Page 48 of Belle Amour
“What upset her so much that you felt the need to come tell us all this?” Robert asked as he glanced at his watch, giving Greg a subtle reminder that the game was going to start soon.
“Right, sorry.” Greg looked momentarily flustered and paused to collect his thoughts. “Casey has been losing her shit about Mirabelle and Bastian being here. Helena thinks – and I agree with her – that she’s afraid that you and Mirabelle are planning to reveal the truth about everything and are toying with her and Eddie by coming a week early and reconnecting with Eddie’s family. She’s been trying to come up with something she can do to either embarrass or discredit you two.”
“I'd stay away from the strip club they're planning to go to after the game, Bastian, and if you do go, don't drink anything. Two of Casey's old cheerleader friends work there, and she's sent them your picture with instructions to film everything.”
“Strip clubs aren’t my thing. I wouldn't go regardless.” Bastian shook his head dismissively. He didn't have a problem with strippers in general, but the fact that Mirabelle’s mom was one gave him a complex about going to them himself. “What are they planning for Mira?”
“Nothing tonight, as far as I know, but Helena said that Casey was going through Eddie’s laptop last week looking for pictures of her and him together to make a slideshow for the reception. She found a folder full of pictures of Mirabelle that included nudes. They had a huge fight about it while she packed to move out, but Eddie managed to convince her that he had just forgotten to delete it and deleted it in front of her to prove it. Someone in the group chat reminded her of them and suggested that she use them to get back at Mirabelle, so she restored the folder from the recycle bin, sent herself the nudes, and apparently made another slideshow.”
Benji leaned forward, his eyes narrowed. “Do you know how she plans to show everyone the slideshow?” Greg shook his head ruefully.
“She never said, but she has it on a USB on her keychain. She was bragging about what she was planning to do to the wedding party.” Greg looked up as Eddie yelled over the crowd that the game was starting in twenty minutes and everyone needed to place their orders before they went to their seats.
“Do you think Helena can get me a picture of that USB?” Bastian asked quietly. He wasn’t sure what the revenge porn laws were in Michigan, but if Casey went through with her plan, he would do everything in his power to make sure that she answered for it, whether legally or privately.
“I'll ask her.” Greg nodded but didn’t look too happy about it. “I wouldn’t hold my breath, though.
Bastian pulled out his card and surreptitiously handed it to Greg. “Text the picture to the number on here.”
“Thank you for telling us this.” Victor smiled reassuringly at him. “It’s very much appreciated. Now, we can plan how best to handle everything, which is incredibly helpful. Do you know how much Eddie knows about this?”
“As far as Helena and I can tell, Eddie is very much in love with Casey and views everything around her with rose-coloured glasses, and to quote one of my favourite shows, “When you look at someone while wearing rose-coloured glasses, all the red flags look like flags.’” He stood up. “I'm gonna go order myself some food and another beer. It was nice to meet you; I wish it were under better circumstances.” Greg nodded and smiled sadly before walking off.
Bastian immediately pulled out his phone and looked up revenge porn laws in Michigan and was both relieved to seethey were pretty much the same as they were in New York and disappointed to see the consequences were negligible, less than a hundred days in jail and a fine of five hundred dollars for a first offence and up to a year in jail and a thousand dollar fine for a second. He leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling as he thought. An idea hit him, and a slow smile crossed his lips. He looked back down to see the other three men watching him, their eyebrows raised.
“Bast? Can we know what you're planning?” Robert asked cautiously, looking around as people swarmed around them, lining up for the bar.
“I uploaded all the court documents regarding Mira's divorce to my online storage.” His grin grew wider. “I'm going to put together my own slideshow. But, first, I need to get my hands on the keychain and replace it with an identical one.” The others furrowed their brows in confusion, but they were going to have to wait for a further explanation; right now, he needed to bring Mirabelle up to speed on everything. “Excuse me for a second.” Bastian stood up and left the lounge, finding a quiet, out-of-the-way corner to call her from.
“Hey Bast, everything okay?”Mirabelle’s low, husky voice filled his ear and sent a small shiver up his spine. Since he stopped repressing his feelings for her, it felt like everything that had always been a mild turn-on for him had been ramped up to eleven.
“Hey, Love.” Bastian paused, wondering how to tell her. He didn't want to ruin her evening, but he also didn't want to keep her in the dark about it.
“Bast?”
“Yeah, sorry.” Bastian rubbed his jaw in agitation. “I just finished talking to the husband of one of Casey’s bridesmaids. Idon’t have time to tell you everything, and I really don’t want to ruin your fun tonight, but Casey has a plan to humiliate you.”
“Humiliate me?”Mirabelle laughed.“How could she possibly humiliate me? I didn't do anything wrong.”
“Apparently, she found a folder of your nudes on Eddie's computer. She's made a slideshow that she plans to show everyone.” Mirabelle didn't respond, and Bastian became concerned. “Mira?”
“What nudes?”Mirabelle's voice was shaking slightly.“I didn't take any nudes. Bast, come on. I'm a lawyer who has spent the last ten years handling divorces. How often have we had to go after someone for revenge porn or for sharing the pictures with their friends without permission? If I had taken nudes for Eddie, I would have brought it up during the divorce to make sure they were deleted.”
Bastian felt a moment of relief, which was immediately followed by concern and confusion. If she hadn’t sent nudes to Eddie, how did he get them? “Do you have any idea how he would have nude pictures of you?”
“No?”He could hear how upset she was and was instantly remorseful that he had told her this over the phone.“Unless he took them without me noticing, but I honestly can’t see him doing that. He doesn’t even watch porn.”
“Are you sure about that?” Bastian had to ask; it had become very clear to him that Eddie was not who he pretended to be while he was with Mira.”
“Yes.” Her voice was very confident, which surprised him.“I suggested watching a soft-core one once while we were dating, thinking he’d be into it, and he almost broke up with me because of how disgusted he was about it. I had to explain that it was recommended in a magazine article to spice things up alittle, and it wasn’t something I usually do to get him to calm down.”
“I see,” Bastian murmured; he understood her thought process but could also see Eddie not thinking that snapping a few pictures of his wife naked would count as porn. “Would he have accepted nudes from you if you sent them?”
“Yeah,”Her voice was a lot quieter now.“He asked for them once or twice while we were texting when he was away on his guy weekends, but never pushed when I’d tell him no, even when he was clearly drunk.”
Bastian decided to focus on the current issue. “I’ve looked into Michigan’s revenge porn laws, and they’re the same as New York’s but with way less harsh penalties, and it’s not a civil offence. I figured we could make our own slideshow with the evidence we collected and swap them. She has the slideshow on a USB that’s attached to her keychain; if we can somehow grab it and make the swap, we can turn the keychain into the front desk and say we found it…” He trailed off. His plan was weak, and he knew it, but it was only in the beginning stages. “But I’ll do whatever you want to do.”
“We need that USB,”Mirabelle said firmly.“Even if we don’t switch out the slideshows, I need to see what nudes she's talking about.”