by Megyn Ward
It sounds too good to be true.
“You’re ready to admit that I’m your daughter.” It’s a statement, not a question and god help me, when I say it, some small, sad part of me wants it to be true. After everything he’s done, I still want this man to look at me and admit that he’s my father.
His eyebrows dip in question, then rise as if he’s figured it out. “Oh. You think…” The silence is awkward but it’s worse when he laughs. “No. That’s not happening. A random sperm connecting in a short-term hook-up is never going to make you a Knightly.”
“Then why?” It hurts, just as much as the first time he said it. “I don’t understand why I’m here.”
“I admit, it took me longer than it should have to figure it out. Probably because of the whole daddy issue I had put you out of my head entirely.” He shows me his teeth again and I have this overwhelming urge to knock them down his throat. “But then, there was that footage at the Blue Heron, when Zach looked like he’d been t-boned by a truck.”
Jonas stands and walks over to the wet bar by the window. “Can I get you something? G&T?”
I can’t speak.
I can’t breathe.
All I can do is shake my head.
No.
I don’t want a G&T.
I don’t want anything.
Not from him.
“Come here.” Ice cubes clink from a bucket into two crystal glasses. “I want you to show you something.”
I stand and walk over to where he’s standing. Not because I want to comply or to please him. Because I don’t know what else to do. I don’t have anywhere else to go.
He splashes gin into glasses and reaches into a small refrigerator to pull out a bottle of tonic. “Get a load of that view, would you? See the ocean wall?”
I look without seeing as he finishes mixing the drinks and I blindly take the one he hands me, even though I said no earlier.
He takes a sip. “I was standing here yesterday, having my afternoon pick-me-up, like I’m doing right now.” He sips again. “And what do you think I saw out there. On the wall?”
Then I know why he called me here.
Maybe I inhale sharply or stiffen, but however I react, Jonas picks up on it. He brays like a jackass. “That’s right, I saw you—shower girl.”
Oh my god.
I gulp my drink, letting the gin burn my throat.
“I saw it from here—the sexual tension between you two was hot enough to steam my windows.” He tips his drink at me in salute. “That spark is going to make us a ton of money.”
“I’m your daughter.”
He doesn’t confirm it. Doesn’t deny it. He just shrugs his shoulders like I asked him what he wanted for lunch.
“No.” I feel my fingers tighten around the glass in my hand. “No.”
He steps back, like he knows I’m seconds away from smashing my glass against his face. “Easy work. We show the footage in the shower, being discrete and using beeps and blurring the body parts the FCC won’t let us show. Liesa does her thing with the tears and threats and the whole shebang. Then we bring you on for some scenes. Get the longing looks between you and Zach, set up the whole thing. Season ends with Zach committing to Liesa and next season is the wedding.”
I stare at him while my stomach swirls and I wonder if I’m going to throw up on his six-inch deep carpet. “No.”
He doesn’t seem to hear me. “You give it some thought. We’re talking percentage of the take, which could net you a cool million for a couple of weeks work.”
“How can you be my father?”
His amused expression makes me want to punch him. “If you want, you can spin it like I’m looking out for my little girl. I’m offering you a chance to make more money than is decent. And hey, it’s not like I’m asking you to fuck him on tape.”
I give in.
Gin and fizzy tonic, a few ice cubes, and then the crystal smashes into Jonas’s face.
Twenty-Four
Kylie
I slump in the uncomfortable hospital chair while Diana dozes in the bed. I’d busted my ass last night at The Frog, trying to manage solo the shift we both usually work. Timothy, the bartender and manager, pitched in as much as he could, but he warned me that if Diana doesn’t return soon, he’ll have to replace her. If that happens, he won’t be able to hire her back unless there’s another opening.
Blake stayed here all night, but he needed to get back to Dive Love. With only the two of us to make living expenses for all three, we can’t afford to piss any employer off right now.
I close my eyes and listen to the other families. It sounds like a dozen people speak rapidly in the Jamaican patois language of the island. Their melodic voices hum like music and my mind drifts to where it always does these days.
Zach.
I wonder if he knows Jonas found me.
I wonder if he cares.
He’s the least of my worries right now but he’s always there, in the back of my mind. Lingering. Waiting for me to close my eyes so I can see him smile at me…
“Miss.” Someone shakes my shoulder. “Miss.”
I open my eyes. A black man in a white lab coat stands in front of me and I blink, trying to remember where I am. Slowly I recognize the hospital.
I search out Diana and she’s awake, but she looks far worse than earlier, if that’s possible. The bruises are still deep purple, though a few of them seem to be fading to the damaged banana look. But her eyes are glassy, as if she isn’t really inside.
I jump up and push the man back, my heart rising in my throat. “Diana? Are you okay?”
She closes her eyes and doesn’t move.
“Miss,” the man says again. “I am Dr. Bodden. We have a problem.”
I spin around. “What’s wrong with her? She’s supposed to be getting better.”
He puts a hand on my arm and tries to pull me back to the chair, but I resist. “Your friend is going to need another surgery.” He speaks with an island accent.
“Surgery?” I hear him, but I can’t accept it. “No, she’s already had her surgery. She’s going to be fine.”
