"Marla!" he hissed. "Where were you?"
"On the beach, having sex with Yuri." She said it maliciously; she said it to prod the jealous beast. "Where else would I be?"
"You didn't!" Ricky hissed. "Yuri would not do it; he is too decent for that. I remember doing that once and he gave me an ear-stinging lecture. I still remember it. He would never sleep with another man's wife."
Marla got up and stretched and headed for the bathroom. All of upstairs in the mansion was hers. Ricky couldn't make it up here since his accident and she relished not having him around.
"Marla, tell me that you are joking." Ricky sounded slightly breathless.
Marla peered into the mirror and grinned. Her hair had flecks of sand in it and there was a red mark on her neck. Her eyes looked heavy and sleepy but there was a sparkle in them and her skin was glowing.
"I am not joking. Besides, I am not really your wife. Don't you think Yuri knows that?"
"How would he?" Ricky's voice was calmer now. "I told him that I find other ways to fulfill your needs and he knows I am working hard on getting all my body parts to be functioning again to satisfy you fully."
Marla gasped. That was such a blatant lie and obviously made up to taunt Yuri with it.
"You are really sick," Marla whispered, "Sick, twisted, evil... troll."
Ricky laughed. "Troll? Really that is the worst curse word that you can come up with, Marla. Maybe stopping you from church has not blighted you enough? But then again for a so-called good girl, you really went all out when my security failed, didn't you?"
Marla sighed. "Is there a point to this conversation?"
"Look at what one night of sex can do to a girl?" Ricky murmured. "All of a sudden she has grown a backbone. Don't forget, Marla, that I own you and your father."
"I don't care anymore," Marla said her voice matching his. "Do your worst. You blackmailed me into marrying you, fine. I just don't care anymore about you and your threats."
Ricky laughed. "Marla... Marla... Marla, stupid Marla. You are obviously on a post-coitus high. Good for you. You got laid. That may not be a bad thing in the whole scheme of things; this means that Yuri is probably beating himself up over you right now. He has never had a casual attitude toward sex, so this is momentous. I always thought that was a wuss-like tendency, so girly. To him sex is a big deal.
"He may be even wondering what is he going to do about the two of you and flagellating himself over his mistake."
Ricky laughed.
"His mental anguish is payment enough for me but let me just remind you that there is no statute of limitations on murder. I can report you and your father to the police at any time. You behave how I want you to behave, and when I tell you to behave, got that?
Marla was on the verge of repeating that she didn't care. It was on the very tip of her tongue.
But Ricky said softly, as if he knew that she was about to defy him, "If you decide that you want to take your chances with the law, just know that your lover won’t get off scot free either. I will ruin him and his family. I will spend my vast resources dedicated to doing just that.
"They are peasants, Marla; how do you expect them to fight me? I have several plans to flatten that family, to watch them slowly disintegrate. All you have to do is say the word.
"I could start by getting Lloyd Scarlett to clear off the land where he farms... I own it don't you forget that...or I could have your precious Yuri fired from his job. SofServ Tech is being sold; maybe I should buy it and then work him into the ground like a slave or dangle promotions in front of him and watch as he loses them. Now that would be fun."
Marla sighed into the phone. It was always the same threat. Ricky took great pleasure in plotting the Scarletts’ downfall and itemizing them to her as if they had done something to offend him.
Why was she the only one who knew how absolutely evil Ricky could be? Well, maybe Terri could see it; she had always disliked him. But Terri didn't know the half of what she knew.
"Marla!" Ricky snapped over the line, offended by her lack of response.
"What!" Marla snapped back.
"Say the word," Ricky said with anticipation in his voice. "Just say it."
"Yuri needs to know about you," Marla said weakly, defeat evident in her voice.
"But you are not going to tell him," Ricky said. "Don't be fooled into thinking you are that special, Marla. Any day that Yuri Scarlett decides that you are no longer his ideal girl, any day that you are no longer special to him, you will no longer be useful to me. You should thank Yuri for your freedoms so far."
