Chapter Thirteen #5
Button Nose’s jaw worked. She clearly wasn’t expecting me to come right out with it. “Well, yeah, of course we are,” she snapped. “We don’t have to worry about our appearance, especially since we’ve never been a customer of SueNaturals.”
“Oh my gods, thank goodness,” I cried, laughing my butt off. “Can you imagine telling people that you smeared bird shit all over your face? Super embarrassing.”
“We have nothing to be embarrassed about,” Pixie shrieked. “We’re not the ones who got caught selling the stuff. We heard you lost everything in the lawsuit— Sorry, make that lawsuits plural.”
I sighed, shaking my head. “I got my just desserts for sure. What a stupid, awful thing to do that was. I don’t even know what I was thinking, except that I let my obsession with becoming a super-successful girlboss get the best of me.
“But what matters to me now is my family and my friends, and remembering to never take advantage of either of them.” I lurched forward, making Button Nose squeak when I grasped her hands.
“I was deeply pathetic and insecure back in college, but you guys didn’t care.
Despite the fact that you likely saw right through me, you were amazing friends then, and you’re amazing friends now—coming here tonight to support and celebrate me even after all my legal trouble.
Thank you, girls,” I gushed. “I literally could not survive without you.”
Button Nose, Pixie, and the Chic Ghost exchanged another look—this one shocked with a tinge of baffled.
“I... uh...” Button Nose started. “We... uh... I mean, of course we did know the whole time that you were pretending,” she blustered, nose hitting the air. “We just didn’t say anything because we wanted you to trust us enough to tell us yourself, Sue.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Chic Ghost put in. “You never had to keep it from us, honestly, Sue, what kind of snobs did you think we were? We love you, babe. We’re always here for you.”
Just like that, we were exchanging air kisses and promises to keep in touch.
I was waving goodbye when someone sidled up to me.
“Nicely done.” Courtney handed me a glass of wine. “Defused that whole situation without even knowing their names.”
“Yes,” I replied, keeping my voice low. “I am that good.”
Giggling, we downed our drinks, and got back to wiggling, jiggling, and dancing like it’d save the world.
“Mrs. Kim, please!” Sanders of Sanders and Sanderson blared.
He wasn’t a guest of the party, but it seemed he only made it as far as the main road before he turned back—not able to be parted from his eight-million-dollar investment.
“The gems aren’t welded on! All that jumping and shaking could knock them loose! ”
“You better follow me around with a net, then, baby!” I threw my hands in the air, riding the beat like I was as drunk as I looked. “Whoo!”
“Are you actually trying to take off?” a dry voice asked. “Because those aren’t real wings, wife of mine.”
I twirled around, whipping said wings through the air and tearing distressed cries from Sanders and Davis. “Can’t know for sure unless I try.” I leaped into the air, flapping and waving my arms around.
“My goodness, woman,” Alex hissed. “So many people are looking at you. All of the people are looking at you!”
“Uh-oh,” I teased, shimmying closer. “I’m not embarrassing you, am I?”
“Please, don’t.”
“Don’t what?” I smirked like a loon. “Do... this!”
I burst into the chicken dance and just about made Sanders faint.
“Or... this!” I got my macarena on, unscrewing Alex’s jaw. “Or th—!”
“Enough.”
The world spun. The next thing I knew... my world was Alex.
Hands sliding around my waist, Alex held me tight to his chest—chasing all the giggles and sillies right out of me.
“If you want to dance so badly,” he gruffed, lips brushing the tip of my nose. “Dance with me.”
“Just a minute, Mr. Montgomery,” Davis and Sanders called over the music. “You have to maintain a distance of two feet at all times.”
“Can’t.” Alex trapped me in his shimmering, glacial pools. “Guess you’ll have to arrest me.”
Sanders looked at Davis like he expected him to do just that. And Davis tipped his head back, pleading with a deity above to explain how in the world he went from keeping the streets safe to preventing a man from dancing with his wife.
Alex spun me—not waiting around for either of them to decide.
“What’s this?” I whispered, body thrumming as he laced his fingers through mine. “Do you really want to dance with me, or do you just want me to stop?”
“Can’t it be both?”
We both chuckled, but I sobered quickly.
“You’re a hard man to figure out, Alexander Montgomery.”
“Am I?” Alex spun me, gliding me across the dance floor in a beautiful, elegant waltz that was wildly out of tune with the reggae-pop streaming from the speakers. “I wouldn’t say so.”
he said enigmatically. I soaked him in, wishing I could see inside his mind.
Alex was a mystery to me in all ways. Rhodes told me why he donated every last cent he got from the buyout, and he also hinted that something catastrophic happened to Micah’s parents and family.
Something that wiped out every generation’s wealth, and that’s why he was now sending every penny he made home.
But Alex...?
Why did he spend every day typing away on his laptop, researching med schools when he had the billions to buy the medical school of his dreams—let alone get accepted into it? And if he didn’t have the money anymore... what happened to it?
Rhodes and Sue were the ones legally married, and the investment firm was listed as a joint asset, so it was that asset that got raided when she had to pay to settle all of those lawsuits.
Alex was under no such legal obligation to fund Sue’s shit-in-a-jar fraud.
He could’ve still helped out, but not to the tune of seven billion dollars.
If a judge ordered her to pay back that much, it would’ve made the news and I would’ve heard about it.
Everyone would have heard about it—NDAs or no.
Which meant... it was something else.
Sometime in the last ten years since we met, something happened—or a series of something happened—that resulted in the Titan Prep valedictorian, Columbia grad, and co-founder of GloryBoi having nothing to do between the hours of eight and four besides resenting his wife and working to start his life over.
“I haven’t been someone you can talk to for a long time, have I?”
