Betrayal: Kyle's Revenge (The Betrayal Series)
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Authors: Sofia Velardi
BETRAYAL: KYLE’S REVENGE
THE BETRAL SERIES
BY
SOFIA VELARDI
BETRAYAL: KYLE’S REVENGE (THE BETRAYAL SERIES)
Copyright © 2014 Sofia Velardi
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form.
Chapter I
Kyle searched the airline’s website and the earliest flight he could find was not leaving for another three days. He checked other travel websites and could not find a single flight combination that could get him to The Big Apple before Wednesday. Kyle let out a heavy sigh while rubbing the back of his neck. The uncertainty was driving him crazy. He was desperate to get back to New York City to find out why Abby had lied to him, but there was nothing he could do to get there sooner.
The thought of borrowing his mother’s car and driving back to New York briefly crossed Kyle’s mind, but that too would have taken days. According to Google Maps, the drive from Glen Falls to Manhattan would have taken him thirty two hours without traffic and without stopping. Seeing that he had no better options, Kyle rebooked his flight for that following Wednesday morning.
Kyle had just finished confirming his new flight itinerary when he heard a soft knock on his bedroom door.
“Kyle? May I come in, sweetheart?” His mother asked from the other side of the door.
“Sure, Mom. Come on in,” Kyle replied, swiveling his desk chair towards the bedroom door and hiding his anxiety and frustration behind a smile.
Kyle’s mother walked in the room with a concerned look on her face. “What’s wrong, honey? You looked very upset after you got off the phone just a few minutes ago. Is everything okay?” She sat on a chair next to him.
Kyle shrugged and gave his mother a half-hearted smile. “Don’t worry about it, Ma. Everything is fine.” Kyle did not want to burden his mother with his suspicions, mainly because they were just that, suspicions. Besides, Mrs. Garrett had enough troubles of her own.
Over the couple of hours that he had been home, Kyle had learned that his mother was in some serious financial trouble. The bank where she had worked for two decades as a clerk had just cut her hours and eliminated her health insurance plan due to the bad economy. She had fallen behind on her mortgage payments and was about to lose her house. She did not have any savings, and most of the money from her husband’s life insurance went to pay his medical bills and funeral expenses.
It pained Kyle to see his mother struggle so much. Kyle didn’t want her to lose her home after everything she had already lost. Kyle was seriously considering getting a permanent job and finishing his engineering degree as a part-time student just so he could help his mother with her bills. He was willing to sacrifice anything and everything for the most important woman in his life.
Kyle knew it was going to break his mother’s heart to see him go back to New York earlier than expected. But he couldn’t stay in Glen Falls the full ten days he had planned to spend there. He needed, for the sake of his sanity, to get back to New York as soon as possible. So he took a few seconds to find the right words with which to break the bad news to his mother without upsetting her too much.
“Listen, Ma… I can’t stay for the reunion.”
“What? Why not?” Mrs. Garrett asked, her eyes bugging out of her head. She searched her son’s face and waited for Kyle to explain why he was leaving so soon. Her mother’s intuition was telling her things were not okay with her son. She knew him too well. She knew he was hiding something from her.
“My boss at the internship I’m starting in two weeks wants me to come in earlier for training. If I don’t go back now, I may lose the internship,” Kyle lied.
“Oh, honey. That’s terrible. Everyone was looking forward to seeing you,” Mrs. Garrett lamented. “When do you have to report to work?”
“I just changed my flight for Wednesday morning. I’m so sorry.”
Kyle’s mother got off her chair and walked over to him. “It’s okay, sweetheart. At least I got to see you.” She cradled Kyle’s face with both hands and kissed him on the top of his head. “Just promise me you’ll visit me again as soon as you get another chance. I just miss my baby boy so much.”
“I promise, Ma. The internship ends a few days before the fall semester starts. I will come home and spend those days with you. I promise.” Kyle brought his hands up to grab his mother’s hands and removed them from his face. Thankful that there was at least one person left in his life who he could trust blindly, Kyle brought his mother’s hands to his lips and kissed them gently. With her hands still in his, Kyle gazed up at the woman who gave him life and gave her an earnest smile.
But the smile on Kyle’s lips could not hide the anguish in his eyes. It was obvious to Mrs. Garrett that her son was hurting. It broke her heart to see Kyle looking so sad. She made another attempt to get her son to open up to her. “Are you sure everything is all right, Kyle?”
“Yes, Ma. I’m fine. I’m just a little tired from the long flight. That’s all. You have nothing to worry about. I just need to take a little nap, and I’ll be as good as new. Don’t worry about me, please.”
Mrs. Garrett let out a heavy sigh. She realized her son was not going to confide in her, so she stopped prying. “Well, I won’t bother you anymore. I will let you get back to your computer.” She smiled as she gazed down at her son. Her hands were back cradling Kyle’s face. “I’m so proud of you, Kyle. I can’t believe my baby boy is almost an engineer and is about to graduate from one of the most prestigious schools in the country.”
“Mom… Please,” Kyle whined, feeling bashful.
