Free Broken Dreams by Rissa Blakeley

dress.
    “Oh, well. I wasn’t a fan of it to begin with. Not to mention the giant rip up the side.” I pulled it around so she could see the Tiffany blue garter midway up my thigh.
    It reminded me of my mom. Kind of an odd statement, but she bought it for me after she conceded to the color of my choice. I loved Tiffany’s and owned more than one person who was jobless should. I looked down at my engagement ring and twisted it around my finger. I started to get choked up.
    My mom drove me batshit crazy most days but, at the end of the day, she was my mom and I loved her. I couldn’t help but wonder if she was a victim along with my father, my brother…the list goes on and on of all the people Henry made me abandon. There were over two hundred people at our wedding that didn’t happen.
    I could hear Henry talking on the phone in his bedroom. He sounded furious and different…he was talking with an accent! I was curious and needed to investigate.
    “Be right back. I’m going to see if I can find a tissue or something.” Claire nodded while she sobbed. I got up as quiet as I could in my fraying, make-up stained dress, and headed toward his room.
    I was shocked. I had never heard Henry shout like he was before that day. He was generally so mellow and in control. And, for some reason, he was speaking with a British accent.

    ***

    “I can’t fucking believe this!” Henry yelled into the phone. Kellan chuckled. Henry yanked off his tuxedo jacket and loosened the tie.
    “You knew perfectly well that it was going to happen.”
    “Fuck you. Now I have to figure out how to explain all of this to her! She lost a bunch of her family today, but that doesn’t faze you head-fucks, does it?” Kellan continued to laugh at Henry’s anguish.
    “Meh…just collateral damage.” The nonchalant tone in Kellan’s voice infuriated him.
    “God, you have no heart. You are a bunch of sick fucks.”
    “And there is that bleeding heart Roger spoke about.”
    The tie came off, quickly followed by the vest. “Innocent people are dying just so others will stroke your egos! That doesn’t bother you?!”
    “Why would it? I always like a good stroking, ego or otherwise.” Kellan was having too much fun.
    “What the hell is wrong with you?! Children will die… have died! Jesus Christ,” Henry mumbled as he unbuttoned the top three buttons on his shirt.
    “Survival of the fittest, yeah?”
    “I can’t fucking believe this.” Henry paced the floor of his bedroom, practically wearing a path in the dense, plush carpet.
    “Did you think you would have the upper hand by holding the injection hostage? Well, guess what? You failed. Miserably, I might add. Did you not think that someone, let alone Gunther, could possibly break into your flat? Now that was really stupid. Who taught you those lock picking skills that you excel so well at? It wasn’t dear old mummy.” Kellan knew that referring to Henry’s mother would send him over the edge.
    “Shut up,” he growled.
    “Oh, what’s the matter? Miss your mummy, do you?”
    “You shut the fuck up about her right now!”
    “Or what?” Kellan’s laughing was driving Henry to near insanity. He was yanking on his hair, seething in anger. He was trying to calm himself down so he wouldn’t completely snap in front of Elaina. If she saw him so unhinged, it would frighten her even more than she already was.
    “You could have at least informed me when… I could have taken proper precautions.” He took the cufflinks out of his cuffs and yanked the shirt out of his pants.
    “Now, Liam, you knew it was bound to happen when you saw it was gone. And, besides, the element of surprise is always fun, yeah?”
    “Goddamn it!” Henry raged. He kicked the ottoman that was in front of his chair. Thankfully, he still had his wing tips on or he might have broken a toe or two.
    “Just because we love you oh so much, we are sending Sophie over. She’s on a plane right now as we chat like old