My nervous stammer breaks the silence.
“Hi. Um, are you, um, Heather? By any chance?”
The blonde squints my way, shielding her eyes against bright sunlight. Is she a hermit? It’s like she hasn’t been outdoors in weeks, if not months.
“Yeah,” she says finally. “And you are?”
“I’m Macy,” is my hurried reply. “I, um, wondered if I could talk to you about something. Like the Morgan brothers?” My voice ends on a hopeful note, the question dangling in the air.
And that gets a reaction from the corpse in front of me. Her eyes widen, big blue orbs in her thin face, before stepping aside to let me into her house. We make our way to a living room, and my stomach sinks with every step. I could leave now, without asking even one question. I can close my eyes and live in happy oblivion, with no problems whatsoever.
But it’s impossible. Because signs of the men are all over this place, from the dark wood to the strong, simple lines of the furnishings. Even the artwork reminds me of them, sensuous and complicated.
Suddenly, understanding strikes my brain like lightning. This place is nice. Too nice. The boys must be paying for it, forking over rent every month.
And it’s like Heather knows why I’m here. She seats herself on a pristine white couch before squinting at me blearily.
“You said you had some questions about the Morgan brothers?” come her raspy words.
Right. She doesn’t even ask who I am. It’s like she knows.
“I do. I, um, wondered what your relationship was to them? Or with them?” My voice stumbles. “If you don’t mind sharing, that is,” comes my murmur on a small, humble note.
She shakes her head, eyes blazing with memory, almost too bright if you ask me.
“I don’t mind,” she says slowly. “I used to work for their company, Morgan Enterprises. Specifically, I was an assistant to the twins, Will and Tim. It was an awesome job because they’re the creative minds behind the company. And as a new graduate, it was amazing to be their personal assistant.”
I cut in then.
“But you don’t work there anymore?”
Heather swallows heavily, looking down.
“No,” she says, staring at her hands, bony fingers gripping each other tight. “It was a crazy situation because maybe three months into the job, the twins swept me off my feet. It’s hard to resist you know,” she said in a low voice, unable to meet my eyes. “They’re incredible men, handsome, rich, powerful, the whole shebang. So I kind of lost it,” she says, shrugging those frail shoulders. “Blame it on being young and naive, but I started an affair with my bosses.”
I couldn’t look away then, absolutely transfixed by her tale. Heather definitely wasn’t shy about sharing with a stranger, but then again, maybe she hadn’t had a chance to interact with a human in a long while.
“And then?” prompted my voice. “And then?”
“And then Will and Tim introduced me to their brothers,” she said, a faraway look coming into those blue eyes. “And I fell head over heels for the Morgans, my heart theirs.”
Everything inside me turns to acid as the words drop. I have to look away to keep tears from burning in my eyes.
But Heather’s in her own world and speaks again.
“I should be embarrassed to admit it, but I liked being with them. With all of them. I was never very sexually adventurous. I wasn’t a virgin by any means, but my past was vanilla, you know? It was all high school boys who had no idea what they were doing. These guys on the other hand, knew exactly what they were doing.”
“Yeah,” I say, letting out a small, bitter laugh. “They sure do.”
We lock gazes and I can see Heather knows who I am, and why I’m here.
“I was in thrall to them,” she says. “Utterly enchanted. I’d have done anything for the Morgans because they promised me so much. Jump off a bridge? Yes sir. Bear a child? How many? Give up everything? Not a second too soon. I loved them so much and was willing to transform myself into whatever they needed.”
The words are stuck in my throat, but I force them out.
“So what happened?” The question comes o
ut in a croak.