His voice is quiet and calm, but it doesn’t help my racing heart. “There are signs of internal bleeding and perhaps some infection.”
“No. You took care of that.” I shake my head. “She’s okay.”
“I’m afraid the beating was severe.” Compassion stirs in his bottomless eyes. “Quite a bit of damage. We may have missed something.”
There was a time when I believed that things always worked out in the end. That was before Mom died. Now I know bad things can happen. That things just are and you can hope for anything more than what you’re given.
A flush of panic heats me. “But she is going to be okay, right? After the surgery?” He doesn’t answer immediately. I want to grab this doctor by the throat and force him to fix Diana.
“I believe she has a good chance, yes.” The corners of his mouth droop and his shoulders follow suit. “But she’s not a citizen and she doesn’t have insurance. We have no assurance of getting paid for the previous surgery, let alone this pending one.”
No fucking way. “I can get the money. Just do the surgery.”
The sadness sinks deep in his face. “If it was up to me, I’d do it immediately, with or without the payment. But it is not under my authority. If you cannot pay, we will have to transfer her to another hospital. I don’t recommend moving her. The best thing is for her to have the surgery within the next few hours.”
Thoughts fly around my brain in a flurry and I can’t grab any and hold on to them. I have about twenty dollars to my name. “How much do you need?”
“Our accounting department will have to receive a payment to cover the first surgery before they will do the next. $8,000 dollars.”
Eight thousand dollars.
The figure hits me like a physical blow. It might as well be eight billion.
Diana can’t die because we have no money. Blake already
paid Columbia, so he’s tapped. Diana might have $200 saved up. I feel like my head is about to break into forty-thousand pieces.
Last time.
Just like last time.
I fight the image of standing in Mom’s hospital room. The feeling of helplessness when I finally understand she’s going to die and there was nothing I could to save her.
I’m alone.
I’m going to have to watch Diana die, just like I had to watch my mom slip away.
No.
Not again.
I grab Dr. Bodden’s arm. “Make the arrangements for Diana’s surgery. I’m going to get the money.”
I know he doesn’t believe me, but he nods. “Okay Miss.”
Relief floods through me. I race out, through corridors, past other rooms with other desperate and sad people, and burst from the door. A young couple climbs from a taxi, the woman holding her very pregnant belly and looking uncomfortable, the man appears downright panicked. He reaches over and pays the driver and before he joins his wife on the curb, I jump into the backseat.
“JK Investments building in the financial district.”
Twenty-Five
Kylie
The cab doesn’t even clear the hospital parking lot before I holler for him to stop. He refuses the couple of dollars I offer. “Are you goin’ t’ be okay, miss?”
I’m not your father and I’m not going to abandon you—no matter how much you want me to.
I mentally shake myself. I can’t fall apart now. I thrust out my chin. “Yes.” I’m going to be okay. Diana is going to be okay.
I’m going to save her and we’ll do it without Jonas Knightly.
But I can’t do it alone.
I call Zach.
And he answers.
“I need you.” I manage to squeak out.
“I’m on my way. Are you at the hospital? Did something happen to Diana?” Just like that. After everything I’ve done. The way I’ve treated him. The things I’ve said. The countless times I’ve pulled him in, only to push him away, he’s willing to drop everything and run. All I have to do is ask and he’s here.
Just like he said he’d be.
“No. Wait.” Shit. I squeeze my eyes shut.
“Don’t come here. The cameras.”
“Fuck the camera,” he says. A door slams and footsteps slap pavement.
“He knows.” I open my eyes, the dense heat of the tropics closing in on me. “Jonas knows who I am. He found me.”
He doesn’t say anything. All I hear is heavy breathing.
“Zach?” I pace under the shade of the palms and mango trees, none of them providing relief from the cloying temperature.
“Doesn’t matter.” Movement again, like the sound of me saying his name jolted him back into action. “I’m on my way.”
I need to be under the waves, in the quiet, calm of the ocean. It’s where I think best. Where I feel strongest. Standing on the hot blacktop, my brain twists and turns, searching every possible avenue to scrape up several thousand dollars. I only come up with one idea.
“I need money. They won’t do another surgery for Diana unless we pay for the first one…” I close my eyes. “I promise I’ll pay you back. Whatever it takes I won’t stop until I do. But we need the money now...” My voice trails off. His end of the line is silent again. “Zach?”
“I don’t have any money.” He sounds like the words stick in his throat. Like he has to push them out one at a time.
Not laying around, of course. “There’s time to withdraw or transfer it today. Even a statement showing the funds are on the way would work. But it has to be now.”
“No, I don’t have any money.” Again, he pauses. “I’ve got about ten dollars in cash. All my expenses run through the show account. Niles and Jonas have me locked out. I can’t get a dime.”
Sweat pours off me, dripping under my arms and running down my spine, pooling in the waistband of my shorts. I scramble for another way. “What about Liesa? Can you ask her? She knows Diana. She wouldn’t want her to…” I gulp. “She would want to help.”
