{"id":152,"date":"2008-12-19T23:51:53","date_gmt":"2008-12-20T05:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theproviso.com\/?page_id=152"},"modified":"2026-02-22T19:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T00:02:39","slug":"cinderella","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/extras\/vignettes-outtakes\/dirty-little-secrets\/cinderella\/","title":{"rendered":"Cinderella"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

DECEMBER 2005<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cTELL ME WHERE she went.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely not, Kenard,\u201d Sebastian drawled. \u201cYou just stood down a woman who was packing, and if she<\/em> can\u2019t handle you, I\u2019m not going to give you another crack at her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want her,\u201d Kenard growled.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo shit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere\u2014did\u2014she\u2014go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy house,\u201d Sebastian said, just to see what would happen. He figured he probably oughtn\u2019t have said that when his head exploded with the power of one well-aimed fist in his face.<\/p>\n

He would\u2019ve laughed if he could\u2019ve.<\/p>\n

\u201cShall I call you a taxi, Nephew?\u201d Fen drawled from above him, smug, Trudy smirking, and a whole host of people collecting behind him with varying degrees of horrified glee on their faces. Kenard was gone.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, he did start laughing despite the pain. \u201cYes, Unk, that would be much appreciated.\u201d He gripped his chin and waggled it a little to make sure nothing was broken.<\/p>\n

Fen flipped his cell open and called, while Sebastian sat on the cold marble floor, his back against the cold marble wall. \u201cDamn, he packs a helluva punch.\u201d He looked at his aunt. \u201cWould you get my mom\u2019s coat from the check for me, please? The white mink bolero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trudy rolled her eyes and walked off to do as he\u2019d asked. Family, after all, war of murder and politics notwithstanding.<\/p>\n

Fen was still chuckling as the crowd dispersed, disappointed, as it was obvious no battle between Taight and Hilliard would commence. Fen held out his hand to haul Sebastian to his feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cDamn,\u201d Sebastian muttered as he brushed off his suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas it worth it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see the look on your face? Oh, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s in over her head with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian grinned at Fen. \u201cYeah. Now you can\u2019t tell me that wasn\u2019t hella entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fen smirked. \u201cYou are right about that. It definitely was. Are you sure he\u2019s not going to hurt her?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFen, what the hell do you care? You\u2019ve tried to kill her twice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, you know how it is with family. I can say anything I want but an outsider says something and I\u2019ll pummel him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI see. Only you have the right to kill her because you\u2019re family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPrecisely. And you know, I do have a soft spot for her in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian chuckled. \u201cYou are so fucked up. And in answer to your question, yes. He will. The minute she lets him know just how rough she likes it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a virgin. She doesn\u2019t know shit from shinola.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo words: Hank Rearden.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fen started to laugh. \u201cGod, that\u2019s rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trudy came back with the coat and Sebastian thanked her, then went to wait outside for the taxi.<\/p>\n

