by Megyn Ward
I can’t agree more but I scrub harder.
“What happened between you and Zach, anyway? I mean, I could tell he was really into you.”
I frown at her. “You only saw us together for thirty seconds in the dark. You don’t know how he felt about me.”
She raises her eyebrows. “That’s how I get all the good information. Everyone underestimates me. Quiet, unassuming Alicia. Does what Mom and Niles say, never causes a problem.” She taps her temple. “But knows all.”
I don’t know her at all, but I can tell this girl is about as quiet and unassuming as a hurricane.
“You didn’t know I was working here.”
She swings her legs over the side of the counter and considers that. “True. That surprised me. But it’s Jonas’s MO. Are you here to stop Zach from marrying Liesa?”
It’s as if she pinched me and it stings. I’d better get used to the idea. “I doubt that’s what Jonas has in mind.”
“Fuck. The last thing Zach needs is that bitch crawling any further up his ass than she is now.”
The swinging door from the dining room pushes open and Liesa saunters in, all smiles and yellow sundress.
Alicia hops down from the counter. “Hey, Lies.”
The cameraman and the tall, ugly sound guy they call Lurch squeeze in behind Liesa.
She plasters a fake smile on her face and hurries over to hug Alicia. “Oh my god! I didn’t know you were here. I’m sure there’s still fruit and pastries. Cook has already gone to the market and our new help probably doesn’t cook, so, sorry, no eggs or bacon.”
Alicia extricates herself from Liesa’s grip and backs toward the door. “It’s okay. I just stopped by to see Zach.” She pushes the door open and slips out. “Later.”
With Bob and Lurch following closely, Liesa folds her arms and surveys me. “So, you’re the new maid.”
I keep scrubbing the pan, hoping I don’t scrape a hole in the bottom. Jeri and Jonas told me the surest way to engage viewers is to create drama. It needs to revolve around the show’s stars, Liesa and Zach. The sooner I get the ratings up, the sooner I can be out of here. With one deep breath to gather my courage, I spin around to face Liesa. In a sour voice, I say, “Did you need me to do anything for you? Iron a dress, bring you a mimosa, make your bed?”
She runs a finger along the stainless-steel top of the island. “Zach and I are planning a picnic on the beach, so I’ll need you to pack that. You can take care of your other duties after we’re gone and won’t be needing my bedroom for a while.”
I manufacture a smirk and mumble. “Not like you need your bedroom for Zach.”
Her fierce eyes nail me. “What did you say?”
My smile is as fake as I can make it. “I said, would you like ham sandwiches or tuna?”
She points a perfectly manicured finger at me. “You better knock that impertinent shit off. I can fire you any time. What Zach and I have is special and someone like you doesn’t stand a chance at messing it up.”
“Impertinent? I guess you can afford to throw hundred-dollar words around...” I raise an eyebrow, no longer 100% sure that I’m acting. “But can you spell it?”
She lunges so that we stand toe to toe. Our eyes meet, and I realize we’re the same height. She slaps her hand over mine on the edge of the sink, her fingers squeezing around mine. “Stay away from Zach or you’ll be sorry.” With that, she spins around and flounces to the door, stopping to speak over her shoulder. “And sandwiches are for poor people. We’ll have pate and a chilled crab salad.” She gives me the kind of smile that tells me that by poor people, she means me. “And throw in a bottle of that Chablis Mother had shipped from France.”
Bob keeps the camera on her and they slip through the door. Jeri gives me a thumbs up and a smile before following them out.
I hunch over the sink and quietly open the crumpled scrap of paper Liesa forced under my palm when she squeezed my hand under hers.
Trust no one.
Thirty-Two
Zach
Jeri wants a big confrontation with Simone and Liesa over a party Simone planned, but wants it to eventually grind down to a catfight over me. That gives me an escape window and I take it.
As much as I want to drag Kylie out of that house, I know that’s exactly what Jonas wants. Even if Jeri pretends to be involved in Liesa and Simone’s story, Tom is skulking around here, trying to catch me with Kylie. That’ll make it worse.