He hung up the phone and Marla dropped it on the vanity counter. It made a cracking sound and she wished that it had indeed been broken. Ricky was the only one who called her on it anyway. The phone was her leash.
She breathed in deeply, tremulously, wishing that she could time travel. It wouldn't be enough to time travel to the incident that Ricky was using to blackmail her. No. It would be better if she could go all the way back to age eight, when Ricky had just moved to Treasure Beach. Yuri had been eleven.
She would warn Yuri about him. She would beg him not to be friends with him. She was there the day when Ricky had looked at Yuri and decided that Yuri was to be his new pet, his social experiment, because it had nothing to do with friendship. It was the summer of 1998 and as usual the gang of four were by the beach side...
****
"There's the new boy," Troy said lazily. The four of them, Terri, Yuri, Troy, and Marla, were lying in Pops’ fishing boat. It was beached on the shore. Pops wouldn't be taking it out until that evening and the four of them had nothing much to do. It was the beginning of summer and everybody had declared this summer the hottest ever. They were content to sit in the boat in the midday hours eating steamed bammy and chattering about nothing.
"I heard that his parents own a plane," Terri said in awe.
They all watched as the boy walked nonchalantly down the beach. His hair was long and wavy, longer than Terri's, and everybody knew Terri had the longest hair in Treasure Beach. It almost reached her at her hips.
Marla felt sorry for the boy. He had a girl's hairstyle and he looked lonely. He sauntered up to them and looked them over like he was a king and they were slacking off as his royal subjects.
"I am Ricardo Mills, er Stravinsky," he said in proper English like that butler Geoffrey from the show Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
They all looked at each other. Terri started to giggle and they all joined in. Everybody except Yuri. Yuri was always serious and contemplative. Troy said that he was trying to imitate Pops.
Yuri jumped out of the boat while they were still giggling, and nodded to Ricardo.
"Your name is long."
Ricardo eyed him up and down, as if measuring how worthy he was to communicate with and then smiled. "What's your name?"
"Yuri Scarlett."
"Yuri," Ricardo said slowly. "How do you spell it?"
Yuri shrugged and spelled it for him.
"I like it. It is short and easy to say; I think I could be Ricky then. You can call me Ricky instead of Ricardo."
"Want to hang with us?" Yuri asked.
"No," Ricky shook his head, "with you, not with them."
Yuri shrugged and got back into the boat and Ricky looked at the boat uncertainly. "It is so dirty."
"No, it's not!" Terri squealed indignantly. "Pops washed it, so it's clean."
Ricky looked as if he was about to argue and then he just nodded. "You all want to hang out at my family's villa? We have a swimming pool and Chef can get us ice cream."
"Chef?" Terri's eyes widened. "Is that what you call your dad?"
"No, silly." Ricky laughed depreciatingly. "I have a personal chef. Like the person who cooks food."
"Cool." Troy's eyes widened in awe. "What flavor ice cream can Chef make?"
"Anything you'd like," Ricky said casually. "Anything I require, the staff is supposed to deliver."
"Wow." Troy was almost saliv
ating at the thought.
"How old are you?" Terri asked primly. "I am six and I don't get everything."
"Of course you do," Troy jumped in. "You are the only girl. You are everybody's favorite."
Ricky watched their exchange and shrugged. "I am eleven, soon to be twelve."
"Yuri is eleven too," Troy said, holding up his fingers. "That's ten fingers plus one."
"Yes," Ricky said dismissively. He then looked at Yuri. "So are you lot coming or what?"
"No," Yuri said simply. "We prefer the sea to swimming pools and we are not supposed to eat from strangers, even if they're called Chef."
That may have been the first no Ricky had ever heard in his life. He looked shell-shocked. Poor ragged children dared to refuse him. Who did they think they were?
He glared at them and said as much and then stomped off.
