3. Chapter 3 #4
I didn’t answer right away. I pulled a hair tie from my wrist and gathered my hair up into a tight, neat bun, clearing my line of sight.
I moved around the counter to brew a cup of Earl Grey tea.
Then, I let a drop of honey dissolve into the dark liquid.
With my cup in hand, I claimed my spot in my favorite corner chair.
The chair was the one that used to belong to my late mother.
Only then did Idris finally turn around and set her eyes on me.
I immediately began to analyze her. It didn’t take long for me to notice the faint, rhythmic pulse in her throat, searching for the micro-fluctuations that meant her nerves were getting the best of her. Idris matched my stare dead-on, her jaw tightening.
"What did I tell you about analyzing your elders?" she asked with a hard edge to her tone.
The corner of my lip twitched, but I looked away to sip my tea.
"Did you go speak to the Chairman like I told you to?"
Usually, I abided by Aunt Idris. She had a good heart beneath her resting scowl.
She physically resembled a thicker, commanding Eva Marcille.
Unlike me, Idris didn’t have a numb heart, but when she was out in the field, she was ruthless.
She was the blueprint that inspired me, and Idris knew it.
It hadn’t been easy for her to raise a child like me, taking me in when she was just twenty.
The night my mother was taken down, she had drawn up an incredibly detailed, uncompromising trust and decree.
Her ultimate command was for Idris, her baby sister, to raise me.
Idris had hated my mother growing up because of how cruel and volatile she could be—but once the family finally discovered the medical reason behind my mother's erratic actions, Idris developed a soft spot for her big sister. I knew she constantly worried I would turn out exactly like her, but as long as I had my own ways to deal with my stress, I knew I’d be fine.
"I preferred to check in with my leader first," I replied calmly.
Idris shook her head, thoroughly unimpressed. "You're trying to shake me down with those big eyes, and I'm not falling for it. Go talk to him."
"What's wrong?"
Idris took a sip of her coffee, trying to use the porcelain mug to fight the silence growing between us. She saw me eying her intently, refusing to break away.
"What business did you have in Atlanta?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.
I kept my gaze locked on hers. She could sense the sudden drop in the room's temperature.
"He moved on, didn't he?" She countered.
"Why did you sound wounded over the phone, Idris? It sounded like fear. And you're not fearful of... well, anything."
Before Idris could speak another deflection, the double doors swung open. Nana strolled into the kitchen. Her silk robe was wide open, casually holding a sweating bottle of beer as if it wasn’t six o'clock in the morning.
Idris rolled her eyes so hard it looked painful. She turned her wrath toward her mother. "I have told you about this!"
I watched the domestic trainwreck unfold.
Nana didn’t look at her third born. She just waved her child off with a dismissive flick of her wrist.
"Idris, I used to be Queen. You don't tell me what the fuck to do. If I want to walk around this damn kingdom with my titties out, that's my motherfuckin’ business." Nana’s eyes shifted over to me, and a wicked, knowing smirk spread across her face. "They haven't told you yet, huh?"
My eyes narrowed. Nana was so damn nosy. If she wanted to know a secret, she’d blackmail or bribe Jade to hack the kingdom servers and figure it out within minutes.
"Where you been?" Nana asked, taking a swig of her beer.
"I bought you a gift from my mission," I replied.
The older woman’s eyes lit up with predatory excitement. "I love my sadistic grandbaby. How many millions?"
My lip twisted. "Enough for you to stay out of my pockets."
"Smart girl," Nana cackled, clapping her hands. "I always knew you loved me."
I took another sip of tea.
She took the time to ask, "Can we finally go back to the casino."
"No!" Idris and I snapped in unison.
Nana rolled her eyes, sucking her teeth. "Y'all are so damn boring."
I watched Idris's shoulders hike up, her posture growing more visibly stressed by the second. The evasion was making my skin crawl. The itch of irritation was bubbling up in my chest.
"Stop playing, Chief, and just tell me," I said, my voice dropping. "You know how much I can't..."
I choked the rest back, my jaw locking so tight my back teeth ached. The pressure under my skin was building up too fast. I needed to break something just to bleed off the impulse.
My eyes drifted toward the custom glass mirror hanging on the kitchen wall.
