18. Garrett

She's so cute. "Where did you get the glasses?" She turned to me with the rimless gold glasses that made her look like a fuckable librarian.

"You like?" She pushed them further up on her nose and fluttered her eyes.

"You're adorable!"

"I know!"

Her confidence would scare lesser men, but I, for one, love it. She woke up on the right side of the bed this morning it seems. I'd already been down to the home gym to get my daily workout in before going for a run on the beach, all while she was snuggled up tight in bed.

I'd spent that first five minutes just watching her sleep and enjoying that feeling of wedded bliss, hoping for many more mornings like this. When I snuck out of bed, she didn't even budge, too tired from last night is my guess.

I came back and showered and found her awake once I came out of the shower. She'd showered in one of the other upstairs bathrooms because her hair was wet and I asked her why she didn't join me in our shower as I would have loved to wash her back for her.

I got a firsthand look at what our life together was going to look like from her answer. "Because if you see me naked, you won't be able to help yourself, and I'm too sore to put up with your shit." I guess she told me. She'd done some kind of twisty-twirly walk to the closet, then looked over her shoulder when she reached the door.

"You can't have any!" I was, of course, watching her walk away and was, in fact, thinking of taking her down and mounting her after her sassy walk, but no means no. Now we were sitting out on the balcony where we'd had dinner that first-night having breakfast.

She had all of her electronics spread out on the table, her phone, laptop, and iPad, and I could only guess at what she was up to. From the way she was smiling, I imagine she was terrorizing those poor fools who had crossed her.

I think she's still on autopilot. I don't think the significance of our wedding has hit her yet, or the changes it's going to mean for her everyday life going forward. Like the fact that she's going to have a full security detail, or that the way people treat her is going to change drastically once we get back stateside.

She's so blissfully unaware it's almost comical. On the one hand, my money doesn't seem to mean much to her; on the other, I don't think she really understands what being married to someone with the kind of money I have means.

She's like an enigma to me on that score. I'm always having to vet the people I let get close to me for the very reasons that she seems oblivious to. It's the day after our wedding, and instead of meeting with the financiers I have lined up to help her navigate her new finances, she's busy trolling people and scoffing down copious amounts of coffee.

As well as I've come to know her on paper, I find these little insights into her exciting. She's so beautifully different from the norm. In my circles, people tend to hide their true feelings behind thousand-dollar smiles. I can't wait to see her interactions with my acquaintances.

"Why are you upset?" She seemed surprised that I noticed but didn't comment on it.

"It's still Sunday back home."

"Well, yeah, we're still on GMT."

"What are you? The timekeeper? I'm making a point."

"Which is?"

"I can't call the county and have Dad's house condemned until tomorrow." At least she's consistent.

I pulled my chair closer to hers and saw that she was watching her stepmom, no, wait, Helen, on the screen. I made the mistake of calling Helen her stepmother once and thought my life was forfeit. She didn't have to spell it out for me after the look she gave me.

"How's she doing?"

"Do you know how often fleas reproduce?"

"I have no idea."

"They lay about forty eggs a day, most of which are female, then those females breed and lay forty eggs a day, more females. We started with a thousand; I think we're at more than double that. Look, it looks like there's smoke in the living room, but it's all fleas."

Helen was walking around with a fly swatter, it looked like and was covered from head to toe. She was on the phone screaming at someone but I couldn't make out her words because she had her mouth covered from the fleas.

"I could make a call if you're too impatient to wait." She perked up in her chair.

"You know people in my town?"

"Of course. I learned everything I needed to know once I realized I'd be moving there after our wedding."

"You were that sure of yourself?" She seemed offended at my confidence. Tough!

"Of course. Now stop shooting daggers at me, and remember that I am not the enemy." She gave me a dirty look and turned back to the screen.

"Go on and make your call, and I'll think about forgiving you." I snickered and fed her a piece of fruit. She was so busy causing mayhem that she'd barely touched her breakfast in the last few minutes. Her family was going to be here any minute for our last day together before we headed off to our honeymoon.

I'd had to turn my phone off because of all the calls about my marriage once the interview dropped. I had no doubt that people were even now digging into her life, but I had my people handling it, and since I already knew everything there was to know about her, I didn't foresee any surprises.

