Page 5

Kennedy

“You like those heels, or do you think they look too hoe-ish?” Maki, my best friend, asked, as she tried on a pair of overly high heels.

“Where is this date again?”

She looked through her phone. “Some fancy restaurant on the Upper West Side. It’s exclusive, so you know it’s going to be a bunch of rich basic bitches.”

Maki worked for Case House, too, and she had a client’s dinner tonight.

“Ditch the heels. You’re going somewhere classy, and Jeffie will get on our asses if a client complaint comes to her again.

You already on thin ice with the way you took your wig off when he took you swimming while in Seychelles. ”

“ My ass. You don’t even work for Case House anymore… not since you want to go and find you a good rich man.”

I looked down at my engagement ring that I had just slid on my finger this morning. When I saw Landon walk into Tiny’s the other night, I quickly slipped it off my finger to avoid him seeing and asking questions I wasn’t ready to answer yet.

“Alex doesn’t want me working anymore and wants me to focus on just being his wife.

” I sat on the couch as Maki switched shoes and then went to stand in the mirror to check them out.

“Much better and gives classy. You’re a Case House girl now, Maki.

You need to clean up that image… Menace isn’t some pimp who tosses women out there.

We’re an investment to him and he makes sure we feel and see it. ”

“You don’t even have to sound like someone is trying to kill you. Alex was a great client, so I’m sure he’ll make a great husband, too. You never complained about him, Ken.” She lifted the same heel in a different color. “I feel like I cannot be myself around these men.”

I blankly stared at her. “We’re not being paid to be ourselves, Maki. They are paying us to be who they want us to be. Does it suck? Not really, because the money is better.”

“And about Alex?” She found a way to bring the conversation back to discussing Alex when that wasn’t what I wanted to talk about.

“He was screwing me when he was married to his ex-wife. I wouldn’t say he would make the perfect husband.”

Alex Dass was loaded rich, and money was never an issue. The amount of money he dropped to spend time with me when I was working at Case House was enough to be the president’s salary. He spared no expense to treat me well, and make sure that his loyalty was with me.

His loyalty should have been with his wife, but I guess he couldn’t be rich, handsome, and loyal, too. The man had to fall short somewhere, and loyalty was where his shortness fell. Along with being rich, he was older.

Alex was in his late forties, and I was in my early twenties. The things that excited me didn’t get him excited. It was fun when we traveled around the world because he was paying me. I could pretend to be into the shit he was into and then go back home.

As his future wife, I couldn’t pretend anymore. I had to get to know the man and take this seriously. He asked me to marry him and instead of telling him that I needed to think on it, my dumbass decided to tell him yes and now I was stuck planning a wedding that I wasn’t excited about.

“Why did you tell him that you would marry him, then?”

I shrugged. “Because this could be my ticket out of all of this shit.”

“What ticket? Your godfather is Menace Caselli, and he has told you plenty of times that you needed to quit Case House. Being stubborn is the reason that you refused to leave.”

Menace was my so-called godfather, although I never looked at him like that. On paper he was, but the man didn’t even know me. He was tossed into that role as a favor to my late father. How could he even guide me when I was already grown and doing things before he met me?

Other than the fact that he would randomly have Jeffie call to check and see if I had money, I never heard from Menace. It never bothered me because I could only imagine how annoying it was to be stuck with the semi responsibility of someone that you never knew existed.

“I don’t want his money. I’m tired of always feeling like I’m asking for a handout from people. It was the reason I started working for Case House. To make my own money and not have to depend on the Caselli’s. At least with Alex, this secures my future, and he wants kids.”

“His old ass has kids already and one of them is about a year younger than me,” Maki reminded me.

I crossed my legs. “If one of your clients wanted to marry and take care of you… you wouldn’t do it or give them a child?”

Maki debated like she wouldn’t hop at the chance. “Bitch, you already know I would, without a second thought.”

“Exactly.”

She knew the minute a man asked to marry her, she would be down to spend the rest of her life doing nothing.

“So, humor me with this… if this is what you want, why did you snatch your ring off when Don came to your dinner?”

