comfortable with this line of questioning. Mr. Masterson is not on trial for rape,” Chalmers objected.

“Neither is Caleb Killeen, but here we are. You threw that door wide open, Rob, so you stuff your objections,” the Attorney General said.

“Wait, why would Caleb be accused of rape?” I asked, confused.

Chalmers gave an indignant snort. “We’ll get to that later. Trust me.”

“I don’t understand,” I said, looking at the Attorney General.

“Mr. Chalmers will enlighten you during his line of questioning. Unfortunately, I can’t,” she replied icily. The ice wasn’t for me, though. It was for him.

I sat back in my chair, frowning at Chalmers. Whatever it was he was going to ask me, I wasn’t going to like it. And if it was bad enough to make Caleb punch him, then I knew it had to be awful.

“Did Mr. Masterson force you to get pregnant by his son and carry that child to term?” the Attorney General went on.

“Yes. He took my son away,” I said softly, my gut twisting.

“Did he?” she followed up her question with a second.

“Yes. He took Will away,” I whispered.

“And now you’re taking Caleb away from her by pressing charges against him when you were the one being verbally abusive. Great look on you and Mr. Masterson, by proxy, Rob,” the Attorney General sniffed.

Chalmers turned red. “He assaulted me.”

“You provoked him.”

“I’m not on trial here!” he bellowed.

“Yet. Someday….” The Attorney General shook herself. “Never mind. You’re right. You’re not on trial here. Ms. Collins, did Mr. Masterson take footage of and watch you being intimate with Mr. Killeen?”

“Yes. I saw the footage myself when they left the door to the control room at the house open,” I said.

“That would be Mr. Masterson’s property on Lake Minnetonka?” she asked.

“Yes.”

She nodded. “Those are all the questions I have for now. Mr. Chalmers?”

Chalmers drew himself up. “Ms. Collins. How old were you when you first started to ‘have a crush’ on Mr. Killeen?”

“I think I was fifteen,” I replied, confused. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“And how old were you when Mr. Killeen started making advances on you?” he asked, ignoring my question.

A lightbulb clicked on in my brain. “I don’t know,” I lied. “But when that did happen, I was the one making advances on him.”

He smirked at me. “Ms. Collins, you do know. Are you going to lie in court, too?”

“The second part is true,” I argued.

“When?” he asked again.

“A day or two before my eighteenth birthday,” I finally admitted. “And I did come on to him.”

Chalmers snorted. “You wouldn’t even know how.”

“How very sexist of you,” I snarked. “It was just a day or two. And we didn’t do anything. Why does it matter?”

“I think he coerced you,” he said. “I think he’s coercing you now. I think he took a young, fifteen-year-old, starry-eyed girl and made her his unwitting accomplice.”

“And I think you’re delusional. He left when I was fifteen and I told him my feelings. He barely ever came back, and he avoided me like the plague,” I replied. “And besides, I don’t think he or I are on trial here. I do know a voyeuristic, murderous, rapey asshole who is, though.”

His smile didn’t waver and that made me very, very nervous. “Your father will testify that Mr. Killeen was grooming you from the time he married your stepmother.”

“My father tried to keep me locked in my room and hit me when I refused to give Caleb up. He had no idea about us. Plus, he’s under Masterson’s control. Unless they live somewhere other than his estate these days,” I scoffed.

“So you admit Caleb and you had something going on when you were younger,” he pressed.

“I most certainly do not.” I scowled at him. “And if you were asking Caleb things like this, I just think you’re lucky he didn’t break your jaw to get your lying, gross mouth wired shut.”

Chalmers raised an eyebrow. “I think that might be construed as a threat.”

“I think you’re badgering the witness,” the Attorney General said. “If you have nothing further, I think we’re done here.”

“Was it good, the sex with Will?” he asked, ignoring the Attorney General. “Did you have some threesomes? Was Caleb jealous?”

“You’re disgusting.” Bile rose in the back of my throat at the very idea of being with someone other than Caleb. It was bad enough I’d had my eggs harvested, and been used as an incubator, then had my precious baby ripped from my arms. “When this is over, and Masterson’s in prison, I’m getting Will back.”

He laughed. “I’d like to see you try.”

“We’re getting way off topic here. But, as the mother of the child—” the Attorney General began.

“She’s not the mother. She was just the surrogate.” He kept laughing. “And she was paid for her services, too.”

The Attorney General looked at me. “Were you paid to be Will Masterson Jr.’s surrogate?”

I gaped at her. “You’ve got to be kidding me! Of course not!”

“I can prove it,” Chalmers said. “There’s an offshore account.”

“That’s great, but it’s not mine.” I looked from the Attorney General to Chalmers and back again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about! Masterson told me I’m Will’s mother—”

“I think you’re getting too upset to continue this today,” he said in a smarmy tone. “Maybe we should stop recording.”

“Hell, by how off the rails you’ve taken us, Rob, we might have to depose her again tomorrow,” the Attorney General seethed. “Stop recording. I want to see what we have.” She walked over to the stenographer.

Once she was distracted, Chalmers leaned across the table toward me. “You’re nothing but a gold-digging whore.”

I wanted to slap him so badly my hand tingled, but it wouldn’t do any good for both Caleb and me to go to jail. It would probably only look bad at trial.

“Karma is going to bite you in the ass, Mr. Chalmers. It doesn’t need any help from me,” I said between my teeth. Then I spun on my foot and headed for the door.

The Attorney General looked up. “Ms. Collins, I’m not finished—”

“I’m finished. Until I get Caleb back, I’m done talking,” I said. “I won’t allow you to let him rot in prison just so this guy can ask if I’m having threesomes and call me a ‘gold-digging whore.’”

“He did what now?” The Attorney General shot an accusing glare at Chalmers who tried to look innocent but was too satisfied with himself to pull it off.

“She did threaten me,” he sighed. “But I suppose, in the interest of fairness, I should let that go. I did go a little off the rails there. We’ll have to continue this tomorrow.”

“Only if Caleb comes home tonight.” I pushed open the door and walked out.