15
A Cash brother can achieve anything he wants—but what are the cruelest methods he’ll use to get it?
We left campus on Saturday morning.
Tagus was located on the outskirts of Pennsylvania, surrounded by upscale residential neighborhoods that were home to influential types.
The Cashes owned a country house there—Aegan’s favorite place to host non-university-related events.
It was actually better because he didn’t need to play by the university’s rules.
The two-hour journey was fairly uneventful.
At least no one argued, and by “no one” I mean Aegan and me.
He was in a good mood, just like Aleix and Artie.
Adrik clearly looked like he’d been forced to go, if his serious, furrowed brows were anything to go off.
He looked like he’d rather be anywhere else right now. Or to just not exist at all.
Eventually, we arrived. We were surrounded by forest, and the air smelled of wood, trees, and earth.
The country house looked more like a country mansion.
It had the rustic charm of a cabin, yet from the outside it looked huge—perfect for parties.
People were coming in and out, decorating, getting the food and drinks ready, sorting out the sound system, and handling everything else that needed to be done.
I spotted a strange-looking man at the entrance.
He was of average height, wearing black trousers and a white shirt. He had mostly gray hair with some darker streaks and looked like he was in his fifties. He oozed integrity and strength, like a mix between a butler from a film and a knee-breaking bodyguard. He was wearing black sunglasses.
He opened the car door for us. To my surprise, Aleixandre leaped out of the car and onto him, giving him a big hug.
“Lurch!” Aleixandre shouted as he hugged him, looking really happy.
Lurch? What? I wanted to burst out laughing.
“Aleixandre, I’ve missed you too,” replied the man, patting him on the back.
Aleixandre let go of him and turned toward us. He enthusiastically introduced him to us.
“This is Lurch. He was our driver when we were kids, and then he became our father’s right-hand man. We’ve known him our entire lives.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Lurch said politely.
The man stared at me for a minute. And I couldn’t help but ask, “Why ‘Lurch’?”
“Like the butler in The Addams Family,” Owen said, appearing out of nowhere “And the funny thing is they’re nothing alike, except that they both work for a crazy family.”
He was right: this Lurch didn’t seem anything like the one from The Addams Family.
Aegan went up to Lurch and just patted him on the shoulder.
“Ah, yeah, the serious and mature one. Your dad said he expects the best from you at this event. That’s why he sent me,” Lurch said.
Aegan nodded, the weight of responsibility on his shoulders, and then turned to us.
“Get ready.”
Me and Artie had to quickly run up to a bedroom. We showered and waited around with our towels around us, like we were at a spa. Meanwhile, Artie filled me in on how she was planning to get Adrik’s attention because, as we were going to be spending time together, she wanted to fool around with him.
“Let’s be honest, he’s hot!” she said. “Isn’t he?”
“Yeah,” I admitted, remembering what I’d seen from the wardrobe, which had been wrong, but what can you do?
“So, why not?” She shrugged, kind of excited. “I want to see if what all the girls that’ve been with him say is true.”
I raised my eyebrows, kind of shocked. “What do they say?”
Artie bit her lower lip, laughing, as she resisted sharing what I needed to know.
“Well, that . . .” She couldn’t stop herself from giggling while I was losing hope. “That it’s a hell of an experience.”
The curious side of me, the eighteen-year-old who’d only ever had one pretty average experience, was intrigued. Was being with the stubborn, apathetic Adrik really that good? That meant there was a hidden side to Adrik, one that maybe only came out when he was with a girl.
It wasn’t such a bad idea for Artie to try to hook up with him. We were trying to get one over on them, weren’t we?
Suddenly, the door opened, and that was the end of our interesting conversation.
“Is it you girls?” a woman shouted at us.
Artie and I didn’t move.
The woman was like a cartoon character or something. She was really tall and thin, one of those women who had everything elongated: her neck, fingers, legs, even her nose. She had small yet sharp and observant eyes. Her skin was tanned, and her reddish hair fell in a neatly kept cascade.
She looked us up and down. I felt like covering myself up with whatever I could find.
“Fuck, last year’s were better-looking,” she blurted out.
I frowned. She’d basically just said we were ugly. I wanted to tell Artie to “hold my ugliness,” before striking a pose like something out of White Chicks, ready for an argument.
“Are you the stylist?” I asked her. She looked at me like I shouldn’t have been there.
