Page 81 of Darling Nikki

“Look what your stupid ass made me do!” Natalie charges scathingly, looking down at Joi with disgust. “It’s like you don’t even love me. I finally see that you don’t care about us anymore.” I watch aghast as Natalie works up some tears of her own, turning from Joi, and I can clearly see the cold calculation in her hazel-green eyes.

“You know that’s not true,” Joi pleads. “For the last ten years, I have been solid. I waited while you dated and got engaged to Mathias. I did everything you asked. I went against my family.”

Natalie swings back around, grabbing Joi’s face in one hand and squeezing so hard, Joi’s face forms a moue. “Your family? I’m going to give up everything for you. I gave Mathias gift wrapped to your worthless cousin for you. I could have been a senator’s wife, but I listened to you.” Natalie then shoves her so hard that Joi goes flying, falling on her butt.

She used her hands to stop her fall, so they come up bloody. She lifts them. From this angle I can see the sick satisfaction that plays across Natalie’s face before she looks pityingly down at Joi’s hands.

“Aww, sweetheart.” She rushes to her knees by my cousin, who’s sobbing quietly. “See what she caused? She never belonged here. You have to get that birth certificate—that’s the only way we can have everything we want. If I had it, I could have Mathias resign once he’s elected and endorse me. Then we can run DC. You can come on as my press secretary, and then we can eventually tell everyone how we fell in love over time just like they did.” She’s all tenderness as she kisses Joi’s brow.

Joi is quiet. She looks at Natalie for a long time as if seeing her for the first time. She shakes her head and sighs deeply. “I don’t believe you.”

Wrong move, cuz,is all I can think as Natalie pulls back with false concern.

“What do you mean, Joi?” She withdraws, putting herself again in a position towering over my cousin.

“You’ve been promising me that since you said you fell in love with me when I was fifteen that we’d be together. We’d go to prom. We never did. We’d be roommates in college when I got there. You joined a white sorority and moved in with them. Then became president. Pressured me to give up my job with theTimesbecause you missed me so much, but when I came home, you followed Mathias to Birmingham.” Joi shakes her head as if finally understanding something she missed for years now. “You’re a narcissist. A malignant narcissist. I see that now. My therapist told me as much, but I denied it. Defended you.” She steps around Natalie, moving to the door. “I’m done. This is over.”

Why did this dummy turn her back on a person she just called one of the most destructive personalities? I will never understand. No sooner than she turns does Natalie get a hay bale, raising it over her head to smash Joi over the head.

“Joi!” I scream.

Joi turns with a quickness she hasn’t shown until this moment, dodging the death blow.

Natalie turns, looking at me in shock, then turns to Joi. “I—I didn’t mean it. I just got angry. You know I love you.” She holds her hands up in supplication.

“Nah.” I shake my head at Joi. “Get her. Don’t let that hoe out your sight.”

I hurry over. “You did all this because you wanted to be my husband so bad. You’ve been stringing my cousin along all this time. If she was fifteen, you were twenty messing with her. Using her as your little minion since she was a kid.” I turn to Joi and tell her with a kindness I’m far from feeling, “She’s ensnared you, Cousin. She’s made you her thrall. Don’t even look at her.”

Immediately I see denial as Joi shakes her head. “No.” The words are caught on a sob. “She loves me. She just needs help.”

“No,” I say emphatically. “She doesn’t. She doesn’t love anyone but herself. She just used you. Claimed you. Made you her creature. She caught you young, before you had any experience with anyone, and created a soul tie. You are not to blame, Joi—not then, but now you know the truth. You know you need to break free of her influence. And you do know now, don’t you?”

She turns fully to me, bruised but not broken. “Yes.” Fragility encompasses every part of her being. Her eyes well as she looks at me, seeming to seek strength.

“You are pitiful. Is this how you turned Mathias, with lies about me?” Natalie heaves. “You act like he hasn’t been fucking you since you were fourteen. He’s a child molester. He’s sick. A thrall? What did he do to make you? His bed wench, you needy little whore?” She snarls, her hazel-green eyes flashing with jealousy.

“All this time you have been fucking with my cousin, but you wanted my man?” I scoff derisively. “You actually out here turning little girls out but wouldn’t give him no pussy. He said it was mutual, but I now see he just didn’t want your ass. He was being nice even then.” I watch redness race up her features. Being so bright has its downsides. All her emotions play out on her red blotchy skin as anger and humiliation show on her features.

“I never wanted him.” She shrugs. “He’s pleasing to look upon but too dominant. Two dominants don’t play well with each other. Now Joi”—she smirks—“she’s a very good girl for me.”

Immediately I step in, blocking her from Joi’s line of sight. “She’s not yours to hurt anymore, bitch.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Natalie shakes her head in fake lament. “Umm, that’s unfortunate. I was going to let you try some boys with me.” She says it to Joi as if I’m not standing there. “We can have so much fun in DC, Joi. I will make you my queen. Just help me get rid of this silly rabbit.” In one fluid motion, she pulls out a big-ass gun like she’s Rick fromThe Walking Deador something.

“Courtesy of the Kandie Shoppe. It looks police issue. So, maybe your town drunk of a cousin stole it from the sheriff—anyhow it won’t be traced back to me.” She chortles like she’s so clever. “Come on, Joyous. Let’s finish this. She came out of nowhere. She’s not even a real Love. She was here for years and didn’t even acknowledge you until it was convenient for her.” Her words are an indictment as she cocks the pistol trained on me. Everything I believed about myself, all the doubts I have about my relationship with my family…nothing she says is true, nor is it an outright lie. It’s a gross distortion of what I felt when I was a naive and afraid fourteen-year-old girl who lost the only family she knew, not knowing at that the time I had a whole group of people who would be glad to claim me and love me as their own.

I feel Joi stiffen behind me, then ghost past me like a wraith. She goes to stand beside Natalie. Her hand covers the gun, taking it out of Natalie’s hands.

“I’d never kill my cousin, Nat.” Joi pulls the gun away.

“She’s going to ruin our lives—you can’t let her. She’ll tell Mathias everything.” Natalie lunges for the gun, but Joi successfully hold it away from her.

“You mean that you like girls? I’m sure he couldn’t care less, Nat. He loves her. Have you seen the way he looks at her? Have you?” Joi challenges loudly.

That makes Natalie blink at her tone. “I couldn’t care less about that, sweetheart.” Natalie cants her head in sympathy. “You were just my useful idiot. “I don’t like girls. I only need them and men for their usefulness. Now you’ve proven less than useful.” Then she rears back and headbutts Joi with so much force, blood gushes from my cousin’s nose. It takes a moment for the shot to register, but then the pain shatters my side.

My legs give out, folding me like a rag doll. I watch, stunned, as blood blossoms on my periwinkle dress. “Stupid bitch.” Natalie snatches the gun from a stunned Joi before bringing it down hard on her head.

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