Chapter 31 Kavita Ridley
Kavita Ridley
Mr. Pierre took an eager Kavita to the Metropolitan Life Tower, as she’d requested.
She hopped in the car where she and Franklin used to sit.
A flood of memories she suppressed returned to her.
Seeing her fiancé lifeless made her think of Dale and the moments before his death.
It had all come crashing down on her in an unbearable way, and she hadn’t slept for days. She’d had enough.
“I will see you later, Mr. Pierre. I’ll find my way home.”
He nodded silently, raising his eyebrow in concern.
Kavita never liked to be driven by him, so her getting home by herself wasn’t out of the ordinary.
She went to the top floor, looking at the city that made her who she was today.
A cloud of smoke covered her face as she looked over the rooftop of the Metropolitan Life Tower.
She tapped her slender cigarette over the edge, and the ashes flew away.
She loved the view of the smaller buildings from here.
It was as if she could grab each of them and put them in a dollhouse.
She sometimes felt like a doll trapped in a home in this so-called city.
Everyone was perfectly placed where they should be, and then there was her.
Kavita knew that she and her siblings would always be out of place in a world like this.
She inhaled longer, slower drags of the smoke, and it swirled through the thoughts that overtook her mind.
New York City wasn’t the wrong place for her; the levels of society bothered her the most—the debutante balls, charity events, after-parties, and the endless amount of showboating.
Someone was always trying to outdo another here, just as these tall buildings tried to do so tirelessly.
Kavita had seen the masks fall off the elites who pretended to be so high and mighty, but honestly, they were as frail as the bones of this city.
They fueled the downfall of one another.
She wondered what the island felt now that it was being sunk by the countless buildings and never-ending people roaming the streets with their secrets.
Kavita chuckled, thinking the island would like to run away too, like her.
She thought about the first time she and Franklin met, bringing tears to her eyes.
New York, 1926
Kavita leaned against the wall, gazing at the sunrise.
This was her secret spot, where she didn’t have to be bothered.
Some mornings, she liked to be up before the city that never sleeps and see people through their windows, scurrying to leave for work, some gazing out the window with their coffee and a book.
It was all beautiful chaos in a way that she couldn’t put into words.
A deep voice broke the silence as she waited for whatever creep that was probably following her to make himself known.
She had a pocketknife and cigarette ready to gouge out his eye.
“There’s nothing in the world like a New York sunrise.”
Kavita turned with her perfectly arched eyebrows raised, the engraved red-and-gold pocketknife Wei had given her the night before in her hand. She slowly took the slender cigarette out of her mouth.
“Listen, if you’re here to try any funny business, I’ll carve my name into your chest. You hear me?”
The man took a few steps backward with both of his hands up in the air as a way of surrendering, showing that he meant no harm.
“Well, no ‘good morning’? ‘How are you doing today, sir’?”
Kavita looked him up and down. In her anger, she hadn’t realized how dashing he looked. His nice pin-striped pants, pleated straight down the center, were so sharp they would cut her before she did him in. Kavita doubled down on what she’d said, worried he was still some crazy stalker.
“You’re going to try to make me, Kavita Ridley, believe you don’t know who I am?”
The man stroked his mustache with his thumb and index finger while giving a wide smile.
“Am I supposed to know who you are, darling? Because so far, you may be the only beautiful woman in Manhattan—or, as a matter of fact, the state of New York—with a knife ready to maim any man who compliments her.”
Kavita turned away, hiding her smile.
“Oh, no need to turn away. I could see that smile from Long Island,” he said playfully.
Kavita, now annoyed, stepped closer to him, knife still in hand, twirling it around her fingers.
“I suppose if you were trying to kill me, you would have done so a while ago.”
He nodded as one perfect piece of gelled, curly hair fell over his eyebrow.
“Well, I’m glad, out of both of us, you were the one to say it, darling.”
Time stood still as moments went by in silence.
Kavita loved when people knew how to be comfortable in silence.
She would always be met with a “What’s wrong?
Why are you so quiet?” from the many men she would encounter.
This was a first for her, and she secretly enjoyed it.
The man cleared his throat as he looked in his pocket, noticing he had smoked his last cigarette the night before.
“Do you mind sharing one, Miss Kavita?”
Kavita stared at him while blowing cigarette smoke in his face.
“A lady like me doesn’t smoke, and even if I did, I don’t smoke with strangers.”
She laughed as she looked back at the skyline, now fully awake with newspapers slinging left and right.
Kavita dreaded going down because she knew people would look at her with disgust or pity because they knew, in some way, the Ridleys would always win.
She didn’t care—or at least, that was what she wanted to trick her brain into thinking.
