by Vikes, Emma
Britney turned to mom, glaring. “I can’t believe you supported your son in this scheme. What kind of step-mother are you?”
Mom tilted her head and smiled at her cruelly. “The same kind that Cinderella had except in this story, you won’t be having your prince.”
Britney was shaking in anger and then she looked at me again, and I wanted to punch myself when I saw the pain shining in her hazel eyes. She shook her head and then left the café, almost bumping into a customer on her way out. I stood up, glaring at my mother. “This is all your fault. Now I’m never gonna do your bidding, mom. It’s too late for that.”
I rushed after Britney, calling out her name and asking her to stop. We were near the site when she did and she turned around to face me. Her cheeks were streaked with tears, and it ripped my heart apart to see her this hurt over this whole situation. “Brit, let me explain, please.”
Britney scoffed and shook her head. “You said it yourself Patrick, Stocks was your dream come true. I should’ve known that this whole thing was suspicious because it only started right after dad’s announcement. I was so fucking stupid to believe that any of it was real.”
“Let me explain.”
“There’s nothing to explain anymore, Pat! I heard you loud and clear. You want Stocks for yourself.” She pulled out something from her bag and threw it at me. I caught it easily and was surprised to see my phone. “You left your phone at the apartment and your mother came by earlier, looking for you. I should’ve read between the lines because she didn’t seem at all surprised to see me at the apartment, even her questions weren’t that probing.”
She hastily wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. “Thank god for my curiosity because I opened one of your mother’s texts. She was asking if you’ve talked to me about Stocks and she said that you two should just go forth with whatever fucking plan you have. Fooling me, I guess that’s what it was.”
I ran a hand through my hair in exasperation. “Brit, if only you could just give me one moment to speak, please. That’s all I’m asking.” I could hear the desperation in my own voice. “I don’t want to lose you like this.”
Britney looked at me and then shook her head. “Why?”
“Because I do love you.”
“Then why did you do this in the first place?”
“Because I wanted Stocks. I meant what you heard. Stocks has been my dream for a long time, Britney.”
Slap!!!
I deserved that. But Britney deserved the truth too. I couldn’t just tell her that I wasn’t in favor of what my mom was asking me to do. A part of the truth was that I was as power-hungry as my mother, but a part of it was that I wanted to be with her too. “That’s all I need to hear.”
“Britney, wait, just, let me explain everything.”
“And then what, Patrick? I’ll believe you? How many guys have come and gone in my life, dating me because I’m Christopher Baldwin’s daughter? Telling me they love me because of what I was going to inherit from my father and not because I’m someone worthy of being loved.”
At that moment, I realized that I didn’t just hurt her because I wanted Stocks and I was fooling her into falling in love with me. I had done the same thing that every other boy she had dated had done, and although she didn’t fall in love with them the same way she’d fallen for me, my actions seemed to prove to her that she wasn’t someone worthy of the right kind of love, because she was simply someone you wanted to be with because of her last name.
“You’re more than just a Baldwin, Britney.”
She looked at me and scoffed. “I don’t think so, Patrick. For you, I wasn’t.”
Chapter 12
Britney
Betrayal could truly be so painful.
I honestly couldn’t believe that Patrick could do this to me, that the reason behind the relationship was because he wanted Stocks all for himself. I should’ve thought about the whole thing more before I dove into it. I was so stupid to believe that he wanted me. Maybe he did, for the sex, but that was it. He didn’t want a relationship with me. He just needed to have a relationship with me so that I would hand Stocks over to him without any question. Because sometimes we ended up doing stupid things in the name of love.
“Alex swears he’ll castrate him when he sees him,” Lauren said, running her hand through my hair. It’s been two days since I found out about this whole thing and I immediately called her after I booked myself a hotel room. She flew here 12 hours later, leaving her work behind without giving her boss much notice. This was the kind of friendship that was real and not bought by money.
I scoffed and then stared up at the ceiling. “Did you honestly foresee this happening, Lauren?”
She shook her head. “No, Brit. Patrick’s always been driven to do his own thing. I always imagined him building his own empire out from scratch, not inheriting it from Christopher. He’s always been so dynamic and passionate that it’s hard to believe he was willing to steal someone else’s birthright just to be powerful.”
“Me too,” I whispered, trying my best not cry. I didn’t want to shed another tear for Patrick Cunningham. He once told me that Morgan didn’t deserve any of my tears, well Patrick sure as hell didn’t either.
“But Britney…”
I sat up and looked at my best friend. I knew she had some information about Patrick. Alex hadn’t come with her here but he’d still talked to Patrick and I knew he was angry with his best friend but I was sure he’d heard more of Patrick’s side. “I don’t like the sound of that, Lauren.”
“No, it’s just that, you didn’t really listen to the rest of his explanation, Britney. I mean I hate what he initially did to you, fooling you to fall in love with him, but I think he actually is in love with you.”
“I thought Alex swore he would castrate Patrick when he saw him?”
Lauren gave me a pointed look and sighed. “This isn’t about what Alex swore, Britney. This is about the entire story of why Patrick did this in the first place.”
