IT’S A BURNING HOUSE OF FITZ WITH LIES ABOUT HEIRS AND INFIDELITY AS COMMON AS THEIR SHADY BUSINESS PRACTICES.
Infidelity seems to be a house special for the Fitzgeralds. From one generation to the next, there have been messy divorce cases, women demanding payment from the wealthier than God men who carry on the Fitzgerald name. But the thing that seems to recur is, there seems to be no custody battles. Do the children matter? Or are they just heirs? Maybe the Fitzgerald men are nothing but a weak breed that only cares about upgrading the plastic trophies on their arms.
POWERHOUSE FAMILY OF PALOS VERDES, TRAGICALLY TAKING BLOWS OVER THE FRAUDULENT NATURE OF JOHN FITZGERALD’S MORALS.
The share price for Fitzgerald Inc has dropped by a blowing 42.5% since the news of John Fitzgerald’s firstborn son’s return to the public eye rocks the financial world like a bad case of an STI. What kind of man hides their child? Surely not an honest businessman in charge of your money. If John Fitzgerald’s been hiding his son all these years, what else is he capable of hiding? The man is a disgrace and should resign.
LYING ABOUT HIS OWN CHILDREN? IS HE ASHAMED OR HE’S A DISCRIMINATOR TO THE DOWN SYNDROME COMMUNITY?
Down syndrome isn’t a death sentence. Many people who’ve had this syndrome have lived long and joyful lives. That doesn’t seem to be the case for wealth loving, too good to pay taxes, corporate wolf with his pen in company ink and otherwise, John Fitzgerald.
THE IMPRESSIVE FITZGERALD BUILDING GOES UP IN FLAMES. NO ONE INJURED. CAUSE OF FIRE STILL TO BE DETERMINED.
Just as Fitzgerald Inc is recovering from a blow in share price, there’s been a report that the impressive spire of steel glass structure we’ve all admired for the past ten years, caught on fire last night. Officials have ruled out arson and have since ruled the cause of the fire to be a burst pipe which was coupled with the malfunction of the control room to cause such angry flames to burn the building down. By the time the fire department arrived it was already too late. It looks like John Fitzgerald’s son, Aiden won’t have to work at Fitzgerald Inc—that is, if John would ever consider Aiden his son.
A HOUSE IN PERIL. MAYBE A DYNASTY IS COMING TO A PATHETIC END?
There are no words but, good riddance. We all deserve honesty with those handle our monies. John Fitzgerald, I suggest you find another line of work and dedicate your time to fixing your clearly broken family.
3
A year later.
In the weeks following that kismet of death, the drama that unfolded not a minute after Julian showed me his true colors, the papers and gossip channels were all about the Fitzgerald house and how John and Courtney Fitzgerald lied about their older son.
It was a huge deal.
The assumption was, if John lied about Aiden, then he must’ve been lying and hiding way more to important people like shareholders. Needless to say, the entire Fitzgerald family was put through the wringer, their family scrutinized to the point where everywhere I went, my ballet classes, to the mall with Mom, hell even my Pilates class, all anyone could talk about were the Fitzgeralds.
And it was all because of me.
As if that wasn’t enough, not a month later after the kismet of death, it was leaked that Aiden had Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, something that was quite common in people with Down syndrome.
That broke my heart to a point of where I started getting panic attacks in the middle of the night when I’d dream of Julian or when I’d have to go to the hospital with Mom.
The guilt of what I did hung over me like a cancer, eating me up inside. I could hardly breathe without thinking that he was coming for me and the hell storm that the Fitzgeralds were in was all my fault.
I’m the one who opened my mouth and rattled sensitive information that I didn’t know would cause this much damage.
“I wonder who the raven beauty is who leaked all this information,” Kristine, my new best friend said in P.E one afternoon, making me freeze in the middle of a stretch.
“A raven beauty?” I croak, my heart in my freaking throat.
“Yeah, didn’t you hear?”
I mutely shake my head, discreetly looking around to check if any of my new classmates of my new school that I had to transfer to, running away from impending carnage from St. Jude’s High, suspects me as the ‘raven beauty’ in the tabloids.
