Forty-Four Nathan It was late in the evening when my phone rang, drawing my attention away from the files I had been tending to. Mom. Our relationship had suffered a terrible strain after she found out I had sex with my mistress while Chloe was home. She had delivered a hot slap that would have sent me reeling if I was a teenager. I had simply just stood there, listening to her rant about how I and Noah were a disgrace to her. "Nathan?" Her voice filtered through the receiver when I picked up the call. "Hi, Mom," "Hi,..." She paused. "It's been a while,""Yeah," I replied, my voice gravelly, "It has."We stayed silent for some time. I could hear the sound of the deep sighs she took literally every minute. My chest squeezed with each one. I felt like I had caused her so much trouble. Especially with the press wanting to find out every detail about I and Lily's engagement. "Did you want something mom?" I asked, unable to bear the silence anymore. "How about dinner tonight? It h
Forty-FiveChloe"Ohayo!" I sang as I waltzed into the kitchen. It was Monday, and everything was all bright and peachy. I had dropped my baby at school, Addison would be arriving that day and I could already foresee a night filled with a lot of gisting and chugging ice cream. Mahn, I haven't eaten ice cream in a while. I missed it a bit. "Good morning to you too, Chloe. You're in a good mood." Mrs. Mourinho replied, a sweet smile on her face. Her grey hairs were tied in a bun atop her head. She was grilling some chicken in a pan. "Looking spiffy today, Mrs. M," I teased reaching out to grab a small piece of chicken and tossed it in my mouth. Damn it was hot. "No touching the food!" She shouted, slapping my hands away. "Too late!" I cackled wildly, racing to the bathroom to change. A few minutes later, I was out the door, dressed in black pants and a white blouse. I loved our uniform. I always felt so professional, dressed in them and taking orders. Arthur let out a whistle as
Forty-SixNathanI sat in Mom's dining, sipping hot pipping coffee from dad's mug. He wasn't awake yet since I had come rather early in the morning. Ever since the old man retired, nine in the morning became too damn early for him. My mother danced around her kitchen as if all was well. As if they hadn't dropped a fucking bomb on me on Saturday and expected me to be fine with it. "When will he wake up? I have a company to run, I can't be late on a fucking Monday," I grumbled, dropping the cup on the saucer. Mom was meticulous about shit like that. Saucers and tea cups and charger plates and silly girly stuff like etiquettes. Well, etiquette wasn't going to get us out of the damn pickle we were in. "You know how your father is. He needs to sleep," Mom said, tossing some oil in a pan. I watched as she added bits of fish and vegetables and a delicious aroma spread through the air. My mouth watered at the scent but I ignored it. I wasn't back in my parents' house to eat, I was there
Forty-Seven NathanGiving my parents a look that told them I would be back, I walked out of the living room with my brother. We walked until we reached the cane chairs by the poolside. "You have to stay away," He said, with his back turned to me. I frowned. "Stay away? What's that?" Noah sighed and turned to me, a smile on his face. It was a grin, smirk, or some mutilated form of laughter. It was a smile. And that scared the shit out of me. "No!" I yelled, rushing towards him and clutching his suit. "Whatever the hell you are thinking, don't fucking do it." "I have to," He replied, the bizarre smile stuck on his face. "You, mom, and Dad are in danger. That shit is real. Look I've made arrangements okay?" "No, Noah, I don't fucking understand," I said, feeling every bit like a small fucking child being told to sit out of an argument. "Don't do anything stupid," My brother grabbed my hands and wrenched them away from his shirt. "The less you know. The better. That's exactly how
Forty-EightChloeNights in New York City were either really pretty or just really bad. It simply depended on where you were at the time. If you were in a club or an observatory in the empire state building. I was in the observatory. I had always wanted to come here ever since I stepped foot in New York. It was marveling how huge the damn building was. Thousands of offices littered the 102 floors of the skyscraper. It was so high up that I had to cover Adele's face so she wouldn't get sick and puke her guts. She was terribly afraid of heights. But looking down from the eightieth floor, I could see the many many lights that flooded the city. They looked like tiny stars far away in the darkness. A galaxy of neon lights burning fervently in a distance. "Oh Adele, I wish you could see this," I mumbled to the girl sitting on my arm. "I don't wanna," she whined shaking her head. Her eyes were closed tight and her hands were trembling. "Fiiine," I drawled. "You don't have to. I'll take
Forty-NineChloeWhen we got home, it was way past ten. Adele had fallen asleep in the restaurant. We had only stayed a few more minutes because Addison didn't want to leave until she had dessert. It seemed something must have happened in the Maldives. She had come home quite sour, moaning and crying in her bed like she was sick or something. I hoped that she wasn't. I couldn't lose Addy, she was all I and Adele had as a family. After tucking Adele in bed, I went back to the living room and saw Addison take out fresh beer bottles from the freezer. She'd drunk a whole bottle of chardonnay at the damn restaurant! And now she wanted to chug down beer?! Was she trying to cook her fucking liver?! "Okay, that's it!" I yelled. She froze, staring innocently at me. "What's it?" I stomped towards her, my face schooled into a severe expression. "What is going on?" Addison looked around her as if there could be anyone else I was referring to. For a woman so fucking smart, she could be dumb
FiftyNathanThings were falling apart so fucking fast, it felt like a dream. I was watching my family crumble before my eyes. "Dammit!" I roared, tossing all the articles on my desk to the ground. "Sir!" Marcus yelped, scooting to the ground to pick up the fallen articles. I didn't give a flying fuck. My face was all over the freaking tabloids. The headlines read, 'The cast out son of the Benjamins!" Cast out? I was betrayed. Stabbed in the back by my family and these people dared to make a joke out of it! That was all I was anyway to everyone in South Carolina. A joke! A fucking pathetic joke. Oh, would you look at that? Benjamin's little boy has been tossed off the side. How fucking hilarious- I could imagine those thoughts running through their heads as they read the papers or glanced through their phones. I had tried over the past few days. So damn hard. Dad's mansion was so heavily fortified, you'd think the president lived there. There were guards in every fucking corner.
Fifty-OneChloe"Maybe egging your boss' car wasn't a good idea," I whispered to Addie as we tip-toed away from the results of our hard work. We had snuck into the upper side of town and located her crazy boss' home or weirdo boss like she liked to call him. I couldn't figure out which I found amusing. Was it the way she called her boss a weirdo or the fact that she had slept with the weirdo anyway? My face pulled into a sour frown at the thought. "I'd say it is," she whispered in reply, stopping abruptly. She turned around to look at her boss' car which we had just pelted with eggs and laughed. "Do you know how pissed he would be tomorrow?! His car is going to reek for days!" If I didn't find it funny, I didn't show it. This was supposed to be a vindication trip for Addy. Her boss had lied to her and tricked her into sleeping with him despite having a wife and daughter. Addison was going to feel awful forever especially since she would remember it for most of her life. I understoo