sinking ships - succession

chapter thirty

"Thanks, Hugo."

          Kendall thanked the man as he left. Then Kendall stared at his laptop in deliberation while he sat in the chair of the office chosen for his siblings on Election Day.

          It was early morning; far too early for anyone to even be here. But he was here because he had asked Hugo to dig up ammunition he could use against his sister and the man really delivered.

          Hugo had found emails to his late father corresponding about Rose. This person was demanding money to not post a video; it was blackmail. And his father had paid the price for not only not posting the video but for deleting all copies.

       Logan really went above and beyond for Rose.

       Now the only copy rested here in these emails that had been deleted but recovered by Hugo. And Kendall debated using it against his sister to get her to manipulate the board and end the deal.

        And he didn't debate for long.

____

Rose had been called to Waystar by Kendall early in the morning. She walked into the office with a coffee in her hand.

Even though it was so early, she walked with a bright aura. The fact was that talking to Shiv about that night, about the incident, made her feel free. She no longer had any skeletons in the closet or any secret pain. She was free.

"Hey," she smiled at Kendall as she walked into the office. "What's up? Is there something wrong that's gonna fuck the election broadcast?"

"No, no," Kendall waved off before he swallowed harshly. "Um, I wanted you to see something."

"What?" Rose gave him a small smile as she took a sip of her coffee, seeing that he was nervous and she wanted to reassure him.

Kendall merely turned his laptop around as he hit play. Rose froze as she watched the soundless video. She coughed for a moment as she swallowed her coffee wrong. But her eyes were glued to that screen as it continued to play.

It was a sex tape.

As she watched, she remembered that night between her and Lukas. It had been...intense. And this video only captured the beginning where she was bent over the dining room table. She bit her lip at the thought of that night, how he...No. She stopped her thoughts from getting muddled with intensity and desire over Lukas.

Instead, she questioned how this video was taken. Her apartment was on the very top floor of a skyscraper and the camera view was outside the glass windows. She realized someone used a drone to film her. It made her feel sick that her privacy had been invaded to capture such an intimate moment.

"Why am I seeing this?" she questioned as it ended.

"Dad had protected you when he was blackmailed with it," Kendall said. "But I had it dug up."

"Why?"

"Rose, I'm prepared to release this if you don't get the board to vote against the deal," Kendall laid his cards on the table.

Rose stared at him disbelief, "You're joking?"

"I'm sorry, Rose," Kendall looked away.

Rose stared at him sadly as she realized he was completely willing to drag her through the mud. Tears gathered in her eyes as her voice quieted with betrayal, "I expected this from Shiv but not from you. Never you."