“Well, this past weekend’s issue of People magazine said that a young raven beauty was the source that revealed Aiden Fitzgerald’s condition. If you ask me, I think that bitch had to be Julian Fitzgerald’s bitter ex-girlfriend.”
I almost start choking as soon as she says that.
“Why?” I gasp, beating at my chest. “Why do you say that?”
“I mean, it’s obvious isn’t it?” She shakes her head, her nose scrunched up. “Bitter, broken hearted girls do the most shit. Destroying a family like that bitch did, yeah I think she fell in love with Julian only to find out that he doesn’t give a damn about anyone who isn’t his brother.”
Oh my God. What did I do?
My skin starts itching, my cheeks growing red as my insides shrink and twist inside of me, I can hardly breathe.
“You know, I’ve also heard nasty stuff about the Fitz brothers and trust me Mia, whoever that girl is, she’s probably going to pay big time for opening her big mouth. The Fitz brothers don’t play. They’re brutal, ruthless and they don’t follow the same social rules as everyone else.”
“Shit.” I scratch at my throat, trying to breathe but I can’t.
“I won’t be surprised if an image of that girl starts floating around, with a Missing Person’s Warning over her ugly face,” she keeps going, her back to me. “She’s so done and as soon as one person learns her name, her entire life is done for.”
“Kristine,” I gasp, my vision growing hazy.
“You know the first time that story blew up, they called the informant a close family friend,” she snorts. “I bet she ain’t that close anymore, that skank.”
I’m the ‘close family friend’ who the papers referenced when they blew the story of Aiden and his condition. The way they talked about him made me sick, like he wasn’t a human being but a figure for the stock market.
“Kristine, I can’t breathe…”
“What?” She spins around but I’m already falling to the abyss below, darkness taking over every part of me. “Mia!”
But I can’t hear her, the last thing I heard that afternoon was the sound of my racing heart, a dreaded sense of impending doom filling my lungs instead of air. All I could hear in the still of the darkness was Julian’s low, ominous voice coming for me.
And me wanting him to kiss me again.
Even though I somehow escaped that day, I knew that one day, the guy who took my first kiss, the one who broke my heart in two, would come for me and inevitably destroy me.
That was my paranoia for almost a year, but today, it’s different. It’s been almost a year since seeing the thunderous look on his face, I hardy think he even remembers what I did or what I look like, let alone how that kiss tasted and felt.
He doesn’t remember. He forgot all about me.
But the next time I saw him, it was like he took a sledgehammer to my chest and impaled my already broken heart until I was nothing but an empty being. And all I could do was stand there, allowing it to happen like I wasn’t in charge of my own heart.
The next time I saw Julian Fitzgerald, he eviscerated what was left of my shredded heart in a matter of a few steps that were well calculated on his end. I fell like a domino, like every single affirmation I’d ever told myself meant nothing and had no power over him and his allure.
Tonight, I’m going to party like I don’t have a care in the world.
I’m going to party like my parents still sleep in the same room.
I’m going to party like my mother isn’t depressed.
I’m going to party like I’m not sad and miserable and my life isn’t slipping through my $40 manicure, when I used to get $250 mani
cures. Trust me, there’s a difference.
But, I’m going to party on this last weekend before school starts and I’ll be one of the most popular sophomores at Clintwood, with a reign that’s unmatched even if I feel like I’m living a lie among wealthy kids who worship the ground I walk on.
I’m Mia Montague, the Ice Queen Bitch, dumbing down bits of my life just so I can fit in with these average whores.
“Oh God, where is that bitch?” my friend Rye whines from the backseat of my mom’s Range Rover that she can’t drive anymore. Her license was taken a week ago and she’s been a devastated mess—like that’s new.
“She’s a bitch now?” I tuck in my problems, glancing at Rye through the mirror.
“When your supposed best friend flirts with your boyfriend from the moment you tell her that he’s your boyfriend then ends up sleeping with him on the very night your boyfriend promised to take you out on your first official date, yeah that girl becomes a bitch.”
