“Sorry about your mom.”
“I’m sure you heard about her too. Her death is one of the most famous of the Manhattan royalty.”
“Well I’m not Manhattan royalty.”
“Oh, but you do know. I know you do.” I will her to look me in the eye and lie, but she doesn’t. No one talks about me without discussing my mother.
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. It must’ve been terrible.” The usual sincere sympathy comes from her tone.
“It was the usual dramatics. Hugo saw the whole thing. He’s been fucked up ever since.”
“What about you?” No one ever asked about me and I feel prone to answer, especially if it gains points with her.
“When my father came home, the first thing he did was ask where I was. As if she was our responsibility, not his. The world has been an unkind place since then. I’ve hated it ever since.”
She just looks at me and it makes me feel uneasy. Her brown eyes tear into me, digging through the bullshit and grabbing out the one thing I thought I got rid of.
“It must suck,” she says.
“What?”
“Being you.”
Something is occurring inside me. It’s very unpleasant. What the hell? No one makes me feel this way. No one.
The cart comes to a stop.
“Are we getting off or what?” I ask with an attitude.
“I’m sorry.” She looks at me not with pity but understanding, and it pisses me off more.
“It’s fine,” I lie. “But are we?”
“My little sister just comes on. She’s twelve and very smart and talkative, so be nice.”
“Karlie!” A girl with pigtail braids runs into the cart. She jumps over me and hugs Karlie. I hate kids.
The little girl stares at me as she sits across behind us. “Who’s this?”
“This is Gabriel Mandrake. We go to school together. Gabriel, this is my little sister, Anika.”
“Hey.” I make the greeting quick.
“Are you rich?” Anika doesn’t want to make it quick. “You look rich.”
“Filthy.”
“One day we’re gonna be rich.”
“Anika, don’t,” Karlie warns her.
“Really?” Now I’m interested.
“My big sister is a genius and Mama says she’s gonna go to Harvard and become a famous lawyer and buy us a big house.”
“Don’t pay her no mind.” Karlie is embarrassed.
Her mom believes in her. How sweet. Most likely this will happen. Karlie is ambitious. Smart. Brave. After knowing her for two days, she is really quite incredible.
“Sit back,” she tells her sister.
I learn more about Karlie through her very talkative little sister. She spends her time studying and taking care of her little sister while their mother works as a clerk at a non-profit law firm. She has friends from their neighborhood but rarely goes out with them. She likes to watch cooking shows and music videos. Anika hates that they only have one television. They fight every day on who gets to watch what. They share a bedroom, and Anika embarrasses Karlie by informing me that she has a poster of Simba from The Lion King on their wall. Even though he is a cartoon lion, Karlie finds him very handsome and he was her first crush when she was a kid. I don’t judge. I kind of thought the Lady was cute from Lady and the Tramp. Lions are my spirit animal, so we have something in common.
The talking doesn’t stop once we get to our stop or on the walk from the Queens Plaza Subway Station. Of course my limo is waiting for me as we reach their apartment building.
“Whoa!” Anika yells in excitement. “Is that yours?”
“Yes.” I see an older woman is already standing by it looking at it suspiciously. She looks exactly like an older version of Karlie’s little sister, meaning this is their mother.
“Hey ma.” Karlie and Anika hug their mother and now she’s staring at me in a suspicious and disapproving manner, which she rightfully should be.
“This is a classmate of mines. Hugo Mandrake.”
“Mandrake?” her mother pronounces the name in disgust.
“How do you do, mam?”
“I’m fine. Thank you for walking my girls home, but next time don’t have your limo out here parked. I don’t need my neighbors gossiping about how we are probably doing something illegal.”
“Ma,” Karlie mutters.
“Of course,” I say.
“Next time can we take a ride in it?” Anika asks.
“Sure,” I tell her.
“Anika, let’s get inside so you can do your homework and I can get ready for work. Karlie, you too.”