Alex stopped—just the slightest hitch in his step, and then his grip was firm on me again—his body molded to mine as he dipped me.
“I know it’s too late to say I’ve changed and everything’s going to be different now but... I’ve changed,” I said softly. “And everything’s going to be different now. For me, for Lily... and for you.”
Our eyes locked—trapping us both in a void of all the things we wanted to say. Ten years of lies and abuse. Ten years of struggle and loneliness. I could see it all in his eyes and for the first time, as his brows softened and his lips closed the distance, I knew... that Alex saw me.
Someone stepped on my wings, almost ripping me out of Alex’s arms.
“Heavens,” Sanders bellowed. “Enough! That is enough!”
I blinked at the small, dangerously red man. I didn’t know he could emit such a booming sound.
“Mrs. Kim, we have a contract,” he bellowed. “You will abide by it, or you’ll change out of that dress—now!”
“All right, all right,” I soothed, letting Alex put me back on my feet. “I apologize, Mr. Sanders, I got carried away. Christie did order a backup dress for me, so I’ll go up now and change.”
“You will?” I thought the man might pass out from the relief. “Thank you, Mrs. Kim, I, uh, I believe that’s for the best. This is a dress for a party, but not a party dress.”
“Well put.” I tried not to let the disappointment show on my face when Alex’s arms fell away from my waist. “I’ll go put on one that is.”
Davis swept his hand, gesturing for me to go first. “I’ll radio for a female officer to help you out of the dress. Until they arrive, I’ll escort you to the door.”
I just nodded, picking up my feet to go.
Alex turned in the other direction.
“Alex, wait—”
He slipped between two gyrating couples, disappearing in the crowd.
I blew out a sharp breath, disappointment tinged with sadness warring in my chest. I didn’t know what my life would look like after I moved out from the manor for good, but I knew I wanted nothing to do with another life that didn’t have Micah, Rhodes, Alex, and Lily in it.
It was like Courtney said. They were my family. The only family I’d have left after Omma leaves me, so of course, I wanted to be on good terms with Alex—even if those terms were only platonic and not romantic.
But how do I get through to him? I thought, ascending the staircase with Sanders at the front and Davis at my back. His walls are up high, and I can’t begin to see the top.
My thoughts twisted and spun as we passed the officer guarding the entrance to the east wing. What’s the right way to get close to someone when you’re pretending to be someone else?
I took Ethics as an elective when I attended Titan Prep, but nothing we discussed in that class could’ve prepared me for this moral quandary.
As promised, a female officer arrived shortly after we reached my bedroom—along with Christie and Elin. I let them in and they changed me out of Sue’s over-the-top, show-off dress and into a sleek, black number wrapped in shimmering tulle.
Taking off the dress meant I also had to give up the tiara, choker, and diamond waterfall earrings.
My time as a queen was over, but thankfully, Elin was there to restyle my hair into a classy bun with pearl clips to match my new pearl earrings and necklace.
I still looked like a queen getting ready to grace my subjects, and for the first time since the accident, I felt a twinge of regret that Sue wasn’t here for this.
She organized this whole thing because she knew it would be their last night as a family.
I mean, of course it was, because she told the guys they had to be packed up and out the door ten minutes after the party ended.
Which kind of made the idea of a big, multimillion-dollar anniversary a bit psychotic, but for once, I don’t think it was about any of that.
Sue must’ve just wanted one more night of being loved and adored before she tore her world apart, and weird as that was. .. it was also desperately sad.
Sue was sad, I thought, gazing at her and me in the mirror. Looking back, she was the saddest, loneliest person I’ve ever known.
“Mrs. Kim?” Christie tapped my shoulder. “Are you alright?”
I tried for a smile. “I’m fine. Just spacing out. All that fancy wine is going right to my head.”
“Then, some food in your belly is exactly what you need, and lucky us, it’s time for cake,” she cried, bouncing in her heels.
“I know you wanted to wait until you cut into the cake to find out what it is, but I can’t wait another moment!
It’s a crème br?lée cake with caramel custard and a rum-soaked graham cracker crust. Your whole life will change after the first bite! ”
She expected enthusiasm, so I gave it to her—letting out a little squeal and dance that she returned tenfold.
I had to laugh. Some people search their whole lives, and other people discover their calling straight away.
Christie Baudelaire was the latter. She was meant to be an event planner.
Life was a nonstop fun-filled celebration for her, and to be a part of bringing that fun and joy to others was what she lived for.
“Let’s go eat this cake,” I cried.
“Yay!” Grabbing my hand, Christie ran off with me.
She threw open the door, letting Sanders in and leaving him, Davis, and Elin to handle returning the dress.
“Wait.” I pulled up short. “I should check on my mother while I’m up here. Her nurse only agreed to a night off by making us promise we’d take over the three-hour checks. Might as well do the first one now.”
“Absolutely,” she chirped, spinning us both around the other way. “I’ll come with you.”
Together we clomped down the hall, then rounded the corner to Omma’s room.
I frowned. “Her light’s on. Did we forget to turn it off when I said goodnight?”
“No,” she replied. “I remember Mr. Agassi turned off the light on his way out the door.”
“She must’ve woken up.” I picked up the pace, reaching for the doorknob. “I hope she hasn’t been up all this time, calling for someone and none of us—” I pushed inside.
Red.
Red everywhere. On the carpets. On the wall.
Is it paint? Who splashed paint everywhere? Omma will be so mad when she— Sense crowded in, smothering that mindless, chattering voice.
Not paint. Blood.
I stepped inside the room, my heels squiging on the blood-soaked carpet—and met my mother’s wide, unseeing eyes.
I was wrong about Christie only living to share in others’ joy. When she saw my mother’s body. She screamed just as loud as me.