stephan parked in front of the hotel. It was crowded with people in pretty dresses and dark suits, and they were slowly making their way inside to the main hall. There was a marble fountain, and several parked cars outside, and stephan stopped as close as he could to a red car. They got out, and stephan took parsley by the arm and introduced her to his mother, Hannah. It was her red car."Hello, my dear!" she said, flinging her arms around them both. "stephan, you look so handsome! And so pretty, parsley!" She smiled. Took a swig of wine."Are you already drunk?" Asked Stephan."No, not yet. A few wines, that's all." She waved at Norah, Dalton, and Valerie behind them, struggling with the car door. "The Schultz's. The perfect family." She said, as they finally joined them and kissed Norah and Dalton on the cheeks. "Thank you so much for coming. It wouldn't be the same without you."Norah blushed. "It's a pleasure."" She snorted and placed a steadying hand on Norah's shoulder as she l
stephan hissed into her ear, "you heard the man. We'd better get to it soon, eh? Was I thinking… tonight? If you're free, that is?"She elbowed him hard in the ribs, but he didn't back off. "Remember what happens if you mess this up for me. Be nice now, and later tonight, you can be as naughty as you like." He grinned so wide she worried his ears might drop in. She bit her bottom lip hard, so hard it drew blood. If Mr. Sterling didn't come soon, she knew, then she would have to sleep with his guy.Then, quickly, the room grew silent. It was like the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. A fork clattered; a mother silenced a child; a wine glass chimed. Then, shoes hoofing on the marble floor, growing louder, each stride resonating purpose.A man entered, tall and handsome in a charcoal grey suit. Chest out shoulders back, hands in pockets. Such elegance and confidence that he commanded the attention of everyone there. parsley's eyes fixed on him and realized that figure. It was Mr. S
parsley let out a guttural growl and gnashed out her words. "You! You who slept with my sisterstephan turned scarlet, his jaw clenched, and fists were clenched white. He was raised above his head, ready to strike, like a hammer on an anvil.parsley flinched. Waited for the blow to land… but it didn't come.Stephen's hand was frozen above his head, where it was locked in a vice-like grip. Stephen stared maniacally at his uncle, Ryan, whose jaw, wide and sharp like a spade edge, was clamped shut in a repressed rage."You would dare hit a woman in front of me." Not a question.stephan's temper quickly cooled; his shoulders dropped, and his mouth started to form words that sounded like an apology."Remember who I am, stephan, and know that she is now with me." He let go of stephan's arm and took parsley's hand, whispered to her, "Do you want to go back inside, or would you rather leave?"parsley shook to the core, felt she had no choice but to cling to his arm as he led her to the backse
You have the nerve to come back here? After running away with a man, just like your shameless mother!" Shouted Norah, livid, jumping out the sofa.Dalton, usually the diplomat, joined in, "Are you crazy, parsley? How could you sleep with stephan's uncle? Is there any misunderstanding? Just go and explain to stephan and old Sterling, and tell them it's nothing between you and Ryan."parsley clenched her fists. "No misunderstanding. stephan and I couldn't be together anymore."Norah pointed her finger at her, "Did you hear that? She really has a thick hide! Shameless thing! The same as her mother, who ran away from home, abandoning her daughter and her husband!""Stop it!" parsley stared at her aunt, "I'm not going to marry stephan, and I have the freedom to choose who I marry. And -let me be clear- stephan and I are over. That man, he has done things to me! Or are you just worried about your factory? Well, don't be. stephan won't dare do anything in fear of his uncle. Okay?"Dalton was
Sister, do you know him?" Asked the child, Tony, curiously.parsley nodded.More than "know," she thought to herself. She'd grown up with him in the orphanage, in the aftermath of her father's death. She cried, daily, sometimes in throat rattling sobs, other times a weak whimper, but always a sense of earth-shattering change taking place around her. Like she could not trust the walls around her, that they might fall away and reveal another, stranger reality she knew nothing of. For the first time in her life, she was alone, in every sense of the word, and she didn't know what to do.At first, she'd stayed in bed until the uncanniness of her own life, spinning in circles around her head, drove her up and out, if only to get away from the repeating dreams that haunted her. It was then that she met Kevin. A tall, boy with a mop of blonde hair. He sat next to her on a bench in the courtyard and showed her a picture he'd drawn. "Do you like it?" He held it up. It was her, smiling in a on
"It's okay. I'm sure you'll find your parents." Said parsley."I don' think I want to. Not anymore. I mean, they abandoned me, so, who's to say that, even if I did find them, that they would even want to know me? They didn't even bother contacting this place since leaving me here." He spread out his arms, from the tall brick wall to the playground. Then, he placed a hand on hers. "Savannah, everything okay?"parsley smiled. Kevin still understood her – could read her like a book, even as she actively tried to hide from him. He persisted. "Tell me, parsley, what happened?"So she let it out. At first, she wasn't sure how much to tell. She started with small things, like her life with her aunt and uncle, but soon she was moving onto bigger things, and she couldn't stop despite herself, like a dam that had just broken.She described her arranged marriage to stephan and how she'd been sent to another man's bed. And how she'd then discovered that he???d been having an affair with her cousi
it was midday when parsley arrived at her new apartment. It was high up on the thirty-first floor and looked out over the city to the sea. In the living room, it had a glass wall with long yellow drapes pulled open. And throughout, from the kitchen to the bathroom and bedroom, was a white marble floor. Her favorite part, though, was the balcony outside. It was wide and had a bench and chairs set out and southward facing to catch the sun. She sat there, warming herself, thinking about the past few days, and felt utterly detached from the world. Like she had done so long ago when her father died. And just like then, she cried.Two hours later, there was a knock at the door. It was a short man with thin, mousey brown hair and thin spectacles. "Where is Kevin?" She asked.Dan laughed, "He's busy at work. They're super busy right now bug-fixing for a release next month. All-hands-on-deck and all that.""You work in the same company, don't you?" said parsley. "So why is he busy and not you?
He stood upright, flung his head back, and laughed. "Yeah, maybe. Probably. But hey, you know, what's a billion dollars to us, eh?" he shook his head. "Sorry. It's like this. The Sterling Group is going to sue us, and I don't think it's a secret that we're going to be outgunned there. And that isn't even the immediate problem. The problem right now is that we can't even pay bail to get him out. The girl, Valerie, saw the whole thing and testified to keep him locked up in there. The whole thing's a bloody mess."Just as Kevin emerged from a wedged open green fire door, they sat down and cuffed to a table and chair bolted to the floor. He saw them and shot a scowl and Dan.Dan held up his hands "Don't you start giving me shit, she wouldn't take no for an answer."parsley looked at Kevin, and his eyes hollowed out by large black rings. Had he slept at all? She wanted desperately to reach over and hug him; tell him that he was an idiot and that she loved him for it. But she couldn't. Inst