“I’ll be up in a minute,” Karlie tells her and waits for them to enter the building. “Sorry, my mom doesn’t—”
“Trust rich, spoiled white boys hell-bent on seducing her beautiful and black daughter?”
She laughs and nods. “Basically, yeah.”
“It’s alright. Mothers don’t like me… well the ones I’ve never slept with.”
“You really don’t care what you say, do you?”
“No point in hiding the truth.”
“You mean hiding the truth you don’t want to hide?”
I shake my finger at her. “You’re not as wet behind the ears as everyone thinks.”
She’s amused. “No… but then again everyone assumes the worst, don’t they?”
“Yes, they do.”
“So I guess I won’t assume the worst of you.”
“You’re too kind,” I say truthfully.
“Yeah… but Gabriel.” She takes a step towards me. Close in my proximity, I can’t help but stare at her lips that are so full and natural. They almost stop me from noticing her looking at mine. “Whatever game you’re trying to play at? Leave me out of it.” Besides wanting to kiss me, she is serious in her statement, and all I want to say is that I can’t.
“Seriously.” She looks me in the eye this time.
“Okay.”
“See you at school tomorrow.”
“See ya.”
I wait for her to walk into her building before getting in the limo. Through the ride home, Karlie Dale doesn’t leave from my mind. She’s interesting. Intriguing and funny even. I don’t even think about how fun it’s going to be when I destroy her anymore. I just think about how nice the travel to Queens with her and her annoying little sister was. It felt kind of normal. Something my life has lacked since… well always.
HUGO
“I knew his intentions were not positive, but it was something about the way he looked at me when I told him the truth. About how it must’ve sucked to be him. I just knew that Gabriel had problems. Even before I met him.” She stares off as she continues telling me about the effects of the subway car ride with Gabriel. “I just knew he was gonna be trouble, and I think I wanted some trouble. I had always done the right thing. Work hard. Get good grades. Be a good girl. Stay on the right track. I wanted to have fun. Take more chances. More risks.”
“Too bad it was the wrong chance.”
She looks at me. Her brown eyes conflicted themselves, trying to see if they agree with me or not. “It matters what point of view you see it from. As Karlie Dale… I see it as a stupid and exciting and amazing. As Karlie Fairchild… I see it as regardless… fate. It has to be.”
Karlie is more trying to prove that to herself than to me.
4
SCARLETT
“So Hugo’s getting off?” Chad’s frustrated tone hits me.
“It looks like it. I mean there isn’t any evidence except the drugs you planted.”
“You sure those drugs don’t have my prints on them?”
“If you wore the gloves I told you to wear, then yes. And I did take care of the camera footage from the building, so they’ll try to work the pills, but I guess it is a waste of time.” I shrug as I stare at the black Givenchy dress I’m trying on in my private dressing room at Saks. It’s divine yet similar to my Armani… and my Dolce.
“So ba
sically this was all for nothing. That whole speech about the black heron? That fucking bird from India.”
“Africa.”
“Whatever that nabs its prey in a fucked up way. You didn’t want to destroy Hugo.”
“No, I did. He had hope. Then it was ruined. Now he’s at home trying to figure out a way to destroy me, and that means reverting back to who he was last week. He’ll ruin his relationship with Juliet all on his own. She doesn’t have the stomach to agree with the things he’s willing to do.”
` “And you’re not worried?”
I almost laugh at that question. “Of course I’m not worried. It’s Hugo. Granted he’s probably more clever at a revenge scheme than most of the people out to get me, but no. Never worried. He’ll try, maybe even shake me up, but he will fail.”
“Whatever. You can give the grand speeches, but you left out one thing. You did it because you were hurt and desperate.”
My eyes cut through him through the mirror, but I forget what I was about to say once I observe his fidgeting and sweating.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
He sniffs. “I haven’t had a hit in a fucking day.”
“Why?”
“I got a meeting with my dad and I’m trying to sober up.”
