Beautiful Little Fool

by K. K. Hendin

  Phase Three of Get Ellis? Check, check, check, check.

  She couldn’t wait for the wedding. He wasn’t going to know what hit him.

  It was the biggest wedding New York City had seen since everyone sat around their computers and watched the Royal Wedding.

  And it was better, because it was a New York wedding, and they didn’t have to watch on their computers—they could just make their way over to the Hilforshire Manor on the island. Okay, they’d probably have to take the train there, but it wasn’t like it was in another country or anything.

  The media was very tightly controlled, and there seemed to be more security there than at the last Presidential Inauguration. Not a single helicopter in sight, and even though the weather was supposed to be foggy and rainy, it stayed sunny the whole day.

  It seemed that even God wasn’t going to get in the way of the Reynolds-Carrington wedding.

  And while everyone in the country was talking about the wedding, of all the things they were talking about, it was Cedar’s dress that caught the eye of the media.

  Every woman who was planning a wedding added the picture of Cedar and Ellis to their Wedding board on Pinterest.

  All the women who weren’t getting married but had a Wedding board on Pinterest pinned the picture, too.

  It was every fairy princess come to life, every fairy tale come to life. If it wasn’t an advertisement for true love and happily ever after, nothing was.

  Hell, Disney should have paid them money for advertising, that was how wonderful and in love they looked.

  And no, Ellis did not know what hit him when Cedar walked down the stairs and down the aisle. It took all of his self-control not to gape like an idiot as she glided toward him.

  But he was marrying her.

  He was marrying Cedar Reynolds, reigning queen of New York.

  And they were going to live happily ever after.

  Cedar was curled up against Ellis as their plane flew from New York to their honeymoon.

  Everything had gone smoothly. It was a wedding that nobody was going to forget about any time soon. And every time they would talk about Ellis and Cedar now, they would be using one of the wedding pictures that they so kindly distributed to the media.

  Cedar traced circles on Ellis’s chest. She was exhausted. Planning the wedding of the century and being the bride took a lot out of a girl. This honeymoon was a godsend. As long as Ellis didn’t pick somewhere stupid. Or busy.

  As much as Cedar loved Paris, she wanted to go somewhere far, far, far away from civilization. Okay, not civilization. That may have been a bit of an overexaggeration. But a place where she could walk around with Ellis and spend his money and generally pamper herself without bumping into anyone she knew.

  Honeymooning was not socializing time.

  “You gonna tell me where we’re going yet?” she asked Ellis.

  “Nope,” he said, yawning. “Still a surprise.”

  “Well, I’m sure it’s a good one,” she said, not actually that sure at all, but hoping. “I have faith in your vacation picking abilities.”

  And after the whole Hamlin situation, she did have a bit more faith in him. Hamlin apparently had been hiding a stay at home wife and three kids, and Ellis didn’t stop until he had completely destroyed him.

  Cedar had heard the wife and kids were staying in a shelter.

  Good. That was what happened when your husband was a fucking idiot. Unlike hers, who seemed to be growing into his potential.

  Husband. What a ridiculous word. Cedar had always known that she would eventually end up getting married to someone, but when she was younger, she didn’t dare dream of a marriage like this.

  It was a good thing she had gotten over herself. She was so much better than the person her parents thought she could be. She was so much better than the person she thought she could be.

  She was Cedar Reynolds. Nothing was too good for her.

  A soft snore drifted from her husband. Good. He was sleeping. Cedar untangled herself from his grasp, and got up to go to the cockpit.

  The usual pilot and copilot were there, but neither of them would tell her where they were going. She decided not to push too hard and headed back to the bedroom where Ellis was sleeping.

  There wasn’t really much else to do until they got there—none of the staff on the plane were entertaining enough for her. So she crawled back into bed next to her husband and fell asleep.

  Cedar awoke up by Ellis placing her lightly onto a bed. Not the one she had fallen asleep on. It felt different. And it didn’t smell like a plane.

  She opened her eyes slowly and looked up at Ellis. “Do you want to tell me where we are yet?”

  He laughed. “If you want me to, I guess I can.” He offered her a hand. “Or we can take a little nap first, and then go exploring.”

  “Where are we exploring?”

  “The island. There’s supposed to be a hot springs on the other side, and there are a few beach spots that sound great.”

  “Which island are we on?” Cedar tried to think of where she had been before that had hot springs on what seemed like a tropical island, but couldn’t think of anything.

  “A new one,” Ellis said, leading her through an enormous beach house. “And a very private one.”

  “How private?” Cedar asked as they stepped out onto the manicured grass in front of the house. The house was right near the ocean. The water was calm and peaceful, and it didn’t look like anyone else was anywhere near them.

  “‘I bought it for you as a wedding present’ private,” Ellis said, smiling down at her. “After everything that’s been happening in New York, I thought you might want to go away for our honeymoon. The people who work on the island are virtually invisible, and will never intrude unless we want them to.”

  “You bought me an island?” Cedar asked.

  “I did. And this is the one time I’m going to visit. It’s your personal getaway spot, and you can do whatever you want with it.”

  All that training had paid off. She through her arms around him. “Oh, honey, that was so thoughtful of you! How did you know I wanted one?”

