AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not a lot. I was only four when she left. But I remember that she was very beautiful. Like you. She had long fingers, and once in a while she would run them through my hair when she thought I was sleeping.”
I shook my head at her, despite the horrified feeling inside that she could really be telling the truth. “I’m from North Carolina. My parents were Bob and Alice. Are you looking for money? You get this job with Collin, mess with his wife, collect a paycheck based on some bunk theory because you know the Cases will just pay up to avoid bad press. Well, forget it, Syl. I’m not giving you anything. None of us will.”
“Hey! Bea. I’m still me. I’m safe. You’re safe with me. Do you need to hear that? You’re safe. I know she could be really scary and say things that—”
Safe? What did she know about safety? And how hard I had worked to finally gain some of my own. What I had done to get there! How dare she talk to me about being safe! I wanted to scream at her to shut the fuck up, but that’s not what Bea Case would do. Bea had to be cool at all times.
“That’s enough now, Syl,” I scolded her in the mildest of manners, channeling my own mother-in-law, my inspiration for the moment. Stern but serene, your message fully received.
“Bea, I don’t want money,” Syl said, her head shaking back and forth again. She was losing her nerve. Good.
“Then what do you want?”
“I just want my dad back,” she cried.
“Of course you do. And I’m sorry, but it sounds like a lost cause based on his crimes. He’s not my father. You’re not my sister. And we definitely don’t share a mother, Syl. My mother is dead.”
Bea Case had spoken and it was unkind and I knew it, but there was no other option. Syl looked at me for a hint of remorse or genuine care for her, but she would find none. She was playing a dangerous game and I wanted no part of it, no matter how much I liked her.
Look at where female friendship got me.
I knew better. I had always known better. So why had I let her in? It was so foolish. Potentially fatal if I didn’t play my cards right moving forward. The only family ties I desired were the ones I had finagled myself. Full control. Trust no one. This was the last thing I needed. And if Syl was my mother’s daughter, that was reason enough to stay away from her and for good.
“All right. If that’s how you feel, maybe you would still take a DNA test? To make sure? As a friend, it would mean a lot to me,” Syl added.
“Syl.” I shook my head. She was unbelievable.
“It could free my father, Bea. We could keep it confidential, I’ve talked to a lawyer, you wouldn’t—”
“I am not taking a DNA test, Syl. You’re mistaken. I am Mrs.Collin Case. I’m not Charlotte Wink.” I laughed, standing up from the table to look down at her with a gaze so cruel, my eyelids low, reeking with disdain, that there would be no mistaking we were finished with each other. I had to sell it. “And if I were you, I’d start looking for a new job.”
“Just. Sit—sit down,” she said, stammering, but trying once againto build back up to that “femme fatale in a dark bar” persona she thought she so expertly executed. “You’re really not going to help me?” She looked flabbergasted and completely betrayed. I guess we both had each other fooled when it came to our friendship.
“I’m leaving.”
“But what are you going to tell Collin?” she asked.
I stayed quiet, thinking for a moment. Truthfully, I didn’t know what I was going to tell Collin about this horrible conversation. I had already demanded he cut Gale from his life. Now Syl? It would look suspicious.
“I asked you a question,” Syl said. “And you had better answer me because now this involves Collin, too. Both of you.”
“Is that some kind of a threat?” I scoffed at her. She didn’t know who she was dealing with. Not really.
“Collin has said things to me at work...” Syl’s voice trailed off, she raised one shoulder to her ear, looking down at the ground like an innocent little doe.
“What kind of things?” I asked.
“He’sdonethings, Bea.”
Syl conjured these bulbous tears that fell down her chiseled cheekbones, as if she choreographed them. She appeared inconsolable, but pressed on with her story. “After hours. When we’re alone in the office. He makes me do things to him that I don’t want to do and it’s...” Syl started sobbing, unable to finish the sentence. It was ridiculous. Of course she was lying, just to get what she wanted. Relatable, but clearly not something she did often. She wasn’t good at it.
“Oh, please, Syl.” I laughed at her openly. “There is absolutely no way in hell that Collin would ever do such a thing. Try again.”
Syl wiped her face and smiled at me, the femme fatale reemerging. “You know that, Bea. I know that. But nobody else knows that. I mean,what would the Case family think about their only son at the center of a public sexual harassment scandal?”
I grinned at her, partially enjoying this side of Syl. Maybe she was my sister, maybe that man in prison was my father, but I couldn’t care enough to find out. That was never my life. She didn’t know my life. Imademy life, and I was going to keep it at all costs. “You go right ahead with your little story, Syl. I’m not going to give you what you want.”
“You would do that to your own husband? But you love him.”
