by Huss, JA
Her father, probably. Or her mother.
It’s certainly not Cooper.
“You don’t understand,” Isabella whispers. “This part is about me, Cadee. Not you.”
“Isabella.” We both turn to Leela. Her word wasn’t loud, but it was sharp. “Now.”
Jesus Christ. I thought Leela was kinda cool. But obviously not.
Isabella turns back to me. Her face is just inches from my private parts. She holds her breath and then slides my underwear down my legs. I step out of them and she quickly picks up the dress and begins to hang it.
But Leela comes over and without warning, or asking, slips her fingers between Isabella’s legs. Then withdraws them and holds them up to the light.
They are glistening wet.
Isabella begins to cry. Small, stifled sobs, like she’s trying to hide her shame and dismay.
“What the fuck?” I say. And I am loud as well as sharp. “What the hell are you doing, Leela? Don’t touch her like that.”
Leela doesn’t even acknowledge me. Just walks back to her corner and wipes her fingers on a white towel hanging from a rack. “Hurry up, Isabella. You can’t afford any more fuck-ups. And stop blubbering. You have been warned so many times.”
“Warned?” I look at Isabella.
She’s shaking her head at me. “Just, please, Cadee. Please don’t say anything else.”
Then she grabs the folded white garment and it unfolds in her hands to become a short nightgown. She slips it over my head and covers me up with a loud sigh. Then she wipes the tears from her face and takes a deep breath, just as Leela comes over to us with Elizabeth in the same nightgown.
“Ready?” Leela is clearly—so very clearly—not talking to me and Elizabeth that I have a sudden surge of anger at her… what? Indifference?
But it’s more than that.
It’s like a shunning.
Like Elizabeth and I don’t exist.
Then she looks at me. Like straight in the eyes. “You do not exist, Cadee.” I’m so stunned, I don’t say anything. “Yet. You are not one of us. You are an offering. However”—she pauses—“if you finish the rite tonight, you will be one of us. And then we will have expectations of you. Then, little by little, your opinion will matter. You were at the rush. Cooper fucked it all up, but surely, you got the general idea, right?”
I don’t know what to say, so I say nothing.
“You aren’t even a person to us, Cadee. Yet. But one day, if you do as you’re told, you will be.” Then she looks at Elizabeth. “She will never be anyone again. Because she messed up. Isn’t that right, Fugling?”
I almost gasp at the name. Fugling. Then I look at Isabella. It was her name. At least I thought it was. But it wasn’t, was it? It’s all part of the…what? Conditioning? Is that what this is?
Cooper’s words come back to me from that first day. You had better be very fucking careful what you say around here. One mouthy outburst from you, Fugling, and you’re out. No place to live, no summer job, no scholarship.
He knew.
And once again, he said nothing.
But it’s not his fault I’m here. It’s mine. I did this. I chose this. He didn’t want me to. He tried to stop me more times than I can count. And I insisted. Just a few minutes ago, I insisted.
So I let it go. Because Leela is talking again. Only she’s not talking to me, she’s talking to Isabella. “—you need to be very careful. Very. Careful. One more slip-up, Isabella, and you’ll spend the rest of your life like Elizabeth here.”
One thing is for sure. Dane was killed by someone. But I highly doubt it was my mother’s champagne order that did it. And now Elizabeth must pay for the crimes of her husband.
“Cadee?”
I snap back to attention. “Yes?”
“You are not in the same situation.”
“I’m not?”
“No, sweetie. You’re the golden girl tonight. Everyone is here to see you succeed. We all want you to have a charmed life with Cooper.” She side-eyes my sister-wife. “And maybe, if she doesn’t fuck things up, Isabella. Just follow the rules. Do as you’re told and you will have it all. Mess up like Elizabeth, and it will all be taken away. Get yourself into a predicament like Isabella here, and you’ll be made an example of in a very unpleasant way.”
I just stare at her.
