Blackmailed

[The Exodus]

Tristan Vidal

The day the ring was found, it was returned to Monsieur LaFollette.

The day after the ring was found, Madame LaFollette’s funeral was performed.

Tristan returned from the cemetery in the best mood he’d been in this week. Everything – all the sleepless nights, all the agonizing conversations with the police – had been worth it to see the LaFollette family say their final goodbyes and to know that no one was getting sued over this fiasco.

Sometimes, accidents just happened.

Tristan twirled his keyring around his index finger as he walked and then pocketed it like a sharp-shooter holstering a gun. And then he made eye contact with Solange from across the room. A smile curled Tristan’s lips as he looked at her. She’d been the one to discover Madame LaFollette’s missing wedding ring. And the one to keep a level head during this whole she-bang. Tristan didn’t know how she did it. He walked over to Solange’s desk and kissed her lightly. Since the interns already knew they were together, there was no real point in hiding it.

Especially since official closing time was in ten minutes.

“Last service of the day,” he said with a sigh as he pulled away. “If nobody dies in the next ten minutes, how about you and I go out for an early dinner?”

[blueeyeddevil]

Solange de Grace

Everything was slowly but surely returning back to normal for her and Tristan. They'd returned the ring and the LaFollette family had thankfully agreed not to press any kind of charges and seemed to understand that it was an honest mistake once they'd managed to talk with them. None of the interns had come forward, but she and Tristan had pretty much decided that whoever it was was simply too embarrassed to come forward. They didn't say anything more on the subject but there had been a perceptible lift in the mood (at least among the staff) since returning the ring.

Tristan seemed to be in an especially good mood as he returned from the internment. He smiled at her where she sat at her desk doing some odd paperwork. She couldn't help but smile back at him and was pleasantly surprised as he strode over and kissed her which she happily returned. After keeping their relationship a secret from the interns for so long it took some getting use to being able to (somewhat) freely show affection.

“Last service of the day,” he reminded her. “If nobody dies in the next ten minutes, how about you and I go out for an early dinner?”

She smiled happily at the idea. "That sounds fantastic," she said. "I just need to finish up this order form for the flowers for next weeks services. It'll just take a minute." She kissed him once more before motioning to the pile of envelopes at the edge of her desk. "You mind going through the mail for me? We'll be done even quicker that way..."

[The Exodus]

Tristan Vidal

“Sure thing,” Tristan said, picking up the stack envelopes. He didn’t have much else to do tonight. For once. Usually, he was up to his eyeballs in embalming and paperwork.

I guess karma isn’t always a b*tch, he thought, as he absently chucked some junk mail into the garbage. After the last couple weeks, he and Solange deserved a nice, quiet night out. Tristan set aside the month’s electric bill to take care of first thing in the morning. His mind wandered a little as he hit another patch of junkmail.

And then, at the bottom of the stack, he found a parchment-like envelope. It had no return address; no stamp. It just had Tristan’s name written in an unfamiliar scrawl. He tore it open and read silently.

Since you called the cops, I’m going to tell the national board you and your “business partner” can’t keep it professional in the work place. I don’t think they’ll like that much… Happy job hunting.

Tristan read over the words again. Angry heat rose up his neck and clenched his jaw.

“What the hell?” he muttered under his breath, flipping the paper over and searching for anything resembling a signature. There was nothing. He looked up from the paper at Solange. Why was business partner written in quotations? She was his partner. In all things, but especially when it came to the funeral home. Without her, the place wouldn’t last a day. Especially with the crazy interns running around these days. Without her, Tristan didn’t know if he’d last a day. She was his girlfriend, yeah, and she handled half of the paperwork of this place but…

Realization knifed through him. He loved Solange.

It wasn’t the first time he’d realized that he loved her. He thought it often. He’d been mulling over the words for at least a month now. “I love you”. Not something you could just casually work into conversation. So he’d never thought it was something he should actually say out loud. Tristan had never said “I love you” to anybody in his life. Not that he could recall. Not his parents. Not Laurence. Not any of his exes. Not even his friends. No one had ever really said it to him, to be fair. He’d never really felt like he was in love with anyone before now.