The only way to get her out of here is through the man who put her here. Since I needlessly sold my car to pay for Diana’s surgery, I call a cab and throw money at him over the seat when he pulls up in front of the building.
I barrel past the Interchangeable Receptionist on the ground floor, but she must’ve called up to her clone because Jonas waits for me when the elevator door slides open.
He leans on the IR’s desk, legs crossed, a smile stretching across his face. “Hiya, Tiger. I figured you might show up this morning.”
I want to grab him by the collar and pummel that cocky grin. “We had a deal.”
“We did—and you didn’t deliver.” He gives me a smug grin. “On to plan B.”
“You asshole. She doesn’t deserve to be thrown into this mess.”
He shrugs. “I’d say fucking in a public place opens her up for all kinds of trouble.”
I lunge at him and he dodges out of my way. “Hey, there, sport. If you’d show this kind of action on screen we’d be shitting in tall cotton now, instead of struggling to get next season renewed.”
The elevator door opens again and a thing more Yeti than human, in a rent-a-cop uniform, steps off.
Jonas has the expression of someone laying a royal flush on another player’s three-of-a-kind. “Thought you might get a little out of hand.”
I whip my head around from Big Foot. “I know she wouldn’t come to you on her own. What did you do to her?”
Jonas gives me a sad look. “Okay, sure, I did some sleuthing to find her and she was a slow start, but once she had some time to think it over, I dangled some money in front of her, she loaded into the starting gate and couldn’t wait to run the race. Even gave up the rights to the shower scene.”
She sold herself.
Us.
For Diana.
Rage pops and roils, sending a band of iron around my chest until I can’t breathe. “I’ll do anything you want, sleep with Simone, marry Liesa, anything. Just don’t show that footage.”
Jonas clicks his tongue in false sympathy. “No can do, sport. You should see the montage Jeri’s put together. The two of you sharing that whole star-crossed lovers look at the Blue Heron, the shock on your face this morning, all leading up to the shower scene in flashback. It’s gonna be epic.”
I throw myself at him again and he doesn’t flinch. The mouth-breather behind me wraps his arms around me like a human straightjacket and lifts me from my feet. My struggles do little to loosen his grip. With a casual gait, Jonas makes his way to the elevator and pushes the button. The elevator is waiting and the door opens. I nearly succeed in escaping the security Yeti and land a few good pops to his jaw.
Jonas yells to the security guy. “Not in the face! He’s got to be pretty for TV.”
Big Foot shoves me inside the elevator and stands as a gate to keep me from escaping.
“How can you do this to her?” I yell. “She’s your daughter.”
Jonas chuckles. “Trust me, when the money rolls in, you’ll all be thanking me.”
I stare at the security Yeti as the doors start to close. At the last minute, I throw one last jab and have the satisfaction of watching blood burst from his nose, right before the doors slide shut.
Thirty-Three
Zach
Jeri insists we picnic on the same beach where we went night diving. The infamous shower scene. The bleeped and blurred version which will soon have millions of viewers mesmerized and calling Kylie a slut and me a two-timer.
There is so much I regret abou
t that. Not realizing how calculating and devious Jonas can be. Not protecting Kylie. Letting my cock lead the way.
The only thing I don’t regret is what I said to her that night.
Only you.
I play nice with Liesa, tolerating her little girl pouts and pecks and her too-cute teasing. It’s exhausting. How can she keep this up? When Bob and Lurch take a union break and the risk of her cover being blown fades, Liesa transforms into a thoughtful, fun girl. This pretense must be killing her, but she stays with it almost non-stop. I guess that’s what makes her a star. If it was easy, everyone would do it, right?
After we’d eaten lunch—a too-fancy affair with foie gras I dumped into the sand—Blake shows up. They hadn’t told me we had a dive planned, and it seems Jeri and Tom were left out of the loop, too. I enjoy seeing them rattled as we shrug into the gear Blake provides.
As soon as we submerge and are well away from any prying eyes or eavesdropping ears, Blake whips out a whiteboard and dive pen.
Liesa grabs the pen and scribbles and holds it up for me to read.