Then Valentina’s little show that first day comes to mind. You want the diamonds? You want the mansion? You want the lake, and boats, and the cars? You want the security? And the man? Then you do what you’re told. If that’s not what you want, then walk out any time. It’s. Your. Choice.
“Your choices will be taken away from you, Cadee. Do you understand me?”
It’s like she’s reading my mind. I can walk out now. But if I stay, I’m in.
Just like Cooper said.
It’s not that I want all those things. That’s not why I’m going to stay. I just want to know things. I feel like I’ve been living a lie. But I’m not sure where the lie is, so I can’t even go looking for the truth. I get that somehow my parents’ deaths are tied up in this secret society. Maybe it was Dane. Maybe it was the Chairman. They are the usual suspects.
And that works most of the time. In retrospect, most of the time the answers are obvious because hindsight is twenty-twenty.
But up until now I had no retrospect and nothing about my life has been obvious. I grew up on an elite private-school campus, but never went to school there.
Why? How does that make sense? If my parents hated this place so much, why stay? And if someone was forcing them to stay, why homeschool me? You’d think, if you were being held prisoner on an elite private-school campus, that refusing to send your daughter to their exceptional cult school would be a red flag. Right?
Something is not adding up.
So I nod at Leela. “I understand.”
“Would you like to leave?”
“No, Leela. I want to stay.”
She smiiiiiles at me. A very satisfied smile that reminds me of… Oh, pick your favorite evil villainess. Let’s just go with the Commander’s Wife in The Handmaid’s Tale for now because we’ve got a running theme here.
“Perfect.” She pauses to sigh. “Wonderful.” Then she leans in to me. Very close. And her words are low. “Challenge yourself, Cadee. Rise to the occasion. Show these men that you have what it takes to hold their secrets close. And if you can do that, you’ll get what you came for.”
I just stare at her.
“Answers. Secrets. We all know you’re not motivated by money.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because when the Chairman paid you off, you stuck around, didn’t you? You stuck around and did exactly what you were told. That sent a signal to the Order that you can be trusted. They want to trust you, Cadee. You’re very important to them.” She leans in even closer now. “Shine tonight, darling. That’s all you have to do. Just shine tonight.”
She pulls back and calls out, “Let’s go, ladies. The men are waiting.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN - COOPER
The moment Cadee and Isabella walk away I know I’ve made a mistake. I start to go after them, but Jack grabs my arm. “Come on, Coop. Let’s go get a drink.”
I let out a long breath, unable to take my eyes off the girls until they disappear into a crowd in front of the tomb.
“She’ll be fine.”
I look at Jack and narrow my eyes a little. He’s way more invested in this whole Fang and Feather thing than I realized. And it’s interesting that he used the word she. Singular. So which one isn’t he talking about?
“Seriously, Coop. You’re overthinking this, brother.” He tugs on my arm and I follow him. But I look back at my father and find him studying me intently, a frown on his face.
Am I disappointing him again? Why is he frowning? Is he worried too?
I take a deep breath to calm myself. Because I knew what I was getting into. And so did Cadee. And now that we’re here, at th
e beginning of it, there’s no room for regret.
Jack and I stop at the edge of the forest and he grabs two whiskey glasses off a passing server’s tray. That’s when I see Victor English over near the tomb.
“What’s wrong?” Jack hands me a drink.
I take it, down it, then set it on another passing server’s tray. “What’s wrong?” I turn to look at Jack. I take another deep breath. “Isn’t all of this wrong, Jack? Honestly, I’m a little surprised that you’re so invested in it.”
He chuckles a little. “What are you talking about, Cooper?” He raises both his arms up and pans them around the clearing in front of the tomb. “This is the life. This is the tippy-top, brother. The ruling class. There’s nothing wrong about any of it. This is how it was meant to be. It’s survival of the fittest.”
“No,” I hiss, carefully controlling my anger. “All of this. The whole offering thing. The legacy. What the fuck is happening here, Jack?”
