Gone #3
“Is that what you think? That I would do something so ridiculous as to pretend to be kidnapped from an event you sent me to all for what? Your love? Your attention? How delusional are you about the weight you carry in my life? About your importance to me? The only reason you are still alive and not a tick on the record sheet of souls that I’ve sent to hell is my siblings.
I only murder those who truly deserve it.
Brandt was my first kill and that was only because he tried to kill me.
Kit thought he was going to harm me. The same with the last. But you, well, your damage and pain were far more psychological.
Emotional. And even when I’d been able to compartmentalize your bullshit the damage was already done.
You’re a terrible excuse for a mother and a horrible person.
But that doesn’t bother me any longer. I could continue to ignore your presence, but your lack of concern when I lost my husband?
Oh, that firmly put you in the pile of people who could die by my hand.
I already have the outfit picked out for your funeral.
And trust me, Jacqueline, there won’t be a mourning for you.
I plan to wear bright red as a testament of being the one who spills your blood. ”
“You think your father will allow you to kill his wife?”
I laughed loudly and deeply from my soul as I sat back content with the look of horror on her face.
“You believe that my father would betray his blood for some bitch he got stuck with because she got pregnant? Jacqueline, please. You’re a one-night stand during a war gone wrong.
A broken condom or stolen sperm ensured you the spot that you have in this world.
No one believes that you’re the queen of this castle let alone of my father’s heart.
He won’t even give you access to the business.
Please run to ābo and tell him what you know.
He will give you a play-by-play of how I killed that ingrate.
He was home when I walked back covered in blood.
It was a good thing that his staff was so smart to stay away when he had his trysts.
There were no witnesses and no surveillance since he didn’t want the ability for there to be proof of his crimes.
And I’m thankful that it enabled me to cover mine. ”
“You’re a monster.” Her eyes watered with sadness over the man that she knew wanted to abuse her own flesh and blood. How ironic that my savagery at protecting myself was deemed monstrous but his to me would’ve been fine as long as it earned us a spot in the peerage.
“I might be. I relished the idea of him thinking I was that weak. I was almost too afraid to fight back before I remembered who the fuck I was. What I had already accomplished and escaped from. I was almost happy that he’d reminded me in the way he did.
My ability to outsmart him by pretending to be scared and docile.
Only when I fought back I was fighting for my life.
I kept a knife on me at all times. He didn’t bother to check.
Just ripped at my clothing like I wasn’t a human.
And when he thought he was going to put his disgusting phallus in my mouth?
Oh, that was the final insult. As though the orifice that I used to nourish myself would be defiled by him.
Absolutely the fuck not. I cut off his dick and watched his eyes widen not understanding that he’d invited a lion into a lamb’s den. ”
I smiled thinking about how his face had gone immediately pale.
White as a sheet was the best way to describe it.
His blood hit my face as he staggered backward and I began to laugh as he was trying to reach to the floor to get his dick from where it had fallen, while also trying to staunch the bleeding of his wound.
It disgusted me the way he was still thinking about his penis while death was knocking.
That annoyed me more than anything else and I wanted to end his life even quicker than it was slipping literally through his fingers.
A stab to the heart as he attempted to fight me off him was almost laughable when I thought back on it.
I watched in delight as he fell to his knees then on his back.
I climbed on his chest and straddled him just so I could see when the light finally faded in his eyes.
A fire quickly took care of any evidence that could’ve placed me at the scene.
Especially when the place blew up within minutes.
In a trance, I’d walked back through the gate that separated our yards knowing that everyone in our neighborhood thought the area far too posh and too safe to be infested with the type of crime that would necessitate anything more than an alarm and a good safe.
The type of insurance had on the homes would replace anything that had been stolen and the irreplaceable valuables were normally at country estates.
ābo found me and got rid of my clothes and kept a close eye on the investigation since he was concerned about the finger pointing to me.
It was one of the main reasons I came to school in the states.
“You are so fucking dramatic, Asha. You have been milking that incident for over a decade. Really, I worry why you think you should be able to study the criminal mind seeing as how you’re a criminal yourself.
I’m sure your father helped clean up this mess for you as well as the situation with Brandt otherwise our names would’ve been dragged in the mud. ”
“Are you serious right now?”
She sniffed almost disconnected from everything and I wondered if she was on something.
“Quite. Get over yourself. Your life has been nearly perfect. Do you know what types of things happen to other girls? Millions in Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea undergo augmentation before they’re old enough to understand what is going on yet you think that you are so tortured?”
My mother’s bitterness at my lack of suffering wasn’t surprising. But the way she seemed ambivalent to female mutilation was beyond the pale.
“You call female genital mutilation an augmentation? It’s not a fucking nose job, Jacqueline.
It’s a barbaric practice that dehumanizes women.
I have empathy for everyone globally, not just in Somalia and Eritrea who are forced into the practice.
But to say that because I didn’t have to endure it my life has been fine is rich coming from you. ”
“You’re such a brat. One thing I’ve ever asked of you and you had to ruin it and make it about yourself. We still don’t know all the implications of what you did and how it could come back on us.”
“What are you worried about coming back on us, Jacqueline?”
My father and siblings walked in on the conversation and my mother seemed disturbed to have them there.
“Asha is just detailing these ridiculous escapades she’s been a part of. And apparently drawn you into. That would be very interesting news should it ever get out.” Jacqueline thought she had leverage and made it clear by the way she beamed with this knowledge; she wasn’t afraid to use it.
ābo crossed his arms unbothered by what she’d said. “Just like the news that you sent our daughter to be a stand-in and she ended up kidnapped by a serial killer?”
“Wait. I thought you said that she begged you to go in Sasha’s place. That she wanted a minute in the spotlight.” WJ was looking between me and Jacqueline as if he could visibly decipher who was the guilty party.
So that was how she’d hooked him. Pointing to my supposedly being jealous of all my siblings’ success. If he believed that I was jealous of Sasha then of course my being put in charge of Avery Investments would seem like I’d backdoor him too.
“And you believed that? You thought that after I’d worked my ass off for years on that show and then happily bowed out so that I could go to university that I would suddenly want to dip my toe back in that cesspool?
How many times did I say I didn’t think it was good for Sasha? But you thought that I wanted it back?”
The entertainment industry was not for the faint of heart.
My mother felt as though we should do the show because it would’ve been the first time that there was a show with a Black British girl not playing the side role.
We had episodes where they focused on our character and although it was stereotypical bullshit; she made us continue to do it until I got sick of it.
Very few people knew that Sasha and I were switching off for filming.
I knew that was my mother’s doing and was only done to get around the child protection laws in the UK.
“I can’t believe you’ve been lying to me all this time, Mum.” WJ was experiencing what most people did when they realized their parents weren’t perfect. Only he had the compounded issue of realizing his mother was a piece of shit.
“Not that any of it mattered because in the end you got her back mainly whole. That should be enough. It’s not like—”
“Not like what? Not like it was me so you cared less?” Sasha’s voice was hard and she was no longer attempting to be diplomatic. With what we’d learned, I wasn’t surprised she was over Jacqueline’s shit.
“Sasha, come on. I can’t believe that you’re letting her turn you against your mother.”
“She’s my sister. My twin. One egg that split so that we could be two people. No one is ever going to stand between the two of us.”
Since she couldn’t get over on Sasha she turned to my father with angry eyes. “You ruined the life I was supposed to have. Being alone with three kids all the time wasn’t how I wanted my life to go!”