3. Laurene
CHAPTER 3
Laurene
The soft hum of the party below seeped through the bedroom walls.
The room felt suffocating. High ceilings, ornate walls painted in golds and creams, trapping me in memories I couldn’t escape. The clutter from my teenage years still lingered—silk sheets, stuffed animals, curling band posters, an old life that seemed so far removed.
I opened the vanity drawer, my hand shaking. It creaked open, revealing old notes and keepsakes. Stuff I thought Mama would have gone through and thrown out.
But it was there…
Reese and me.
I was pressed against him in the photo, but it was the way he looked at me—intense and tender—that hit me.
What was I thinking? I wasn’t thinking. I’d been in love with the town’s bad boy. Defying my family by sleeping with the enemy had been thrilling then. But now Mama had me backed into a corner.
She always won. I checked. She’d been right.
I had no money. No apartment in Paris anymore. None of my old contacts were calling me back .
Fuck.
I was stuck.
I stormed down the hall, the heavy sound of Mama’s shrill voice cutting through the walls. “Laurene!”
My heart pounded like a drumbeat, a cacophony of dread and anger as my heels clicked against the hardwood floors. Making us go to a charity event when Conrad was still in the hospital? The fake smiles, the condolences, the press.
I slammed my bedroom door shut behind me, rushing to my vanity.
Oh God. What if Conrad died?
I gripped the edge of the vanity, staring at my reflection in the mirror. My eyes were red, mascara smeared. Reese.
We exchanged words earlier. Ugly words. Ones I couldn’t take back. But he looked at me now like I was horseshit on the bottom of his shoe… And I deserved it. Maybe Mama was right. Reese was right. I was just like everyone else. Cold. A fucking heartless machine.
“Lu! Where the hell are you going?” Gigi stumbled in after. Tears welled up in her big brown eyes, and her lip trembled like she was about to cry again.
“Hold the door so she can’t get in.” I didn’t have time for self-pity. Not now.
She hesitated, like she wanted to argue, but then she scrambled to the door.
I ripped open my closet and yanked out a suitcase. Only the essentials. I didn’t even know where the hell I was going. All I knew was that I had to be light.
“You’re leaving me?” Gigi’s voice broke. It wasn’t just about me. It was always about me. It was time for someone else to be the favorite.
“Yeah, I’m leaving you,” Not caring how it sounded. “You’ll be fine. You always are. I’m the one who has to figure this shit out.” I slammed the suitcase closed.
“Please, Laurene…”
Everything’s a disaster.
I took Gigi’s hands. “I…I need to go. I can’t be here right now but don’t you worry. You are strong. You always have been. I sometimes wi sh I was more like you, G. Don’t let anyone make you feel small. Not Mama. Not me. Not anyone. You’ve got everything you need inside you, and you can survive this. I’ll be back before you know it.”
And then I heard it—the sound of heavy footsteps thudding up the stairs.
I let her go.
“Don’t go,” she whimpered. “Mama ? —”
The door flew open, but I was already moving past her.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Mama’s voice was cold, but underneath it was something else—something that made me want to cower and fight at the same time.
“Leaving,” I said flatly without looking at her.
I hurried down the hall, her footsteps right behind mine, and I felt her grip my hand and spin me around.
“You think you can just walk away from this?” She shook me slightly. “I’ve spent years shaping you into something useful, and this is how you repay me? You made the family look weak.”
I looked behind her to see Daddy coming up the stairs, frantic.
“I’m not your fucking puppet, Mama,” I said through gritted teeth.
Her grip tightened, her nails digging into my skin. The look in her eyes—pure fury and disappointment—stung more than I expected.
“We’re living in your bullshit! You fucked up. You were supposed to marry Conrad, and the boy is in a fucking coma!”
“I didn’t ask him to fight his brother!”
“I know you had something to do with it,” Mama hissed. “Was that your plan all along? Make these brothers fight and you got out of this deal? Even when you know what ? —”
“You mean what it means for you! For the company!” I screamed back.
“You need to see this through,” she spat. “You leave now, and there’s no coming back. Do you hear me, Laurene? If I gotta fix this, you get nothing!”
I should’ve been afraid. For so long, she’d held everything over me—her approval, her money, the life she’d built like a gilded cage. But I felt nothing but exhaustion .
I wrenched free.
“Then clean it up,” I said, my voice steady.
No. Panic was useless. I wasn’t some fragile, wide-eyed girl anymore, and I wasn’t here to beg. Mama thought she had me backed into a corner. She thought stripping me of my choices would make me obedient.
But she’d underestimated me.
I’d spent six years in Paris learning how to bend the world to my will.
This was just another game, and I was gonna play it.
I’d learned one thing from watching her all these years: people’s fears made them weak.
And she feared Dante. I didn’t know all the details, but I didn’t need to.
She wanted me to get close to Dante? I would…but for myself.
I barely had time to shove the photograph into the drawer when a knock came. The door swung open, and there stood Noelle.
“I came as soon as I could,” she said, her warmth filling the room. “Why is there a party going on?”
