[Three Months Earlier...] 'Money or Fame?' 'Fame!' It was the same set of questions. Same two friends. Todd and Ben. The rules were still the same too. Two choices. Pick an answer. No wasting time. The only difference was they were now fifteen minutes away from their destination. The bus driver had just informed them of their ETA, pretty much the same way a pilot gives a weather update before making a descent. She wouldn't have ordered the ham and cheese sandwich if she knew how close they were. She wasn't hungry anymore. 'Batman or Superman?' Of course, now and then, they switched things up a bit and threw in a random question or two. It was the only way to pass the time without slitting each other's throats. Eight hours in a stiflingly hot bus was enough to turn anyone into a mass murderer. To stay sane, she'd spent her eight hours on the game between the two friends across the aisle and the serial killer paperback she'd picked up on a whim at the bus station. A hundred pages
[Present day...] "The results came back. It's just as we thought, Nat."These weren't the words Natalie Taylor wanted to hear, and it certainly wasn't the news she'd expected."Jamie's's gonna need that new kidney soon."She felt like a steam train had run her over, crushed her chest and squeezed all the air from her lungs as she struggled to breathe. Her fingers turned as rubbery as her legs, and her phone slipped out of her hands, whining as it crashed to the floor at her feet."Nat? Say something. Are you okay?"Her sister's disembodied voice sounded muffled, as though it came from some far-off place. Natalie leaned over to grab the phone, wincing at the huge spiderweb crack on the screen. So much for tempered glass!She brought the damaged iPhone to her ear, mumbling, "Sorry, I dropped my phone.""I thought you fainted," Amber replied. "I was so worried."Natalie ignored her concern as she swayed on her feet and held on to the wall to steady herself. She was very close to passing
Saints was already buzzing with the usual Monday afternoon rowdiness when they arrived. The place was packed, and not just from their colleagues. The bar was a crowd-puller every day—except Sundays because it was closed—attracting an impressive number of patrons from the big five banks and several tech startups in the Central Business District. Natalie clutched Emily's hand, squeezing through the mass of sweaty but smartly-dressed drunken bodies as they made their way to a miraculously free corner booth near the restrooms. "What do you want to drink?" Emily yelled over the blaring music, a catchy tune from last summer but still played to death on all the radio stations. "I'll have a margarita!" Natalie shouted back. Emily said something about hopping over to the bar to get their drinks. Natalie waved her off and checked her emails but quickly closed them when she saw too many zeros in the quote from Amber. There was no way she could afford that on her salary. To her relief, Lennie
Levi Van Holt ran on autopilot for fourteen hours, fuelled by the strongest coffee he could find at various layovers. But he crashed almost immediately under a wave of exhaustion when he reached his office.For a minute or maybe longer, he remained in his seat in the back of the Uber, unable to move, dreading the night ahead."Sir, are we at the right place?" Eyebrow raised, the driver turned in his seat."Yes. Thank you," Levi said as he gathered his messenger bag and luggage and gave the man a generous tip before he slipped out of the car.The ground floor was ablaze with lights, but the rest of the building sat in darkness.Levi trudged to the entrance, his eyes droopy, his shoulders sagged. If someone told him they'd hidden a body in his duffel bag, he'd believe them. But nothing in there would interest law enforcement other than several outfits and shoes. So he couldn't understand why it was so heavy.He stopped to chat with the security guard in the lobby.The older man beamed wi
The dreaded phone call turned into one of their ugliest fights when Levi informed his parents he had nothing new to report."What do you mean you didn't find her? What the hell were you doing for the last three months? No doubt fucking random whores in shady hotels. You were always irresponsible. You only had one job, Levi—to find your sister!" Charles Leviticus Van Holt Senior went berserk on him, accusing him of all sorts of crazy things, including being the most incompetent son in the world.Levi couldn't say he was surprised. Colleen was always the favourite child. A true daddy's little girl who could do no wrong in their father's eyes.She was the impulsive and reckless one of the two of them. But for some inexplicable reason, her disappearances always fell squarely on Levi's shoulders.Cynthia Strauss, his mom, tried to defend him, but Leviticus quickly shot her down, not giving her a chance to get a word in edgewise. Nobody could talk any sense into him when he was in one of his
Mildly drunk and dog-tired, Levi was tempted to sleep in his office after the phone call with his parents.The idea of spending the night on a couch that wasn't as comfortable as his king-size bed, though, did not make business sense, whichever way he looked at it. So he threw on his jacket, grabbed his bags and headed out.Dozing off in the lobby in one of Mark's new fancy chairs, Sol jerked awake at the sound of his footsteps, smiling sleepily. "Mr Van Holt, are you off, sir?""Yes. See you later, Sol!" Levi waved goodbye, pushed the emergency exit door and ran down the two flights of stairs to his reserved parking spot in the basement.His Porsche Cayenne didn't look too bad for a car parked in a dusty basement for over three months, but stopping by the car wash one of the days wouldn't hurt.Twenty minutes later, Levi was at his penthouse in Green Point, a plush neighbourhood north of Rock Castle.He hadn't been home in a while, but the place looked as pristine as he'd left it mont
Plagued by worry for her brother and tempted by Emily's offer, sleep didn't come easy for Natalie that night.She wriggled about in her bed for a while, trying to get into a comfortable position before giving up any illusions she had about getting a peaceful night's rest.She sat up, turned on the light on her nightstand, and reached for her phone, her heart bleeding a little at the massive crack on the screen. She still had eighteen months of payments left on the contract, and now with Jamie's medical expenses, it would be a while before she could get it fixed.The group chat with all her friends back home was dead. Nothing new in Sparrow Beach. No salacious gossip or groundbreaking scandals.Disappointed, Natalie scrolled through the Hot Connexions App.Only one of the eight 'connexion' suggestions was her type. Swiping left on her screen, she turned down the seven and focused all her attention on Lucas Southey.Not his real name, of course.They never used their real names.But he t
Recruitment exceeded Natalie's expectations with their turnaround time.The owner of Dreams personally called her from an undisclosed phone number hours after she sent through her application. But thinking it was a sales consultant trying to sell her life insurance she couldn't afford, Natalie ignored the three consecutive calls and poured all her energy into the graphs and pie charts in her report.Around midday, as she was about to head to the staff canteen on the ground floor to grab something to eat, her phone rang again.This time she picked up, and she wasn't very nice. "No, I don't want any life insurance, and I don't have any friends I can refer you to. So can you please stop badgering me with all these calls?""I like your fire, doll!" A breathy voice purred on the other end of the line. "This is Aunty Viv. I've tried three times this morning to reach you.""Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. I thought it was the telemarketers," Natalie apologised, convinced she'd blown her chances