Chapter Thirty-Two
Kiyah
I was slowly getting ready for the day when I heard a knock at my door.
“Who is it?”
“No, thank you, but thanks for the offer,” I called out.
“Well, if you change your mind, just let us know.”
“Will do. Thanks for ordering my food. Have a good day,” I insisted, tugging on a pair of athletic leggings.
I opened the door to retrieve my brunch and was surprised to see everything laid out on a cart.
My stomach twisted in knots from the sight of the sumptuous meal.
I burped when I noticed the caviar and salmon, and closed my eyes in an attempt to regain my composure.
As wealthy as my family was, brunch for us never included caviar.
We were more along the lines of chicken and waffles or steak, eggs, and potatoes kind of brunch people, and at the moment, I’d kill for a bowl of cheese grits.
“Is everything okay, Ms. Kiyah?” Sutton asked. I jolted from the sudden intrusion. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” he apologized.
“It’s fine. I just didn’t expect anyone to be here.”
“Mr. Branson insisted that I be on standby in case you needed to leave the hotel to run any errands.”
“I’d actually prefer a day to myself. Thanks,” I said, wheeling the cart into my bedroom and shutting the door behind me without another word. I didn’t have much time to think about the unsettling look on his face when my phone notified me of a FaceTime request from my beloved sister.
“You look—”
“Like shit,” Nori finished for Daisy. They’d been finishing each other’s sentences since kindergarten, and at one point, Daisy gave up talking for a little while and let Nori speak for her.
Not much has changed twenty-five years later.
“I was going to say tired,” Daisy piped up, accepting a cup of coffee from Nori. She kissed her as thanks before focusing her attention on me.
“Well, you’re both right. I feel like shit because I’m tired.”
“I’d be tired too if I were traveling the country non-stop with my new family,” Nori added. I rolled my eyes and made my plate of cantaloupe, yogurt, bacon, and a bagel before climbing back into bed.
“I don’t have a new family.”
“That’s not what the news reports are saying,” Daisy said under her breath.
News reports? What news reports?
“I’m sorry, but I’m not following.” Daisy and Nori exchanged careful glances before Daisy asked if I’d been keeping up with the news. “Not really. Everything has been so hectic, and if the TV is on, then it’s on a child’s program.”
“Please hold,” Nori said. “I’m sending you a link.”
I squished the bagel in my hand as I read the article. I didn’t know what pissed me off more: the title, the ill-timed photo, or Todd’s statement to the press.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” I murmured.
The title read: Governor Hopeful Thaddeus Branson Jr., May Have a Hopeful First Lady.
“You do look very first ladyish if you ask me,” Nori commented.
“Mhm. I thought I was the only woman in the family who could rock a pantsuit. Tuh! That pantsuit was giving me a run for my money!”
“The mauve looked absolutely stunning on you. I bought one for Daisy. Who styled you because I know you didn’t pick that suit out yourself,” Nori said accusingly.
“Todd’s stylist.”
Daisy snorted. “I never heard of a nanny being styled.”
“Todd said it was necessary because of the high-profile events I would attend with him and Pete.”
“If that’s what you choose to believe, First Lady,” Daisy teased.
“It was necessary to purchase you a $2,400 suit? That’s not even touching the accessories and heels,” Nori mentioned. “I wish I could live on your level of delusion. It must be so freeing.”
“Right? Kiyah fell down the nanny-to-wife pipeline,” my sister added.
I ignored them and read the article. The first half questioned the new initiatives he was considering for Texas public schools and what he thought of rumors from his opponent that he was paying his endorsers with favors he planned to fulfill during his term.
Todd answered professionally while throwing a little subtle shade at his opponent—the usual, but then the interview turned to how he was navigating the grieving process.
“I’ll be honest, I think about Anna every day. I can’t open my eyes without thinking about how her life was taken away prematurely, but with each day, I find the strength to move on little by little.”
“And by move on, do you mean with your child’s nanny?”
“Ms. Baker is a very lovely woman who has brought nothing but nurturing kindness and support while my son grieves the loss of his mother. My immediate focus is on my son and the citizens of Texas, but no one ever knows what the future has in store for them.”
