SCANDAL ✓

Chapter 017 | Guilt's Companion

Hey. It took longer than I thought to write this chapter, but I recently lost my dog and have been grieving.

Thanks for sticking around in wait for it though:-) Let's dive in.

Yards away, Chicago leaned stiffly against a tree, watching the discomforting scene unfold. His shoulders ached from the strain, and he thought he felt something crawl at the nape of his neck. He would've swatted whatever it was away, but he didn't want to call attention to himself.

He felt like an idiot hiding behind the trees. This was beneath him. The entire situation was beneath him. But he figured it was less than he deserved.

Every time he planned something, it blew up in his face and his sister got hurt.

Said sister was currently standing stiffly too, doing the same thing he was doing—watching the discomforting scene unfold.

When he'd heard about her engagement to Paris Boden of Boden Enterprises, he'd known something was off. The timing was too suspicious, and Shanya didn't strike him as the sort to swoon over a guy (millionaire or not) in less than two months.

It wasn't hard for him to figure out exactly what was off about the shocking announcement a few days later.

And he wasn't impressed.

In fact, it had proven to him he was right to return her home by any means possible.

He didn't know the full details of their scheme, but he knew enough to know that he didn't like it. At first, he'd thought the bastard was two timing Shanya—using her for his own gain. But he'd known the truth even before his mind tried to process it.

They were both using each other.

He didn't know why and he didn't particularly care. Foiling their ridiculous scheme was his next agenda. The anonymous message he'd sent to the red head about her boyfriend's unfaithfulness had worked like fireworks. He'd been careful with his wordings, putting enough doubt to cause her to expect that something scandalous would occur today.

And then watch as she ruined the engagement party.

It was just his luck that she arrived a few minutes before the kiss was initiated. He clenched his hands. She was supposed to have gone inside and cause a scene. Their cover would've been blown, and Shanya would have had no choice but to end the absurd sham, accept that she couldn't manage on her own without her family, and come back home.

But she had run out of the hall and everything had gone south.

At that very moment, there was a piercing scream as the raging red head brutalized Boden's chest with her fists. Chicago briefly invisioned himself in her place doing the exact same thing. Only with more precision. And a lot more blows.

A few minutes passed and the once raging woman was now crying. He frowned. She never once struck him as meek.

He watched as Shanya adjusted herself and said something incomprehensible. Whatever it was, it had the other two—the young white girl and the big dude—laughing.

He read the situation and came to the painful realization that even despite this chaos, Shanya was not going to back out. He'd underestimated her sheer will to always finish what she started.

And he was done trying to stop her.

After all, you could take the horse to the water, but you couldn't force it to drink. And this particular horse was dead-set on not drinking.

It was best to leave her to her own devices. Nothing he did seemed to teach her anything anyway. A part of him stung at that knowledge as it showcased his failure as a brother and a father figure. But mostly, guilt ate at him. When Shanya was pummeled to the ground and the red head had her measly hands around her neck, he'd known he'd crossed several lines. Unforgivable ones. Just like before. Albeit, he didn't know Christian would try to rape her. But he should've. He was a depraved opportunist after all.  Scumbag of the earth.