The Love Of Money - S02 E163

Story 2 months ago

The Love Of Money - S02 E163

Read Story: SEASON 2 EPISODE 163

Truth be told, I couldn’t blame him. I noticed Sachiko’s beauty at the restaurant, but now that I’d seen these pics, I really began to understand how lovely she was. It sucked to be him.

Not that you really have a lot of room to talk, I thought to myself. There’s a certain someone you’ve looked a little too long at that you shouldn’t.

That wasn’t the same, though. I didn’t go around collecting sexy social media pictures like they were goddamn Pokémon cards.

Besides, Emily and I weren’t technically related.

“How about your dad?” I asked Ryo, deciding I’d much rather focus on him than me right now. “Does he know about this?”

And then that gave me another thought.

“Is Carla in here? I know you gotta have a crush on her.”

Still no answer.

Lo and behold, only a few folders down the line—‘Stepmother.’

Opening it, I found a treasure trove of Carla Tanaka pictures.

Jackpot.

These weren’t casual sexy bikini photos like Sachiko’s. These were explicit. In more than half of them, Carla was either nude or in some kind of lingerie. Many of them were of her spread out on a bed or slutting it out on a piece of living room furniture. Thank fuck none of them had that wrinkly old prune of a husband in them. That might have scared me for life.

“My god, Ryo,” I said, looking up at him. “There’s like… what? Two hundred? Three hundred here?”

Still, he remained silent, simply giving me his death glare. I could hear his heavy breathing through split lips in the eerie silence as we stared at each other.

I said as I turned my attention back to Carla’s images. “Did you know that we fucked? Not that I was really trying to or anything, but she…”

I blinked at one of the thumbnails of two women posing.

I opened the image.

I blinked again.

I backed out and started scrolling through them with much more scrutiny than before.

“What is it?” Chloe asked.

There was another…

And another…

I passed the phone to Chloe. “That fucking bitch.”

She took the phone from me and stared at the latest image.

I looked at Ryo. “Congrats. You get to keep both your balls. For now.”

Without another word, I turned and made my way toward the apartment door. “Good work, guys! Clean him up and get some band-aids, I guess.”

Opening the door, I stepped out into the hall and was surprised to see Erin sitting on the floor across from me. I stopped short, and Chloe, on my heels, nearly collided with me.

“What are you doing out here?” I asked, stepping the rest of the way into the hall. Chloe shut the door behind her so that the three of us were in the hallway alone.

“You told us to wait in the hall,” Erin said, sliding up the wall till she was standing. “We waited for about thirty minutes, but I had some stuff to take care of, so Helen stuck around for me. I took over about ten minutes ago. She didn’t want to leave, but I convinced her you’d be okay with it. She said she needed to hit the little girl’s room and then called Karl and William to fill them in on the situation—felt like a good idea considering there’s a dead assassin involved.

I sighed. “Sorry… I forgot I told you guys that. I didn’t mean to have you just hang out here.”

Erin glanced from Chloe to me. “It’s fine, but are you okay? It’s been a little over an hour, and you still look like you want to murder someone.”

“I do want to murder someone. Look at this.” I handed Erin Ryo’s phone.

She took it and studied the image. “I…”

Then she slowly blinked, her brow furrowing in confusion. “Wait…”

She looked back up at me. “You’re not thinking…”

“Yeah,” I said. “I am.”

“You can’t know for sure,” Chloe said.

“That’s why I want you to go to Carla’s apartment downstairs, wait for her to get home from work, then bring her to me,” I said.

Then to Erin. “I want you to find Helen and tell her to go get Bobbi.”

“Bobbi?” Erin asked.

“Yeah. I want her to see what happens when someone really pisses me off.”

“What are you going to do?” Chloe asked.

“Ask her some questions,” I said.

Chloe stared up at me for a long moment, and just when I thought she was about to protest, she finally said, “Alright.”

Erin handed the phone back to me. “Where do you want Helen to meet us?”

I glanced back down at the phone, staring long and hard as the three of us made our way toward the elevator. The image on the screen showed Carla holding a few shopping bags while wearing what appeared to be a skimpy dress made from scraps of designer fabric. Standing next to her with a couple of shopping bags and a smaller, closed-lip smile was Amber Bell.

And something Carla said when we first met rang through my memory:

I might start going if you’ll be there. It’s always filled with boring old men. Though, I have to admit, Chandler is fun. Amber, too, when she was on the board.

“Tell Helen that we’ll see her in the dungeon.”

***