Chapter 5
CATRIONA
According to my father, the inspiration behind my desire to become a lawyer has everything to do with his political career.
There are countless interviews with the media where he crows about how proud he is that I want to follow in his footsteps.
It never ceases to amaze me how easily his constituents eat up his every word.
Yasmine opens the door to her family’s home a couple of days after the disastrous meeting between O’Connor and my father with an expression of bored amusement on her face. “Well, well, so you do remember where I live. I was beginning to wonder, since it appears your phone is broken.”
I make a face. “I know, I’m sorry.”
She doesn’t move to let me in. Usually, I wouldn’t even knock, but I knew my lack of response to her repeated texts and calls would annoy her.
Crossing her arms over her chest, she says, “So what happened?” At my blank look, she rolls her eyes. “It’s something with your father, right? You always go radio silent when he’s a complete asshole.”
I look away, sighing heavily, and she gasps.
Fuck. Unfortunately, the bruise from my father still shows in the afternoon sun, no matter how much makeup I cake over it. It’s faded a bit, but obviously, it’s still visible at the right angle.
“Reggie!” she shouts over her shoulder.
I choke on saliva. “Yas, don’t.”
“Reggie, get your ass out here. Bring your keys,” she says, ignoring me. Her jaw works as she clenches it over and over. Maybe I shouldn’t have come here after all, but I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go.
Yasmine is a mix of the most important people in her life, and I love each of her facets.
The stoicism that’s going to make her a fantastic doctor she got from her father.
Her sense of justice is a thousand percent her mother.
But the calculating fury? That’s pure Nana Estelle.
That woman is sweet as honey with a tongue that’ll sting like a bee.
Remembering this, I hold up my hands to placate her. “I’m serious. It’s nothing. Let me explain.”
“Does the explanation involve anything other than your father putting his hands on you?” she asks quietly. The heavy footsteps of her older brother, Reggie, sound behind her as he comes down from the second floor.
Reggie is in his thirties, and he has always treated us like his annoying little sisters. It made me feel like family, even if he spent most of the time when I was around doing his level best to ignore me or piss me off.
He is, however, now a detective with the New Orleans Police Department.
According to him, he works to put criminals behind bars, his mother tries to free them, and his sister wants to fix their injuries.
I look up to him. How steady he is with Yasmine.
Once upon a time, I tried, and probably failed, to imitate the same with Elizabeth.
“Yas, c’mon. Don’t bring Reggie into this. He’s going to make it a big thing, and there’s other—”
But Reggie appears behind her, dressed in slacks and a white button-down shirt with his gun in a shoulder holster, before I convince her to keep her mouth shut.
Panic skitters up my spine in a hot rush.
I really don’t have time for this. Elizabeth will only be out of the house with the wedding planner for a couple of hours at most to try on dresses.
Father is also out on other obligations.
Neither of them has let me out of their sights this week.
Probably certain I’ll be up to no good… And what can I say? They’d be right.
“Ri,” Reggie says with an easy smile. “Long time no see. What did I tell you, Yas? She’s perfectly fine. Everything is—” Then his attention snags on my cheek, and his smile falls.
“You still think she’s perfectly fine, asshole?”
“What the fuck is that?” he asks, already shrugging into his jacket with his keys dangling from his hand.
“Look, can we talk about this inside? I don’t have a lot of time.”
Yasmine pulls me inside with a huff and then grabs my chin so she can look at the bruise more closely. “I could kill him. Mom would get me off, no problem. Temporary insanity. No jury would convict me.”
“Hold on there, tiger,” Reggie says, resting a hand on Yasmine’s arm. “Are you okay, Ri? Was this your father?” he asks, his voice laced with the hint of a Cajun accent that’s always made me feel safe. It reminds me so much of his father’s.
I take a moment to gather my thoughts. As much as I want to throw Father under the bus, it’s not my priority. “Yes, it was, but I have worse problems.”
Yasmine cocks her head to the side. “Worse problems than your father putting his hands on you?”
“Yes. Shit is seriously hitting the fan, and I need your help.” To say the very least. When Yasmine doesn’t interrupt or immediately call in for more reinforcements (read: her parents and Nana Estelle), I give them a quick rundown of the absurdity from the past few days.
