This house is nothing but hell, I still don’t get how I am still living here. I should have moved out of this place the moment I turned eighteen. However, I can’t leave my younger sister Hazel and half-brother Miles alone in this circus all by themselves. Every day something new drama happens here, I don’t get why our father can’t keep his personal interest away from home.
I am tired of all the screaming, arguing, breaking flower vases. If I count in total, I believe my father’s girlfriend and wives in combined throw-away millions of dollars with the vases.
Today once again my papa is getting a divorce.
My papa, the proud Andrew Simmons, divorced his fourth wife, Genelia. The reason behind this divorce is mutual, they both wanted a different life. Papa is too old to fit into his twenty-five-year-old wife’s life. Genelia wants a hot and happening life, full of parties, selfies, unfortunately, forty-seven-year-old Andrew Simmons wants a more quiet life.
I knew they would get a divorce the moment he married her, I still have no idea why papa married her in the first place. When she becomes his wife, she comes to live with us in our million-dollar mansion, I bet with my cook Marie that they would get a divorce in a month, good for them it actually lasted six months, such an accomplishment for them. Someone should congratulate these two with hundreds of flower bouquets. I want to be that person. However, I like to ignore this man as much as I can.
I don’t know who he is, I have been living with him for nineteen years still clueless. Seriously, I have zero ideas about this man or the man who spilled his dirty sperm inside his mistress and brought me into this world.
I come to the living room and find my mama Quinn sitting on the couch, she is all dressed up, I can smell the new clothing smell from a foot away from her, her poise and straight back, a seductive smile that says she is here to seduces her ex-wealthy husband. She has the same hair like mine, the golden sun-kissed hair is styled into a low ponytail, she is forty-seven but who can know that after going under the knives a thousand times.
“My darling Inessa, how are you doing?”
“Papa is not at home.” I sigh.
“Oh.”
Suddenly, she drops her perfect mother acting, the smile is nowhere to be found, the elegance is also long gone.
I know why she is here. She knows today her ex-husband will be single again, she is here to try her luck once again. I show her the same drama every time she comes to visit me and my younger sister Hazel. She is here but not for us, she is here for money, not even for papa.
My parents have never loved one another, my papa was in lust with my mama, while mama loves his enormous money, mansion, and business. They both used one another for each other’s interest, got married, stayed together for a couple of years, three to be exact, mama gave him two daughters, and then they were done. They moved on with their lives and left Hazel and me to suffer the consequence of their carefree attitude.
“Why are you here, mama?” I ask her. I am tired of all the dramas now.
“To meet my daughters."
“Or to see if you have any luck with your newly divorced ex-husband."
“That’s how you think of your mother?” she frowns with a little water on her eyes.
Sometimes I thought she should be in Hollywood, I am telling you she would be the best actress of the century.
I sigh again.
Trish, my father’s third wife, comes to the living room. She has been living with us for a week now. For the past week her and papa’s son, and my half-brother Miles, who is 12 years old, injured himself during a football match, he fractured his hand and has been feverish since then. Trish moves in with her son. She has no interest in my father's wealth or newly single status. Unlike my mother, she knows enough of the man whom she was married to.
Among all the women in my father’s life, I like Trish better than anyone, she is matured, responsible, wise, a career-oriented, independent woman. She inspires me a lot in different ways. When she was married to my father, she really became Hazel and my mother, she took care of us as if we were her own child, our school meetings, teenage girl time, sex education, shopping, puberty, she was with us all the way.
The best woman in our life.
“I am going out to buy some medicine. Can you watch over Miles, Inessa, baby?” she asks.
“Sure.” I nod. “Go ahead, I will look after him.”
She smiles as she leaves.
“What the hell is she doing here?" My mama screams.
“She is here for her son.” Mom frowns, she doesn’t look convinced. It’s not my job to explain to her what happens in this house, but I do that anyway.
“Miles is sick. She is here to look after him.”
“That’s all an act. I know what she wants, that bitch.”
“Yeah, at least she is a good mother to her son.” I sigh.
I don’t want to start with this topic right now, I am too exhausted for that. Whenever mama and I talk, no matter what the subject is, we come back to this mother-daughter thing or how she left us when we were kids.
I needed to become a mother at the age of four to look after my infant sister Hazel after my lovely parents' divorce. My mother didn’t want to do anything with us, she knew we would be financially well-off if we stayed with papa. Also, she didn’t want to spend her limited money on us, those were barely enough for her. She didn’t get much from papa after her divorce because of the prenup she signed before the wedding. In the meantime, she had a pretty high lifestyle to maintain.
Taking care of my sister and myself would be tough if Marie, our cook, wasn’t here for us, she raised us. I would be a thousand times happy to be the daughter of her rather than my affluent family.
