FREDRICK“Stay with me Ma! Stay with me!” I needled, feeling the sting of tears pooling under my eyelids as I jogged along the gurney where my mother tossed and turned mutely.The ride in the ambulance had been hell, sitting stiff-legged like a fucking vegetable unable to do anything!I fisted my hands beside me, my suit hanging limply off my frame as I willed my hands to stop shaking.“That's it, Mr. McKenzie, We’ll take it from here,” The sonorous voice of the doctor came behind eager-looking bright eyes, piercing eyes, and the blue cotton of a face mask.I nodded exasperatedly, feeling beads of sweat gather in my armpits as I watched the statuesque line of my father’s frame still beside me as he inhaled sharply, the ball of cotton in my throat turning to steel.“You were supposed to be watching her Fredrick! What were you thinking?” My father’s hard baritone gritted beside me and I felt my heart bottom out from the seams of my goddamn trousers.“She isn't MY wife, is she? Where the
DARLENEMy hands were still shaking when I got out of the silver Royce Phantom I’d parked hastily on the sidewalk overlooking the private hospital where my husband’s mother was no doubt being looked at.I couldn't stay in the McKenzie mansion a minute longer. I didn't know what I’d do if I saw my husband again, after what he had done, I just couldn't think clearly.I needed space to think!He’d said he was sorry, looked it. But I'd seen the passion in his eyes, If he couldn't control that part of him, his rage, I didn't think there was a future for us.I couldn't think about that though, I had to find out if it was true, if the madam really was poisoned.“Dammit Darlene, don't think like that!” My mother’s voice echoed in my head, making me wince as a stab of guilt twisted in my gut. I had no idea what I would have done if it were her that was poisoned.I’d have lost my marbles too wouldn't I?I sighed, brushing the bush of hair that had fallen from my updo back behind my ears as I
ALEXANDERDennis Lucas sat in my office study with his head bowed and his eyes closed as I told him the whole story.I watched as the hanger of his shoulders shook with what I took to be subdued laughs before his fierce black eyes snapped open and I saw a hint of the rage swimming underneath before he killed it.“What do you mean gripped her?” He whispered hauntingly, the tenor of his baritone echoing in the empty study as he straightened from the marble desktop to pace the space.I stuttered, pressing my hands into my eyes so that all I saw was red, instead of the man’s broad back and auburn shoulder-length hair.Dennis Lucas had been best friends with us since I could remember, but lately, I had the feeling he was more best friends with me than with my twin brother.It was why I had called him over, the fall of my disjointed voice on the telephone had him here faster than I could pour myself the sweet poison of opium from the wine rack.We were just too much alike, too much of the s
DARLENEMy best friend was not in the music room when I closed the door softly behind me.I knew this the minute I let my eyes roam over the light layer of dust in the room that showed the servants had not been up here for a while.At least not since Mrs. McKenzie had passed out the other night at the dinner party.I winced embarrassedly, remembering the blog article Fredrick had shown me as we sat thigh-to-thigh in his matte black BMW, of his mother’s condition.ALLEGED MAFIA MATRIARCH AND BARONESS POISONED AT DINNER PARTY! Click to read more...It was absurd! Did the bloodsuckers never rest? And only hours after the ER doctors had come out to confirm my suspicions too?It couldn't have been an outside job, I had a feeling whoever this was, it was someone on the inside.“Did you tell anyone?” Fredrick’s tone had not exactly been accusatory when he’d asked, but it wasn't as trusting as it was earlier. The golden brown of his eyebrows had tightened almost imperceptibly, and I could t
LAURA DIEGO- THE NIGHT OF THE PARTYI had decided that Darlene Bernardo did not know how good she had it, as I stood under the lilied petals of the McKenzie Manor House foyer, desperately dodging the spirits of saliva the ornately dressed hens spat at me.”Oh emm gee! Did you see Sophia McCulley’s dress? What is she cosplaying?” A bright-eyed woman I was meeting for the first time that night clucked to the woman beside me, her blonde hair glimmering in the artificial lights that I had painstakingly hung around the earth-sized driveway.”The reject, drugged-up prostitute from Atlanta’s suburbs no doubt,” The hawkish-looking brunette beside me triggered with an air of arrogance that I had learned was accustomed to the elite like scales to a damn snake.I shook my head as the blonde woman cackled loudly, deciding she had had enough of whatever it was she had been sipping the entire night.I should have probably gotten myself one of those.Colored glasses and fireflies trapped in a bottle
LAURA DIEGO“I won't tell if you don't,” The woman whispers, the flint of mischief playing over her cerulean blue eyes.I looked her over, once, realizing she could have been the spitting image of me. If she weren't so stupid. Poisoning McKenzie’s mother because she wanted them vulnerable enough to penetrate was a bad move. Incredibly stupid. I’d seen it happen before, this sort of thing. The twins would break, and become unhinged, especially the dark-haired one. I tried to shift the thoughts out of my head in time to realize that the woman was no longer smiling.Yes, Kayla Storm was an enemy. One I would have to take out quickly if I ever wanted to remain at the McKenzie manor.“I know what you did Laura,” The woman growled, leaning in to whisper in my ear and my heart thudded with something close to excitement and horror as I whipped my head to glare at the woman who had leaned back, looking as pleased as a platypus.“How dare you?” I rasped, gritting my teeth as my chest rose and
ALEXANDER“What do you-” I frowned, starting at the woman as though she had gone mad when she held up a ringed hand to cut me off.“So ill just show you instead,” She whispered hauntingly, extending the dainty hand that held the sheaf as I sighed, taking it rougher than I needed to from her.I didn't have time for fucking guessing games, grumbling as I tore open the opaque film over it.”What’s in it?” I queried, but Laura Diego just stared pointedly at the file until I flipped the image so I could see what was on it.What the fuck? “Where did you get this?” I whispered after a stretch of silence so painful it lodged small stones in my throat lingered, turning the frame this way and that as though the image of my wife kissing my brother was going to look any different upside down.“Privileged information Mr. McKenzie, I can't reveal my source and run the risk of compromising their life,” She whispered, the slight tremble in her lips showing me she wasn't as composed as she made hers
DARLENEThe look my husband gave me could have melted iron.I gasped, whipping my head back and forth between the whitened faces standing under the white-diamond arch of the living area.Mr. McKenzie had one hand on the collar of my husband’s white, button-down shirt, His wife, still frail and white-faced had turned to look at me like I was the devil come to life, the white of what looked to be a polaroid photo print clenched in one dainty fist.What the hell was going on? I looked at the strawberry-blonde haired man pointedly, my eyes widening at the bloody mess of his face, the front of the pink woolen sweater he had on was stained red, and a purple bruise was already forming on the glass of his high cheekbones.“Is everything alright?” I croaked, again met with silence before Mr. McKenzie scoffed, releasing my husband who snatched the polaroid from Stephanie’s shaky hands and strode toward me, his face a mask.I felt my breath catch as Alexander closed the space between us in thr