“Are we honestly having this conversation, Lauren? Are you honestly gonna claim that there’s a lot more to Patrick’s story?”
Lauren reached for my hands and took them in hers. “Brit, all I’m saying is that when Alex told me why Patrick did what he had done and how he tried to stop it when he realized that what he felt for you was more than just the desire of having you, Britney.”
I scoffed and turned away, shaking my head. I couldn’t believe that Lauren was saying those stupid things. “Laur, you don’t get it, okay? I’ve dated guys who wanted me because of what my last name brought them because they thought that maybe I could get them in with Christopher Baldwin. I endured that thinking that maybe one of them would fall in love with me along the way and then maybe I would fall for them too, and then forget Patrick Cunningham while I was at it.”
My infatuation with Patrick Cunningham wasn’t just a teenage crush. It ran far deeper than that. It was unrequited, pining after, love from far away even when we were so near. I had always thought that we were never going to be an item, that I would only have him as my brother and, for a while, I’d convinced myself to be okay with that. At least I had him in some way. But the universe had never erased my feelings for Patrick and the more I saw him in my life, the more I liked him.
And then this whole thing happened and I honestly thought that the universe had finally granted my wish, only for the truth to come out and my whole world to crumble down, just like my heart.
“He was the first guy that I really liked, Lauren, and not in the way that I just wanted to have sex with him. I liked him because of who he was and how he was. I just…I thought he was different. He made me believe he was different. But he is Lara Cunningham’s son, and he’s just as cunning as his mother.”
The ring of my phone cut through our conversation and I looked at Lauren, thinking that it was Patrick calling me. “You didn’t tell him where I am, right?”
Lauren shook her head. “I might want the two of you to fi
x things, Brit, but I will only arrange it when I know you’re ready to face him.”
I didn’t doubt this for a second because even though Alex and Patrick were best friends, and even if Lauren knew Patrick as well as I did, her loyalty was to me. I picked up my phone from the table and realized it was my dad calling. I then remembered that he’d told me that he was going to Massachusetts for a state visit. Maybe he was calling me about that dinner that he was planning for us. This was the kind of distraction that I needed right now. But I could only hope that Lara hadn’t talked to him first because god knows what kind of lie that evil woman could have come up with.
Never had I any inclination that Lara would turn out this way, that all of the times she’d tried to bond with me she’d had a hidden agenda. She must’ve been trying to gauge any weak spots, trying to see where she could poke and prod and drag me down. She must’ve noticed the way I’d looked at Patrick, had observed that I was in love with her son.
“Hi dad,” I greeted, trying my best to make sure that my voice didn’t sound so heartbroken.
“Britney.” Dad’s voice was sharp and curt and I suddenly sat up straighter, knowing this voice. I’d heard this voice enough in my childhood to know that this was the tone my father used whenever he was going to scold me. I could feel my muscles anticipating the scolding. “Your mother called.”
“From the dead?” I replied sarcastically, hating how he regarded Lara as my mother. She may have been present in the majority of my life, unlike my biological mother, but she would never be my mom. I didn’t want a mother as traitorous as her.
On the other end of the line, I could imagine dad rolling his eyes. “You know what I mean, Britney. You had me fooled for a second thinking that you went to Harvard early so you could finish early and do your job as co-CEO of Stocks because you couldn’t wait to get your hands dirty. But of course, I should’ve known. You go through the motions of life with your heart and not with your mind, I should’ve known better.”
“What the hell are you talking about, dad?” What sick story did Lara tell him? Why was he sprouting out nonsense? “Did Lara tell you that? You honestly believe her more than me? You honestly think that little of me, dad?”
“Eloping with some guy you just met? Who is no one in our society? Who doesn’t have any prestigious family background? You’re shaming our name with what you’ve done, Britney. You’re already making rounds in the media, it’s fucking disgusting.”
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as I looked up at Lauren. She stared back at me blankly, unaware of the conversation I was having with my father. I put him on speaker and then lowered my phone on the couch so that Lauren could listen in. “What do you mean making rounds in the media, dad?”
“There have been photographs of you circulating with a guy. You play it off like he’s your classmate but Lara suggested otherwise. There are intimate photos of the two of you too. We’re going to do damage control once I get there, Britney.”
He hung up on me after that and Lauren and I stared at each other in confusion. “What the hell was he talking about?”
Lauren shook her head, just as confused as I was. “Do you think that Lara might’ve changed the story and had Chris believe the lie she’s made?”
I narrowed my eyes and gripped my phone tightly, the insides of my stomach churning with the possibility. “That’s likely the case.”
Chapter 13
Patrick
I’d been trying to call Britney for the past few days ever since she’d found out, but she’d either changed her number or blocked mine so I couldn’t call her. I’d tried to reach Lauren’s phone too but she’d never answered my calls either. Alex had reprimanded me because of my actions but was willing to hear my side of the story still. He told me that he would tell Lauren about my side of the story but he didn’t guarantee that Lauren could get Britney to talk to me since, according to Lauren, Britney was in a bad state because of what I’d done.
And I’ve never hated myself more than I did now.