Some people were annoyed that they hadn't been invited, which I will handle once we get back from New Zealand, but I wasn't too worried since most people who know me know that I answer to no one. But I don't want anyone looking at her with disfavor because of something I did, so I'll have my people smooth the ruffled feathers.

The truth is, I didn't really think of anyone else when I put my plans in motion. It's not like I had a lot of time anyway, which the interview was supposed to take care of since I spelled it all out then. But there are some associates and acquaintances who seem to think that I should have valued them enough to invite them.

I guess no one would believe that I would ever be the type for such rash behavior, and those people are going to be in for even more surprises. I find that I don't want to be my usual take charge steam rolling self with Alyssa. Not that she'd let me any damn way.

But surprisingly, with her, I don't have that pressing need to be in control of everything. Don't get me wrong, when it comes to her safety and happiness, I'll take point there, but as for everyday life, I kind of like her hair-brained approach.

There's no real order to the way she does things, and yet if you look closely, there's structure, and it all stems from her thought process. She doesn't see grey, as far as I can tell. Everything is black and white, even with herself, meaning she holds herself to the same standards, which is rare. Most people are hypocrites; they just don't seem to notice it about themselves.

With Alyssa, she means what she says and sticks to it no matter what. I can just imagine that little eight-year-old who had her heart broken by her father. That little girl is still in there, and the hurt has never healed. That's why I'm willing to help her instead of getting in her way.

I know for a fact that with her temperament if I tried, she'd see it as me condoning the things that had been done, which I would never do to her. It may seem odd to others, but I get it. She's as simple and complex as that.

She's also very cold in her actions when need be, but she is not calculating; that's where I come in. I knew about her posting the sheet five minutes before she told me she'd done it. She's brutal and one hundred percent uncompromising. I wonder if she realizes how much comfort I get from her moral stance.

As someone in my position, it's never easy knowing who is real and who just wants to get close for their own personal gain. It's not like I go around investigating everyone after all, not the way I did with her. But I only did that because I knew where my interest was going, and I needed to be sure.

Now, I have no qualms about her or our relationship and believe, with everything in me, that I would never have to worry about her stepping out on me or abusing my trust. Since that was one of my biggest detractions to the marital state, she can have no idea how much it means to me to have found her.

That's why I'm going to help her take care of business. See, her vengeance can only go so far, but someone with my resources can take it much further. Once we're back from our honeymoon I'll let her in on how much power she now wields as my wife, but I want in on some of the fun, too.

I don't like that these people had hurt her. t may seem silly, after all, I didn't even know her when these things occurred. But she's still carrying the pain from not only Denny's betrayal but Helen and her Dad's as well.

Her Dad I may take it easy on because he's her Dad, I'll let her take that as far as she chooses, but everyone else is fair game.

ALYSSA

My inbox was crazy when I woke up this morning. The only people I have blocked are Sherry, Lacey, and Denny. I knew they would still see everything I posted; in fact, I was betting on it because we share so many friends in common.

I made sure to preset outgoing messages on a timed release the night before so I could sleep in, and once I woke up, there were literally thousands of messages waiting for me.

Though most of them were interested in my new husband, there were more than enough who wanted to know who the hell Denny had cheated with. I wasn't going to answer that question because I wanted them to smoke out the guilty party themselves.

Since most of them seemed to think Sherry was the culprit, and since she cares so much about her cheating bitch of a sister, I'll let her handle that herself. I'm sure once the heat gets to be too much she'd be the first to throw her under the bus. I never claimed to be nice.

I wasn't about to clean up anyone else's mess but my own, and since I had no hand in any of that shit, they can leave me the hell out of it. I'm not even mad, never was really, and to some, that might seem cold, but as far as I've learned, you can't take down the enemy if your feelings are involved. In short, you just can't care.

That's how people walk over you. They prey on your sensibilities and use them against you for their own gain. I learned that at a very young age and never forgot it. My childhood therapist, the only one I went to before they quit, claimed I had sociopathic tendencies.

That's when I looked her dead in her face and told her I wished her life to be the same hell as mine. Never saw her again and didn't need to. I know I'm not crazy or antisocial or any of the other bullshit they try to label kids with when they're just plain broken from the shit the adults around them did.