Erik’s calls weren’t my only lifeline. Noelle had been my best friend since we were kids and she sat next to me in elementary school, talking to me like we were old friends. She’d been the best friend I could have ever asked for. She called. She’d listen to me rant, cry, and lament. She gave me money when I first needed it. She never turned her back on me. She’d been more of a sister than my actual ones.
“I half expected to find you on a plane back to Paris by now.”
Unsure of how to start, I deflected, glancing at her gown. “Is this a first for you?”
“What? This little old thing?” Noelle’s rich, tawny-brown complexion deepened.
Noelle was biracial—Black and white—but that’s all she knew. Adopted by the McKenzies, she’d grown from the scrawny kid struggling to find her place to the beautiful woman in front of me. The dress shimmered, iridescent green sequins catching the light as if they were made for a spotlight. The surplice neckline emphasized her shoulders, the fitted bodice hugged her curves perfectly, and that thigh-high slit? It was bold—seductive in a way.
“Erik must be losing his mind,” I said.
“If he is, it’s his problem, not mine.”
I saw through their act. Erik’s distance made sense to me. Mama had planned his future. He stayed away from Noelle to avoid the mess when Mama’s arranged marriages happened.
“I’m staying out of it.”
Noelle ran a hand over her gown. “Good call. So, good news, right? C’mon, tell me.”
“Uh, well…” The scent of roses couldn’t hide the tension hanging in the air. “The party downstairs is my engagement party.”
“Engagement!”
“Yeah, can you believe it?” I tried to keep the edge out of my voice, but the bitterness slipped through.
“Who are you marrying?”
“Reese.”
Her hand flew to her mouth to stop a gasp, and she stumbled back and sat on the edge of my bed. “You’re marrying Reese ? Um, this is, uh… Have you spoken with him since…”
“Not since that night.” The night I’d let him take the fall without a second thought. “Mama made it clear that if I don’t marry Reese, I won’t get my inheritance. She sabotaged everything for me in Paris.”
Noelle’s face lit up, determined. “Alright then. We’re going to fix this. This is just a problem to solve.”
Her words helped, but also made things worse. A part of me wanted to say fuck it and walk away. But there was always that voice in my head, the one I’ve been trained to listen to. Duty. Legacy .
But if I was going to escape that voice, I needed ten million dollars. That was the price of freedom. That was what I needed to start my gallery.
A sharp knock shattered the silence, followed by the door opening.
My younger sister Serena. I hadn’t expected her, but here she was, just like before—impossible to ignore, impossible to love or hate completely. She was twenty-eight now. Dark, velvety skin, flawless as ever, her bob sharp. Always so poised, so damn certain.
“Everyone’s waiting for you downstairs.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but the words never came. She never had to wrestle with herself when it came to Mama; she knew exactly what would please her, and she’d give it without hesitation.
“Are you coming downstairs or not? What should I tell Mama?”
Noelle shot a glance between us, her eyes flicking back and forth. “She needs a moment, Rena.”
“A moment?” Serena pursed her lips. “Or are we going to have a repeat of the last time, when she made a grand escape?”
I exhaled slowly. “I’m here now.”
“People are starting to ask questions. Mama doesn’t like that.”
She turned, her back straight, her exit a dismissal.
“Just follow your heart, alright? No need to stress. It’ll all work out.” Noelle pulled me into another tight hug. “We gotta have a girls’ day. Café L’Amour for brunch. Just us four—you, me, Serena, and Gigi. Like old times?” she murmured.
I barely heard Noelle’s voice as we left my room and walked toward the stairs. The hallway went on forever, and each step felt harder than the one before. The walls felt like they were closing in on me; the air was heavy and hard to breathe. After six years, I’d be seen again . Nausea hit me.
I gripped the polished railing, knuckles white, my breath shallow. The chandelier overhead glittered too bright, its crystals catching the light in a way that made my vision spin.
The moment we reached the first floor, noise slammed into me—music, chatter, glasses clinking.
I cannot be having a panic attack right now. I don’t have fear. I prepared for this, damn it, and I can get through it.
I tried to focus on the art adorning the walls, but everything around me pulsed.
“Noelle.” A cold sweat broke out across my skin. “I…I need air.”
She glanced at me. “What? Are you?—”
“I need to get outside.” Without another word, I yanked at the hem of my gown and darted down the hall toward the back patio.
The doors flew open, and the chilly night air hit me hard. I leaned against the wall, my fingers shaking as they pressed against my flushed cheeks, eyes closed tight, just trying to breathe. The noise faded away to nothing but rustling leaves and distant waves.
I pushed off the wall, my steps more deliberate. My old garden. The one Daddy planted for me.
I thought Mama would have gotten rid of everything that reminded her of me. I never expected it to remain intact. Sitting on the bench, I let the scent of the roses surround me, but it was smoke that hit—strong, pungent.
Reese.
I saw his cigarette brighten, then fade. A dark shape, shifting against the quiet night, came from the shadows.
I could feel his eyes on me, steady and intense.
“Laurene.” The man who had once held my heart in his hands, like he knew he’d own it forever. “You’re back.”