Page 14 of Silks

Chapter 5 (Ophelia)

I woke up to the sound of my brother snoring. Rolling over sleepily, I saw that he was stretched out over the trundle bed in his boxer shorts, his big thighs sprawled open, his feet hanging off the side.

For a moment I felt slightly guilty that he was in the much smaller bed, but then I remembered with a lurch of my stomach that he had chosen Dad’s soulless company and any amount of comfort was too good for him.

You could see why he always had girls falling all over him, though. Why he could get any girl he wanted.

He looked like everyone’s dream man, only instead of being a knight in a fairy tale, he was a 27-year-old finance douchebag who only pretended to care about actually important things.

I huffed with annoyance and reached over to pick up my brother’s phone, moving my legs gingerly because it felt sticky and wet between my thighs. Shit, did I have a hot dream and come in my sleep or something? I really needed a shower but I had to check Teddy’s phone to see if I could find something usable on there.

Of course, I realized, I probably wouldn’t even know what usable looked like.

He hadn’t even changed his passcode. It was still the date our horse Snakehandler had been sold. God, how we had loved that thoroughbred. He had won the Derby that year, and I was filled with such pride that I could have burst with it. That was back when we were 16 years old. I hadn’t realized when the racehorses got old or injured that they weren’t going to big farms in their retirement, but to other countries like Canada and Mexico, where distributors used them for dog food.

That was the last time I trusted Dad had our horses’ best interests at heart.

Though I didn’t know why Teddy still had that passcode. He must be a lazy asshole, because I knew he didn’t really care.

I was hoping for a big note entitled MY PLAN TO RIG THE KENTUCKY DERBY, but unfortunately, I didn’t see that. I nosily scrolled through my brother’s text messages, which were mostly incredibly boring or women enthusiastically offering to fuck Teddy any way he so chose.

Must be nice, I thought sourly, remembering how my ex Matt had waffled on even calling me his girlfriend for several months.

I clicked on Teddy’s text thread with Cressida.

There was one pissed message from her last night that he had ignored, but apparently she shouldn’t hold out much hope. I couldn’t help scrolling back and most of her seductive pictures and titty shots only merited a thumbs-up emoji from my brother, and he had at least a dozen other offers for sex from this week alone.

I didn’t see anything particularly wrong with Cressida’s tits, but Teddy was always picky as fuck when it came to girls. I clicked out and was about to put the phone down when it occurred to me to check his hidden folders.

Jackpot, I thought with glee. Even if it wasn’t anything to do with the Kentucky Derby, surely my brother was at least fucking one of my mom’s friends, or something else equally amusing I could taunt him with.

I eagerly clicked on the folder, hoping for dirt.

But I gasped audibly and almost dropped the phone when I clicked on one photo after another and it was all one goddamn person.

ME.

Pictures that came from my private Instagram I thought I had locked down. Pictures I thought I had only sent to ex-boyfriends. Pictures that looked like goddamn surveillance photos.

What the fuck was Teddy doing with them?

I scrolled through every single picture with increasing panic. There must have been fucking hundreds of them.

He was spying on me!

My twin still slept in the trundle bed beside me, one big arm thrown over his head, his big chest rising and falling with his deep, even breaths.

I threw down the phone and rolled over, poised above his unsuspecting body. Then I dropped down with one knee on my brother’s balls and put both hands around his throat and started to squeeze.

Of course unfortunately it wasn’t going to be enough to actually kill him, but I still squeezed as hard as I could, bringing my knee back and jabbing it down into his balls again.

Teddy woke up with a grunt, bringing his hands up instinctively to his throat.

“What are you doing with all those pictures of me in your phone?” I demanded.