“Well, you’re saying all the right words. What do you think is going on?”
“Really? That’s your answer? Are you just… what, one of them, too? You bought into this? And Leela too? She’s on board with bringing Elizabeth in as a second wife?”
“Wife?” Jack scoffs. “Uh, no. Elizabeth is being punished for enabling Dane’s crimes. She will not be my second wife. She will not even be my Maiden. And you should not feel sorry for her. They took a big risk. Overstepped their boundaries to get more than they had earned.” He pauses to shake his head. “That’s not how it works around here. And let’s face it, none of us really liked Dane, did we? He was an asshole. He wasn’t even our real brother. I’m glad he’s gone and it’s not a stretch to assume you are too.”
“You knew about it, didn’t you? All of it?”
“Of course I knew. We all knew, Cooper. Don’t you get it? There are no secrets here. Elizabeth enabled him. She needs to be put in her place and we’re going to do that tonight.”
“And me?” I ask. Because I don’t want to think about Elizabeth. I have no idea what ‘put her in her place’ might mean, but I don’t care.
“What about you?”
I lean in and lower my voice. “I took Cadee to get that abortion. I covered for him too.”
“Well, it was a smart move on your part. If you had ratted him out before the rush, well.” He shrugs.
“Well, what? I’d be the dead one now, and not him?”
“Dane has been on his way out for years, Coop.”
“And where’s that leave me? And Isabella? I’m pretty sure we’ve been on our way out for years too. I’m not exactly playing ball, am I?”
“But you will. Right? Now that Cadee’s involved.”
I just stare at him. Unable to force myself to string all these little clues together.
“Listen.” Jack puts a hand on my shoulder. “This is good for everyone. Cadee belongs here, whether you think so or not. She’s a legacy. Just like me, just like you, just like Isabella. And hey, you’ve got nothing to complain about. I mean, Isabella is a little bit on the unstable side. But that’s the case with most legacies, isn’t it?”
Is it? “Jack. What the fuck is going on?”
“You know what’s going on, Cooper.” He narrows his eyes at me. “We all understand that you’re not really Fang and Feather material, but there is no way out, brother. So Father and I have seen to it that you…” He sighs. “That you have everything you need to keep you happy. Trust me, no other High College King has ever gotten two before. That’s a perk that should be years down the line. Especially two beautiful ones like Cadee and Isabella.”
I have nothing for that. Like my mind is an absolute blank.
“You’ve done a good job with Isabella. Everyone is fairly happy with her. All you have to do is keep her there. We don’t have high expectations of that girl. Just finish the year, marry her, and get her pregnant immediately. She needs that. To take her mind off things. Cadee is smart and I think she and Isabella like each other, don’t you?” He winks at me. “She’ll help you keep her in line.”
“In line? What does that mean?”
“Just stop, OK? You know all this already. Isabella likes girls. But that doesn’t fit our agenda. So when we realized she liked you well enough to play ball, well. It’s a win-win, right?”
“You want me to force Isabella? To be with me?”
Jack’s expression goes very serious. “Absolutely not. Either she does it of her own free will, or she’s out.”
“Define out, Jack.”
“I don’t have to. You already know there’s only one way out. You just saw it happen to Dane.”
“Or you’re going to kill her?”
“No one killed Dane. It was an allergic reaction to champagne which was ordered months in advance of that little ceremony.”
“So if Isabella can’t morph herself into a good little Stepford Wife, then she’ll have what? A car accident? Like Cadee’s mother.”
Or be locked up in her mansion and pumped full of drugs like Ax’s mother?
And now that I think about it—like my mother? Was her suicide something else? Something more?
I don’t say any of this out loud to Jack.
He grins at me. “Is that what happened to Mrs. Hunter?”
I’m just about to say something back when my father starts tapping his glass with a spoon to get everyone’s attention. “We’re ready to begin. Let’s all go inside for the ceremony, shall we?”
