9. Ivy
Ivy
The sky is overcast with dark, rumbling clouds that threaten a storm by the time I arrive at the senator’s mansion.
Ty didn’t even blink when I told him that’s where I wanted to go. For some reason, I thought his boss would restrict my freedom.
I wanted to ask what had changed, but I decided not to bother. I have a wild vulture to catch and destroy.
With as much confidence as I can muster, I open the front doors, not bothering with knocking like a timid little girl.
All manner of decorum was lost the moment Beverly had me locked up last night.
“Look what the rabid dog dragged in,” a nasally mocking voice speaks as soon as I enter the foyer. “You even got new clothes. Where did you steal them from?”
I turn to the left and come face to face with a girl who looks so much like me, it’s almost uncanny to anyone who would meet us for the first time.
This girl, who first reached out to me, selling the hope of reunion with heartfelt conviction that I couldn’t help but feel like everything was finally coming together in my life, is my twin sister.
But nowhere in the realm of possibilities did I think she’d hate me so much that she partnered with a boy I’d been talking to online just to harm me.
I missed and ignored all the red flags.
The way Jackson constantly talked about New York, saying he was waiting for me.
The way he intentionally lured me into a vicious trap, set by my own clever sister.
Melissa clearly knew her father would sell her in exchange for power. So, she neatly decided to act like she just found me, the abandoned child her mother kept in the rear for this very purpose.
But things didn’t exactly go her way…
“Why?” My voice is cold and detached even to my own ears.
“Why what?” Melissa hurls back, her facial features twisted into a mocking frown. “Why are you such a disgrace to the family? An idiot? Undeserving? You have to be a bit more specific.”
“Is that why you did it?”
“What did I do?” She juts out her hip, feigning innocence. “I didn’t do anything, but you on the other hand, you had quite a night, didn’t you?”
I almost gag at the sheer enjoyment glowing in her eyes.
How can anyone be so cruel?
My own sister, clearly enjoying the fact that I was almost raped last night by the guy she used to get close to me.
“How long were you planning everything?” I mutter, feeling sick to my stomach. “How long?!”
“Since I found out Mom’s secret,” Melissa snaps. “She kept your existence a secret for years. Then I found out about Daddy’s deal with ugly olds farts, and well, it wasn’t going to be me, and so here you are! I knew you would one day become useful. I just had to make sure you’d be useful to me!”
I was right.
Melissa thought the arranged marriage would be with some old jerk.
She didn’t think it could be with one of the two most fine specimen of handsome men in the world. But now that she knows, she wants in.
“Useful to you, huh?” I whisper.
“Oh, don’t give me that.” Melissa waves a dismissive hand around like she’s bored. “This world is about survival of the fittest and I refuse to suffer any losses but imagine my surprise when I found out where you grew up.”
Her eyes start blazing with anger and hatred.
“Westbrook Blues! You grew up in West-freaking-brook Blues!” she seethes. “Daddy has tried several times to get close to those illustrious families, but he failed several times, but there you were! Living among them like you’re something special!”
That strikes me as odd for some reason.
“So you worked with your father to get me here?”
“Why would I reveal my plans of escape to him?” she snaps with a strange look on her face. “He still has no idea where you’re from and I won’t tell him! As far as we’re all concerned, you’re just the sick orphan cast away in some bad neighborhood from Los Angeles.”
I scoff. “And yet you’re threatened by me.”
“I’m not threatened by you! You’re nothing!” she snaps. “You’re not better than me! I’m prettier than you! I’m more loved! Unlike you, I actually did go to school with children from upper echelon families, not just watch them from a distance!”
The fuck?
“How old are you, acting like a sophomore having an identity crisis with zits all over your face!”
“Shut up!” she cries, palming her face in a rush. “Used trash like you has no rights to insult me!”
Used trash… it’s like rape is nothing to her.
She’s obviously the type where as long as the vile horror is not happening to her, she doesn’t give a damn.
I feel nauseous and weak.
“You must be the most obnoxious person I’ve ever met,” I state, fighting not to slap her. “Just because you didn’t get your way, you did this to me?”
For a moment, she looks surprised at the fact that I just exposed her plans and thoughts, but after a few seconds, her expression dissolves back into calm impassiveness.
“That’s right. You don’t deserve to be the queen of the Easton Family!