Go away.
I shake my head and flex my fingers to show her I want the whiteboard and pen. She hesitates and looks at Blake, he nods toward me. Through her facemask I can make out her frown, but she thrust them at me.
I scribble, WTF is he doing here?
She snatches the board back with such force I feel her outrage.
GO AWAY!
Liesa has been at this gig for long enough to know how to get her private time. If she trusts Blake and wants some time with him, that’s cool with me. But it doesn’t help my anxiety about Kylie being exposed to the world and made to look like a skanky opportunist.
There has to be a way to stop Jonas. But he holds all the strings.
Liesa and Blake pass the board between them, furiously scribbling to each other. Their time is limited by the air in our tanks. Whenever I swim close to Liesa and Blake, she waves me away, at one point flipping me off. She trusts me enough to keep their meeting secret, but not enough to include me in their conversation.
I explore the ocean floor in a wide circle around them. The peace beneath the waves doesn’t begin to soothe my worry. The episode is due to air in a matter of days. We have to stop it, and no one seems to care but me.
The two of them spend the next forty minutes in their private conversation. I join them when our air is getting low and we swim in together.
Jeri and Bob jump out of the white van when we make our way on to the beach. Blake has shucked his gear and is helping Liesa with hers. I shrug out of my BC and lower the heavy tank to the sand.
Jeri scowls at Liesa. “This put us behind schedule. I mean, it’s a good idea to get some clips of you doing island stuff. In fact, I booked you for windsurfing tomorrow. But, damn it, don’t go cowboying off on your own. Jonas isn’t going to like that.”
Knowing that it will be cut, I don’t hesitate to grumble, “Jonas can fuck himself.”
Liesa rolls her eyes at me, but Blake barely suppresses a smile.
Jeri ignores me. “You’ve got about twenty minutes to get yourselves cleaned up and downtown to meet Mrs. Knightly for tea.”
Liesa jerks her head up. “What? That wasn’t on the itinerary.”
Jeri already stomps toward the white van. “Don’t ask me. It showed up on my calendar, last minute. This little change in plans has screwed up my day, too. I thought we’d do a full-on shower scene here.”
Liesa’s face blanches and I’m sure mine does, too.
Jeri notices and nods. “Right? Zach, you’d be all sweet and romantic. Daytime chaste. Rainbows and butterflies. Then, we’d juxtapose it against the dirty-dirty nighttime version with shower girl.”
I must’ve said something. Moved. Growled because Liesa puts a cool hand on my bicep and squeezed. “Not now,” she whispers. I hear a warning in her voice. Does she think we’ll have an opportunity to stop this?
To Jeri, she says, “Well, we obviously don’t have time for that scene. We barely have time to rinse off and get to the restaurant.”
Twenty minutes later we hurry from the humid parking lot into the cool of another resort bar. Mrs. Knightly sits with her back as straight has the Empire State Building in the corner. A feathery palm gives the illusion of privacy. She nods with regal invitation and holds her hand up for first Liesa, then me, to shake. Remembering our first meeting, I’m surprised when she gives us both a warm smile as I settle Lisa into her chair.
Bob and Jeri draw closer and Mrs. Knightly turns a stone face to them. With hardly any movement to her features, she makes it plain they are not welcome. I envy her control and power as the intruders back out of the restaurant.
Mrs. Knightly smiles and reaches across the table to take Liesa’s hand. “Children. It’s nice of you to take time for an old woman.”
Like this all makes perfect sense, Liesa’s face softens and her eyes fill with warmth. It’s an amazing transformation. “I always have time for you.”
Mrs. Knightly nods to me. “Zach. I look forward to getting to know you.”
I have no idea what’s going on or who this is—she’s nothing like the woman I met a few months ago when Jonas invited us to lunch—but I decided to just roll with it. “I would like that very much.”
She turns to Liesa again and smiles. “My son has plunged almost all of his personal fortune in that show and it’s proven a good investment, thanks to your hard work.”
Liesa’s face falls but she still holds Mrs. Knightly’s hand. “Mother and Jonas have made it all possible.”
