章節 22: Ultimatum

"I just came to see how my big sister is doing, can't I be concerned after all we are all family." Brooke said with a pout as she pretended to be disappointed at Lyse's reaction to seeing her.

"What. Are. You. Doing. Here Brooke?" Lyse repeated.

She wondered where James had gone because if he was at the door he would have never allowed Brooke to come in.

Brooke shrugged and cast off all appearances of concern and came closer to the bed. She looked at the bruises on Lyse and realized sadly that her injuries did not seem serious, despite the black eye and bandage she still looked beautiful.

She wished that Lyse had been hit harder and died, that would have immediately solved most of her problems. She hated that Lyse was like a cat with nine lives, it did not matter what was done to her she somehow managed to come on top.

"Fine!" Brooke rolled her eyes, "I want you to come help me with the spring summer collection."

Lyse started laughing at the ridiculousness of Brooke's request and she groaned and reached a hand to her aching head while she looked at her petulant sister who looked like she was serious.

Lyse wondered if Brooke had gone mad with desperation, it had been a while since she had made that kind of request.

The conversation was reminiscent of the times when they were younger and Lottie would force Lyse into doing Brooke's tasks. Her excuse used to be that she needed to make up for being the illegitimate child.

It was so bad that she would not have time to work on her own assignments and she would end up looking like the dull one while Brooke would shine off her own work.

"Don't be ridiculous, there is no way that I am going to do that." Lyse answered and a malicious light lit up in Brooke's eyes as she smiled a shit eating grin.

"Are you sure about that?"

Lyse's fury rose at Brooke's tone. Brooke must be stupid to think that she would willingly do anything for her, she was no longer a naive child who would do as she was told because of how desperate she was for familial love.

"Get out of my room right now!" Lyse demanded weakly.

"Sure, I will go." Brooke said, "but before I leave I have to ask, how are you able to afford this hospital room?"

She slowly turned around and took in the large room with it's own bathroom. For the first time Lyse actually looked at her room and was surprised.

Brooke had raised a valid question, why was she in this room which looked like it belonged to VIP patients.

"Last time I checked you are jobless so where did you get the money for this lavish room?"

"Could it be that it has been paid for by your lover?" Brooke grinned while Lyse's heart started to beat hard and fast. "Is this lover the same one who you slept with on the night that was supposed to be your wedding night?"

"You know, despite all of your pretense of being a good girl I always knew that you were nothing but trash." Brooke sneered. "And now I have proof that confirms it and unless you come back and work as my assistant everyone else will know that you are nothing but a cheap whore just like your mother is."

After saying that she raised the screen of her phone so that Lyse could see the image of herself in men's clothes obviously doing the walk of shame at the hotel lobby.

There was no doubt about it, the image was very telling. Lyse wondered how Brooke had gotten that picture.

After holding the phone in Lyse's face for a long moment, Brooke took away the phone and tilted her head, looking down at Lyse confidently knowing that she had her trapped between a rock and a hard place.

There was no way that Lyse would survive a scandal such as this one. It was important to Brooke that Lyse accepted to work for her but she half wished that Lyse would say no.

She had an entire elaborate plan on how she would expose the picture, she would weave it into Brandon's dumping her. It would be the scandal of the year.

'Maybe after I am done using her I will still release the video.' She smiled to herself then she issued her ultimatum.

"So what is it going to be Lyse?"

Lyse stared at Brooke's smug face which showed how confident Brooke was, she knew how dire the situation was.

It would be in Lyse's interest to keep that video out of sight because if it ever leaked she would be in serious trouble. As it was she was still dealing with hostilities from being dumped by Brandon and she had barely got any sympathy despite being the clear victim.

She had made sure to stay off social media since the ruined wedding but the one time that she had, it had been to see posts talking about how Brandon and Brooke were the perfect couple and how Lyse had been dumped because she was of a crappy character who was not deserving of one of the city's most eligible bachelors.

If that picture got out it would further add flames to an already heated situation, it would be made out that she had been cheating and then cement the notion that she was spoiled goods because she was the daughter of a mistress.

Even if they knew what the truth was, that would not be any better. What excuse would there be for a bride who got dumped and chose to have a one night stand on what was supposed to be her wedding night.