If Yuri had been another person, maybe Ricky would have gotten tired of him but Yuri defied him at every turn. Ricky became obsessed with Yuri for that very reason. Yuri had failed to be impressed with Ricardo Mills Stravinsky.
Ironic.
Marla stepped in the shower; if Yuri was easily impressed and willing to be one of Ricky's minions, they all wouldn't be here and trapped in this impossible situation. She would be with Yuri now; she was sure of that.
Chapter Six
Pops' funeral was going to be huge. Ten minutes before the official start of the service people were already seated in the church. The funeral parlor had placed the open casket in the foyer of the church with numerous floral arrangements around it. Yuri refused to look in the casket.
"Aren't you going to at least take a peep?" Terri asked him softly.
"No." Yuri looked at her. "You?"
"Maybe." She headed toward it and then came back to his side. "No, I think I want to remember Pops as he was."
"Me too." Troy came behind them.
Yuri turned to look at him curiously. This morning when he woke up, Troy had disappeared.
Now here he was dressed in his suit and looking handsome and distinguished. It almost made Yuri smile. Troy was younger than he was by two years and even though he was now a pastor and married, he couldn't quite shake the big brother feeling toward him.
"Where's Chelsea?" he asked his brother.
Troy sighed. "Long story."
"We have time." Terri jabbed him in the side. "Spill it. I know something is off."
"I have to meet with the rest of individuals at the back who are participating in the service," Troy said, edging away from them. "I am doing the eulogy."
"I thought Dad was doing the eulogy." Yuri frowned.
"He gave it to me to do." Troy shrugged. "I think he doesn't want to cry when he is reading. It is an emotional time for him. He was hoping that Uncle Pete would show up and do it instead and of course he can't ask you because you would definitely bawl too. He gave it to me because I am a bit more experienced at funerals. When I was a junior pastor I did my fair share."
"You didn't say where Chelsea was," Terri reminded him.
"We, er...she's, ah..." Troy sighed and moved even closer to them. "Chelsea is not talking to me... which is ridiculous...some old history came up...well, if you must know, I had a little indiscretion in college."
"You?" Terri's eyes widened. "With someone other than Chelsea?"
"Yes." Troy hissed. "A stupid one-night stand in my final year when Chelsea and I were in one of our break-up phases. The er, female in question had a child. She was kind of free with her favors and there was a contraceptive accident, so I don't know if I'm the father..."
Yuri whispered, "No."
"So Chelsea knows?" Terri asked, the shock apparent in her voice.
"The female died," Troy said, trying to sound detached from the whole situation.
"What's her name?" Yuri asked impatiently. "Stop calling her the female."
"Erin Irving." Troy sighed, "She was one of those girls, you know, who was up for anything back then and I was willing to...anyway, she left a diary with the names of who her child's father may be. There are about twelve of us, and we were asked to do a DNA test or the child could go into care. She doesn't have any relatives who are willing to take the child."
"Oh my Lord, twelve. Really?" Terri shook her head. "Have you done the test?"
"No," Troy sighed, "and I don't want to. This is a career changer. I am not exactly in the kind of job where mishaps like this can be glossed over. Unfortunately, until I do the test, Chelsea is having nothing to do with me. So that is why she is not here. She sent Dahlia though, so she'll be coming with Mom." Troy swallowed. "Yes, you are looking at a man who just might be a divorcee in a few months.
"I don't know what to say." Yuri looked at his brother with compassion in his eyes.
Troy grimaced. "What is there to say? I have castigated myself enough already. I am going around to the back. See you later, Terri…before you leave?"
Terri nodded. She turned to Yuri when Troy walked away and looked at him in disbelief.
"What if he is that child's father?" Terri asked, a horrified note in her voice. "That would mean that I have a five-year-old nephew floating around out there. Troy is like Uncle Pete."
"We don't know anything about Uncle Pete really," Yuri said. "We just know what Pops and Daddy told us."
"Yes and that was enough." Terri snorted. "He got his high school teacher pregnant, then he ran away from home at seventeen, causing Grandma to have a heart attack, and that killed her."
