Page 44 of Forever Golden

The incredibly general statement has me laughing, but probably only because I’m high as hell right now.

“Speaking of parents that suck, Joss doing okay?” Sterling asks.

Dane shrugs and inhales deep, holding his breath before answering. “She will be.”

As if Pandora’s prying ass wasn’t bad enough, we’re stuck with X until she regains control of her account. Turns out, she wasn’t as heartless as we all thought, having held back all the gems X has graced us with lately. Some are pretty heavy hitters, the kind of shit that can tear families apart. While Joss may be the latest victim, who the fuck knows who’s next.

I glance at the time and in rushes an impulsive thought.

“We should go upstairs,” I suggest. “Let’s rummage through Vin’s shit and see what we find.”

Both my brothers look at me like I’ve lost my fucking mind, but it’s the perfect night. Mom and Vin are at the same charity event they attend every year right before Christmas. And I’m not sure what goes on there, but they’ve never made it back in for the night before three a.m.

“We’ve got a couple hours at least,” I say with a groan, pulling myself up off the bed, still dressed in what I wore over to Southside’s.

“What exactly are we looking for?” Dane asks.

“Hell if I know. Justanything,”I reason with a shrug. “We’ll know when we find it.”

Honestly, it’s the weed talking and I have no fucking idea what I’m saying, but I’m convinced this is what we need to do with the rest of our night.

“Sterling, take the lobby. Dane, I need you on elevator watch.”

They look at each other like I’m crazy, and they might be right, but there’s no stopping me. I’m already out of my room, down the hall, and pressing the call button for the private elevator. As I ride it up to my parents’ floor alone, there’s a quiet voice in the back of my head telling me what a shit idea this is, but, like I said,highme is unstoppable. And not in the ‘valiant,heroic’sort of way. More so in the ‘recklessabandon’meaning of the word.

Yep, that’s me. My comic book name would be‘Super Stupid’or some shit.

The broad, metal doors part and I lay eyes on the polished marble tile of my parents’ foyer. The gleaming white reflects light from the chandelier above. They’ve left every light on, but that’s typical for them. Why conserve energy when you’ve got more money in your bank account than this whole city combined, right?

I step out, thinking I’m on some kind of recon mission, but it isn’t until I hear voices that I realize that assumption was dead-ass wrong. My gut tells me to get back on the elevator before they notice I’m here, but the tone and volume of their voices makes this seem more like an argument than a regular conversation. She’s screaming and, from what I can hear she’s also crying, but I can’t make out her words.

So, being your friendly neighborhoodSuper Stupid,I push forward in the name of justice, or… maybe it’s just blind stupidity.

“You’re saying so much, Vin, but none of it explains what I saw!” Mom yells.

“Pam, for the last time, tell me what thefuckyou did with it. You have no fucking right to touch my things!”

I’m close enough now that I get a glimpse of my parents through the partially open door to my father’s study. It’s a mess—papers thrown everywhere, books all over the floor, every drawer and cabinet door open. Even the oil painting over the fireplace is pulled away from the wall. Behind it, the faint green glow of the digits on the safe can be seen. I have no clue what’s gone missing, but I do know Vin’s desperate to find it.

His hair’s wild and damp with sweat. The top button of his shirt and the bowtie around his neck are both undone. Mom’s still wearing a long, black formal gown, but the straps from her shoes are dangling from her fingers.

“Dammit, Pam! Tell me what you fucking did with it!” Vin shouts again, and with how my heart’s pounding in my chest, I nearly rush in there, but something tells me to wait.

So, I don’t dismiss that small voice in my head this time, choosing to stay put and listen.

“All those names and dollar amounts. I don’t… I don’t understand. Is it a prostitution ring?” Mom asks, unable to fight the strain I hear so clearly in her voice. “Is that what you’ve gotten yourself into? Because it’s the only thing that makes sense.”

She pauses then and presses a hand to her mouth when she gets choked up.

“No,noneof it makes sense,” she corrects herself. “Because we’vealreadygot more cash than we could ever spend in a lifetime, so there’s no reason in the world I can think of that explains why you’d be doing what I think you’re doing.”

Vin slams his fist on the desk, and I swear the whole penthouse rattles.

“Always so fucking self-righteous,” he growls. “We weren’t all born with a silver spoon in our mouths!”

“Is that what this is about?” she scoffs. “You resent me because of where I come from? What my family has? Because last I checked, you benefited from their wealth, too.”

He balls his fist again, but this time stops just short of pounding the desk. Instead, he closes his eyes and tries to regain his composure.

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