“No one knows what the future has in store for them?” I read aloud, my voice coming out shrill.
“I don’t like him,” Nori mentioned with a casual shrug.
“You don’t like him? You were the main one pushing for me to take the nanny position.”
“Yeah, that was before I knew he was a predator.”
“Wait, wait, wait. Let’s not go there because if Mr. Branson is a predator, then what does that make Dad?”
“A predator,” Nori reiterated. “He took advantage of a grieving single mother.”
“Fuck you,” Daisy spat.
“Truth hurts,” Nori commented.
“Okay, since we’re talking truths, let’s bring up your father.”
My eyes widened, and I shoved food in my mouth, anxious to see how everything would play out because Daisy was right, Nori had no room to talk.
“What about my father? He’s a saint.”
“That level of delusion you mentioned? You’re there. Your predator father paid your mother pennies on the dollar to carry you, wasn’t there for the first year of your life—”
“He was in a coma!” Nori argued.
“And you want to know the first thing he did when he recovered? Snatched you from your mama.”
Oop!
“Mhm. He went to the courts like a Karen and abducted you, then made your own mother your mammy. So whose father is the predator now?”
I gasped, and the bagel I held dropped to my plate. Nori’s mouth opened and closed like a gaping fish. For once, she was too stunned to speak. I rolled my eyes when the tears came out of nowhere. Neither of us was fazed when Nori excused herself to her study.
“You see that shit, Ki? Where the hell does she get off calling our father a predator?”
“It’s that Powell Audacity, but you picked her.”
“I wish I could go back in time and tell ten-year-old me that was a bad fucking idea.”
“Stop. You know you love her.”
“Duh. She’s my entire world. This whole dog-and-pony show she’s got going on is getting boring, though.
She’s gonna stay in her office for the next thirty minutes and return sans hearing aids so that I’ll be forced to use sign language because she claims using ASL is a labor of love or some bullshit like that. ”
“It takes more effort to use ASL than speaking.”
“No, she’s trying to control me and get sympathy out of me.”
“Be nice,” I encouraged.
“Be nice? She’s been deaf for over two decades. Her sympathy expiration date has passed. But anyway, enough about her. What’s going on with you?”
I gave Daisy the rundown on how life had been since I began working for Todd, and the conversation somehow segued to Grant.
“Nori and I are visiting him tomorrow for an early Sunday dinner.”
“That’s nice. I’m sure he’ll enjoy the visit.”
Daisy fell quiet before asking, “Is there anything you want me to pass along to him?”
“No, he called early this morning, but I couldn’t talk because the Wi-Fi on the plane had gone out. I plan to call him back this evening to check on him after purchasing a new phone. Mine has been acting crazy lately.”
“I’ve been getting your voicemail a lot. I leave messages but never get a callback. I even texted you a few times.”
“I don’t have any voice messages, and the last time I received a text from you was—” I paused to check the messages, “—when you congratulated me on the job.”
“That’s weird because I’ve texted you at least ten times since then. Nori told me to stop bugging you, and that you were probably busy, so I didn’t make a big deal out of it.”
“I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe I dropped it one too many times. Don’t worry about it, I’m getting it replaced today.”
“Sounds good, but hey, I gotta go. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“And Kiyah?”
“What’s up?”
“Keep your eyes peeled.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m siding a little with Noid Nori here. Mr. Branson is giving off weird energy. If he makes you uncomfortable, then come back home. You can stay with me and Nori.”
“Noid Nori?”
“You know how paranoid she gets,” she explained.
“Good thing she took out her hearing aids, huh?”
“Good thing. Anyway, it’s good catching up with you. Also, call Kieran. He said something about visiting you, and the estate was locked up like Fort Knox. He was turned away.”
“Todd does take security seriously.”
“I can tell. In most of the photos, you all are surrounded by his goons, but can you really blame him after what happened to his wife?”
“I guess not.”
We said our goodbyes, and I received an alert that my spa appointment was in fifteen minutes. At the last minute, I decided to ditch my phone. What would have been the point if it had been on the fritz?
As I was leaving, a thought came to me.
Why wasn’t I informed that Kieran attempted to visit me?