Page 64 of Off the Rim
"Invisible drink?"
"I think she thought she was having a cocktail, kept asking me to freshen it up. The whole thing was weird. It was like she was stuck in a memory, playing it out. When I asked more questions, she got really agitated. That's when the doctors came in."
She'd been so worked up, they almost had to sedate her to calm down. Thankfully, she eventually fell asleep, and we called my parents to let them know she'd made some progress. When they arrived, I tried to describe how strange she was acting withouttipping my father off that I knew anything. I'm not ready to confront him just yet. When she woke up again, she thought my dad was her ex-husband. Every time she sees him, she's either throwing stuff at him and screaming at him for leaving her, or she's trying to be seductive and flirt with him to come back to her. It's fucking disturbing.
"The worst part," I tell him after relaying some of her behavior, "is that she told him he's going to be sorry. That Ken was going to make everything better."
"Ken? As in… Kenneth Richards?"
My shoulders come up to my ears. "That's the only Ken I know. Wasn’t he the one that signed off on that cease and desist letter, and the payoff agreement? What if…" I drop my face into my hands, rubbing my exhausted eyes. Am I really going to say this out loud? "What if Kenneth Richards and my grandmother worked together to falsify my grandfather's will? He's the only one that would have that kind of access, and no one would have questioned him."
"That makes sense. But that sounded like a threat…"
"I think so too. And get this, when she said that, my dad's face turned white as a sheet. Which I think means he knows something."
Marcus curses under his breath, but he doesn't say anything else for a long time, just looks down at the ground like he's putting together the pieces of a puzzle. Finally he speaks again.
"Let's say the worst of it is that Kenneth and Matilda falsified the will, cut my dad out, and took over everything. There's proof enough to assume that it might have happened. Why would they continue to harass my father? You'd think that once they paidhim off and made him sign away his rights to any of it, that they'd let him be. What would be the reasoning to keep their names fresh in his mind? It doesn't make sense."
"It makes even less sense if they were responsible for the deaths. Unless…" I cringe, my stomach cramping around nothing because I haven't had an appetite at all today.
"Unless…"
"You said before that it didn't make much sense for anyone to make these small, ineffective complaints. Nothing came of them, and no one else complained. What if that was how they let your dad know they were watching him?"
"You think it was their way of threatening him? Threatening him for what, though?"
"It'd be an effective reminder that they're paying attention to the tiniest, dirty details of his business. Maybe to ensure he kept up his end of the bargain?"
"So what changed? What made AJames Enterprises decide to steamroll him?"
"I don't know, but I have an idea how to find out."
Marcus gives me a serious, doubtful look. His mouth is turned down, and his eyebrows are pinched. "Why do I feel like I'm not going to like this idea?"
"Because it's stupid and reckless and might put both our futures in jeopardy."
He sighs. "What's your plan?"
"How exactly is checking into this fancy hotel part of the plan?"
"Because I need a shower, a fuck, and a nap. In that order. The party isn't until later tonight."
"And why do I need to go to this fancy Christmas party with you?"
I shrug and give him my sassiest smirk. "Because I want to see you in a tux. I want my parents to see you in a tux, and when we break into his office later tonight, I might want you to fuck me over his desk."
"You wanthim to know we were in there?"
"I want him to know he doesn't have all the power. He'll leave you alone—he'll leaveboth of usalone—or I'll use whatever we find against him."
"Ifwe find anything, do you think you could really follow through on that? Because he's your father, not because you're not a badass or whatever." Marcus smiles, but I can tell he's serious. It's definitely a daunting thing to consider standing up to my dad like this, and the idea of actually following through on what is effectively blackmailing him is terrifying.
"Admittedly, I'm betting on him not wanting to deal with any of it. He's more of a pacifist than he seems. Anything aggressive he's ever done in his life was because Mimi nagged him or pulled the strings herself." And it's not like she can make decisions anymore.
I already know my mom is arranging to have her put in a home. The best luxury retirement community money can buy, of course, but a home nonetheless. She's probably relieved not to have to live with her anymore. Despite living in a mansion, and having an entire wing to herself, Mimi has always taken up a lot of room. She and my mother have struggled over control of the house, my father's attention, my attention. Honestly, I can't blame my mom for being catatonic most of the time. She's probably exhausted from being steamrolled and in constant competition with Mimi.
I scoff. "I imagine things are going to be very, very different in the James household, and maybe even with AJames Enterprises."