It sounds even worse when I say it out loud, but the relief of having someone else know what’s going on eases the weight off my shoulders.
I still don’t tell them about what I saw O’Connor do the night before Halloween.
They’re already freaking out about my father.
If I told them I was going to force a psychopath to marry me, they’d probably have me committed.
“I’m going to kill him,” Yasmine says.
“Hey!” Reggie interjects.
She scoffs. “Like you don’t want to.”
“I’m an officer of the law, asshole. It would go against everything I believe in to kill him.”
“Pussy. Are you sure you’re my brother?”
“If he had a fatal accident, however, that would just be karma,” Reggie muses, as he strokes his facial hair.
A warm rush of affection distracts me temporarily from the madness that has become my life.
When I was younger and my house became a war zone of arguments, cold shoulders, and neglect, the Baptistes were always there to distract me with a plate of homemade food.
They took me in and treated me like their own.
I considered Claude and Yvonne, Yasmine and Reggie’s mom and dad, my adoptive parents, and Estelle, Yvonne’s mother, was like my grandmother.
I spent so much time in their house during high school and undergrad that they cleaned out the guest room for me to use.
Since my mother’s death, I haven’t been back as much as I should, mostly because it reminds me of how much I’ve lost. It’s a sore ache in my chest to realize just how much I’ve missed it.
If I had more time to indulge, I’d stick around for dinner and wine on their terrace, stay up too late watching old movies with Yasmine, and crash on the too-small twin bed I’ve used for years.
“The most important thing right now is distracting Elizabeth. I would do it myself, but I know she’d fight me the whole way.
I think she believes she’s being noble by going through with everything.
Or maybe she’s trying to please Father. She always admired him even though he’s the last person to deserve it. ”
During my rambling, we’d settled onto the benches in the small breakfast nook just off the kitchen.
The sunny yellow walls are faded and marked from time, but the bright space does wonders for my dismal mood.
Reggie poured coffee, strong and dark, and Yasmine lounged next to him in the seat across from me.
“What are you planning to do, exactly?” Yasmine asks. I open my mouth, but before I can say a word, she’s already hissing in disbelief. “Do I even want to know? Is it worse than the other thing you did that I can’t say in front of Reggie because he’d have to arrest you?”
“Seriously?” Reggie says with a long-suffering sigh. “How many illegal acts have you committed in the past year?”
“I plead the Fifth,” Yasmine says.
“Define illegal,” I say with a smile.
“Do you need me?” Reggie asks, all traces of humor gone.
“I have a shift, but I can call in if you do. Just say the word. Nick wouldn’t even give me a hard time for this.
” Nick is Reggie’s boss, and I don’t know him that well, but from our few interactions, I could say he’d definitely give him a hard time.
“Aw, Reg. So you do care.”
“Brat,” Reggie says affectionately as he kisses Yasmine’s brow. He rounds the corner and does the same to me. “Seriously, call me if you need me. I’m only a call away, okay?”
“I will, I promise. Stay safe and thank you.”
“Always,” he says over his shoulder with a cocky smile.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to ask him to stay?”
I sigh into my coffee. “I’d rather not drag him into this if we don’t have to.”
“But you’re willing to drag me into it? Aw. Thanks, I guess.”
“I know I was nonchalant about the whole situation after that night,” I start.
“You mean the night you spent with Aiden?”
I grind my teeth. “Yes. But this isn’t something I can make light of. I know you didn’t want to get involved, but there’s no one else I can ask. Please say you’ll help me.”
“Alright, lay it on me. It’s not worse than crashing his masquerade, is it?” My smile grows, and Yasmine scowls. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“This is the dumbest idea you’ve ever had.
And that includes the time that you made me moon that car we didn’t know was an unmarked cop car when we were sixteen.
I almost went to jail, and I would rather do that a million times over than help you pretend to be your sister so you can marry this man. You barely even know him.”
“When you say it like that, it sounds like a really dumb idea,” I murmur.
“That’s because it is a really dumb idea.
I can’t believe I let you talk me into this shit.
We’re probably going to end up getting caught and thrown in jail, and Reggie will make my life hell.
” Yasmine’s biting retort comes from over her shoulder, where I’m quickly changing clothes.
We have an hour before we’re due to be at the church.
“That’s why,” I interject, puffing out a wheezing breath, “we have your mom.”