I could even imagine what she’d do if she was right here in this moment. I could clearly picture the concern etched onto her features, and I could practically hear her voice anxiously asking what happened and how I felt.
‘Oh my god, Chloe…what the hell happened? I’ve been so freaking worried!’ she’d say. Then she’d probably hug me tightly, and I’d feel safe in the knowledge that my best friend cared about me.
But that wasn’t true. I knew better now.
“Chloe, did you hear me? God, I’ve been so worried, you have no idea!”
My heart leapt into my throat at the sound of those words. Oh my god….I hadn’t just been imagining Mercedes asking what happened and telling me she was worried. She was right here in the room, and it was actually her voice I was hearing.
I rolled over and looked up at her, my eyes wide and my heart hammering. “Mercedes…you’re here?” I managed to croak out.
She smiled. “Of course I am. I came as soon as I could. I can’t believe what happened. I thought…I thought you were going to die.” She wiped her cheeks, which appeared to be stained with mascara and tears.
“I’m not dead,” I whispered.
She nodded. “I know. I’m so freaking glad you’re okay. You have no idea how much I….” Her voice trailed off. “Anyway, I brought you some water. Figured you might be thirsty. Last time I was in hospital to get my wisdom teeth out, they never gave me enough to drink.”
I sat up. Right now I was closer to the right side of the hospital bed, and the call button on the left side was beyond my reach. I began to edge closer to it, as slowly as I possibly could without making Mercedes suspicious. “Thank you,” I said, plastering on a bright smile.
She smiled back at me. “Do they know what happened yet?” she asked, handing the cup of water to me.
I shook my head as I accepted the water. “No,” I lied. “They said I had a massive reaction to something I ate. They think I probably have a seafood allergy.”
“Shit. That sucks,” she said, voice laced with faux concern. Jesus, she was a good actress. “Drink up. Your throat sounds dry.”
There was no way I was going to drink this water. No freaking way. How stupid could I possibly be if I did? Mercedes had likely laced it with more of the substance I was allergic to, and after the massive reaction I’d already had, my immune system was weak as hell. Another dose could actually kill me.
Instead, I pretended to drop the drink as I moved to sit up further. “Dammit!” I said as the plastic cup tumbled out of my hand and onto the floor. The water sloshed everywhere. “Ugh, my fingers are so sweaty.”
I didn’t miss the flash in Mercedes’ eyes, and I immediately knew I’d screwed up. I should’ve just pretended to take a sip.
“You know,” she said softly, taking a step closer to my bed. “You know, don’t you?”
I quickly jerked my arm to press the call button, but she grabbed me. She’d always been much bigger and stronger than me, given her height, and I struggled to move as she pinned me down, well away from the call button.
“How long have you known?” she asked, her voice deathly quiet. Her free hand was hovering right near my mouth, ready to clamp down on it if I tried to scream.
“About five minutes,” I said. “Please, just let me go, I…”
“You won’t tell anyone?” she said, a hint of humor in her voice. “How dumb do you think I am? Of course you will. If I let you go, you’ll be shouting for help the very next second.”
“Just…just tell me why you did this,” I said, trying to buy time. Asher would be back any second now. He’d only gone to tell the doctor something and grab me a granola bar from the machine outside, so he wouldn’t be more than a few minutes.
At least I hoped so.
“You knew too much,” Mercedes replied. “I couldn’t have you remembering any more about that night last year. You were getting so close. And if that happened, everything would fall apart for me.”
“So I’m right. You killed Catalina.”
Her eyes narrowed. “She left me. Like I was nothing.”
“I know she abandoned you, Mercedes. She was awful. It must’ve been so horrible for you to find out what she did,” I said, trying to make it sound like I somewhat sympathized with her situation. “You should’ve just told me. Maybe we could’ve—”
She leaned closer. “Could’ve what? Killed her together?” she said before letting out a short, sharp laugh. There was no humor in it. “I’m not an idiot, Chloe. You’re trying to buy time right now. But it’s too bad. Because guess what?”
I swallowed hard. “What?”
She gave me a sweet smile. “You’re out of time.”
Twenty-Seven
Chloe
“Act normal. Say or do one thing wrong, and I’ll finish the job this time.”
I gulped and tried to feign a nonchalant attitude as Mercedes escorted me out of my hospital room. Hidden within her fist and pointed right at my back was a syringe filled with some sort of sedative. She’d swiped it right out of one of the medical drawers in my room a few minutes ago, and she’d promised to use it if I took one step out of line. She’d also threatened to hurt my mom, and at this point I knew she was crazy enough to do it.
After all, she killed Asher’s mother in cold blood.
“Miss Carlyle, did Dr. O’Halloran clear you to leave?”
Mercedes stopped dead in her tracks, and so did I. We turned to see a nurse on our left in the hall; a kindly-faced woman who’d quickly stopped by my room earlier to check my vitals.
Mercedes dug her claws deeper into my back. The tip of the syringe was even closer now, almost close enough to pierce my clothing. “Make something up,” she whispered through gritted teeth.
I plastered on a smile. “Yes, just then,” I said to the nurse. “Now my best friend is taking me home.”