I start to walk off, ready to confront my father. But Jack grabs my arm and pulls me back. “Would you like a piece of advice, Cooper?”
I side-eye him. This cannot be my brother. He was always the good one.
The good one. Yes. That’s the problem, I guess. He was the good one. The one who did everything he was told. The one who never rebelled. The one who was always rational, and logical, and nice.
Are none of us good?
Are we all evil?
“Sure,” I say. “Why not.”
“Challenge her. Always. Make her rise to the occasion so she has plenty of chances to succeed. Help her succeed tonight, Cooper.”
“You don’t think Isabella has been challenged enough?”
“Not Isabella. Cadee, Cooper. Cadee is the star of tonight’s show. Elizabeth and Isabella are only here to be made an example of.”
“No.” I look him in the eye and say it with conviction. “They will not turn Isabella into an example.”
Jack’s expression doesn’t even change. He just nods his head. “I get it. If Leela were in Isabella’s position, I’d be very protective too. We’ve been a team for a long time. And I love her. In my own way. Much like the way you must love Isabella. She’s not my soulmate. I have one of those as well.”
“What?”
“Come on, Cooper. Almost no one wants to marry the girl Fang and Feather chooses for them. But we do it. We shape our lives around them and then, when things are settled down, we make room for the one we really love.”
I knew this too. My father pretty much spelled it out to me. But this is the moment when it becomes… real. “You have another girl?”
“Not yet. But I will. One day. See, this is why you’re so lucky. Your life is so settled, Cooper. You get the wife and the mistress straight out of college. Trust me.” He chuckles a little as he scans the crowd moving into the tomb. “Every man here is jealous of you right now.”
My life is settled.
Jack places his hand on my shoulder and squeezes. “Play the game, Cooper.”
I look him in the eyes now, studying the brother I thought I knew, but obviously don’t, and realize something. My father wasn’t lying when he told me that I’d be cut off if I walked away at the beginning of summer. I knew Dane would shun me, probably no questions asked. But I didn’t believe Jack would. Not for a minute.
He would.
“How do I play the game, Jack?”
“I already told you. Challenge Cadee. Give her lots of opportunity to rise.
”
“And how do I do that?”
“You’re about to find out.” He sets his glass down on a passing tray and starts to walk towards the tomb, but I grab his arm.
“Wait. What about Isabella? How do I play her game?”
Jack smiles at me. “Good instincts, Coop. Two girls, two games. Not everyone gets that. But I already told you. Keep her in line. Keep her happy. And make sure she’s pregnant this time next year. Your first girl child together will be a legacy. Make sure she gives you a legacy or she’s gonna end up like Mrs. Owens.”
And then he really does walk off.
He just leaves me there to imagine Isabella locked up in a room in some mansion. Drugged up and insane like Ax’s mother.
I’m the last one to enter the tomb, and the moment I’m inside the bodyguards back out and close the massive steel doors with a loud bang. And then there is the tell-tale sound of a crossbar being placed in front of them, letting us all know we have been locked in.
No way out but forward now.
Almost everyone is already down in the main lower room.
I walk to the top of the stairs and look down on the room. There are no tables or chairs. It’s just an open space filled with people who crowd together nearly shoulder to shoulder, waiting to get into the next room. But I spy my father and Jack off to the left and slowly walk down to join them.
“There you are,” my father says. “Cooper, go with Jack and he’ll show you where to stand in the initiation room.”
I look at Jack and nod.
There will be no more talking. Not from me. The time for that is over. I’m here, Cadee and Isabella are here. And there is a rite to perform.
We made our choice, and now we have to live with it.
“Excuse us.” Jack begins to force an opening through the crowd. “Make room. Valcourts coming through.”
Some of the ladies laugh at him and then, when I follow, also pushing past them, they smile at me as well.
He’s charming and good-looking. He and I are a lot alike, actually. Same dark hair, same blue eyes, same tall, muscular bodies. Same tattoo on our chests.