“Chad, sweetie, you’re gonna need more than a day.”
“I thought you were gonna get your fucking boyfriend to help me out? Put in a good word for me. Tell him how I found his sister’s rapist.”
“You and I both know that your dad isn’t believing that shit.”
“Yes, he will,” he growls.
“Chad.” I turn around and face him. “Patrick doesn’t know our history. Your father is practically a part of it. He remembers the last time that vile term was associated with us.”
The crazy fucker laughs at that. “That was a good time.”
“I bet it was for you.” I face the mirror again.
“And justice for you. Your ultimate win. You broke the shit out of him. And her.” He snickers. “Whatever happened to Karlie?”
I toss the Givenchy dress away and pull out the Dior. “Who cares?”
JULIET
I don’t think any of us are paying attention to the film Poppy picked out for us to watch in the rec room. Well, all of us except Poppy, who is enjoying Reese Witherspoon making out with some guy dressed in black. Cody looks like he’s thinking about Anika. Jordana looks like she’s reading old text messages from Margaret Jacobs and trying to figure out if she should respond or not. I’m thinking about Karlie Dale. I’m thinking about what happened to her. How she survived it and where has she been all these years?
The doorbell rings and the butler, Thomas, gets it.
“Anika,” Cody mutters once Thomas brings her in. “What are you doing here?”
“You’re not answering my texts,” she says, fiddling with the straps of her leather teal crossover bag.
Cody crosses his arms over his chest and hardens his jaw. “Well then you should already have your answer.”
“Cody, can we please just talk? Just talk to me.”
He stands up from the couch and stuffs his hands in his pockets.
“So talk.”
Anika looks around at us. “Alone?”
“No… I’ve had enough of keeping secrets. Besides, you not only lied to me, you lied to all of us. So talk.”
She sighs and talks before talking herself into running away. “My sister… was a good person. The best I ever knew. She could walk on clouds. She was smart, pretty, kind… happy. And then she broke. She completely broke. I was just a kid when it all happened, but I remember. I remember what she was like when she was in love. She loved him so much and then… that bitch Scarlett ruined her. They all ruined her, and I watched her go from broken to broken with rage. She left and then… she came back rich as hell and with a plan. I know what I did was wrong, but… she’s my sister. That’s my answer. She’s my sister. I love her and I’ll do anything for her.” Still staring at Cody, she smiles. “Even deceiving the one guy who actually makes sense to me and who led me to care about someone just as much as I care about my family.”
Cody is still stubborn and doesn’t respond, but what Anika just said does register to him as the fury in his frown cools. He opens his mouth but doesn’t have a chance to say anything as Hugo and Karlie walk into the rec room.
“Hope we’re not intruding,” Hugo says twirling his door keys in his hands and Karlie standing next to him wearing a sleeveless violet blouse and white skirt.
“No, you’re not,” Anika says, looking defeated and she takes a seat in one of the chairs.
“Anika, you good?” Karlie asks. Her protective nature for a sister shows in her glare aimed at Cody.
“Yeah,” she lies.
I get it. Anika has sacrificed a lot for her sister out of love, loyalty, and obligation. I’m the same with Jess, the girl who’s paralyzed because of me. Granted we’re not sisters, but if I can feel that way towards a girl who wasn’t my friend to begin with, especially after what I did to her, then you could understand why a sister would do it. She still holds that devoted support to Karlie’s cause, but maybe for once she would like for her sister to put her needs and her wants first above her vendetta.
“So I assume this visit is to explain operation takedown evil bitch,” Jordana says to Karlie.
“Yes, it is,” Karlie answers and Hugo takes a seat next to me, grabbing my hand. My heart just naturally clings to his touch now, and it’s funny and new to me. I was never the girl who even looked forward to this feeling, but now I find myself never wanting to live without it. I guess you really never know the future until you are in the now, but don’t let the others know that because I’m psychic, remember?
