Page 86 of Carnival
Noelle rolls her eyes. “Obviously, it’s been stuck in Rose’s arm for over a decade.’’
Hudson turns to look at me. “Do you not have any recollection of your parents putting the chip in your body?”
His words reach my ears, but it takes me a while to process them. I shake my head, tearing my gaze from the screen and looking at Hudson. “No. I was about four. They probably did it a while before their accident, since they knew they’d die. I was too young to remember it.’’
He nods. “Half of this is useless now,’’ he sighs.
“What do you mean?” Blair asks, plopping herself down on Arlo’s lap, to which he doesn’t protest. He wraps his arms around her stomach, pulling her closer to him, and burying his face in the back of her head.
They’re so cute it makes me want to vomit.
“This is all sensitive information,’’ he explains. “But it’s old. No one is supposed to have this, and since it’s sensitive, I bet they already know this information was floating around. Any sort of solid, concrete evidence, except for this, was destroyed over a decade ago. No one would take his seriously if taken to court, especially since half of these people have long retired.’’
“He has a point,’’ Noelle says, pulling out a small flask from her back pocket. Aria and I exchange worrying glances, but Noelle ignores them, taking a small sip. “Besides, right now, this isn’t our priority. Vivian is.’’
Arlo groans, then peeks over Blair’s shoulder. He rests his chin on her shoulder, reluctantly removing his arms from her waist and pulling the chair closer to the desk. He starts skimming through the folders until he lands on at least ten that are titled the same.
VIVIAN.
“Ready?”
For the first time tonight, Arlo looks at me. He ignores the way the rest of them agree and doesn’t open the first folder until he gets a nod from me. He’ll never know how much I appreciate that he’s asking for my input, given the history of our family. They just do what they think is right for me, without my opinions.
He clicks on an image, and it takes up the whole screen. I suck in a deep breath, eyes glued to the woman in front of me. It’s a close-up, a candid shot, of a woman that looks a lot like me.
Her blonde hair is styled into a perfect French bob, her lips coated in a thin layer of red lipstick. But it’s her eyes that completely have me frozen in the spot. The exact same shade as mine, the exact same shape — yet there’s so much evil, arrogance, and narcissism. The way her upper lip is slightly tugged into a small smirk, and the way she holds herself with an air of superiority is paired with that awful fur coat that can be seen in the image.
“Gotcha, bitch.’’ Arlo grins.
He uses his phone to try and dig out everything possible on Vivian now that he has a picture to put on the name. From what he’s told me, her name was wiped clean from any systems, which I wasn’t too shocked to hear. After all, it’s her M.O.
I take a peek at his phone, a small frown on my lips.
“What are you doing?”
“Cross-referencing her image to public surveillance. She had to have been seen somewhere, at some point, these past few months. From there, I’ll try to create a clear path and try to track down places she frequents.’’
“You really are a genius.’’
“Not really,’’ he snorts. “I just use the brain that I have, which, apparently, isn’t common sense these days.’’
Hudson whacks the back of his head, and Aria stifles a laugh, burying her face in Cove’s back to hide it, but the way her shoulders are moving from giggling proves that she’s not trying that hard.
“It will take a while, though,’’ Arlo murmurs, rubbing the back of his head. “As soon as I know something, I’ll let you know.’’
I nod. “Open other files on Vivian.’’
“I’ve no doubt your parents added those,’’ Arlo notes, opening some files. I step closer to him, and like a shadow, James follows me, standing as close to me as possible. He’s staring at the same screen as I am, and what I’m seeing is completely mind-blowing.
They’ve been in this business for decades. There’s no record of who the first victim was, or when it happened exactly, but there is a list. Just like the people James killed during the carnival, they’ve been doing it long before he joined, before he was born, even.
Killing the rich and taking all the money for themselves. Vivian’s worth, back then, was in the billions. I’ve never seensomeone so rich, and the way she got the money makes my skin crawl, my body physically recoiling at the thought.
Granted, her victims were never good people. But from what I’m seeing, half were just flawed. They weren’t monsters, killers, or abusers. Just people with a shitty past and a shitty life trying to live while doing their best to redeem themselves.
They never got the chance because Vivian targeted them.
“These people don’t officially exist,’’ Arlo says. “She wiped them off the face of the Earth.’’
