I was determined to figure out how to take care of this situation with Justin. I couldn't find any lead or information that would help me. I wasn't as skilled as Damon and I didn't have people who could get it for me. If I went to Martin right now it was my word against Justin's, I didn't feel that was good enough. I needed something concrete on him.
My phone rang as an unknown number kept calling. This was the eighth call from this number. "Hello? Who is this?" I asked as I finally answered to find out who it was.
"Kaydence?" A familiar voice was on the other end. It was Victoria.
I rolled my eyes to myself. "What do you want now?"
"I-I know this is probably the last thing you want to do, but can I come talk to you privately?" she asked, there was a tone in her voice that I had never heard before. Her confidence she always tried to have was nowhere to be found.
"I'm at the store right now. Come here and we can talk one on one." I had a feeling that I should hear her out.
"Okay, I'll be right there." She hung up quickly.
"Who was that?" Julie asked as she entered the back room with my lunch.
"Victoria. She wants to see me." I sighed as I took the salad from Julie. "She's coming to the store, this should be good."
I walked out of the backroom and sat on a stool of the counter of the register. I sent the others to go get lunch so we were closed for the hour. I opened the salad and began to eat it.
"What do you think she wants?" Julie sat next to me to eat her own lunch.
"I really don't know." I responded flatly.
I had finished eating when Victoria appeared at the door of the store. I made my way to let her in. I noticed she was wearing sunglasses but it was cloudy out today. "Can we speak in private?" she asked as she noticed Julie.
"Yes, follow me. Julie I'll let you know if I need anything." I spoke as I led us to the backroom and shut the door.
I took a seat at the desk I usually used for drawing and motioned for her to sit on the chair in front of me. "Thank you for seeing my Kaydence." she stated as she sat down.
"No problem, what's this about?" I asked.
"I heard what you're trying to do. Justin called Ava and wanted to know if she thought you were an actual threat." She answered.
"If you're here to try to stop me it isn't going to work." I responded.
She sighed and removed her sunglasses. She wore them to hide the two black eyes and the bruising on her face. I looked in horror at the girl in front of me.
"You were right. You were even right the last time I was here but I didn't want to admit it." I could see she was fighting back some tears. "I want to help you. If I help you take him down then it gets me away from him.
"What happened to you?" I had a feeling this was going to happen but it didn't mean I wanted to be right.
"Justin started being rude and pulling my hair and things from the start, but he always apologized. I noticed that the more I was rude to you the less he acted out." She explained. "I'm really not this way Kaydence and I'm so sorry for the way I've treated you. I was raised better than that. My parents put Justin and I together and if it didn't work out my father threatened to cut me off from the family money. They're struggling and need to be in good with the Tipton family."
I nodded, "Okay. Tell me more."
"Well he started getting more physical when you guys stole his first contract, it was just grabbing me tightly and a slap here and there when I said anything to make him mad. Then his plan with Ava didn't work so he started kicking me after he had thrown me to the floor." She went into more detail. "Then this last contract he left me alone for a few days but then he was filled with so much rage he punched me. I knew he was up to no good and I started trying to figure out how to get out but honestly I was so scared, I still am." She had to stop herself for a moment.
"That was some time ago, the marks on your face seem to be fresh. What made that happen?" I asked, I needed more information to see how truthful she was being.
"The black and white event. I walked into the penthouse because it was left unlocked and I knew he wasn't up to any good. He was going to rape you until I came in and told him to leave you alone or I was getting Damon." she glanced up at me with eyes full of hurt. "He dragged me out of the room, but left you alone. Since then he's been beating on me just because he can and because I was disobedient. You told me when we first met up one on one to call you if I needed help."
"Do you know about the recording he gave to Martin?" I wanted to see what she knew about this situation.
"Yes. He told me about it and I was there when he handed it over. Martin was livid to think that Damon would do such a thing and was hurt that you agreed to it. He really was thinking of you as his own daughter." she explained.
"What am I supposed to do? Damon isn't here so I don't know how to help get you out of this." I knew my eyes were filled with sorrow. I couldn't take Justin on my own.
"You need to go to Martin, you need to tell him the truth." She responded.
"Why me? Why can't you go to him and show him what Justin did?" I questioned, she had the visual evidence on her body.
"Just because the marks are here doesn't mean I have the proof of his actions. He's removed all the security footage, I checked. He tightened up on making sure things were deleted after the first incident we had." She let out a sigh of defeat. " I'm scared that if I go to Martin and it doesn't work out Justin may get angry and go too far. Kaydence, I fear he could actually kill me."
"I don't have proof Victoria. I'm practically useless." I wanted to help, but what could I do?
She pulled out a flash drive from her purse. "Here, take a look." she handed it over.
I plugged it into my laptop and pulled the contents of the flash drive up. It was a video. I clicked play and watched as it was the security footage of when Justin first grabbed me. It even showed the woman he had been sleeping with minutes prior leaving in a hurry. Then there was more, there were images of emails of Justin and clients talking back and forth. These were the conversations Justin had when he promised to have me sleep with his clients in return of the contracts.
"When I found out what you were trying to do, I got into his computer and I even went back on the security from when you were together. He forgot to delete this footage and never got rid of his emails in case he needed to keep a client quiet. I would take this to Martin myself, but it's not my story to tell Kaydence. This is it though. This is how you take him down." She spoke as she watched me look everything over.
"I, um-" I couldn't find my words. I had everything I needed, just handed over so easy. I was speechless.
"Don't do it for me. Do it for you and Damon. They've put you through enough. If you expose him then it'll lead to Martin looking into everything. It'll end up with him looking into Ava as well and it'll take care of them both." She stated.
I nodded. "Okay. Don't let him know you were here."
"I won't. Good luck Kaydence." She got up from the chair and hurried out of the room.
I pulled out my phone and dialed a number. This was it, this was everything that I needed. It was time to come clean to Martin.