Mercedes smiled too, wrapping her arm further around me. “I was so worried about her. I don’t think I’ll ever let her go now!” she said in a faux cheery tone.
The nurse smiled. “That’s sweet. Glad to see you up and about already, Miss Carlyle.”
She briskly walked away, and Mercedes whispered in my ear. “Good job. I almost believe that you wouldn’t squeal at the first opportunity now.”
I kept my mouth shut and looked straight ahead, ignoring her barbed comment. I could’ve easily screamed; could’ve said something to the nurse to alert her suspicions. However, it was better for me to play it this way. Mercedes wouldn’t do anything to hurt me or anyone I knew if I played along and acted like the doctor had discharged me, and when Asher returned to my room in a few minutes and raised hell to find out where I was, like I knew he would, that nurse would be able to tell everyone exactly who I left with. After all, she got a good look at Mercedes, and I’d clearly stated she was my ‘best friend’.
We headed out into the hospital parking lot, and three minutes later, we arrived at Mercedes’ car.
“Get in,” she commanded. “Don’t make me tell you twice.”
I did as she said, heart racing, and Mercedes leaned down as I secured myself with the seatbelt. “Who else knows what you know?” she asked.
“Asher,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “He knows, and he’ll be looking for me, no matter where you take me.”
“Asher…” she mused. “Guess I’ll have to deal with him too. Anyway, sorry, Chloe. Lights out for now.”
Before I could even scream, she stuck the syringe right in my arm.
And then everything was black.
“Wake up. Come on, wake up!”
I opened my eyes to the stinging sensation of a slap in the face. Everything was blurry, and my eyes felt like they’d been glued shut. For a moment, I thought I’d simply dreamed all the events of the last day or so, but then Mercedes’ face came into view, and one look at her cold blue eyes told me it was real.
All too real.
“Mercedes, please,” I gasped, trying to glance around. I
was tied to some sort of seat, but it was too dark to tell exactly where I was. Either it was actually night-time already, or I was trapped somewhere dank and dim with little to no windows and no other light sources. “Don’t hurt me.”
She was close enough for me to make out all her expressions despite the dimness of the room we were in, and I saw her eyebrows furrow into a sad frown. “Do you think I want to?” she said. “Chloe, you’re my best friend. I never wanted to hurt you. Ever. I tried to warn you that night in the alleyway. I told you to stop digging; told you to stop trying to remember so that I wouldn’t have to take drastic action. But you didn’t listen. And I have to preserve myself over everyone else, even my best friend.”
“It’s not my fault. I didn’t mean to remember. I had no idea it was you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t even understand how you started to remember those little snippets of that night. I made sure you wouldn’t. At least I thought I did.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, hoping to keep her talking. The longer I did, the longer I’d stay alive, and that meant more time for Asher to find me. I knew he would. He loved me, and no matter where I was in the world, he’d come for me.
He’d always be there to save me.
Mercedes ran a hand through her long blonde hair. “I was just so fucking angry. When I saw that…that bitch on the stairs, I did what I did, and it was like I wasn’t even there. Like I was watching myself do it. Watching myself stab her once for every year I’ve been alive. But then I stopped and saw what I did, and the haze went away. I remembered you were right upstairs snoring away, and I knew you’d see what I did when you woke up. So I went back to my car and got that flask of tequila I always keep in the front. I went and forced it all down your throat while you were half asleep, and I made you take a Xanax too. I always steal them from my parents.”
“So you drugged me and got me even drunker than I already was to make me totally black out and never remember.”
“Yes. I really didn’t want you to remember seeing anything, Chloe. Honest.”
For a second, I saw a flash of the old Mercedes in her eyes; the Mercedes I thought I knew. The girl I considered to be my best friend in the whole world.
“I wish I hadn’t remembered,” I whispered. “But you put my father in prison, Mercedes. He didn’t kill Catalina. He doesn’t deserve to be there.”
“Don’t say her name!”
“How did you find out about her?” I asked hurriedly, still trying to keep her talking before she completely snapped.
She seemed to calm down again at that. I could tell she’d been bottling this all up for a long time—for obvious reasons—and she clearly wanted someone to hear her story. “You know how my mom has those therapists?” she said. “One of them suggested she keep a diary and write down all her life experiences. Stuff like that.”
“And she wrote about you.”
“Yes. I never knew she was infertile. Never knew how desperate she was to have a daughter just like her. But then I read it all. I found out I was adopted. Found out my real mother was an evil bitch who ditched me after almost giving birth to me in a fucking attic. Like I was a rat or something; something that needed to be hidden away in a dusty old room and abandoned. And then, that night last year, I see her pregnant with another child she obviously intended on keeping! Do you know what that fucking felt like?”
I shook my head. “I can’t imagine,” I replied softly. “But she wasn’t mentally well when she had you. Or Asher four years earlier, either.”
“Oh, but she was well enough to have that new baby with your dad? That’s not fucking fair!” she shrieked. She took several deep breaths, then leaned closer. “She recognized me, you know,” she continued, her voice a low hiss now. “All these years, she knew she had a daughter in Claremont Bay who she never bothered telling the truth about. And when I saw her that night on the stairs, all she fucking had to say for herself was, ‘what are you doing here?’, like I was nothing. Nothing!”
