Chapter 30 Amelia Ridley
Amelia Ridley
The Night of Dale’s Murder
Amelia was huddled up in her secret spot in the maze.
She loved that she could watch and see everyone from this view.
There was a small opening in the shrubbery in front of a concrete slab chair, perfect for sitting and being closed up, with no one to bother her.
After her confrontation with Dale, she wanted nothing more than to get away from this party, but Father had forbidden her from going to her room while guests were here.
He made sure by having Mrs. Darla do checks just to see if she would disobey.
She couldn’t rest like she wanted, but she could write about it in her diary.
Amelia felt a twinge of jealousy that Kavita was getting married before she was.
It gave Father something more to complain about.
She didn’t understand why she and she alone must be the face of the Ridley Line.
She had to be the perfect woman. She had to dress a certain way.
Oh, and she couldn’t get angry in the way she really wanted to.
As her father would say, people didn’t remember kindness, but they did remember when you snapped.
The paper of Amelia’s diary began to get wet from the trickling beads of sweat falling down her hand.
It was hot—unbearably so. She took another swig of the juice concoction that was being served and a glass of wine.
No one knew how much she battled drinking.
It was her only escape from the constant pressures put on her by her father.
She heard Kavita’s voice, even though she tried her best to conceal her yelling from the crowd.
“How dare you, Dale. How dare you come to our home on my special day and ruin this for me?”
Dale shrugged as he took another sip of his drink.
“Kavita, it’s a business. Your father knows this better than me. You chose to get yourself tied up with a mobster family. Wasting your potential. Hell, you would’ve been better off with me than the scum of Little Italy.”
Kavita slapped him hard with all her might.
“You’re going to regret doing that, little one.”
She heard them walk away. Well, at least Kavita did, as she was cursing up a storm as she walked out of the maze. Amelia stayed still in fear that Dale would see her. She clicked her tongue in disgust over his—
Footsteps got closer and louder. Had someone found her hiding spot? Hysterical crying was all she could hear. Then, suddenly, she saw it was Adesua, with Wei running behind her.
“You can’t just keep running away from what you feel, Adesua.”
Adesua put her hands in the air, falling to her knees.
“You don’t understand, Wei. I can’t show these people how it hurts me. I can’t. They will use it against me every time. You should know this. This is why you never show emotions. So why can’t I?”
Wei stooped down next to her, taking a sip from the champagne bottle before leaving it on the ground.
“Because, Adesua, I don’t want you to harden and get cold like me. I want you happy. The past ten years with you have made me a better person in more ways than you think. The way you—” He stopped himself.
Amelia could see through the greenery that the way Wei was looking at Adesua meant he wanted to say more.
She covered her mouth, hoping her heavy breathing wouldn’t be heard.
Wei leaned toward Adesua, kissing her on the lips passionately.
Amelia’s eyes widened in shock and heartbreak.
How long had this been going on? Adesua pulled her head back in confusion.
Amelia figured that she was feeling as shocked as she was.
Instead, she went back in, kissing him again.
He grabbed her back, closing the gap between them.
A flash of light hit Amelia’s eyes, making her flinch.
Their eyes were still closed, and they remained locked in a passionate embrace, until Adesua pulled away, walking in the other direction.
“Wei, we talked about this last year, and the year before that. I am not doing this. We are siblings, Wei. It isn’t right,” she pleaded with him.
“It’s not our fault we were adopted together. I didn’t ask to be brought into a home with someone I’d fall in love with at fourteen, Adesua. You know that’s not fair,” he said, his voice laced with guilt.
Adesua’s face hardened. Amelia could see her demeanor drastically change before her eyes.
“I am with Joseph, and he is the one I will marry. Not you. Not someone I share my last name with,” she whispered.
Clapping could be heard coming from the opposite side of the bush Amelia was hiding behind.
Dale.
He put his hands on the sides of his face, smiling.