“Inessa, into my office, right now.” Papa barks as he sets his foot in the home.
For the first time, he needed me. Most of the time he doesn’t even bother to recognize any of his children even if we are in front of him, he simply dismisses us.
“Yes, papa.” I sit in the chair of his expensive office.
The massive dark brown wooden desk is an antique piece that he bought from an auction. The furniture such as the matching ceiling to wall bookshelves, in the corner of the room a pair of single sofa is sitting with a small coffee table, a flower vase in on the other. Fresh flowers make their way to the vase every day, today it’s the red roses, Genelia’s favorite flower.
Mama enters the room and takes a seat beside me. I don’t say anything, wait for papa to open his mouth. He is going through some papers in haste, I don’t know anything about his business, but I heard him telling someone on the phone that he was losing money.
“I fixed your marriage.”
“Excuse me?” I can’t believe his words, my marriage. I am nineteen, in a week I will be twenty, but marriage at such a young age has to be a joke.
“You and Brian McCoy are set to get married. We don’t know the date yet, but on your birthday we will have the engagement party.” He checks his phones. “Go, do some shopping. Buy whatever you need for the engagement party.”
This is ridiculous, this is not the time or age for marriage. Marriage to Brian will be a nightmare.
I have met him a couple of times at the parties as we both are in the same social circle, our father’s business is another reason for us to see one another. Despite seeing each other several times at these parties, we never talked to one another, he never gave me a second glance, he was always with his girlfriend, Olivia. Also, we have an age gap, accurately thirteen years.
“I don’t agree with this marriage.” I politely tell him. Mama squeezes my hand under the table, it’s a signal for me to stay quiet, but I am not going to, it’s about my whole life we are talking about, I will not give anyone the power to decide about it.
“I don’t think you have the luxury to choose that.” He lowers his glasses,“ We are on the edge of bankruptcy, if you want your sibling to have a comfortable life in the future, I advise you to tone down the attitude.” He snaps.
“What the hell are you saying?” I yell this time.
“I lost a great amount of money in an investment, I am in debt, if I don’t pay those back to the bank, then they are seizing everything, including this house.” He starts pacing around the room. “I talked with Matthew McCoy, he is ready to help me, but he wants you as his son’s wife in return.
I stare at him, his words are swimming all over my head, for a minute my mind goes off, empty, total blank, I can’t even make any sentence or remember any word that falls out of my mouth.
How did all this mess happen? We had enough money, more than enough, we are the Simmons’s, one of the well-heeled families of Chicago, everyone in our circle is jealous or afraid of our power.
The power that Simmons, McCoys, and Halls have all over Chicago because of the money they have is unbelievable. These three families can do anything they want and easily get out of the situation, they rule this place like a king. Although three families have been feuding for as long as I can remember, competitiveness is not something you can avoid between these families.
Seeing how senior McCoy is eager to help our family in return for a wedding bond between his older son and me, I am shocked as hell.
He is ready to make an ally with his competition, this doesn’t sit well with me. I want to see what Brian thinks about this. Does he know everything and agree with his father, or he has odium like me? Didn’t his girlfriend die some time ago in a car accident? He is ready to move on with this easily. I thought they were in love with one another. Each time I saw them together at the parties, they were so in love that it was hard for them to keep their hands on one another.
I run away from papa’s office to straight to my room, I lock the door and sink beside my bed. This is the worst.
Now, I have to go through from one hell to another.