In fact, if the swelling in his chest and the ache in his stomach hadn’t been so foreign, it would have taken Tristan even longer to figure out that what he felt for Solange was love. It had scared him the first time the words crossed his mind. And they’d been more persistent since.

He looked at her now, as she worked on the order form and his heart felt sore and heavy. Fit to burst and bleed all over everything. He twisted the letter in his hands. He didn’t want some weird, threatening letter to be the reason he said he loved her.

Tristan looked down at the envelope in his hands. Was he supposed to take this sh*t seriously? An unsigned letter in unfamiliar hand threatening to tell the national board that Tristan and Solange were dating? It just sounded so petty. So childish. Why would anybody…

Since you called the cops…

Something clicked in Tristan’s head. Whoever had sent the letter had been behind the missing ring.

“Solange,” he said in a clearer, stronger voice. He extended the letter and envelope to her. “Take a look at this.”

[blueeyeddevil]

Solange de Grace

She smiled gratefully as Tristan began to go through the mail. It was one less thing for her worry about and would surely get them out the door and to their dinner date that much sooner. They certainly needed it after the whole terrible ordeal with the ring. While it had all turned out well in the end, it was still quite stressful. She was certainly looking forward to spending some time with her boyfriend. For once in her life she didn't feel like she was forcing herself to spend time with a boyfriend because she thought she should...she looked forward to dates with Tristan and they always had the best time no matter what they ended up doing.

She soon became caught up in trying to to calculate the amounts of different kinds of flowers they would be needing for the services next week so she could fill out the order form correctly. She glanced up briefly when she heard Tristan mutter “What the hell?” She figured the electric bill must have been a good deal higher than normal this month or something along those lines. One of them would call the company in the morning and get it straightened out.

"Solange," he said, his voice sounding oddly tight and instantly she got the feeling that something was very wrong...more wrong than a high electric bill. “Take a look at this.”

He handed her whatever he'd been looking at. It didn't look like the usual kind of mail they got. There was just a brief note sprawled on a sheet of paper in handwriting that she didn't recognize. She read the note and then reread it. This could not be happening. She shook her head as she read it over a third time as though hoping the words would have changed. After all of the problems with the ring, things were still spiraling downward.

It made her angry...all she wanted was a relationship with Tristan! Was that seriously asking too much? She just wanted to be with this man who made her happier than she'd ever been, who meant more to her than anything, who she cared so much about and...loved. She'd known in her heart for a while but her mind was catching up. She loved him. What a time to realize it...

She slowly looked up at him, feeling helpless. For once she had no plan and felt flustered and confused. "Tristan...what do we do?" she said, feeling pale and shaky. "If this isn't some sick joke, it could mean serious trouble."

[The Exodus]

Tristan Vidal

Seconds ticked by slower than usual as Tristan waited for Solange’s reaction. His jaw felt tight; everything felt tight. Like he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, without his whole body snapping to pieces. And then, finally, Solange looked up.

"Tristan...what do we do?" she asked. "If this isn't some sick joke, it could mean serious trouble."

“For whoever sent that, yeah,” Tristan said through clenched teeth. “This is blackmail and if I find whoever sent this…”

He didn’t have a plan. But it seemed poetic to maybe rip the blackmailers fingers off. Not that Tristan actually could…

I could do anything right about now. This is ridiculous.

He took a deep breath and gripped at his scalp, thinking. He’d never thought the national board would give two shakes about him and Solange dating. There were loads of couples who ran funeral homes together.

Married couples. Not dating couples, he thought grimly. This was uncharted territory as far as he knew.

Tristan exhaled and looked at Solange desperately. What he hoped was a reassuring smile twitched onto his lips as he reached for her hand.

“We already had inspection,” he said. “And we passed. So if this scum-sucker goes to the national board, chances are, we’ll get docked a couple points. A slap on the wrist. That’s not so bad.”