  Ellis shrugged. “Lucky guess, I suppose.” He lowered his lips to her ear. “Oh, Cedar?”

  “Hmm?”

  “All those discovery fantasies you wanted to try out? We have plenty of space here.”

  “Well, well. You really did think about this,” Cedar said.

  “Of course I did. It’s our honeymoon, babe. I didn’t want to forget anything. Although I’m doing a terrible job at hosting and showing you around your little island.” Ellis tugged her forward. “There’s an open shower over down this path, right near the Jacuzzi.”

  “Jacuzzi and hot springs?”

  Ellis shrugged. “Didn’t want to skimp on anything for you.”

  “An open door shower sounds nice,” Cedar said. “I haven’t washed off all the travel dust yet.”

  The honeymoon was pure bliss. No electronics, nobody to bother either of them about anything, and nothing to get in the way of Cedar celebrating the will her husband had written the week before.

  She lay back on her lounge chair and smiled. Things were going perfectly. Everything was going the way she wanted them to.

  Now, the question was when everything would end.

  Because it was going to have to. That’s what happens with fairy tales, she thought idly. They end in a crash and burn.

  But how much longer until then? Not until the honeymoon was over. Maybe another year? Ellis had sort of grown on Cedar, in a twisted sort of way, the same way a cow you’re raising for slaughter grows on you. You like them while they’re there, but you know they won’t be there forever.

  Maybe a year. Maybe nine months. There would be no baby, ever. Cedar removed her uterus eight years ago. She had no need for it. She would never have a need for it. It was nothing but a nuisance.

  Maybe let him think she wanted a baby.

  Not yet, though. It was too ea
rly to start pulling things like that out of the bag.

  It would be a watch and wait, Cedar decided. She could end this all with the snap of her fingers. She didn’t have to plan ahead all that much for things like this. She had time if she needed it.

  And now she had a honeymoon to enjoy.

  And an island that her not so hapless husband had bought for her.

  It would be the perfect place to come back to afterward.

  “Do we have to go back?” Cedar asked a few days later, staring sadly at her packed suitcases.

  “I don’t want to, either,” Ellis said, wrapping an arm around her. She congratulated herself for not flinching. She didn’t realize just how touchy he really was, and it was starting to grate on her nerves. “I wish we could stay here forever. But work calls.”

  “Ugh, work,” Cedar pouted. “Can’t it wait just a little bit longer?”

  “Probably not,” Ellis said. “But we’ll go away again soon, okay? Just the two of us.”

  “Business trips don’t count,” Cedar said. “A real vacation.”

  “Babe, I’m already counting down the days to our next vacation.”

  Cedar followed Ellis out of her beach house and toward the boat waiting to take them to their plane. It was nice not having the plane land anywhere on the island. Gave it an extra bit of privacy that Cedar suspected she would be wanting.

  “Did I ever thank you properly for the honeymoon?” Cedar asked as they stood against the railing of the boat, watching the island vanish from sight.

  “I don’t know. What’s properly?”

  Cedar smiled up at him as she lowered herself to her knees in front of him. Keep them distracted by sex was an excellent, if not somewhat annoying rule. But it worked, so she did it. If it meant giving him a blowjob on a boat, so be it.

  The flight back to New York was uneventful, thankfully. Cedar had worn out Ellis, and he was snoring softly on the bed. Which meant she finally had some time to herself.

  God, she forgot how much she hated this part of being in a relationship. The forever together part that was getting on her last nerve. So they had gotten married. It wasn’t like they had to spend every waking second of their day with each other. It wasn’t like she loved him.

  Cedar settled herself into one of the seats and leaned the seat back. The flight attendant appeared. “Can I get you anything?”

  “A glass of champagne,” Cedar answered.

  She was going to celebrate her few hours of freedom from Ellis, and she was going to do it by drinking champagne and planning her next move.

  Because there always was a next move. Always. And Cedar was going to be ready for it when it needed to happen.

  Living with Ellis was annoying. When he was home, he always…there. No matter where she went, there he was. Touching her.

  She dreamed about cutting off his arms, of pulling his fingers out one at a time so he would just stop touching her. But she would never actually do that. She had washed her hands of that kind of stuff years ago. She was biding her time. But it was going to be significantly less than a year at the rate he was going.

  She started spending longer hours at work, just to avoid him. It backfired on her, though, because he would stop by her office on his way home to pick her up.

  Cedar closed the door to her office and locked it. Jesus, marriage was a real pain in her ass. But it would be worth it, she told herself, remembering his will. It would all be worth it. She had gone through shit worse than this before, and she had survived. She could survive playing a doting wife for a little bit longer.

  Back to the grind was a bigger pain in Cecil’s ass than he thought it would be. He knew that working for Cedar was not the easiest job, but the week and a half off he had after the wedding was pure bliss. The fact that Robert was off for part of the week, too, was an added bonus.

  Things weren’t serious with the two of them. Cecil had better things to do than just fuck Robert. He had options. And if there was one thing Cedar had taught him, it was to figure out what your options were and not just settle.