“I’m Francheska Vienna,” she said. I almost burst out laughing at her name. Noticing this, she added, “Longtime and well-trusted personal stylist to the women of the Cash family.”
“Well, we’re Jude and Artie,” I told her, acting friendly. “Mere mortals under the protection of the Cash men for . . . I don’t know, a few weeks.”
The woman let out a hateful and shameless “Ha,” then continued, “I don’t really care what you’re called.” She snapped her fingers and shouted outside, “Come in.”
A team of girls came into the room. They had everything with them: makeup organizers, salon chairs, styling tools, carts loaded with hairspray, dryers, straighteners, and boxes full of things I’d never seen before.
The last girl was pushing a massive rolling wardrobe, with dresses that had clearly been picked out for the evening.
There were three of them, but Aleixandre’s girl hadn’t shown up yet.
“Where’s the third girl?” Francheska asked.
“We don’t even know her,” Artie said.
Francheska grunted. “So, I’ll start with you two. Sit down.”
Artie and I sat down on the padded salon chairs. We looked at each other, unsure whether to laugh or cry.
“Nothing too over-the-top,” I warned.
Francheska abruptly stopped what she was doing, looking somewhat offended. “I follow Aegan’s orders only.”
Great. Tonight I’d look like a clown.
I had to bite my tongue. Francheska started giving us makeovers without letting us see ourselves in the mirror.
To be quite honest, I just wanted to get up and get out of there.
I felt tugging sensations in my eyebrows, above my lips, and across my scalp.
They kept saying my hair needed intense hydration.
When they started saying my face could do with a little surgery, I raised my hands as if to say stop. The women froze, curious.
“I need some fresh air,” I said, sounding like Aegan. Maybe that’s why they didn’t argue.
My fake boyfriend would be proud of me!
I got up and left the room. I needed more than fresh air; what I really needed was a drink because I was dying of thirst. I decided to fetch something from the kitchen. Surely, they’d have loads of stuff prepared, right? Maybe I’d even get my hands on some booze.
I headed downstairs on a mission to grab whatever I could but had to pause behind a wall as soon as I heard Aegan’s voice in the hallway just outside the kitchen.
“They’ll be taking important photos for an article at the party tonight,” I overheard him say loudly. “How about you cooperate for once in your fucking life and do what you’re told.”
“No, no way,” Adrik spouted back, sounding really pissed too. “I didn’t think you’d go ahead with this stupid party, but I have too much faith in you sometimes, don’t I?”
Holy fuck, were they arguing?
“This is for the charities that Adrien—”
“No,” Adrik interrupted, sounding even more worked up than before. “This whole show is for you. You know you can just send the money to the hospital directly in their name, but you can’t go three seconds without having your fucking picture taken.”
I suspected Adrik was about to leave, but Aegan shouted, “You love nothing more than fucking things up. Otherwise you’d never be at peace, right?”
I wanted to sneak a peek at them, but they’d probably spot me, so I just kept eavesdropping instead.
“Peace,” said Adrik, like the word sounded absurd. “Aegan, we’ll never have peace as long as you’re like this.”
“So, what should we do then?” spat Aegan. “Whatever you want? If that was the case, we’d have jumped off a bridge by now.”
“I don’t care what you want to do with your life,” Adrik said, “but keep me out of it”
“You’re still part of this family,” Aegan reminded him. “You’re still Adrien’s son, and you have to live up to the surname. Get over it already! It’s been a year!”
“Don’t you dare mention her!” Adrik shouted back right away. “You’ve no fucking right.”
I was shocked at how angry he was.
That “her” made me think they were referring to Eli.
Were they talking about Eli?
“What I need you to understand is—”
“No, what you need to understand,” Adrik cut him off, full of rage, “is that Aleixandre might be afraid of you—and he might think that doing whatever you ask is going to change something or that you’re going to forget about what happened, but I don’t.
Now leave me alone, do you hear me? Just leave me the fuck alone. ”
I heard him storm away, followed by a door slamming. I darted from the wall, having no idea where I should hide. Aegan came around the corner and bumped into me, shooting me the most terrifying look.
Yeah, he was pissed off all right. Actually, he was beyond pissed. His jaw was tense and his fists were clenched.
“And what the hell are you doing here?” he asked.
“I had to use the bathroom,” I lied.
“There’s one next to the terrace.” He scowled.
“Sorry,” is all I could muster up with a smile.
I blew him a kiss and got out of there as fast as I could before he took all his anger out on me.