The Best Man's Speech

9: Broken For Nothing

✵ MICHAEL ✵

I came back home within an hour, after the meeting had finished, worrying about my baby sister, only to find Derin staring at me as if his simple task of babysitting had gone all wrong. And I guessed right, judging from his creased shirt and messy hair, I could tell that Lyra was one heck of a handful.

"Lyra?" I asked, seeking confirmation.

"How do you do it?" Victoria asked, looking at me like she was exhausted.

"Easy. Stop being her family, and try to be her friend." I replied, looking between the two.

"Right." Derin finally responded.

I chuckled sadly before looking at them, "You guys can go back home now. But keep this between you two." I walked them out before heading to the basement of my condo, where I stacked all of my liquor and wine.

Walking in, I came across the sight of a broken girl who sat on the ground, miserable drinking the wine in the bottle. "You still sober?" I asked her, before taking a seat on the ground beside her and looking ahead, trying not to intimidate her or even scare her.

"Uhuh." She mumbled as she sat the bottle down and traced her finger around the top.

"What's up?" I asked her, turning my whole body to face her.

"I feel so used." She exhaustively said after shrugging her shoulders, before leaning herself against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her, waiting for her next words. "I let him have me. I gave myself to him... like an idiot. Only to end up being nothing more than a toy to him."

I didn't say a word. I know people think I should, but she needed to let it all out, without anyone asking her to stop or shoving their opinion in the way.

"How could I have been so careless?" She scolded herself as she pulled back. "He fucking dismissed like he wasn't just trying to sleep with me." She cursed him under her breath before angrily throwing the bottle she was just drinking from at the wall opposite her. I watched the bottle smash into its crystal shards before dropping on the floor, to scatter into tiny broken pieces that spread only in that small corner of the room.

I sighed wordlessly.

"I think I should retire." She calmly suggested, as if she was convincing herself.

"No!" I exclaimed out to her. Before I could say anything more, her attention was snatched away as she looked down at her ringing phone. She pressed her thumb against the answer button before pulling the device to her ear. I watched her wordlessly nod her head as she continued to stare into the distance, making sure not to react in a dramatic way to whatever the caller was saying.

The call lasted for a total of ten minutes, with my sister doing nothing more than nodding away with a numb expression on her face as the anonymous caller spoke. She didn't even respond to anything throughout the whole call. However, towards the last seconds of the call, before she pulled the phone away from her head and looked right into my soul. "What?" I declaratively asked as she continued to freak me out with her big brown bear eyes.

"He called." Her voice was calm and low but still audible. I continued to look at her like I was clueless, waiting for her to elaborate. "He basically told me that the only reason he treated me like nothing after everything was because the maiden who walked in on us worked for his dad and was to report back to his father regularly. And if she caught me with him and saw him treat me in a specific way, his father would start hunting me down and might put the whole company in a scandalous jeopardy since I work for him."

I nodded at the explanation. It made sense to me. I mean, James' company wasn't passed down to him by his father but made of the inherited wealth he had managed to gather up and save. Everything he has now is made from his rebellious attitude towards his family. After his mother had died, his father never really liked him... thanks to the fact that James was the only one who survived in the car crash that killed his mother. His father blamed him for his wife's death. James was only 12 when it all happened. After that, he was determined to recreate himself out of nothing... much to become the man he is today.

I sighed as she rambled on about worrying about what the maiden would report off to Mr Stone, the senior one, about James, "Calm down. I am pretty sure she is well accustomed to the concept of one-night stands and hookers."

She gasped and gawked at me, "I will let you know that I am neither of those!"

I nodded, "I am just saying... like he could always lie about it and disregard your real identity to protect the both of you. And it's not like the maiden should be that concerned with you. Unless she is a little awkward."

She nodded in agreement.

"So what about your retirement plans?" I smirked, jokingly.

"Nevermind those... they can wait for a little while longer... maybe after I am 60?" She jokingly dismissed and I chuckled along.

"So what now?" I asked, when the laughter started to fade, while grabbing the bottles of wine and placing the slightly full ones on top of the wooden desk that lay in the center of my cellar, before picking up the broken pieces of glass from the bottle, the big ones.

"Help me up!" She whined as she lazily stretched her arms out in my direction. I growled a low growl before dragging my body towards her and pulling her up on to her feet.

"What do you plan on doing now?" I asked her.

"I don't know. But before Derin left, he asked me to head back since our lovely sister wants to go bridal shopping and has given me the torturous opportunity to be her maid of honour." She replied with a smug smile on her face. She had exaggerated the word lovely in a sarcastic tone, all out of our general acknowledgement to the way that Meia was a pain when it came to planning anything... and her wedding was only going to be the death of all of us, unless you were mom and dad.

"At least you don't have to wear a matching dress with someone else." I smirked as she lead me out of my own cellar.

"Touche." She responded before nodding her head at me and heading out of the door. I instinctively prayed that Meia wouldn't find out that Lyra was drunk at her bridal shopping.