“I didn’t feel like having a conversation with him about it.”

“Or you didn’t want him to find out because then it would really mean the possibility of you both being together would never happen.”

I shot her a dirty look. “We cannot even be together, anyway.”

“Because Menace says so? Don has shown and done everything against what his brother wants. Do you honestly think he gives a fuck?”

Landon didn’t give a damn about anything his brother said. I think he was the only person who didn’t care that he was directly disregarding what Menace wanted. I was off limits to him, and it was because I was a Case House girl.

Now that I had stepped back from Case House, there was no excuse that he could use. Well, Menace didn’t need an excuse. He couldn’t deny the fact that we were both grown adults and could do whatever we wanted.

Don was different from any man that I had ever gave my attention. He didn’t look at me like my Case House clients. He saw me as a person, leaving sex out the equation. When he found out that I had been raped, he was there for me.

As much as I tried to push back what happened to me, it was him who encouraged me to seek therapy and not ignore it. Ignoring things until they no longer hurt was my specialty. I liked living by the out of sight and mind philosophy.

I wasn’t the type that always talked about my problems and harped on them. It was hard having to live with the fact that the Caselli’s even knew and then having Don wanting to heal me. He wanted to take care of me, and I didn’t want that.

Not from him.

I wanted us to be on equal footing, even though he was a whole billionaire. With my clients, I didn’t care about them and wanted them to take care of me.

Not with Don.

It was also hard to be serious knowing that what we both wanted was forbidden. Don would always be set for life because his last name was Caselli. Who knew how long Menace would continue to give a fuck about me?

Alex was rich and wanted a life with me, and I needed to go with what I was familiar with. I had to take care of me, and being Alex’s wife secured that piece. As fucked up as it was, I enjoyed the life of luxury, and this man wanted to keep me in it.

Don would never choose his family over me, and I never wanted to put him in the situation where he had to make that decision. Menace would never approve of us being together, and I had to go where it was safe.

Alex was a safe choice.

I didn’t have parents or a rich sibling looking out for me. My father wasn’t even around as often as he should have been before he died. It had always been me having to look out for myself and use what I had to get in places I would have never been invited into.

I built this illusion that men saw whenever they met me. A woman who spoke so highly of herself, has an amazing vocabulary and carried herself with class had to come from wealth. When in reality, I came from the slums, and I had to claw my way out to become this version of myself.

My mother was never this kind of person. She was so far gone when it came to her religion, Jehovah’s Witness, that she pretended she didn’t have a daughter. Pushed me right on out of her life like she never spent hours in labor to bring me into this earth. My father was no better before he passed.

Which shocked me that he even gave a fuck to set me up in case something happened to him. It had always been me, and I was fine with that because being responsible for me was enough.

“Doesn’t matter.”

“You would give up on having actual love for security.”

I laughed at Maki because she had no clue.

This was all new to her, an entire new world that came with a different set of rules than we were used to.

There was no love in money, and I learned that quickly.

Women didn’t get married because of love; they got married for security.

It had to do with furthering their blood lines, making them stronger, and keeping it pure.

It had nothing to do with falling in love. It was what they were born and raised to do. You didn’t get married to a billionaire because you were in love; you got married because your family and his was a perfect match.

“Yes. I saw what love does to you. It can be beautiful, and it can also be war. Blowing up in your face when you least expect it. I’ve watched my mother crawl back to the very church that kicked her out on her ass.

She had to go crawling back to them because even though love was enough for her, it never paid the bills or helped her raise a child. Her story won’t be mine.”

Even with me and my mother being estranged, I refused to crawl back to Case House if things didn’t work out between me and Landon.

As much as we were caught up in each other, I knew it could and would end differently than we both imagined.

Menace didn’t say things twice, and the fact that he has warned us both that he doesn’t approve meant we couldn’t have what we wanted.

Alex wanted to take care of me and give me the life I didn’t have to lay on my back to achieve or hold my hand out to ask Menace for. This was something that I had to do, and I didn’t expect anyone else to understand.