by A. V. Scott
“Well, I was at home you know, being angry at you and crying so much that when I remembered how much I’ve paid for this face I seriously forced myself to stop.”
“Stop being angry at me or stop crying?”
“Both. But then I remembered this,” Angie said, handing Claude a file. “It’s the file the private investigator gave me.”
“We already know Valerie was your sister,” Claude said taking the file and flipping through the pages.
“Yes but what you don’t know is that I also have a brother,” Angie said smiling.
“Is this him in the picture with your sister?” Claude asked.
“Yes. At first I didn’t think anything of it. But then I remembered Melissa said something about a guy with Bruno Magli shoes following her on the train.” Angie walked over to Claude and pointed out something on the snapshot. “Look there.”
“Unbelievable,” Claude said shaking his head. “So the guy following Melissa the entire time was your brother? And he was the same guy who murdered Valerie. But why?”
“Money,” Angie exclaimed and then plopped down on the chair next to Melissa. “He was broke and we had money. I was his first target. He tried to force Charlie to give him my money but Charlie resisted and so he killed him. Then he went after Valerie.”
“But why was he following me? Jonathan took all my money. I’m broke,” Melissa said.
“I don’t know,” Angie said.
“Shit.” Claude screamed and jumped out of his chair. “How in the world did you figure this out?”
“Darling, in New York City there are three things that motivate people to do anything, sex, money and power,” Angie said.
“Wow. I can’t believe it,” Melissa said.
Claude couldn’t contain his excitement. He grabbed Angie’s face and kissed her on the cheek. “You’re the best!”
“So I’ve been told,” Angie said laughing, and then she turned to Melissa. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. You?”
“I’ll be just peachy if you take this back,” she said handing Melissa back the check she had written her.
“No. Angie, I can’t,” Melissa said.
“Darling, you better take that because this is the last time that I am offering it to you. Plus, it was either give it to you, so you can do something great with it, or cooking lessons.”
“Cooking lessons?” Melissa laughed.
“Apparently, men can’t marry a woman who doesn’t cook,” she said, exposing a ring on her left hand.
“What the?” Melissa screamed. “Who? Carlos?” Melissa asked incredulity.
“That little fucker grew on me.”
This caused more pearls of laughter.
#
Four hours. That’s how long it took for the judge to look over all the evidence that Claude had collected. Then it took the judge another two hours to clear Melissa as a suspect in Valerie’s murder.
“I’m so glad that’s over,” Melissa said as they walked out of the courtroom.
Claude shook his head, “Thank goodness.
“What are you going to do about Jonathan?” Melissa asked. The authorities hadn’t been able to find him and all of Manhattan was still recovering from their financial loss.
“Unfortunately, it’s going to go into the cold case file until new information pops up. Why? Has he called you?”
“No. I haven’t heard from him at all,” Melissa said, feeling dizzy. “I don’t feel so good.”
“Oh My God. Melissa, you’re bleeding!” Claude exclaimed just as Melissa collapsed on the floor.
17
A few months later…
The cold winter air brushed against Melissa’s face as she fixed her dress. She looked up at the stairs that led to the entrance of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and smiled. Everything was perfect, the flowers, the cake, even the horse drawn Cinderella carriage. She was happy that she hadn’t cancelled any of it. Though, she could’ve done without all the reporters and the cameras that had camped out all night to get the “money shot.” She really thought that by now the media would have forgotten about her and went back to chasing celebrities.
“You okay? Claude said as he grabbed her hand and helped her up the stairs. “The doctor said you needed to take it easy.”
“I’m fine,” Melissa said as she looked around. The blanket of snow covering the streets made everything look magical. “It’s more beautiful than I thought.”
“You know it’s a wonderful thing that you’re doing this,” Claude said.
“I would do anything for her,” Melissa said as she turned around to watch the Cinderella coach pull up to the front of the church. Everyone had told her she went overboard with the coach but, seeing it in person she was delighted to have ordered it, even if she wasn’t the one inside of it.
Slowly the door opened and the only thing Melissa was staring at was a very beautiful and very familiar Vera Wang dress. Looking at it from this perspective made her feel certain that this was the way it was meant to be.
“She looks so beautiful,” Claude said, holding Melissa’s hand.
“She does,” Melissa agreed and walked toward the carriage. “You may not have had your beach wedding Ma, but I’m so happy that I was able to give you a fairytale wedding designed just for a princess.”
“Mija, I’m the queen. You are and always will be my little princess,” her mother said, hugging her tightly. “And by the way, these shoes are fabulous!” She lifted the hem of the wedding dress and exposed a pair of decoupage four inch heels and hundreds of Swarovski Crystals.
The cameras began to flash and Melissa’s mother happily imitated what she’d seen models do on television. It was the first time that Melissa had ever seen her mother proud of her. It gave her that warm fuzzy feeling inside.
“Can you please stop that before you ruin your dress and your shoes!” Kathy screamed at her mother before looking at Melissa. “And stop being so mushy. You’re creeping everyone out.”
Melissa grabbed her sister and gave her a big hug. “I love you too.”
“Claude, please take your girlfriend before I throw up,” Kathy said.
“Are you okay?” Melissa asked her sister.
Kathy smiled and then began to rub her belly. “We think its triplets!” She exclaimed.
“Can you please grab these kids? They’re drooling all over my fur coat,” Angie yelled out to Kathy.
“I thought you loved kids?” Melissa asked.
“Yes. But only when they’ve passed the teething stage,” Angie said, handing her purse to Carlos and wiping her coat. “Keep those rugrats away from my fur,” she commanded to Carlos who was nodding and doing as he was told.
Melissa laughed so hard, as she looked around at everyone that she thought she would bust open one of her stitches. She knew things may not have turned out the way she planned but she knew that everything was exactly how it was supposed to be and maybe even better than she had hoped.
“Oh no. I left my purse in the car,” Melissa said, as she was about to step inside the church.
“Don’t worry I’ll get it,” Claude said and ran to the car. He grabbed her purse out of the back seat. As he was walking back to the church his cell phone rang. “Where the hell have you been? You said you’d call in a few weeks not a few months! What? No. she doesn’t suspect a thing.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A.V. Scott was born in 1978 in Caguas, Puerto Rico and was raised in Brooklyn, New York. She is an online blogger, freelancer, Poet and eBook author. She is a member of the Florida Writers Association and the International Women's Writers Guild.
She can be found on Facebook and Twitter, where she keeps readers up to date on her writing life
For more information please visit:
www.avscott.com
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