But he didn’t even sound convinced himself. Who knows what this jerkwad will tell the national board…

Tristan could imagine the tall tales now. A chaste kiss in the lobby could become blazing-hot sex in the embalming room if the storyteller was good enough at stretching the truth. And even that could be further distorted… Tristan swallowed hard.


“We’ve dealt with the national board before,” he repeated. “And it was just you and me back then. We’ll be fine. We always are.”

[blueeyeddevil]

Solange de Grace

As she stared at the brief but significant note she could feel dread welling up in her from the pit of her stomach. She didn't see any way that this could end well for them. She'd honestly convinced herself that dating Tristan wasn't that big of an issue, that they'd been sneaking around the interns the clients because they wanted to keep their personal life private. But obviously this blackmailer thought the national board would have something more to say on the subject of their relationship. The words "job searching" kept leaping out at her. She'd never forgive herself if Tristan lost his business over this!

Tristan scoffed at the reminded of the trouble this could lead to. “For whoever sent that, yeah,” he told her. “This is blackmail and if I find whoever sent this…”

Solange looked at him sadly, taking his hand in hers. It was obvious he knew this was was more serious than he was letting on. It took a lot to to get Tristan angry and she'd never before heard him threaten anyone. It only made her worry more.

“We already had inspection,” he said. “And we passed. So if this scum-sucker goes to the national board, chances are, we’ll get docked a couple points. A slap on the wrist. That’s not so bad. We’ve dealt with the national board before. And it was just you and me back then. We’ll be fine. We always are.”

Somehow Solange didn't even think he'd managed to convince himself that was true. Deep down they both knew that if this blackmailer wanted to take them down, he only had to take creative license with their story. Even the other interns (even clients) could possibly be swayed to spin their own tales. Group-think was a powerful thing when it really got going.

"Tristan, I want to believe that....more than anything," she said softly, staring down at their hands still entwined. "But we don't have any idea what the national board will say. We don't have any idea what the blackmailer will say! I can't stand the thought of you losing everything because of me! Because of our relationship!"

She shook her head, not wanting to say what was she was about to, but knowing that it might be their only option. She could feel tears burning in her eyes and she took a deep breath to try and help steady herself.

"Until we can get this taken care of..maybe the best thing we can do is have no relationship for them to investigate..."

[The Exodus]

Tristan Vidal

“You can’t be serious,” Tristan said, looking into Solange’s eyes. Searching them, really, for a hint of amusement that wasn’t there. His voice cracked before he spoke again. “Solange…”

She was breaking up with him. Right here, right now, in the lobby of his – of their – funeral home. There was nothing funny about that. No punchline coming, except maybe the punch to the gut Tristan felt at the thought of losing Solange. He squeezed her hands tighter. Letting go would mean letting go.

And even though everyone said love was letting go, Tristan couldn’t bring himself to buy into that kind of talk. He wasn’t letting her go. Not now. Not ever. Not unless she actually wanted to leave…

It can’t be that… Right?

“We aren’t breaking up because some moron is blackmailing us,” he said with more conviction. “The Solange I fell in love with is too stubborn to let some anyone tell her what to do. Especially some no-name blackmailer.”

[blueeyeddevil]

At the sound of the hurt in Tristan’s voice she couldn’t even bring herself to look at him. She just hung her head and tried to blink back tears. She didn’t want things between them to end! But it was the only way she could see to salvage their business. She just couldn’t handle their relationship being the reason he lost what he’d worked so hard for!

“I don’t mean for good,” she insisted. “Just until we can get this situation taken care of.” She didn’t want to say anything there was a possibility they might have to stay broken up if this blackmailer wasn’t found and kept coming after them. She couldn’t allow herself to think like that right now, though.

“We aren’t breaking up because some moron is blackmailing us,” he told her firmly. “The Solange I fell in love with is too stubborn to let some anyone tell her what to do. Especially some no-name blackmailer.”

She finally lifted her eyes to meet his. “I can be stubborn but not when they are threatening the person I love,” she said. Her eyes widened a bit when she suddenly realized what they’d both admitted. She gave a slightly tearful smile. “I love you, Tristan…”