“Dada, marriage with Simmons's the worst of the worst ideas.” I rub my temple. “Why did you promise Andrew something like this without asking me first?”A few seconds ago, dada informed me about the deal that he made with Andrew Simmons yesterday, this piece of crap information throws me out of the window. Now, I think I need to visit Mia twice a week, this is more disturbing than Olivia’s betrayal.“Inessa Simmons is an extraordinary woman. We need someone like her in our family, especially in your life.” Dada sits on the couch.“She is a child, not a woman.” I lean on the couch, I close my eyes with a tight squeeze.I met her a couple of times before, everyone in our circle knows her, polite, well-mannered, warm heart, kind nature is the keyword for her. Most of the women in our circle are jealous of her beauty, the power that her family holds, the perfect life that she leads.I heard all the
Red, the color of violence, rage, war, blood, the hue that defines passion, love, tenderness, lust astonished but sustains Brian McCoy’s personality splendidly, although I grant him more like a grey or black color guy, just like his disguises and cold behavior he carries all his life.I swear I saw that fellow around the parties for three years now, not a single time he laughs or beams at other people, whenever my eyes wander to him, I glimpse a billionaire with no soul inside, all blanketed in his three-piece expensive suit that reminds every single character of the place who he is.I don’t get this kind of insolent manner. Everyone knows who you are. You don’t need to relive them that with your attitude. My father has an identical perspective as Brian. He just can’t have sufficient of the national hysteria surrounding him. They both want communities to remember the power that they occupy around Chicago or t
I sit on the couch in Simmon’s living room. This is my first time visiting this house, and I must say Andrew Simmons leaves up to his flashy image perfectly. The living room is amazingly designed as if everything is written to be in their place, the million-dollar wooden furniture is sitting like a king on his billion-dollar home.A boy around 5 to 10 age, I guess my brother-in-law Miles is already in the room, laying on the couch watching some cartoon on tv.I sit on the couch quietly, far away from Miles, staring at him for a second, I can say he is too consumed in the movie to know someone else is in the same room with him. I don’t know what to say or how to have a conversation with a kid. It kicks my ass at this very moment that I never interchange with a child in a decade, or should I say ever in my life.In my family, we are all grown-up adults. None of my siblings are kids anymore, even though the youngest of our househo
Brian doesn’t utter a word to me in the car, he doesn’t mention anything to me even when we were at my house; he is so quiet all the time during the car ride that I needed to investigate into him thousand times to make sure he is here by my side. At a point, it feels like he stops breathing, how a person can be this calm? All the time I saw him from far, I never think him as a modest person, to be honest, whenever I judged of him I considered of a loudly bossy character who does nothing but order other people around.At least that’s what I found out from my circle of people, Luke Hall mostly, my best friend also my family’s biggest enemy, after my marriage I think he will be banned from my life. The record between my in-laws and the Halls can bring blood bath to Chicago. Sometimes I think the mafias of Chicago is not that dangerous, the much McCoy’s are against Halls.Brian opens the car door for me, holds his hands
“Sir, all the information about Miss. Inessa Simmons.” Linda places a brown envelope on my desk.My head is in grief because of that girl, she is the genuine pain in the ass; I don’t even understand how she got under my thin nerve so smoothly, which is rare. I don’t get hyped up so quickly but this girl succeeds to do that within five minutes of our talk last night.Although I will not give her the whole credit to vex me up, her siblings helped her a lot in that area. Hazel especially, that girl made me resentful and dumbfounded at the same time, the rest her sister did all by herself.All night, I couldn’t sleep. She is the reason. The seeds that she spilled at the party in front of my friends were the main reason for my sleepless night. All my friends called me last night to know if I was in bed with Inessa or not. Those assholes kept calling me until the four of the morning. I am sure madam was enjoying her
I see a gigantic white gold hola shape diamond in the middle of three bands with small diamonds all around the three bands is shining on my ring finger; I am engaged. Last night it took place, the moment everyone in Chicago was waiting for finally came to life. Too bad others can’t witness this epic engagement as it was between merely two-family, more like a hush-hush ceremony. I knew it was coming; I saw this ceremony taking place yet; it shook the hell out of me when Brian put the ring on my finger. Two of our families gather under the same roof. The middleman played my house on this occasion. All the McCoy’s and Brown that is Brian’s aunt’s household came to our house, this is the first time I saw all of them simultaneously. This was supposed to be my twenty-year birthday party. Instead, instead, it became a business meeting, Brian put the ring on my finger, then all the McCoy (Brian, Matthew, Viola, one of Brian’s sisters, she means business only,
I stand on the alter, this is the d-day, even now all the nerves of my body are restless, all of them are telling me to run away before you regret this stupid decision. However, my heart is at peace. I feel a slight expansion in my heartbeat, that’s the thrill of getting married, I don’t think so. Seeing Inessa again yes, maybe.Moreover, I am fucking wearing the pink tie that she chose for me. This is the first and last time I am wearing this kind of bullshit. After tonight I am going back to my black suit. Robbie, Owen, Viola, Lyra, all my friends, even my dada laughed loud when they saw me in pink.We connected the whole three weeks before the wedding through texts and calls. I needed to take off to London once again for a week. Inessa was busy with our wedding arrangement. That’s the reason she didn’t have much time to annoy me with her gibberish. It was peaceful weeks, the closest I have to have this woman stroll into
I love to think of myself as a cool woman. There are a few times in my life when I felt obstreperous. Papa always said being nervous is a sign of vulnerability. I think it’s trash. If I am having a particular feeling inside me, I think it’s sensible to express that. What’s the point of denying emotion that is messing with your peace of mind already? And how that sensation becomes our weakness just out of my capability of understanding.I don’t know if I believe that or not, but most of the time I am tranquil. I don’t want other people to pick out any of my things and go with that. Even though I do nothing, I am the constant subject of debate at parties among both men and women.Sometimes these disputes turn into denunciation and bitching, which I don’t need that in my life.Ton points at everything from my hair to my toe, my lipstick to my shoe, dress to the pouch.That’s the reason I go har