The man took notice of her change of expression.
“Well, Miss Kavita, wielder of intricate pocketknives. I’m Franklin, and normally, I’d say what a pleasure it is to meet you, but I must say I fear for my life.”
Kavita slowly put her hands in her gold clutch purse, reaching for her last Chesterfield. She dangled the cigarette in his face like he was a dog waiting for his toy.
“Since we are no longer strangers, I guess I’ll let you indulge in my last, dearest cigarette, Mr. Franklin.” Kavita smiled quite deviously as she held her lighter to his cigarette.
He had broad shoulders that looked like a perfect headrest when she tilted her head.
Kavita pondered on why she hadn’t seen someone like him before.
He was very well dressed, with his black silk tie and gold cuff links, but she noticed some wear on his hands around his knuckles.
That alone told her he wasn’t a man from a wealthy family, which brought her comfort for many reasons.
He wasn’t there to drain her existence by talking about frivolous societal things that she didn’t care about.
Suddenly, she was hungry to know everything he was thinking behind those earthy-chestnut eyes.
Kavita had been this way ever since she’d moved to the States.
Any boy or man she crossed paths with whom she fancied, even just a little, she imagined what her whole life would be like with them if they were together.
That was something she and her sisters had in common.
They’d visually planned out what their weddings would look like or what shade their children’s eye color would be.
Kavita would hope that if she had a girl, she would be just as demanding as she was.
If she had a boy, she’d pray he wouldn’t be a fool like his father for picking Kavita Ridley to be his mother.
Franklin approached her while staring her in the eye.
“I must say, behind your sunset eyes, a million thoughts must run, and I’m quite curious to know what’s on your lovely little mind.”
Kavita’s eyes widened so much that her lashes hit the tips of her brows.
“How bold of you to say. There’s nothing little about this mind.”
He took a step closer while stubbing his cigarette out. His figure was daunting, standing over Kavita.
“Now, you know I didn’t mean it like that, darling. I’m used to being bigger than everyone, and you’re so petite.”
Kavita half smiled as she looked up at him. He was towering over her, an inch or two taller than her older brother Wei.
“Funny you say that. Most men say I’m quite tall,” Kavita said while noticing an angry man yelling at what looked like his wife or daughter in one of the windows.
Franklin straightened his tie while moving a step closer.
“Well, I’m not just any man, sweets.”
Kavita smoldered, observing the moment while he took her in.
“Lucky for you, I’m not just any woman.”
She took a step down, heading for the door. Franklin ran after her.
“So you’re just going to leave without saying goodbye?”
Kavita’s eyebrows arched in a cocky manner. Her smile widened while she tilted her head down.
“I never said hello, did I?”
Kavita smiled, thinking of the memory. That cherished thought didn’t last long, though, as she remembered she couldn’t have any more moments like that with him.
She didn’t want to be a person whom people continued to die around.
Her parents had more life to live. Franklin deserved another chance.
Even Dale, as terrible as he was. They had all made mistakes in this life.
Maybe Lucky was right. She should join them.
She stepped to the edge as the wind flew through her long black locks.
The world was silent until she heard a door closing lightly.
It was Mr. Pierre.
He stayed quiet for a long time before speaking.
“You know, Miss Kavita, when I first came to serve your family, I had no one—and I mean, no one. I was once in the same position you are in now. I thought that there was no life left for me to live.”
He paused before continuing, and tears flew down his cheeks. Kavita turned to him, stepping down, as she had never seen him cry.
“My whole family drowned.”
Kavita immediately defended him.
“That wasn’t your fault, Pierre. Father told me the story. I am different. Everything I have done was my fault.”
He laughed brokenly. “Oh, my dear, that’s where you are wrong.
It was my fault. I chose to get belligerently drunk and get behind the wheel with my wife and twin girls .
. . The car flew off the bridge, but I only saved myself.
I was too drunk even to help my girls. None of them knew how to swim, and if I had been in my right mind that night . . . they would be here right now.”
The air grew silent, because Kavita now realized this world was built on lies that were concealed from plain eyes, and it was up to them to pick up the pieces left behind.
Kavita had been thrown into a family where each member had come from broken places.
Even Mother and Father. Mother had left her family to start a new life in New York City.
Father had come from the slums of Pennsylvania in hopes of achieving the American dream.
She never knew what she should dream for when everything was served to her on a platter.
When she thought she had found an escape, it had been taken from her.
Mr. Pierre, a man who she thought had no faults, had done something as heinous as she had.
She wept silently when he came and wrapped his arms around her.
“That’s why I want you to return home to your family and start over again. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, Mr. Pierre,” she said with resolve.