“My, oh my, what a performance that was.”
Adesua’s face dropped more than it already had.
“Look, Dale, we can—”
“Oh, cut the shit, Adesua. You can, what? Explain? I saw it all.”
Now Adesua looked down in silence as Mr. Pierre came to a stop at the estate.
“I will let you girls finish up.”
Amelia knew Adesua had been looking in her room, but she wanted to remind her they were both involved in some way.
“Why didn’t you tell me you saw? What else happened? How did Dale die?”
Amelia looked at the stables, then back to Adesua.
Dale placed his briefcase behind him near the bench.
He stood up, taking in the view of the large pond.
Amelia saw that she could easily open his briefcase and get what she needed out of it.
She grabbed the papers and every journal she could.
He was still taking swigs of his cocktail while admiring the moon.
She thought, for a moment, that if he picked the briefcase up, he would realize how light it was.
Amelia quietly placed rocks in the bottom.
Until one fell out of her hand and rolled down the path.
“Who is there?”
Shit. She figured she could make a run for it, but her heels would slow her down. Dale ran behind the shrubbery, spotting Amelia and grabbing her hand. She threw down the papers and journals as he dragged her out of her hidey-hole.
“You thought you were slick, didn’t you?”
Amelia tried to pull away. “Unhand me now or I will scream,” she said with exhaustion.
“Oh, you don’t wanna do that. You know why? Everyone will see what you and your fucked-up little family have done.” He gripped her hand tighter, whispering each word in her ear. “Actually, my apologies, Amelia, I was mistaken by saying ‘your’ when truly it is our little family.”
Amelia looked straight through him as if he weren’t there, stopping dead in her tracks.
He let her arm go. She couldn’t move, and she didn’t know why.
The words that flew from her so easily had been taken away, as if by the slight breeze from the Long Island Sound, whispering its way through the garden.
She didn’t feel air flowing into her lungs but instead was preoccupied by the endless questions that she was ready to throw at Dale. “What did you just say?”
He widened his mouth, showing his widely spaced teeth, which looked like a row of gravestones.
“My sister. Oh, how I wished to say the words, my little sister. You thought you were special, huh?”
Amelia knew exactly what he meant, but what proof did he have? It was his word versus hers. Of course, anyone would want to be a part of the Ridley Line. Dale Caimen was no different.
“Oh, I can see those gears in that lil’ head of yours working, little sis.
Father got rid of me as soon as he and Caroline got married.
My poor, foolish mother drank herself to death and only left me with a letter and a .
. . You know what, how about you open it,” he said, his voice laced with intrigue and the slyness of a snake.
Amelia snatched the envelope from him. A thick black-and-white photo of a woman and her father. How many lives had this man who was her blood lived? Did Mother know about this? Surely there was no way. Amelia slowly crumpled up the photo.
“Oh, not so fast, little sister. There is more proof of that coming right to you—or better yet, to Metropolitan Musings.” He winked while mocking her.
“You know what makes this all better? You sick Seven Wonders really thought you were better than me, when all along I was better than you. I never thought about looking into my mother’s belongings, as they were a sacred grave to me.
Who would have thought that I would find a photograph of good ole family-loving Mr. Ridley holding my mother.
A slew of letters and then nothing.” His voice trembled.
Amelia had enough issues on her hands, and having to deal with Dale as not just her brother but . . .
“Then I got to thinking, as I was ready to send in this exposé of what a fraudulent family you all are. I thought, wait a minute, you are just another little Black girl that he has been hiding this whole time. They could barely tolerate Mr. Ridley with his adopted children, but a Black bastard child couldn’t be any better in my case. ” He smirked.
Amelia rolled her eyes, as his theatrics were starting to irritate her and she felt rage at the idea of this cesspool of a human being related to her in any capacity.
She refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her fear.
The only thing she felt was the world closing in around her as he slowly came near her.
“And whatever do you mean by that, Dale?”