I should’ve told Britney the truth because maybe if it had come from me, maybe if she hadn’t have found out like she had, maybe things could’ve been different. But who was I kidding?
She had been fooled by so many guys I wasn’t any different from them. We all wanted the same thing from her, a chance to have our shot with whatever inheritance she would receive from the renowned Christopher Baldwin. But I’d fallen in love with her and, in the end, it wasn’t whatever company her father or she could offer me - all I wanted was her.
And she didn’t know that.
My phone rang and I answered the call, surprised that it was from Lauren. “Patrick?”
“Lauren, thank god you finally called me back. How’s Britney? Where is she? Can I talk to her?” My voice sounded so frantic but I needed to talk to Britney, I desperately needed to.
“She’s getting ready to meet up with Chris. He texted her where they are going to have dinner because they need to do damage control. She’s been all over the media, Pat. Photos of her with some guy are circulating and Lara’s claiming that she came here early to elope with the guy.”
Instantly, I looked it up on social media and there they were: hundreds of photos of Britney with an unidentified guy who wasn’t even me. I wasn’t sure who it was but the pictures were taken at an angle that suggests it was the guy she was dating. It was all so brilliantly planned, carefully executed by my own mother. The pictures, along with whatever story my mother had come up and fed the media and Chris with, were enough to cause a scandal for Britney.
“She’s fucking brilliant,” I muttered as I scrolled through the posts.
“I have a bad feeling about Chris and Britney’s meet-up, Pat.” Lauren’s tone caught my attention. “It’s not her father’s anger that bothers me, it’s just that judging by your story and how Lara made up this whole thing, I fear that she has another thing up her sleeve. Her desperation for you to have Stocks knows no bounds, Patrick. I was thinking that maybe if you were there, she wouldn’t be able to pull whatever ploy she has in mind.”
Lauren didn’t hesitate in giving me the place where Chris and Britney were meeting, and I had a feeling that my mother would be present too. She wouldn’t miss this opportunity to gloat in front of Britney that she had Chris wrapped around her finger like a blind idiot. As genius as he was as a politician and businessman, he was blinded by his attraction to his wife who had been playing him as the fool for years.
I tried calling my mother about this but she wasn’t answering her phone either. I tried contacting Chris - maybe I could get through to him first and tell him the truth about the whole thing? I was willing to tell him my part in all of this and I didn’t care if he would take back what he’d said about me and Stocks. I couldn’t have cared less about that. What was important to me now was that he wouldn’t disown Britney and that he would give his blessing to our relationship. All I wanted was to have her back in my life, and this time I would do it correctly.
I was on my way to Britney’s hotel when I saw her get into a cab. I was going to follow her when I realized that someone else on a motorbike was already following her. My heart began to hammer in my chest as a million and one possibilities began to take shape in my head. Lauren’s voice about having a bad feeling about this whole thing echoed in my head as I began to speed up to catch up with them, careful that the driver on the motorbike didn’t notice me following them too.
As I drove, I tried contacting Chris again but failed. There was no use contacting my mother. I didn’t want to let her know that I was aware of what she was planning and that I was going to stop it. By the time that the Uber Britney was in stopped in front of the restaurant where she was meeting her father, I’d sped up and stopped close to the motorbike.
Britney stepped out of the car and the rider pointed a gun at her – but I tackled him just in time.
A shot rang out and ruined the silence of the night. “Britney! Get back in the car!”
&n
bsp; In my peripheral view, in her shock, she was still rooted to the spot. “Britney, get the fuck away!”
The guy managed to hit me on the jaw and I stumbled back, the impact too painful for me. My hand was on my mouth when I realized that the restaurant’s security guard had his gun pointed at the unknown gunman. I didn’t have anything to shield myself from him, but he wasn’t backing down even when a gun was pointed at him.
“Get away from Miss Baldwin,” the security guard said, his hands quivering as he tried to step closer to Britney who was in the middle of all this. But the gunman wasn’t even fazed. He slowly lifted his hand that had the gun in it and I realized I hadn’t been successful in removing it from him when I’d tackled him.
He pointed his gun at Britney who remained rooted, in fear, to the spot.
I did the only thing that I could.
I ran in front of her.
Bang.
Epilogue
Patrick
1 Year Later
As softly as I could, I knocked on the white hardwood door. Slowly, I opened the door to see my mother lying on her bed, fast asleep. The nurse was fixing a tray beside her, probably the lunch she’d just eaten, along with the medicines she’d just taken.
“Hey Martha,” I greeted the nurse with a warm smile. “How is she?”
Nurse Martha glanced at my sleeping mother. “She’s doing good. This morning, she played the piano at breakfast for the rest of the patients. Her behavior has been improving, Mr. Cunningham.”
I nodded my head, happy with the progress my mother was making. “I think I’ll just stay here for a bit until she wakes up.”
A year ago, I took a bullet from a gunman that my mother had hired to kill Britney. It was a part of her plan because according to her judgment, killing Britney would guarantee me as the only heir to every company and business that Chris had. She honestly believed that and, in her desperation to make sure that I had the best life possible, she had been willing to murder someone.