“Before we get into this, I just want to know how you got with William Fairchild,” Jordana asks what we’re all wondering. “Are the rumors true? He met you at a bar?”
Karlie sits on the edge of the coffee table and her dark eyes become more distant than they already were.
“Yeah, the rumors are true. After the assault my mother sent me away to Ohio to live with my great uncle and his family.”
“Did you overdose in Ohio or here?” Cody asks.
Karlie laughs a little and shakes her head. “Overdose, not true.”
“Noel Rochester said Gabriel tried to help you and you drifted off into despair,” I say.
“Gabriel tried to help me by breaking up with me.” Her attitude comes out. “Me drifting off into despair was because of that too. Noel Rochester doesn’t know shit and he never will because he has always been what Gabriel referred to most of Scarlett’s followers as—sheep.”
After weeks of staying there, I found out about…” The hint of pain is still in her voice. Like she can’t bear to say it. “Gabriel’s death. You can imagine the usual effects of losing someone. Denial, sadness, rage. My mom and I wanted justice, but of course they shut that down quick. Rochesters, Michelsons, Braysons, and Mandrakes. They threatened our jobs, our livelihood. Manipulated footage and pictures of me and Chad and Noel, which were to prove that I enjoyed it. That I was some drunk girl looking for a good time. I begged my mom to let it go and soon she did. I stayed in Ohio. Went to school. I had this fake ID Gabriel had gotten me, so I used it to get a job at a bar. I was doing everything I could to get by the rough days. To survive for…” She looks at us and uncertainty registers in her eyes. Hard to spill your feelings in a room of people you barely know. “For what I had left. My family, my dignity, my life. I was working at a bar when I met a very drunk older man in a suit. He was so sad. He looked almost sadder than me, and as I was bringing him drinks, he was giving me answers.”
“To what?” Poppy asks.
“To how I was going to get revenge. Once I found out that he was the William Fairchild, I told him how I was from New York and how I went to school with the sons and daughters of his fellow elites. When I was off the clock, I found myself telling him everything. Gab
riel, Scarlett, Chad, Noel, everyone who had a hand in the reason I was in that bar with him in that moment. The next day he came back to the bar and told me he had cancer. He said he had no one he could trust and for some reason he felt that he could trust me. We just connected, and a week later he asked me to run away with him. Travel the world. To marry him.”
“That’s it? But why?” Hugo asks next.
“His words, if I can remember correctly…” She smiles to herself. Unshed tears forming in her brown eyes. “I want… I want to give back what they took and more. I want to do something right for the first time with my life, and I don’t want to be alone when I die.”
We all continue staring at her as she wipes her face.
“So we traveled and made a home in Monaco. It was nice. Wonderful. I was with him when he died peacefully on our beach. As you already found out, he left everything to me. Everything. Kept my identity under wraps from his family and here. Gave his nephew instructions to run the New York office and wait for me to return.”
“Which is now,” I say.
“Yes, which is now.”
“So what is the plan?”
Her smile is cunning, and with her legs crossed she leans back, one arm behind her, palm flat on the table, and the other over her lap.
“Well to take over each family, I had to find out their secrets, their problems, their fears. Of course NeoLock is down when it comes to Johnathan Mandrake. As for the Rochesters, well their empire is in a bit of a pickle.”
“What are they known for?” I ask.
“Their family made their fortune building one of the first railroad and shipping companies,” Hugo answers.
“Yes, and the company is losing money. Of course Gale Rochester wants to keep that under wraps. She’s been secretly seeking someone to buy the company. This is giving someone new ownership over her family’s legacy.”
“And that’s you.”
“Yes. The contract is being written up as we speak. I will own her ass. As for Noel, he’s weak. Once he sees my face, he’ll self-destruct all on his own.”
The look on her face makes it seem like she wants him to kill himself… maybe she does.
Reckless Karma (Sinners & Saints #2) Page 4