Mrs. Knightly tightens her lips, pulling the wrinkles around her mouth into a pucker. “Yes. Well, bless their hearts.”
What is this all about? I figured Jonas would be here and we’d have another of those ingratiating episodes where he fawns and dotes and shows his mother what a caring, tender son he is. But there is no Jonas in sight. I sit like a lump while a young woman in a crisp white shirt and black pencil skirt arrives wearing white gloves and carrying a china tea service.
Mrs. Knightly nods at her. “I hope you don’t mind,” she says to us. “I’ve taken the liberty of ordering lavender tea and the standard collection of sandwiches and treats.”
The pretty young woman pours, and another waiter sets the four-level food server in the middle of the table.
Mom loves nothing more than taking us for tea, so I’ve learned to get along. I wouldn’t admit it to my frat brothers, but I like lavender tea and love those little sandwiches and petit fours. So, diving and high tea. The diving had been colorless, the tea cakes taste like dust as long as Kylie sits in the center of Jonas’s target range.
“Thank you for inviting us,” Liesa says.
Mrs. Knightly sips her tea. “It’s selfish of me, but I’m getting old and maybe a little lonely.”
Liesa laughs. “I can’t picture you as old. And as for lonely, you serve on so many boards and are so involved you can’t possibly have time to be lonely.”
Mrs. Knightly preens a little at that. “Perhaps. But there is a little something missing from my life. As you know, Jonas never had children.”
I try not to stiffen and I notice Liesa’s hand hesitates on the way to pop a miniature cream puff into her mouth.
I have no doubt we’re both thinking the same thing.
Kylie.
A flesh and blood granddaughter to this woman.
Mrs. Knightly sighs. “I do miss having young people around, so I hope you won’t feel too imposed upon to spend some time entertaining me.”
There’s something vulnerable and yet hard as steel in her. It’s that same something I see in Kylie. I can’t help but be drawn to her. “Do you like being out on the water?”
She holds small serving tongs in a shaking hand and closes them around a petit fours with a delicate rose piped in pink frosting. She sets it back and selects one with a chocolate bow. It reminds me of the finicky way Liesa inspected her fruit. “At one time, I was a master diver. There is n
othing better than spending time under the waves.”
Liesa brightens. “I had a hard time at first, but the more I dive, the more relaxed I am. I’m starting to love it.”
Mrs. Knightly sets the cake on her plate and studies Liesa. “Jonas wasn’t a natural. I took him all over the world diving. I’m sure he did it to indulge me. He seems to think I don’t know he’s developed a personality designed to please me, while keeping a lifestyle more to his liking hidden.”
Wait. What?
Did she just talk shit about her son? I mean, upper-crust, old lady shit, but that was definitely shit talk. I have to rearrange the food in my mouth to keep from choking.
She sips her tea. “Oh, don’t let it shock you. Mothers know more than their sons think they do.” She eyes me and sets her cup down. “Jonas doesn’t fool me but for good or ill, he’s my son, so I continue the pretense.”
Liesa doesn’t seem at all ruffled by Mrs. Knightly revealing she has Jonas’s number. It makes me wonder if she’s the one who gave it to her. “Do you still dive?”
Mrs. Knightly brings the petit fours to her lips and answers before biting. “Oh no. Even though the equipment is so much better than in my day, it’s still too much for me now. But I do miss it.”
I swallow a bite-sized crab croissant. “How about a day sailing? Liesa and I would love to take you out if you’re willing. Wouldn’t we?” I actually liked the idea of spending time with the both of them. I only wished Kylie could be there, too.
Mrs. Knightly’s eyes shine and a look passes between her and Liesa before she smiles. “We’ll see what happens.”
Thirty-Four
Kylie
With Bob, Lurch, and Jeri dogging Zach and Liesa all day, I’m left with time enough to visit Diana. At least I don’t have to perform the real duties of Liesa’s maid. Tom stayed behind at the house to repair equipment, maybe check the feeds from the still cameras and microphones planted all over the house. Simone is locked behind her bedroom door.