That was the funnest evening he\u2019d had in a long time.<\/p>\n

BUT BY THE TIME Sebastian got home, the funny had worn off. His head was pounding and his jaw was aching. His face would be black and blue by tomorrow morning, if it weren\u2019t already, and he needed painkillers. He hadn\u2019t been ambushed like that since his mission. Sebastian gingerly descended the stairs from the garage and opened the house door to see Knox sitting at the dining room table, scribbling something. He looked up as Sebastian went into the kitchen, and said, \u201cThat\u2019s \u2026 not quite what I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian grunted and bent over the sink, turning the cold water on to let it soothe his face a bit. \u201cShit,\u201d he muttered, looking down at the blood on his tux shirt. \u201cThat\u2019s never going to come out.\u201d He said nothing more while he slowly divested himself of his tie, jacket, shirt, and undershirt. He took some ibuprofen and fixed himself a bag of ice to hold against his face. \u201cGiz come home?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Knox didn\u2019t ask him where she was or why she hadn\u2019t come home with Sebastian, he had to assume Knox had a pretty good reason for not wanting Kenard and Giselle in the same room together\u2014and a helluva lot bigger one than Sebastian had originally thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I tell you what happened,\u201d Sebastian said slowly as he sat at the head of the table and leaned back. He closed his eyes and held the ice to his face. \u201cYou are going to tell me all the juicy details of your falling-out with Kenard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stony silence met his calmly voiced demand, but that didn\u2019t surprise him. \u201cBryce did that?\u201d Knox finally muttered.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knox sighed heavily. \u201cI already told you everything. I hated that cunt he married, and the feeling was mutual. Trudy all over again. She told him the reason was because she and I were fucking on the sly, and we were putting up a front for him so he wouldn\u2019t suspect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian sat silent, thinking, remembering the extent of Knox\u2019s reaction to this little scheme. \u201cWhere,\u201d he asked, \u201cdoes Giselle fit in?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFuck,\u201d Knox whispered. \u201cFuck, fuck, fuck.\u201d Sebastian opened one eye to see Knox\u2019s elbows on the table and his face in his hands. \u201cOkay, look,\u201d he said, \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do, okay? I\u2019ve been trying to figure out how to solve this problem for the last five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian started. \u201cFive years? Problem?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Knox chewed on the inside of his cheek. \u201cBryce took one look at Giselle and fell head over heels in love with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian barked an unamused laugh. \u201cI\u2019d say. His fist had her name all over it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUm, not \u2026 tonight. At BYU. Fifteen years ago.\u201d Sebastian\u2019s headache was intensifying. \u201cHe\u2019d just married Meryl, maybe, I don\u2019t know, two, three months before he saw Giselle. The look on his face when he saw her\u2014 I\u2019ve never seen anything more painful in my life. I mean, he was already miserable, and I knew how he thought. He\u2019d probably already damned himself to hell the instant it happened, lusting after another woman when he had a wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian made a gesture to keep him talking.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiselle\u2019s there in my house teaching my roommate karate, getting him ready for a belt test. High-level stuff, you know? Bryce walked in, clapped eyes on her first thing, and that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That made no sense. \u201cWait a minute. Fifteen years? She was twenty. Are you sure? Because Giselle was not<\/em> attractive and Kenard was a stud before his fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBryce is \u2026 \u201d Knox sighed. \u201cShe\u2019s a warrior, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian nodded.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe likes that. Liked. She\u2019s standing there, teaching a man half again her size, putting him on his knees. Bryce saw her for what she was. Wanted her, wanted what she had because he didn\u2019t have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean, he didn\u2019t have it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Knox\u2019s mouth twitched in thought. \u201cWhen Bryce was twenty-four,\u201d he said slowly, \u201che could wipe the floor with anybody except his family and his wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you telling me,\u201d Sebastian drawled, \u201cthat he was henpecked?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. And you know, Giselle wasn\u2019t quite the hard-ass at twenty that she is now, but it was more than he could\u2019ve taken. And really, what difference did it make, right? He was married. He was too cowed by his dad and what everybody would think to divorce the bitch, even though he wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you tell me this last month?\u201d Sebastian asked wearily, too tired and sore to work up a good mad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould it have made any difference?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMight have. Let me tell you what happened to her this past April.\u201d He began to explain. \u201c \u2026 So then<\/em> she tells me about this guy she saw at your house\u2014\u201d Knox\u2019s jaw dropped. \u201c\u2014noted how he looked at her, noted the ring on his finger, got her heart broken immediately, and she\u2019s been carrying that ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHoly shit,\u201d Knox whispered, aghast.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I don\u2019t know<\/em> that the guy she kissed was Kenard, but now we know your study buddy was<\/em> Kenard. She told me about that in August and she\u2019d been acting funny since it happened. Then the minute I pointed him out to her\u2014 She was all black widow. This whole other woman I\u2019ve never seen before kind of took over. She gave him this come-hither look, started walking, he followed her like she had him on a leash, and they disappeared for a good half hour. Next thing everybody knows, she\u2019s running back through the gallery in her stocking feet, with him hard on her heels\u2014 Surprised she could outrun him, but for whatever reason, she was more motivated. He lost her, came back in, asked me where she went. I wouldn\u2019t tell him.\u201d Sebastian pointed to his face.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wonder if he remembers,\u201d Knox mused.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouldn\u2019t say, but she\u2019s been carrying that guy around for fifteen years, wondering what if, practically waiting for him and she doesn\u2019t seem to remember him\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s been fifteen years and a house fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething<\/em> in her recognizes him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOr he\u2019s just the personification of twenty-four-year-old Bryce. Only this one\u2019s what she thought the other one was, but wasn\u2019t. He would\u2019ve disillusioned her in no time. He was bulky, but he was a real pussy with women.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t visualize that,\u201d Sebastian said flatly. \u201cNot with what I just saw.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I can\u2019t visualize what you\u2019re telling me. I mean, you said he followed her like she had him on a leash. That I can visualize. That\u2019s the Bryce I know, being led around on a leash by his wife and his dad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian turned and grabbed his sketch pad, dropped the ice and rummaged around in the credenza\u2019s drawer for a pencil.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiselle would\u2019ve broken him and she would never tolerate a man she can break no matter how much she wanted to get married. That\u2019s one reason I never set them up after he got back on his feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a few strokes of his pencil, he gave the sketch to Knox.<\/p>\n

\u201cShit,\u201d he whispered as he gaped.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, fuck the leash. A rabid wolf with the rope in his teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHuh,\u201d Knox said as he handed the sketch pad back to Sebastian. \u201cWell, keep it to yourself because we are not getting involved. If I can sit on this for fifteen years, you can sit on it for however many weeks it takes for them to get their shit together. Or until she comes to me for help, whichever comes first.\u201d<\/p>\n

★<\/p>\n

2026022<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DECEMBER 2005 \u201cTELL ME WHERE she went.\u201d \u201cAbsolutely not, Kenard,\u201d Sebastian drawled. \u201cYou just stood down a woman who was packing, and if she can\u2019t handle you, I\u2019m not going to give you another crack at her.\u201d \u201cI want her,\u201d Kenard growled. \u201cNo shit.\u201d \u201cWhere\u2014did\u2014she\u2014go.\u201d \u201cMy house,\u201d Sebastian said, just to see what would happen. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":39,"menu_order":4124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-152","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/152"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23483,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/152\/revisions\/23483"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}