  Hell, she had landed the richest guy in the country. Well, Cecil wasn’t sure exactly if Ellis was the richest man in the country, but if he wasn’t, he was almost the richest one.

  And Cedar had him wrapped around her little finger.

  It was too bad he was straight, because Cecil could think of a lot of different ways to spend eighty-seven billion dollars.

  Oh well. Maybe the next one will be gay. Although Cecil would never admit it to Cedar, he lived in hope.

  Meanwhile, he had a new sculptor to seduce. That was going to be fun.

  Nobody ever said there weren’t any perks to his job.

  A flash drive was lying on Ellis’s desk when he walked into his office, two weeks after the honeymoon. Which was odd, because Ellis hadn’t left anything on his desk the night before. Not to mention that the security on the office was not one that could easily be broken into.

  He picked it up and flipped it over, trying to figure out how it had landed on his desk.

  The initials IG were carved onto one side.

  Gregor. Shit, that was fast. Ellis locked his office door, put all his calls and appointments on hold, and plugged the memory card into his computer.

  There were two folders. One entitled “Articles,” and one entitled “Evidence.”

  Ellis clicked on the first folder, and opened the first document.

  December 14, 2003.

  The bodies of Andrew and Sarah Reynolds were found after being brutally murdered in their beds. They were found by the housekeeper, Emma Banks. Andrew, a Wall Street stockbroker, and his wife, Sarah, are survived by their daughter, Cedar Elizabeth. An investigation is underway.

  Murdered? Ellis’s eyes widened in shock. No wonder Cedar didn’t want to talk about them. At least she wasn’t the one who discovered the bodies. He closed the article and opened the next one.

  December 15, 2003

  New York City is grieving the loss of one of its most prominent families. The bodies of Andrew and Sarah Reynolds were found in their bedroom by the housekeeper. She has been taken to Cornell University Hospital, as she has sustained a shock, finding the bodies of her employers. This must be a terrible blow for their daughter, seventeen-year-old Cedar, who has already had to bury her three siblings after a freak accident in 1999. The police have started investigating, and have not issued a statement as of yet. The mayor’s office has issued a statement, saying they, too, are grieving the loss of two of the brightest New York has ever known, and are sending their condolences to Cedar.

  February 15, 1999

  A construction accident has claimed the lives of five individuals this morning in Montauk, Long Island. Felix, Gerald, and Laura Reynolds, Jose Garcia-Perez, and Jessica Porter were killed instantly when a crane fell on the car they were traveling in. Jose was killed on impact, and Felix, Gerald, Laura and Jessica were transported to the hospital. Jessica was pronounced dead at hospital arrival, and the Reynolds siblings all died within two hours.

  Felix, Gerald, and Laura are survived by their parents, Andrew and Sarah Reynolds, and their sister, Cedar Elizabeth.

  Jessica Porter is survived by her parents, Irving and Rebecca Porter, her sisters Rachel, Brittany, and Ashley.

  Jose Garcia-Perez is survived by his wife, Maria, and his two children, Ricardo and Fernanda.

  There was a Post-it note that had been scanned in along with the article. Where was Cedar?

  Where was Cedar? Ellis had no idea. He opened the next article.

  Back to her parents’ murder.

  He skimmed the article. There had been four different suspects named. The housekeeper, the electrician, Andrew’s business partner, and the family driver.

  There was a Post-it note attached to the bottom of that article, too. Where was Cedar?

  What the hell was going on?

  The next few articles were nothing short of horrifying. They weren’t articles, per se. They seemed to be a summ
ary of the investigation notes.

  Andrew was murdered first, according to the autopsy. Someone had accosted him from behind, hitting him with the antique axe kept in a display case in the main room. He had been hit twenty-four times, and was found collapsed on his bed, smearing the silk covers with his blood.

  If the timing was what they thought it was, Sarah walked into the room just as Andrew had collapsed on the bed. The attacker met her head on, and hit her with the blade of the axe sixteen times.

  She was found on the floor, reaching toward her bed. The floor around her was soaked in her blood.

  Andrew’s security key had been put into the house security system, and all the cameras had been off for an hour and a half before the approximate time of the attack.

  Cedar had been in her room at the time of her attack, watching a documentary about Andy Warhol.

  Where was Cedar? The note on the bottom of the paper asked.

  What the hell? Wasn’t she in her room watching a documentary?

  Did they think she was lying?

  Whoever “they” was?

  Ellis opened the file marked “Evidence.”

  1999.

  Cedar was going to go with her siblings to Montauk, to the beach. She was in the car with them, but had Jose drop her off a few blocks before the accident happened. She had told them she wanted to walk to the beach.

  She was spotted at the construction site a few minutes later by Yuri Burov, one of the construction workers. He asked her if she was lost, because she looked a little too expensive to be walking through a construction site.

  She told him no, she was fine, just looking for the foreman. He pointed her in the direction of the crane, where the foreman was talking with the crane operator.

  His body was found on the bottom of the East River two days later.

  Samuel Garcia, the foreman of the construction site, was eventually charged for the deaths of Jose Perez-Garcia, Jessica Porter, and Felix, Gerald, and Laura Reynolds. He denied any involvement throughout the entire court case.