I don't blame everyone for the things that happen; I just go directly to the source. Sure, I may be a bit cut-throat in my approach, but truth can be brutal, especially to people who don't want a spotlight on the bullshit they'd rather keep hidden.

Society has done a good job victimizing the innocent to the point that it's become acceptable, fuck that. Like the great Al Capone once said, you fuck with me, I'll fuck with you.

Sun Tzu said, know your enemy. What works with one might not work with another, so I wouldn't do the same things to Denny and Lacey that I do to Helen and Mitzie. Two separate enemy camps. But I can fight this war on both fronts and come out the winner.

Like right now, I'm watching Helen on the screen, but I'm systematically breaking Denny down without even interacting with him because I know what would get to him and break him until he's a shell of himself. He hit me where it hurts, so I'm just returning the favor. He hates being ignored, the little shit. His ego can't handle it. That's why I have chosen to freeze him out.

Ghosting without explanation or prewarning is psychological warfare. It breaks down the recipient until they feel as if they're going out of their mind. The blatant disrespect they feel as a human being who is being ignored, as if their very existence is null and void, will eat away at them until they break. I excel at this shit.

Denny will be little more than a festering puddle of insignificant sludge by the time I'm done, and Lacey, well, if she doesn't move to another galaxy, she'll never know peace. She broke the girl code. But, so far, what I've done to those two is just the appetizer of this four-course meal; I still have Helen and her crotch serpent to deal with.

Poor Mitzie is still in jail waiting to be bailed out, but her mother has no money because I emptied her accounts and cut off communication between her and her cash cow. She's been losing her shit ever since I started watching her on the screen.

From the looks of it, she hadn't slept a wink, which made sense because of all the fleas that had taken over her house, well, Dad's house. A house he's about to lose once I have it condemned.

The icing on the cake is that it's already paid off, and oops, the insurance lapsed, the insurance that Helen was responsible for since she's the one who handles the bills with her broke ass.

Dad's going to lose his shit in more ways than one by the time he gets back home and finds everything that I have waiting there for him. When I started all this, the only thing I didn't factor in was the billionaire who now sits beside me talking to someone in my state about having Dad's house condemned.

"Do you want it demolished, or do you want her to leave and allow an exterminator…."

"Demolished!" I didn't have to think twice, and here's why. When she forced my Dad to buy that house, it was to one-up my mother. She bragged for years about how her house was better and in a better neighborhood.

Not that our family home was shabby or anything, but their house did cost more. This was at about the same time she made my Dad take Mom to court to lower the alimony and child support which he didn't win, thankfully, or that judge would be on my shit list now too. There are only so many days in the damn week, and I'm already stretched thin.

My plan is to dismantle the life they built on my and my family's heartache, and when it's all done, I'll be sure to let her know that it was my doing. I want the satisfaction of spitting in her eye, so to speak.

"Shit?" I waited until he hung up the phone.

"What is it?"

"The others will be here soon. That means I won't get to see her reaction live." I pouted, and hubby leaned over and kissed my lip.

"Don't pout. I'll be sure to distract them at the right moment so you can see."

I clapped my hands and went back to my breakfast, suddenly ravenous. I think this one is trying to get on my good side because he always knows the right things to say or do. Hah, I'm not falling for it. Though, I think I could get used to him and his way of doing things.

I guess him knowing me so well has its good points, after all. "So, what's the verdict?"

"Someone from the city will pay her a visit. Since the infestation is this bad, she'd be forced to move immediately. The city usually gives some kind of stipend for a hotel stay but I'm guessing you don't want that, so we'll forego that."

"How long is all this going to take?"

"Usually, it takes weeks, sometimes months.

"I don't have that kind of time. I want it gone by the time he reaches home in a few days."

"Are you sure?" I just gave him a look.

"I never do anything I'm not sure about."

"Yes, ma'am. Well, to answer your question, she'd be getting that knock on the door in a couple of hours, and she'd have to vacate the property immediately. She won't be able to take anything with her unless an exterminator processes it first, and since there won't be one available at the time, I guess she'd be leaving empty-handed. I figured that's what you would want."

"You figured right." No money, daughter in jail, husband thousands of miles away. My eight-year-old heart was beaming.