LOGINLUTHER I'm lying in my bed, staring at my phone. It's been over an hour since Marlon texted me and asked me to leave the Langmore house, because the brothers are going to come home soon, but I know that they are not yet back because Nola hasn't said anything to me. My heart is thumping heavily. Did Bernice go back on the deal? Has she refused to take ownership of the shooting incident? To be honest, I never believed it when she said that she would make everything go away if only Marlon agreed to meet with her. HOW is all of this supposed to go away without someone getting arrested? That's going to be a very hard task, even for someone like Bernice Huston. Anxiety consumes me, making my stomach twist this way and that, and then, my phone pings because I have finally gotten the text from Nola. "MY BROTHERS ARE BACK!! OH MY GOD, YOUR FRIEND DID IT!!!" Follow by a picture of the boys, lying exhausted on their living room couches. They look slightly emaciated and drained, and my
119. JANAE I'm a trembling crying mess, and I'm so shaken that I won't even allow the poor doctor to take the blood, even though he has assured me that all he needs is a small sample. After going back and forth for ten minutes, he looks at Marlon, and both men nod to each other. The Doctor calls out to someone in the hallway, then two nurses in their scrubs walks in. I thrash, cry, and beg them not to, but they press me down against the examination chair, so that the door can insert his cold metal into my vein. My eye twitches as the needle goes in, but I'm somehow able to maintain eye contact with Marlon, and I don't think I have ever seen a more heartless expression from a man. Maybe I've been too dickmatized to notice it, but I think Marlon Gustave is actually a psychopath. That's why his son never gets along with him..."There you go, Janae. All done. See? It's not that bad," Doctor Marten teases as he holds up the small vial that holds my blood. He hands it to one of the
118. JANAE "Please, don't kill me. I'm sure that whatever this is about, it can be sorted out, if only I am allowed to speak to Marlon Gustave Sr." No one even coughs in my direction. "Please, let me speak to Marlon first. Please," The silence gets even louder and I feel my throat scratch with tears. There is nothing that I am going to say to these dangerous men that will get them to let me go. The only time I get them to actually pay any attention to them was when I said I was thirsty, and they slightly raised the hood from my face to give me some water. "Where are you taking me to? An abattoir to be killed like farm animals?" I wonder. "Please, my son is going to be so worried about me. I need to go back home." The drive goes on and on until I lose ever sense of direction. I don't know where we are heading to, but I know that we have driven for almost an hour, and I'm drenched with the sweat I produced out of fear. Finally, I hear the van come to a halt, and I'm not sure i
117. JANAE For five minutes, Marlon Gustave stays quiet while I sob on the phone. I have so many things to say within such a short time that I end up bursting into tears. This wasn't planned. I'm not trying to babytrap him or anything, in fact I'm already at planned parenthood to take the baby out. "I'm just telling you this because I want to be accountable. I just–" I bite down my lips to keep the rest of my sobs inside. He exhales at the other end, and I can't tell if he wants to kill me or not. "Janae, it's okay," he finally speaks, and the first thing I notice is how calm he is. Yes, this baby is basically going to ruin my life, but he has so much more to lose, so why is he calm? "How many people have you told?" He asks. I pinch the bridge of my nose. "About the baby or about us?" "Both." "No one," I admit. "It's not like I even have a single friend in Densberry. The closest person I have to a friend is my neighbor who is almost a century old, and she has amnesia–" "Do
116. JANAE After the shock of the pregnancy test, I go home and cry and cry and cry. If crying could change situations, i would have been golden. What am I going to do? What am I going to tell Marlon? And Luther, oh my God, what am I going to tell my baby boy? He is going to be so disappointed in me! This child is going to be a burden to both of us, and it's all my fault. What if those bad people come for us now? I now have a permanent tie to Densberry. Gosh, what have I done to myself? I call in sick for the next three days, and a chef has to be sent in to fill in my position. Maybelline has been calling every evening to check up on me, telling me that they miss my food, but I can't even bring myself to face her or anyone else. Anyone who finds out that I am now pregnant with Marlon Gustave would immediately think that I am a money-grabbing bitch. What's the surest way to be rich forever? Have a baby by a billionaire! The thing is that I never wanted this baby. This, in fa
115. MARLON I've kissed a lot of people in my life. A lot of girls, yes, but Luther is the only boy I've kissed, or been with. Since I met him, I have never kissed another person again. Except when someone who kissed me without my consent, and now, Bernice. She is the same person. She has done this disgusting shit twice! For a quick flash there, I forget that she is a girl, and grab her wrist so tightly that she gasps. I could crush the weak bones of her fingers into a mush that would leave her in the hospital for the rest of the year, but I can't. I can't bring myself to hurt her, even holding her this way makes it hard. She interprets this to be some sort of primitive kinkish thing, so she chuckles as she bites down her lower lip. "You like to be rough, huh!" She runs her hand over her collar bone. "It's no problem, I can do whatever you want. I have great gag reflex too..." My face wrinks as disgusts leaves my face coloured. "What the fuck are you even on about?" She brin
MARLON Even though it's supposed to be something very private between her and her mother, Bernice has asked me to stay in the hospital room with her, while the doctor reads out the report of their examination. “Yes, Miss Hudson's body is covered in scratch marks by seventy percent, some concernin
MARLONSeeing Bernice like that on the ground has left something inside of me snapped. It takes me back to six years ago, when I found my sister curled up in her bed crying. She had sneaked past our ridiculously expensive minders to go to a party, and someone spiked her drink. She was sexually a
LUTHER I clear my throat and walk to my seat, which is just next to Bernice's. She has tossed the expensive bouquet of flowers from the table, but the cake is so nice that she can't bring herself to throw it. She moves it to the very edge of her table, and brings out her makeup kit to retouch he
LUTHER Somehow, I was thankful that Marlon waited to take me home– plus his car is super nice, the leather seats feel so gentle against my skin. He is blasting his weird ass music and whistling along while I keep my eyes out of the window. The nicer houses finally gives way to the less nice ones







