Page 104 of The Twins

“What did you say?” Vegas asks.

“They all know him,” Carey repeats.

“How?” Vegas hisses.

“He’s always there, at premieres, parties… His production company MARLY PRODUCTIONS hosts castings in Beverly Hills,” Carey explains. “And Avra channel gets most of their talent from him.”

“You auditioned with him?” Vegas asks.

“No, I didn’t. I got lucky. Mom and I only had to fly out here a hundred times for me to get the role. I never had to… You know—”

I interrupt her, “We know. No need to say it out loud.”

She didn’t have to have sex with anyone to get her role. She was thirteen when she first auditioned for her role. I’m going to be sick.

“And we didn’t find out that he owns MARLY PRODUCTIONS because?” Vegas asks.

“He does it under another name,” Carey reveals. “He left the U.K. because he had legal trouble there… You know, stuff a pedophile gets into trouble for. Any business he opens, he does it under a pseudonym.”

“Pseudonym?” I gasp.

“I know my words. I’ve already graduated high school, you know,” Carey sasses.

“Carey, Mr. Abbott needs to be stopped,” Vegas says. He pulls into our street, slowing down. “It’s obvious that he has friends in high places, or else he wouldn’t be able to move this freely.”

“If he didn’t have any power, I wouldn’t do his bidding. I… I don’t want to be an actress forever. I never wanted to be. My mom… She put me on it.” Carey narrows her green eyes. “I look a certain way, so she thought she could sell me for money.”

“You don’t mean—”

“Not sell me like that. Kids channels love a pretty face to promote to their audience. I’m pretty, but not gorgeous. Other girls my age can relate to me. I have a decent voice. I’m average at best at what I do,” Carey says. “I… I want something else for my future. If Mr. Abbott shared naked pictures of me—”

“He’ll go to jail for life for distributing child por—”

“Yes, obviously,” Carey grumbles. “But I’ll be forever marked. Those images will haunt me for the rest of my life. I’ll be judged. My face is in those pictures. That’s why I do as he says.”

“What would you do if you weren’t an actress?” I ask her.

“I’d be a doctor,” Carey gleams.

Vegas says, “It’s not too late.”

Carey hangs her head. She holds her tongue.

We get out of the car, and I’m surprised to see Charles’ car back in its parking spot. He left for work early, and I wasn’t expecting him home this soon.

“Sugar puff, are you ready to tell them that you’re pregnant?” Vegas asks.

“I… Yes. I am,” I say, determined to get this over with.

“You haven’t told them yet?” Carey inquires, squinting her eyes.

I shake my head. Vegas and Carey walk ahead of me as I take deep breaths to tell the rest of my family what’s going inside of my body.

“What the fuck is going on?” Vegas calls out once he enters the living room, and I hurry after him to figure out what’s wrong. Carey watches me as I pass her by. She doesn’t come closer. When I turn to look at what Vegas found, I halt mid-step.

Nausea overwhelms me. “Remo? Are you okay?”

Sleeping in Remo’s bed means that occasionally, he won’t be there in the morning. The task force work is tedious, stretching over multiple communities and cultures in one enormous city. There’s a lot of money involved, and where there’s cash, mouths remain stuffed. We often can’t get information going down the legal route.

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