Well, damn.
“Here, drink more.” Jaz, our other friend, offers my father’s scotch that they’ve been drinking the entire drive from Palos Verdes to Malibu for this rager.
“I’ve been drinking all day, it doesn’t help.” Rye sighs.
“Your boyfriend cheated on you with Kristine?” I question, eyeing her as I take in the way she’s dressed, like a girl on the prowl—so unlike the happy, bubbly girl from three days ago.
“Like that should surprise anyone.” Jaz burps. “That plastic bitch slept with my boyfriend, Kev, two months ago and still smiled in my face like she didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Wait, did she know that you were dating or…?”
“Oh, stop defending her like she’d do the same for you!” Rye shoots me a look.
“What?”
“Oh, come on, Mia,” Jaz starts. “You’re not as clueless as you’d like people to think. You’re always at the top of the Principal’s list.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I scoff.
“Seriously, my aunt told me this a while back.”
I swallow. Shit.
“Who’s your aunt?”
“You know, the one who works in admin at school? She told me that you picked up AP classes. You’re like super freaking smart, all the teachers say so.”
“I work hard, just like everyone else.” I try to laugh it off. “You’ve met my dad, there’s no way he’d fund my expensive tastes if I came home with shitty grades.”
“Don’t do that, Mia.” Rye shakes her head, her eyes alight with tears as we wait in the car. “You’re smart and I’m sure you can see that Kristine is a bitch who hates you. She pretends to be your friend because you are famous.”
“Truth, she’s as fake as her fake clothes, her fake personality, her fake smiles, her fake hair,” Jaz chimes in. “Be careful when it comes to that bitch.”
“Come on guys, Kristine…”
“Will play you like a rigged game if you choose to be that dumb girl, wanting a best friend who’s really jealous of you and hates you for being who you are.” Rye’s voice hardens, her eyes narrowed. “Anyway, we’re telling you this because you need someone to warn you, since I’m transferring schools.”
“What?” I spin around in my seat, eyes wide with shock.
“My Dad wants to move back to Chicago, so we’re all going. I’m done with Palos,” she shrugs. “Tonight’s my last night with you that’s why I came along, enduring a painful, shitty trip with that backstabbing bitch for you.”
“Rye!” I gasp.
“Me too,” Jaz chimes in as well.
“What do you mean, you too?” I frown.
“I can’t do this anymore, Mia. I fell in love with Kev and she took him away from me,” Jaz says, her voice low and strained with raw pain.
I’m so stunned, my jaw is dropped.
“But you can’t move now because of…”
“A broken heart?” Jaz murmurs. “You have one too, Mia. This shouldn’t be hard to understand.”
Silence falls over us in the car and I turn around in my seat. Woodenly, I grab my compact mirror so I can check my make-up but I’m not really seeing anything.
Do I really have a broken heart?
“She’s coming. Act normal,” Jaz whisper yells. “We’re not telling her about any of this.”
“Remember, Mia,” Rye whispers. “Everyone knows that she wants Shane Matthews because you want him. She’s going to destroy you. That’s her plan. Be careful.”
“Okay, I just checked,” Kristine gasps with excitement, her voice breathless like she ran all the way here.
I watch her skeptically as she literally dives head first into the passenger seat, her cheeks flushed—I’m betting it has nothing to do with the fact that she ran here after being gone for over twenty minutes just to check on how packed tonight’s party is.
“Took you long enough.” I side-eye her, noticing the smudge of her lipstick.
“Well, I had to make a pit-stop,” she gasps, trying to catch her breath.
“Was that on your knees?” Rye counters from the backseat and I smile, staring at my reflection through the compact mirror.
“That’s none of your business, Rye,” Kristine says, “At least I had the guts to actually go in and check.”
“Among other things.” Rye mumbles and I laugh, unable to hold it in.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Rye smiles at her. “What did you see?”
“Well get ready, bitches, it’s packed like a den of sin in there,” Kristine gushes excitedly, her voice out of breath. “It looks like a neutral party.”