“It’s true. I’m so proud of you, honey. Have always been. Your father would’ve been proud too if he were still with us.” Sadness began to cloud Mrs. Garrett’s eyes as she remembered her late husband, but she quickly replaced those sad thoughts with happier ones. “And soon you will be a married man,” she squealed like a teenage girl. “I still can’t believe my baby is getting married. That Abby is such a sweet, lovely girl. I’m so happy she is going to be my daughter-in-law.”
Kyle tilted his head down and remained silent. He wished he could share his mother’s enthusiasm about his upcoming nuptials, but the suspicion in his heart didn’t let him.
If you only knew, Ma. There’s probably not going to be a wedding anymore,
he wanted to say to his mother but held his tongue.
“Go to sleep, sweetheart. I’ll see you in a couple of hours so we can continue to catch up.” Mrs. Garrett kissed her son on the top of the head once more before stepping out of the room and closing the door behind her.
Once his mother had left, Kyle got off his chair and began to pace around his bedroom. He ran his hands through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck while replaying the phone call with Victoria in his head. He realized he couldn’t wait until Wednesday to find out what Abby was up to. He knew he’d lose his mind if he went that many days without knowing. He needed to learn the truth now and without Abby knowing he was on to her.
Kyle thought about asking someone to spy on Abby, but almost everyone he knew in The City was a student who had already gone home for summer break. The only one of his friends who was still in Manhattan was Ryan, but Kyle did not want to get him involved. When he realized he had no choice but to wait until Wednesday to find out why Abby lied to him, Kyle began to really panic. Suddenly, the room felt as if it were closing in on him. He couldn’t breathe. He wanted to get out of his bedroom and get some fresh air, but the house was full of people. There was no way he could sneak out without running into a relative eager to chew his ear off.
Kyle was not in the mood for mindless chitchat that night. He didn’t want to see or speak to anyone. So he decided to stay in his room and go to sleep. He collapsed on his bed and tried to fall asleep, but it was hopeless. He just turned and tossed. He couldn’t get his mind to stop racing even though he was very tired from the trip. He couldn’t relax. The phone call he just had with Victoria, the cashier, had left him too wired up.
Desperate for some distraction, Kyle leaped off the bed and sat back on his desk chair. He grabbed his iPhone sitting on the desk and began to scroll through the apps. He needed to find a game or something to keep his mind occupied for a few hours.
His eyes landed on an app that allows phone users to track the location of their phones if they ever get lost or stolen. “Yes! This is it!” Kyle blurted, a little too loudly. He remembered that Abby had that same app installed on her phone. Kyle himself had installed it for her because Abby was not tech savvy.
Kyle had an idea. If he could track the location of Abby’s phone, he could figure out where, and perhaps with whom, Abby was. Kyle was aware of the fact that it was a violation of Abby’s privacy and trust, not to mention illegal, for him to track her phone without her knowledge or permission. But Kyle was desperate. Abby was not going to tell him what she was up to, and he didn’t think he was going to survive the next three days without knowing.
But in order to track Abby’s phone, Kyle needed access to her iCloud account. Luckily for Kyle, The iCloud, a virtual storage space for Apple users to store their data and apps, could be accessed from any computer connected to the internet.
Kyle got online and browsed the iCloud website. The site asked him for an Apple ID and a password. Kyle knew Abby’s ID but not her password. “Crap,” he muttered. He spent a good half hour swiveling around and around on his desk chair, trying to think of possible passwords, but none of his guesses were worth typing into the password field.
As he swiveled around and around on his chair, the talking fish hanging on the wall caught his eye. The amusing gag gift his uncle had given him reminded Kyle of something. Kyle had a hunch that something could be Abby’s password. It was a long shot, but after racking his brain for half an hour and coming up empty, Kyle had to give this wild guess a try.
Believing he had figured out Abby’s password, Kyle stopped swiveling and turned to face the computer. He stared at the computer screen for a few seconds while tapping his fingers on the surface of his desk. For a moment, Kyle thought about dismissing the guess for being too easy and too obvious, but decided to try it anyways.
Joaquin
.
Kyle typed the unusual name of Abby’s beloved gold fish in the password field and hit enter. Kyle cursed softly when the website did not accept the password. “Invalid password”, the screen read in red letters. Kyle remembered from his own iCloud account that an acceptable password needed to have a number, so he added Abby’s favorite number, thirteen, to the end of ‘Joaquin’ and pressed ‘enter’ one more time.
His eyes bugged out when the site told him he was in. He smiled widely and mentally patted himself on the back for being so clever. He couldn’t believe how easy it was to crack Abby’s password, but then he remembered how little Abby understood technology and online safety.
Kyle’s smile faded quickly when he accessed the Find My Phone application and discovered Abby’s phone was not online.
Her battery’s probably dead. That’s why she is not answering it,
Kyle thought.
He was correct on that guess too. Abby had spent that whole afternoon out shopping with Brianna, and her phone died while she was in the middle of that shopping spree. Abby had no way of recharging the phone until she got back to her apartment. Because the phone was dead, Abby didn’t know Kyle had called her several times.