Ruined Plan

Marcus’ POV

Ruined Plan

"Help!! Marcus, help!"

The scream ripped through the celebratory hum of the rooftop garden, jagged and frantic. It wasn't the sound of a happy accident.

My heart plummeted into the pit of my stomach, turning into a heavy stone. I shoved past a stunned college classmate, nearly knocking a tray of crystal flutes out of a waiter's hand.

My lungs burned with the sudden, sharp intake of oxygen as I rounded the jasmine hedge, my mind racing through a dozen scenarios.

I expected a fall. I expected a faint brought on by the heat and the sheer emotional weight of the proposal. I expected to find Ashley flushed and overwhelmed.

I did not expect to find her slumped against the cold stone bench like a discarded doll, her skin the color of wet parchment. And I certainly didn't expect to see Lurii standing over her.

Lurii wasn't screaming. She wasn't crying. She stood there with the stance of a scientist watching a lab rat take its final, agonizing breath. Her hands were folded neatly in front of her yellow dress, her expression as smooth as glass.

"Ashley!" I roared, the sound tearing from my throat as I dropped to my knees beside her.

I grabbed her wrist. Her skin was ice.

"What happened? Lurii, what did she take?" I demanded, my voice cracking with a frantic desperation.

Lurii didn't move. She didn't even flinch at the violence in my tone. She reached up and smoothed a stray hair back from her forehead, her eyes reflecting the cold, indifferent moonlight.

"She didn't take anything, Marcus," she whispered, her voice devoid of the bubbly, irritating sunshine she’d worn like a mask all morning.

"I gave it to her."

I froze. My hands were still clamped around Ashley’s limp shoulders, but the world around me slowed to a sickening, distorted crawl.

The laughter from the party on the other side of the hedge sounded like it was coming from underwater.

"You what?"

"I couldn't watch it anymore," Lurii said, her voice gaining a sharp, hysterical edge.

"The awards. The speeches. The perfect fiancée. The big sister who saves the day while I play the pathetic little tag-along. I’d rather burn in hell than watch her exist like that for one more day. I’m done being her charity case."

I stared at her, horror warbling in my gut, for the sheer, stupidity of the girl standing above her.

"We had a deal, Lurii!" I hissed, my voice a low, vibrating growl of fury.

"The plan was simple. The plan was to discredit her, to break her spirit so she would become dependent on me, so I could step in and play the savior. Our agreement did not involve her dying!"

"Plans change when the sight of someone makes you want to claw your own eyes out," she snapped, her gaze finally snapping to mine, burning with a jealous fire that bordered on insanity.

"If one of us had to go, Marcus, it was never going to be me."

I scooped Ashley’s limp body into my arms. Her head lolled back against my shoulder, her mouth slightly open, her eyes half-mast and glazed. She felt like lead, dead weight in every sense of the word.

"You stupid, selfish girl," I hissed, leaning in so close to Lurii that our foreheads nearly touched. I could smell the sweet, cloying scent of the poison on her breath, or perhaps it was just the smell of her malice.

I made sure my voice was a razor, keeping it low enough that the gathering crowd, now whispering behind the hedge, wouldn't hear the venom.

"Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Do you actually think I proposed because I loved her? Because I found her inspiring?"

Lurii blinked, her practiced composure finally flickering. A shadow of doubt crossed her face.

"This was the play, Lurii! This was the only move left on the board!" I shook Ashley’s body slightly, as if she were a broken machine I could restart with enough raw anger.

"My father’s trust is locked behind a stability clause. The old man is obsessed with legacy. He told me I’d never see a dime of the principal unless I married a woman of impeccable standing, a woman who could stabilize my reckless image. Ashley was perfect. The HBS darling. The fortress builder. The woman the press would adore. I did not propose to her because I loved her, I never did and I’ve announced this over and over again! Does it seem like I am interested in love and especially with a woman like Ashley? I’m only doing this because of the old man.”

I stepped closer, forcing Lurii to back up against the stone.

"The old man would have signed over access to the entire company the moment the marriage certificate was filed. Fifty. Billion. Dollars. Do you understand that number, Lurii? It’s more money than your pathetic mind can even conceptualize."

I spat the words at her, my teeth grinding.

"The money was going to be ours. I was going to set you up for life just to keep you quiet. But the papers require a living bride, not a corpse. You burned fifty billion dollars because you couldn't handle a little bit of sibling rivalry."

Lurii’s face went white, the reality of her blunder finally crashing through her delusions of grandeur. She looked at Ashley, then back at me, her lips trembling. But I didn't have time for her realization or her regret.

I turned and ran.

I didn't wait for an ambulance. The sirens would be too slow, the bureaucracy too thick. I sprinted through the hotel lobby, a wild-eyed man in a thousand-dollar suit carrying a dying woman.

"Move!" I screamed at a group of tourists blocking the revolving ily.

"Get out of the way!"

My suit jacket was stained with the cold sweat of a woman whose heart was failing. I threw her into the back of my car, my movements rough and desperate. I drove like a man possessed, the engine of my Italian sports car roaring in protest as I tore through the narrow, crowded streets of Boston. I hopped curbs, ran red lights, and ignored the blare of horns.

Don't die, Ashley, I thought, my jaw aching from the pressure. You are too expensive to lose. I didn't spend years cultivating this image just for you to slip away in a garden.

We drifted through the hospital ambulance bay, the tires screaming as I slammed on the brakes. I didn't even put the car in park before I was out the door.

"I need help! She’s been poisoned!" I yelled as the automatic doors hissed open.