“What are we waiting for?” Bennett asked.
But that’s when we heard the electronic lock on the mausoleum door disengage and everyone went silent. Listening as the door creaked open.
Kiera snatched her notebook back and crawled away from me, trying to get a better look. I followed her and we slumped against the wall, just close enough to the cover and hidden in a shadow so we could see their shadows as they entered.
There was no talking. It was hands, and lips, and heavy breathing.
My father’s indiscretions were no secret in the family. My mother would’ve divorced him years ago if she could.
But she couldn’t. She was as weak as he was, just in a different way.
I remember thinking how humiliating this was for her. To be at the same party and know he was out here doing this.
Emily was still standing. Her leg right next to my head. Trying to get a glimpse, like us.
Bennett, Camille, Sofia, and Hayes were still pressed back against the far end of the short hallway, hands over mouths covering smiles and stifling snickers. Eyes wide with, What the fuck is happening?
Oh, nothing to see here, friends. It’s just Connor’s father cheating on his mother. With Kiera’s mother. Kiera, whom I’m infatuated with and want to know better in ways that are a lot like my father’s intentions with her mother right now. That’s all.
“Oh, my God,” Emily whispered, catching on.
The shuffling hands and kissing lips paused and we all held our breath.
“Is someone in here?” Antoinette Bonnaire asked.
And then footsteps approaching.
But just before they came into view, the electronic lock on the door beeped again.
A twist in the story, readers. A very unfortunate twist.
Because after the door creaked open one more time I heard, “Hello, Christopher. I thought I’d find you here.”
And it was my mother.
“Who the fuck is that?” my father asked.
“Uh… uh…” some dumbstruck dumb fuck stuttered. A man, that’s all I knew then. My mother had brought my father a little surprise. A little game of tit-for-tat. A little payback. A little taste-of-your-own-medicine.
“What the hell are you doing?” My father again.
“Getting rid of this year’s trollop.”
Meaning Antoinette.
I don’t know exactly what happened in what order then. I only know Emily screamed, Kiera was on her feet, and I was pulling her back while she was pulling me forward, and my mother had a gun. Shots were fired. There was more screaming, and shuffling, and yelling, and moaning. And two more shots.
And in the end the dumbstruck dumb fuck was dead and Kiera was shot in the shoulder.
“Connor,” my father snaps. “Get your shit together. There are three hundred people and a slew of networks here tonight. In five minutes you’re going to be announcing your candidacy for the Senate.”
My head hurts like fuck.
What just happened? Was that a dream? Was it a memory?
I don’t know. I can’t tell. My vision is blurry, and my mind is foggy, and…
What I do know, what I do see… are two books on a table just off to my right.
Two books. The first is a notebook. One of Kiera’s. Old. Aged. Worn and tattered The Great Gatsby cover, just like the one Sofia had in her office. Pages that weren’t meant to be inside, inside and half sticking out. Made by her hands. Written in with her pen.
There are dozens of Post-It flags hanging off those pages. Six different colors to keep the six different characters in the story straight.
Our book.
And next to it, looking shiny and new with only a few Post-Its flagging important story elements, is The Dirty Ones.
“What the fuck are those?” I ask, pointing to the books.
“Later, Connor.”
“Fuck later. I’m not going out there until—” And that’s when I see that Louise woman coming at me with a syringe.
“This will help,” she says, pointing the needle at me.
“Fuck you,” I say, backing off.
But many hands have me by the shoulders. Preventing my escape.
“Louise,” my father says. “Are you sure he’ll be able to talk? He needs to make this speech tonight. The plan is in motion, we cannot stop now.”
“Connor,” the Louise person says. That isn’t Louise. How did she get so old? “It’s up to you. Either pull yourself together, go out there, and read the speech, or I’ll have to give you something to calm you down.”
Just go along, Connor. You must convince your father that you’re still on board.
But where is Hayes?
Where is Kiera? Where’s Sofia?
That wasn’t a dream I had. It was a memory. Everything we thought we knew about what happened to us that year is a lie.
My father is a filthy, cheating bastard and my mother finally had enough and tried to kill him for it. Someone else died instead. How, I’m not sure. I think only Emily has that answer. I think only Emily saw that whole scene play out.