“Thanks, sis. What are you doing here?”
She threw the tea towel over her shoulder and rolled her eyes.
“You called me.”
“I did?” I don’t remember. Shit, if I called her, who else had I called?
“You called me at nine o’clock last night not being able to string two words together.”
I rubbed my forehead. “I remember little about last night.”
“Well, you’re lucky because I was already on my way to see you when you called.”
“Why did you leave Boston?”
“Because you hadn’t called me back all week. I’d tried so many times, and I was so worried about you.”
“You didn’t have to come, Eve,” I said, sitting down at the kitchen counter.
“Ah… yes, I did.”
“No, you didn’t,” I reiterated.
“Stop being all macho around me, Barrett. Take my support. You’ve always taken care of me. Now it is my turn to take care of you.” She handed me two Tylenol and a glass of orange juice. “Here, take this,” she said.
“Thanks,” I said, gulping it down.
She looked at me. “You look like shit.”
“That’s support?” I asked, wide-eyed, and laughed.
“Well, support can come in different ways.” She grinned. “Are you hungry?”
“Oh, hell no,” I said, the contents of last night’s whiskey churning in my stomach.
“You need a nice fat greasy burger.”
“Oh God, don’t even…” I held my churning stomach.
“By the look of you, I bet you haven’t had a burger in years.”
“You're right, there.”
She sat on the stool next to me. “So tell me why did this skank Jessica make up these lies about you?”
“Ha, well, that’s a story.”
“Wait, let me make a coffee first. I’m exhausted from watching you in the chair last night.”
“That's why there’s a chair in my room?”
“Someone needed to make sure you didn’t choke on your own vomit.”
“Oh God, sorry.”
Over the next hour, I filled my sister in on everything. Starting with the fire at 21 Park which was arson, to the cut crane cable, and Jessica’s press conference of lies. All of these events were traced back to the three board members of the Hamptons Hotel I'd just bought because I found out they skimmed two million off their hotel and laid off employees to cover their asses. I engineered a cut-throat deal. One where they lost.
“I can’t believe someone would go to these lengths to destroy you.”
“Oh well, they did.”
“Why haven’t you exposed them? You said you've got proof of the money trails. They can go to jail for what they’ve done.”
“I found out last night.”
“And?”
“And then I got hopelessly drunk.”
“Because?” She narrowed her eyes. “Should you be happy about this… oh.”
“I don’t care about any of it anymore if I don’t have Lourde.”
“Why isn’t she standing by you?”