Idris intercepted my gaze, her hands flying up. "No! We just replaced that one!"
"Then tell me before I react."
Nana let out a loud, unbothered belch and snapped her fingers aggressively toward the intercom for the staff downstairs.
"Bring me another one! Shit is just getting good.
" She turned her glittering eyes back to me.
"They still haven't told her they're marrying her pretty self off and I need a refill before she breaks some shit! "
The world stopped.
My fingers went slack. The porcelain cup slipped from my hand as dark tea splattered across my boots
Idris’s eyes went completely wide, her face draining of color as a look of terror washed over her features. Both of them stared at me, frozen. Nana looked at me with amusement, but Idris looked like she was standing in front of a ticking bomb.
"I think it's best I go speak with the Chairman," I said, my voice eerie, entirely stripped of emotion.
"Practice your breathing, Danni!" Idris yelled as I turned on my heel, down the stairs. "Danni, breathe!"
Nana shouted after me as I stormed toward the exit, "If you kill my son, I ain't got shit to do with it! Where's my beer?!"
"Mother!" Idris shrieked.
"Girl, hush," Nana fired back, her voice fading as I hit the stairs. "She's grown and can handle it! We raised her right."
"Who is we?!"
"Heffa, don't start with me!"
I left them to bicker in the kitchen, completely checked out as I stormed out of our private chambers.
The rage was a blinding white noise in my head.
I marched out to the driveway, threw myself into the driver's seat of my car, and slammed my foot onto the gas.
The tires shredded the pristine manicured grass as I sped across the lawn.
I swerved at the other entrance, nearly running over the Chairman's personal servant who was standing by the front doors.
The man threw himself into the bushes to avoid being crushed, but I didn't give a damn.
I slammed the car into park, threw the door open, and stormed into the Chairman's primary quarters. The guards and staff took one look at the look on my face and cleared the fucking way, scattering like snakes.
I must have heard my damn Nana wrong, and I needed this shit cleared up immediately.
I stormed through the corridor of his private wing and swept a priceless Ming-style vase off its pedestal, watching it shatter against the marble floor.
I kicked a heavy mahogany side table, splintering its legs.
My heart was pounding so wild it felt like it was going to burst right out of my chest. I tried to force air into my lungs, but the pressure was suffocating; at that moment, I’d rather have stopped breathing entirely than deal with the suffocating trap they were building around me.
When I finally reached his double bedroom doors, I paused for a second, trying to force a steady breath into my lungs. Then I shoved them open.
The Chairman was sitting up in his massive bed, tilting his head back to swallow a handful of pills. Even from across the threshold, the sour, unmistakable stench of black vomit hung in the air, a physical testament to his failing organs.
I stepped inside and slammed the heavy oak door behind me.
"Don't come in here with an attitude, Adanna," he said. His voice was raspy but still carried that old, stubborn authority.
"You're trying to marry me off?" I demanded answers, because this wasn’t adding up in my head.
"It's time," he countered, setting his water glass down with a trembling hand. "I have given you years of space to do this on your own terms."
My hand twitched, my fingers itching for the weight of a knife. I had to force myself not to hurl a blade straight at his skull. It took every ounce of my restraint to remember he was already dying anyway.
"You knew my place as Chairman was temporary," he continued, looking at me with those sunken eyes. "It was only until you were ready to take your rightful place as Queen."
I rolled my eyes, and a humorless laugh escaped me. "Why didn't you just change the law? You've had all this time. You run this place. Do your damn job and change the laws."
When his eyes finally met mine, there wasn't a single flicker of caution in them.
"You stand there looking at me like you’re ready to draw blood, thinking that psychotic act still scares anybody in this room," he rasped, leaning forward. "It doesn't. You're just a spoiled, unhinged child throwing a temper tantrum because you can't manipulate your way out of a corner."
My jaw locked, the muscle ticking under my skin. "Watch your mouth, Uncle."
He scoffed.
"Or what? You’ll put a bullet in me? Try it.
See how fast this entire kingdom erases you," he barked.
"You think you're untouchable just because you've got no soul, Adanna?
You think because you feel nothing, bleed cold, and ruin every single human being you touch, the entire family is supposed to rewrite the foundation to accommodate your broken head? "
I ducked my head to the side as he continued.