I do!” she snaps. “At first, the contract marriage was going to be with some insignificant member of the Easton Family, that’s your level!
Who would’ve thought that everything changed after that old man saw you?
He even gave you the power to pick the next head?
It can’t be you! You’re just a reserve that no one wants! ”
Twenty-four hours ago, those very words would’ve broken me so bad that I’d need days under the covers of my bed, sobbing.
But that girl is gone, thank God.
“The queen of the Easton Family?” I throw my head back and laugh. “And how exactly are you going to do that? Throw a tantrum? Send those pictures to the tabloids to smear my name in the papers and online blogs to make the Eastons change their mind? That’s your plan?”
I make sure to exaggerate the ridicule in my voice as much as possible.
“W-well, yes!” she stutters at first, then shouts. “Then everyone will know that you’re nothing but dirty, loose, used trash from the wrong side of town!”
I shake my head at her pathetic plan. “Do your parents know you’re this shallow and stupid?”
“What? Who are you calling shallow?” she screeches.
For a moment, I can’t believe this girl is actually my so-called twin sister.
Her emotional intelligence is giving preteen while her thought process is barely above that of a spoiled middle schooler.
“Since you don’t know anything, allow me, your dearest long-lost sister, to teach you some things.
” I step forward, holding her gaze. “One, that smear campaign thing you’re planning, it won’t go the way you think.
As a matter of fact, it’ll destroy your dearest father’s political career straight out, and guess who will bear the brunt of that devastating blow?
Here’s a hint. It won’t be me, an insignificant, unwanted girl. ”
Melissa’s eyes widen with fear before they narrow with suspicion.
“You’re ly?—"
“And second,” I go on, cutting her off. “I’ll make sure to press criminal charges against you!”
Now this is what makes her freeze in place like a freaking deer in the headlights. “What?”
“Oh, you didn’t think about that part, huh?
” I taunt, stepping even closer until we’re just mere inches apart.
“This great state of New York has a little something called accomplice liability under the New York State Penal Law. I’m sure you know nothing about it, since you’re dull and self-involved, so, to be clear, I’m going to make sure you’re thrown in prison together with Jackson for the rest of your life! ”
Of course, I don’t tell her that Jackson is already dead and is right now somewhere pushing up daisies or burnt to ashes, who knows how Mafia people dispose of bodies these days?
“What? You’re lying!” Melissa’s face blanches into fear and uncertainty. “You don’t have proof.”
“Oh no, baby girl, we have all the proof in the world!” I cheer sarcastically. “Thanks to your wretched, rotten heart and your equally perverted friend, you have unwittingly stored all the evidence needed to prove your cooperation with that bastard! You even sent me some just an hour ago!”
“No!”
I smile cynically. “The plans you made together with that asshole, the intent to rape, molest, and exploit me, how far it went and everything you planned has all been recorded by you!”
At some point, I raised my voice at her so when I stop talking, I hear the echo of my anger bouncing off the walls.
I’m so livid and hurt by what Melissa did that I can’t even stay calm anymore.
My chest is heaving faster and faster, while my fists are clenched at my sides as if I’m about to deck this girl and break her nose, but I hold steady.
“Y-you c-can’t do t-that,” Melissa stutters, her eyes now wide with fear and anger, but I don’t care.
“Do you know where I was just now?” I whisper like we’re gossiping.
“I was at the emergency room and had my blood drawn and tested. This will also be evidence used to show that I was drugged. Seeing as that drug was not the usual, date rape drug and was likely custom-made, I bet its only available to your bougie little friends! I’m sure it won’t be long until the police also find the link between you and Jackson and how you know each other. ”
As soon as I say that Melissa starts backing away, her chin trembling, eyes wide with potent, unmasked fear, and that only makes my suspicion grow even bigger.
Gotcha!
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” she shouts unconvincingly. I can’t help but laugh.
“Tell me, Melissa, since you grew up in the spotlight, in a world where reputation and rumors can make or break a person, not forgetting, of course, your daddy’s plan of running for president, what would happen if the world suddenly finds out that you, the so-called first daughter wannabe and model to all girls in the land, are nothing but a druggie and co-conspirator for rape?
Hey, words like human trafficker would also appear! ”
A loud gasp escapes her lips, and echoes in the foyer.
“No, no…” she stutters, backing away.