“She’s in the same boat I am.” He sounds angry. Disgusted. “On the surface it looks like we have money to burn but…”
Liesa had confided that to me when we were almost friends. I figured having no money meant something different for her than for me. As in, if Liesa had no money she would have to settle for the BMW not the Bentley.
I don’t know how long I stand with the phone to my ear saying nothing, seeing nothing, before I realize Zach is saying my name.
“Are you there? Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” I swallow. “I’m fine.”
I’m lying.
I’m not fine.
He seems to know it because he curses under his breath. “I’m on my way. Do you hear me?” His car door slams and the engine starts. “We’ll figure it out. I swear.”
It’s time to admit defeat. “You can’t help.”
“Give me an hour.”
I can’t do anything but stare into the eyes of an iguana in a tree at the edge of the parking lot. “Thank you.” I finally blink, bringing myself back to the present. “For answering the phone. For—” Keeping your promise. Not abandoning me. “trying.”
“I’ll fix this,” he says. “Kylie, do you hear me? It’s going to be okay—I’m going to fix it.” He sounds hard. Determined. “I’m going to find a way. Tell me you believe me.”
“I believe you.” I say it because he needs to hear it. He needs to know I believe in him. And I do. I believe Zach will do everything in his power to make this right.
But there’s only one person who holds all the power and he’s the only one way left.
Twenty-Six
Zach
I whip the Mercedes through traffic in the financial district and take the winding road way too fast. I’m driving like Niles and people are jumping out of my way. My tires squeal in the circular drive of the hotel and Bobby, a lanky guy about my age steps from behind the valet podium. Bobby and I enjoyed more than a few late-night joints behind the mango trees.
“Mr. Lowery, how you doin’?”
I toss him the keys. “Can you let her sit for a minute? I don’t plan to be here long.”
Bobby grins. “I’ll keep my eye on your little girl. She’s a sweet one, for sure.”
The lobby is crowded with a group arriving from the airport and wading through the pasty folks in their jeans and long sleeves feels like treading through pudding. The elevator is crammed with what seems like two hundred southern couples who, from the sounds of them, have been partying since they boarded the plane in Miami.
When I finally burst into the condo, Alicia is stretched out on the couch, remote in hand, computer on her lap. She doesn’t alter her bouncing attention from screen to screen when she says, “Hey, Zach. How the hell did they get you to go shopping?”
Great. Even Alicia is watching my televised humiliation on Liesa’s Life.
I’d rather be sitting next to Alicia torturing myself with the ridiculous show than doing what I came here to do.
You’re not asking for a new car. You’re asking for help to save someone’s life.
You’re asking for Kylie.
Mom saunters in from the kitchen in yoga pants, with a towel around her neck and a bottle of enhanced water in her hand. “Baby! I didn’t know you were coming over. I just finished my workout but if you wait, I’ll be ready in a jiff and we can have a snack by the pool. It’s been ages.”
She seems so anxious to hang out.
Would it kill you to spend time with her?
I should spend time with her. I want to.
But I can’t.
Not today.
“I’ve got to talk to Niles. Is he here?”
Mom gives Alicia a curious look. “Did you say Zach went shopping? On Liesa’s Life?” She shoves around me to position herself in front of the TV. She giggles. “Oh, honey. Look at you.”
“Mom.” I try to get her to
focus. “Niles?”
“Miserable.” She clicks her tongue, not looking away from the episode. “Are they paying you enough for this?” She laughs again. “That face. You used to look like that whenever I took you shopping. It’s so cute.”
Jesus.
I hurry down the hall and push open the door to Nile’s office.
He’s sitting at his desk, typing on his laptop. “We knock in this house.”
There’s no time for his bullshit. “I need money.”
He leans back in his chair and folds his arms, a superior smile on his face. “Do you, now?”
“Call it a loan. Take it from my trust. You can harvest a fucking kidney. Whatever you want. Anything. I need eight grand.”
Niles’ eyebrows shoot up. “Oh, ho, ho. The chicken’s come home to roost.”
What the hell does that mean? “A friend has a medical emergency. Please, Niles. This is important.”
“Medical emergency?” Amused, he tilts his head. “Is that miserable fuck-up speak for I got a girl pregnant?”
“Goddamned it.” I slap my hands on his desk and lean in. “For once in your life don’t be a dick.”
He laughs. “A dick, is it? Well, this dick has had enough of your bullshit. It’s time you step up and be a man.”
Be a man? I’m not sure if I want to laugh or choke the shit out of him. I take a deep breath, trying to calm the urgency that heats my blood. “Look, I’m really glad you’ve finally decided to be a father, but I don’t need a life lesson. This isn’t a teachable moment. Right now, someone needs my help.”
“No, you need me to pay for your mistakes.” Niles loses his grin. “Again.”
“Mistakes? Are you fucking serious?” I stand up straight, my spine going stiff like he just punched me in my kidney. “My whole fucking life, I’ve done exactly what you asked of me. Got the grades. Played football. I—”
“Pissed all over Princeton and followed some tramp to a state school.” Niles holds up his fingers in front of me, ticking off my sins, one-by-one. “Dropped out when said tramp dicked you over and spent the last eighteen months drinking and screwing your way around Manhattan before coming here and doing the same fucking thing.”
