Chapter 5: The Madame

Ava

~~~

Evelyn hurriedly stuffs my little box to its limit, clothes spilling out in a way that tells me the cheap suitcase isn’t going to be able to shut well when she’s done.

“Leonel Sinclair?” She demands for the fifth time, “You slapped, splashed and kissed the Leonel Sinclair?”

Even through my worry, I glance up from the cardboard box I was throwing my kitchen appliances into.

“Splashed?”

She waves it off, “it’s a word I use for throwing drinks in people’s faces.”

“And you need this word regularly, why?”

Evelyn huffs out, “Ava! That’s not the point. You assaulted a billionaire. No, scratch that. You assaulted the billionaire who makes other billionaire’s look like… like us!”

“You mean pretty?” I joke innocently, even though I feel my hands shake from fear.

“Broke!” She throws her hands up, “He makes them look broke cause he’s that damn rich.”

I know she’s taking this seriously, and I want to as well, but my priorities right now are a little divided.

First, I need to get out of this apartment, before The Madame finds me and demands the rent I very clearly don’t have. Only after that can I think about Sinclair.

Or… only after that can I think about Sinclair some more.

On the sprint back here last night, him, that kiss and his scandal were the only things that looped in my head.

According to articles I combed through earlier, and bits of news I watched in the past, Sinclair had been a huge drunk and massive cheater, which led to his divorce.

From what I gathered, a huge fraction of Axion Tech went down with the scandal, but not so big that it crippled Sinclair.

That fucking lucky bastard, but if he takes up anymore brain space and continues to stop me from packing, I’ll never leave this apartment.

“I don’t care who Sinclair is or how much money he has.” I tell Evelyn, throwing my box with the other packed things as I try and shake off the memory of that awful scandal.

“All I care about right now is evading The Madame.” I continue, “Don’t you remember the last tenant who couldn’t pay rent? How his screams carried on the whole night before he simply ‘went away’ forever? That can’t be me Evie, it just can’t. ”

Evelyn stops zipping up my box completely, fixing her dark blue eyes on me.

“Ava.” She begins, and a chill runs down my spine as her tone leaves no room for jokes.

“This is the third time I’ve helped you run away from a landlord, and as much as I hate supporting you in not paying your rent, I care about you enough to do it. So, I am telling you this from a place of care, between The Madame and Leonel Sinclair, fear Leonel Sinclair.”

She leans forwards, pressing a stern hand to my cheek as my heart hammers in my chest. “He’s more powerful than every landlord you’ve had combined, and from the rumors about how he treated his ex-wife, he’ll have no restraint when hurting you.”

I let her words sink in, feeling them penetrate my already unsettled heart, and as much as I want to tell Evie I’ll be fine, that I’m good enough at hiding to evade even one of the richest men alive, I know that it’ll be a lie..

Will I escape in a world that Leonel Sinclair can own?

I shake my head, clearing my thoughts of any panic threatening to seep in.

“I can’t think about that now.” I state, carrying my last set of paintbrushes. All I own now sits haphazardly in two boxes, “I want to believe after that slap Sinclair would want nothing to do with me.”

Evelyn’s eyes darken, “You may have some faith in him, but I don’t. The man who was that horrible to his ex-wife can never be trusted not to come back and take his own sick form of revenge. Or don’t you remember how horrible Madison looked?”

A shot of panic nearly disarms me, and I have of lean on Evie for support as flashes of Madison Rosewood, Sinclair’s ex-wife, fire through my memory.

“Of course I remember,” I warble out, angry at the shake in my voice, “ Madison will never let anyone forget.”

When I got my first apartment after “the incident”, Madison’s account of the divorce was the first thing that showed on the old tv set in the building.

Even though “the incident” had just happened to me, she looked worse than I did, crying on The Garrish Late Night Show about how Leonel had been a serial cheat and drunk throughout their marriage. The guy sounds awful, and the Sinclair I met at that art show only further proves that.

Still, there was the fact he protected me from Mr Riggs, even if selfishly, and how he bought my paintings, even if just to get me off stage. Something about those two acts doesn’t seem to align with the rest of his character.

“Look,” I state, “I know I’m in some sort of trouble, I do, but I can’t worry right now. When I get out of here Evie my first priority will be fixing this mess. I promise.”

Her blue eyes soften, and she anxiously runs a hand through her strawberry blonde ponytail.

“Okay.” She concedes, “Let’s just get you out of here.”

I nod, relief flooding me, and together we rush out with my two boxes and load them into her run-down car.

It’s only as I’m about to step in the car that I fold my hands over my chest and realize with horror that my pendant is missing.

“Shit,” I say, closing the car door behind me as Evelyn calls out to me.

If it was anything else I’d have let it go, but that necklace is the last thing of my mother that I own.

I run into the bedroom and desperately feel under the springy mattress until my fingers loop around cold metal.

Bingo.

Relief floods me as I pull out the Jade-colored butterfly necklace, but right now looking at it makes my heart flutter with guilt. I wonder what mum would think if she saw me today, avoiding all my rent and problems. Would she be able to understand what I’ve become?

I don’t have too much time to think about it because the door of the apartment creaks open.

My heart jolts, and on reflex I reach into my pocket and grab my knife.

“Ava, Ava,” I hear the familiar tsk of The Madame as a chill through me.

“Why don’t you come to the living room? Oh, and leave your knife. It wouldn’t do much good against me.”