“That means public schools and private school students are here, right?” Jaz questions from the backseat, making Rye and Kristine sigh loudly.
“Oh sweetie, that’s what I meant, it’s a neutral party,” Kristine mocks, a fake smile plastered on her face. “Which means, it’s going to be steamy as hell, with an all you can eat buffet of guys just waiting. Ripe for the picking.”
“Ripe for your abuse,” Rye murmurs and I chuckle.
“What?” Kristine snaps, turning around to stare at her. “Do you have a problem with me?”
“A problem with you?” Rye starts, tilting her head to the left like she’s confused. “That would assume I actually consider you as anything more than a little…”
“Rye,” I cut her off before she can go on.
“No, let her get it off her chest.” Kristine huffs.
“Now is not the time.” I sigh. “Tonight’s about partying. School starts on Monday.”
“As well as whoring,” Rye chimes in again, her eyes narrowed on Kristine.
“What did you just say?”
“Here we go again,” Jaz grumbles.
“Nothing, sweetie.” Rye smiles because that’s what you do in high school when you’re a mean girl. You keep your enemies close and the girls who steal your boyfriend from under your nose even closer.
“Whatever, you can be sour all you want but tonight, I’m going to let loose!” Kristine screams in my ear, making me almost jump in my seat. I push her face away, shooting her an evil eye.
“When are you ever not loose?” I scowl at her, making Jaz and Rye laugh all over again. “And stop screaming in my ear, you sound like a fox in distress.”
“Seriously?” Kristine gasps, staring at my profile with her eyebrows almost touching her hairline. I’m almost impressed by how much give her face muscles still have. Sixteen years old and already she’s had work done. “Seriously, Mia?”
“What?” I shake my head, then snap my compact mirror closed so I can fluff out my hair. “I didn’t say anything that isn’t true, and you know it.”
Some people should just own up to how they became overnight whores since discovering sex like an overeager, sex-crazed machine. For Kristine, that was when she turned thirteen. But sleeping with Rye and Jaz’s boyfriends like that, it sounds personal.
“I’m not loose!” Kristine frowns, making Ja
z snort.
“Yeah sure,” she starts. “That’s why you’ve been dating three guys at a time for the past two weeks?”
Whoa, say what?
“You’ve been dating three guys at the same time?” I question. “And you’ve only known them for two weeks?”
Kristine turns haughty right then, eyeing me like she knows something I don’t.
“Yeah, impressive isn’t it?” She drops her voice to a mocking moan. “Feeling jealous?”
I don’t know why she thinks I’d consider her moral torn, identity crisis, another-man-snatching tendencies impressive. And the way she says it, it’s like she’s joking but the look in her eyes makes me narrow my eyes at her.
“Uh, jealous of catching STDs and STIs?” I mock right back. “Sure, Kristine, whatever makes you feel less pathetic in your Foursome Fortnight.”
She scrunches her nose up at me, looking severely confused.
“Foursome Fortnight?” she questions, making me roll my eyes. Seriously how dumb can one person be?
“Never mind.” I sing-song.
“Well take it back because I’m not loose.”
There’s a moment of silence in the car before Jaz, Rye and I burst out laughing at her like she just announced she’s turning over a new leaf and will be a celibate nun seeking the face of God for the rest of her life. I’m all for religion if you actually mean it. Kristine, however, doesn’t take anything seriously in her life other than living to look and sound like the R.A.C.K.
“Stop laughing. I mean it!” Kristine snaps. “I’m serious about this. I’m going to get the man of my dreams tonight.”
“Just drop it already, Kristine.” Rye leans over the console from the backseat. “Shane Matthews only has eyes for one girl and it’s not you.”
“Shane isn’t the only guy that’s here tonight, and you don’t even know who I mean.”
“Who are you talking about then?” I question, checking my make-up one more time as I summon my best mask, mentally telling myself that everything’s going to be alright. It’s been a year, there’s no reason to continue looking over my shoulder like a seasoned criminal on the run.
Devious Kisses: A Bully Enemies -To-Lovers Romance (It's Just High School Book 1) Page 5