I tried to change tactics, sensing that she was about to snap. “Mercedes, your parents love you. They wanted you. They gave you everything. You have a perfect life.”
“Shut the fuck up!” she screamed, standing up and stomping her foot so loudly on the wooden floor that my chair wobbled slightly. Shit. She was about to lose it for real.
An idea suddenly sparked in my head, something stemming from the track our conversation had just been on, and I knew exactly how to keep her talking for a little while longer.
“Your brother was grateful,” I said. “He was glad that Catalina gave him up, because he ended up with two loving parents instead of a mentally ill mother who couldn’t take care of him properly.”
“What the hell are you talking about? You mean Asher?”
I widened my eyes and shook my head. “Not Asher. You really don’t know?” I asked. Thank god I’d been right; she didn’t know she was a twin.
“Know what?” she said, eyes blazing hotter than ever.
“I thought your mom’s diary might’ve mentioned it. The second baby. I found out about it recently.”
Mercedes took a faltering step back. “I…what?”
“Catalina had twins the night you were born. You weren’t the only one she abandoned. But the other baby wasn’t like you. He was glad she gave him up. Glad she let him have a good life with people who truly wanted a baby.”
She shook her head. “No. No, Mom’s diary never mentioned anything about another…”
Her voice trailed off, and I knew I had her.
“You can’t kill me, Mercedes,” I said calmly. “Because if you do…well, then you’ll never know who your brother is.”
Twenty-Eight
Asher
I came back into the hospital room only to find it empty, and my heart stopped for a second. I knew right away that Mercedes had Chloe.
We alerted the cops. Started a search party. I told the cops, and my parents, everything I knew about Mercedes and what she'd done. But it seemed as if none of that would be enough. Chloe was well and truly gone, and so was Mercedes. Worry was eating me up from the inside and I knew I'd fucked up badly. I had to get her back. I had to right my wrongs.
Surprisingly, my father had been the one to calm me down after I punched a fucking hole in the wall of what used to be Chloe's hospital room. My fist went right through the wall, and Dad patched me up and talked me down while the policemen questioned a nurse who claimed to have seen a tall blonde leaving with Chloe, confirming my theory that it was Mercedes who took her.
"I should have told you everything sooner," I muttered as Dad wrapped my hand in his.
"It's okay. You couldn't have known she'd vanish like this." He tried his best to console me, but I was devastated. This had all happened because of me, because I'd been careless and hadn't watched over Chloe enough. This was all my damn fault.
"Don't beat yourself up about it," he told me. "We'll find her. We'll make sure she's okay."
One look at Victoria told me all I needed to know—she was desperate, barely able to hold back sobs, but stunned at the same time. She was just staring straight ahead, clutching a handkerchief and crying without making a sound.
The search party went on the whole day. I helped. I even went to look in the park where Chloe had been that night when she was attacked in the alley, but that proved to be fruitless. Of course it damn did. I searched everywhere and couldn't fucking find her, and it only made me more desperate.
A couple of hours later, I was still driving around searching when a text came in on my phone. I glanced at my screen, but as soon as I saw who'd messaged me, I pulled over on the edge of the road and grabbed the phone with shaky fingers.
I know the little bitch told you. Come home, come home, wherever you are, big brother.
In that instant, I suddenly knew where they would be, and I knew what Mercedes wanted. She wanted to get rid of both of us, Chloe and me, for finding out about what she'd done.
She
wanted to do it at home, where her life nearly began—in the attic of Briarwood.
And I would be damned if I was going to let her get away with it.
The house was quiet when I pulled up in the driveway. Of course—everyone was out searching for Chloe. None of us suspected she was under our nose the whole time. It was actually quite clever of Mercedes to think of it.
I got out of my car and slammed the door, then ran inside the house. It was completely empty—even the staff had been paid handsomely to search for Chloe and Mercedes. I was on my fucking own.
That is, until I walked up the stairs and found Alex coming out of my father's study.
"Hey, Asher," he said with a grin. "What's—”
I pulled him into the study and slammed the door shut after us. He looked bewildered as I cornered him, glaring at his face.
"Did you know?" I barked at him, trying to keep my voice as low as possible.
"Know what?" he asked, putting his hands in front of his body defensively. He was scared. He obviously had no fucking idea, either about Mercedes or about Chloe being kidnapped.
I filled him in as fast as I could, and Alex's face blanched when he realized he had a half-sister, a crazy one at that.
"You really didn't know?" I asked, and he shook his head.
"They're...upstairs?" he asked, and I nodded.
"Yes, and you're going to be the ace up my sleeve tonight, Alex," I told him, and explained the plan. "We're going to go up there. Mercedes doesn't know you're here, so you can be a surprise factor."
"Okay." He nodded. "I'll do anything. I love Chloe." He saw my face and added, "Like a sister, obviously. I'd do anything to help."
Scandal (A Dirty Money Novel) Page 22