"Grandma had a defective heart," Yuri pointed out calmly. "I am always trying to correct Pops and Dad about repeating that ludicrous story that Pete killed her."
"But Uncle Pete pushed her over the edge," Terri said sternly, "and to top it all off he has a million and one children scattered across the world."
"He has five children. He called Pops a couple years ago and told him five but he said he didn't keep in touch with them."
"Maybe he said five hundred and Pops didn't hear the hundred. His hearing got a little dim in his later days."
"Pops had good hearing," Yuri chuckled, "maybe better than mine."
Terri sighed and then, in a completely different tone of voice, said, "I am going to miss him."
"Me too," Yuri murmured, "me too."
"I can imagine him hearing about Troy's situation and then turning to the two of us and saying, ‘What's the lesson that you learned from this, Yuri and Terri?’ And then we'd look at him blankly and he'd say wear a condom, or in this case ten. And then we'd both giggle. And he would..."
Yuri didn't hear the rest of what Terri said. His mind was twanging with the fact that he had not worn any contraception last night. Was Marla taking anything?
He looked at Terri dazedly as she laughed at whatever joke she just told. He missed the punch line.
He smiled wanly.
"Come on," Terri said sheepishly, "I know the joke was in poor taste but I am sure that Pops wouldn't want us to be moping around. Chin up big brother; we had several glorious years with him."
****
The burial was at the Scarlett family plot, an acre of land in the Pedro area where some of Pops' relatives still lived.
"Ready to go?" Marla appeared at his elbow after the final song was sung and the last statement was made at the funeral.
Yuri was surprised to see her there. He had looked for her before in the church. Now here she was, her hair straightened and covered. Her head was like a silky cap. She was in full white, an outfit that was obviously expensive. It hugged her body in the right places. She was pocket-sized perfection.
She smiled at him and squeezed his hands, and he felt both guilty and exhilarated at the same time. He had rehearsed a speech for her last night. He wanted her to come back to Kingston with him today. He wanted them to be together. Maybe he was acting irrationally but right now he didn't care.
"I am ready to go to Kingston," Yuri said and then he had to ask. The last time he had a speech prepared, but this time he wasn't going to wait
another second.
It was overcast. There were mourners everywhere. He realized that life was not certain. He had loved her for years. They had moved way past where they were before; this was the right time.
"Marla, come with me."
"Yuri," she gasped.
"No, don't say anything. Don't think this through; you can get an annulment when we settle in ...we can do this."
"But," Marla's eyes filled with tears, "Yuri, I can't."
"Why the hell not?" Yuri growled, trying to keep his voice down, his tones less pleading. "You and I, we've been skirting around this for years. You admit you don't love Ricky. You married the guy when he was crippled. I don't get it. We are no longer platonic friends, Marla. We need to explore this. Give us a chance. We would be perfect together. We have always known that."
"I can't." Marla stepped back from Yuri. Her eyes filled with water. "I just can't."
"What does Ricky have on you?" Yuri's hands trembled in frustration; he rubbed the back of his neck. "Tell me. Trust me."
Marla shook her head.
Yuri wanted to grab her and shake the truth out of her. He was in a volatile mood. They had just laid Pops to rest and Marla's refusal was another loss, a loss he wasn’t sure he was equipped to deal with right now.
He suddenly felt angry at her. Angry at Ricky. Angry at himself. He felt so tight with it; he couldn't bear to see her any longer.
"Okay," he said harshly, "whatever you want, Marla."
He stomped toward his old car, which was hemmed in by a bus and a large SUV. Just his luck he wouldn't be able to get out of here when he wanted.
Like a spoiled child, he felt like crying.
Life was just so unfair! It was lethally unfair.
He leaned on the car and put his head in his hands. What did he have to offer Marla, really? What was on his resume? Nothing much. He had gotten some promotions through the years but what he earned was not nearly enough for him to do anything with.
Scarlett Baby (The Scarletts Page 4
