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Calista

10 days before the fire

C offee is the savior of any hard-working girl. I’m not entirely sure how I could function without it.

Sitting back in my chair, I look out at the busy streets of downtown Denver. Gene is running late, per usual, but I couldn’t wait for her to get ready. I get it, she washed her hair last night and it takes a while, but damn.

Her coffee is sitting across from me, thankfully iced, but it’ll be watered down by the time she gets here.

Tapping my fingers across the wooden table, I sigh and press my forehead against the cool window. My mind is elsewhere in the world, somewhere far away from here and on a beautiful beach, or in the snowcapped mountains of Switzerland.

I’ve established a life here. I own a home with my best friend, have a very good paying job, and a family that checks in on me from time to time. It’s more than I can hope for, and I’m privileged now .

Yet, I still feel unfulfilled.

I think it’s time I start traveling, get out of the states for a little while. It isn’t like I’m struggling for cash, and I could use a break from the place I’ve been for over half my life.

Suddenly, someone sits across from me in the booth, pulling me out of my daze.

“Oh,” I say in surprise. It isn’t Genevieve. Instead, it’s a white girl with pretty light brown eyes and a high ponytail, her dark hair is long and drapes over her shoulder. “I’m sorry, this seat’s taken.”

It’s a booth, why the hell is she just plopping her ass down like she’s my friend? I’ve never in my life seen this woman.

I look around me, scanning the very empty coffee shop.

“My name is Samantha,” she says eagerly putting her hand over the table toward me. My sign is Cancer, I have to take it.

“Hi…” I’m not entirely sure what is going on but after shaking her hand, I take Gene’s drink and move it to my side of the table.

“You’re Calista, right?”

I’m no one famous, shit, my neighbors can barely remember my name at times. While, sure, I’m pretty—I’m blonde, average height, and dressed like anyone else here in Colorado—I’d be a face in a crowd if I weren’t sitting alone. How does she know me?

“Yes…?”

“Wonderful, my last name is Serrano.” The name sputters my heartbeat. “I do love the way that name gets a reaction out of people. It could be a lesser family, but it still elicits that shaking fear. For you though, it’s very justified.” She’s patronizing me.

I’ve not heard from this family in nearly ten years. The moment my mom stopped doing drugs and got help, I never saw them again.

“Let’s talk about Jasmine Byrne for a second, hmm?”

“What do you want?” I ask, not really caring to talk about my mother.

“Oh, that last name just does something to me. Anger, pain, revenge. It stirs so much deep down in my gut that I could kill someone. You know what I mean?”

I shake my head slowly. My hands tremble, and even when I shove them down between my thighs, the shake just catches onto my entire body.

“How ironic that your mother would marry the brother to the man that took so much from my family… It’s like fate. You can never escape it.”

“What… do you want?” I ask again, looking back around in the small café. People are going about their business, but it’s the unmistakable men that are in suits sitting around the establishment that has me swallowing roughly.

The sliding of something across the table has me turning my attention back to her. “You’re going to do something for us.” I look down at her cellphone. It’s unlocked, and the first thing I see is a photo that makes me sick.

Violently so.

I nearly lose my bagel I had just eaten.

It’s my mother, sprawled across a couch I still have nightmares of, a needle in her arm and a line of puke down her chin. This isn’t recent, because her hair is still more blonde.

Then she swipes, and I instantly turn away while slapping my hand over my mouth.

“Don’t be so surprised. As though they wouldn’t keep a souvenir of what you gave them.”

I shut my eyes and shake my head.

“My demands are very simple, and every shred of you and your mother will be erased from my family.” My body is on fire, and I start to breathe heavily against my palm. The tips of my toes go numb, the sensation creeping slowly up my knees, then my thighs. “If you don’t, I’ll release these photos. They’ll find out your poor mommy lied, and that husband of hers used his influence with the DA to overlook that little lie of hers. You know, full disclosure is quite important in her line of work.”

Looking back at her, she casually leans against the seat, a disgusting smile on her lips. Her teeth are slightly discolored, one of them looks newer. I want to piss her off and make a drugs joke, but I feel I’m not in the best position to be snarky.

“What will they say… ‘Mom allows daughter to be raped all over a drug addiction’. No, that won’t do. ‘Mother loses license, stepdad blacklisted, daughter center of it all’ still doesn’t sound right.”

This is a game to her. Does she not feel anything?

“I know, how about ‘Daughter centered into investigation after covering for her mother’?” What… “Yeah, because you see, imagine the amount of cases that would need to be reopened that your mother closed. Especially those surrounding any sort of drug charges.”

My breath catches. “That makes no sense.” I wish I felt more confident in that statement.

“To you. Ever heard of conflict of interest and ethical violations?” She grins and leans forward onto the table, her arms crossing under her small chest. “It’s very simple, all we ask is for you to take care of a problem.”

“Why me?” I quickly ask. “You seem to have enough power…”

“No, we can’t. It will be too obvious it was us. I can’t risk going to prison.”

I shake my head, dumbfounded by this discussion. “And me…?”

“If you play it smart, it will look like an accident.” She tilts her head. “Woman to woman, this guy doesn’t deserve to live anyway. He’s a piece of shit, and they fucked up the trial. Took his tears as actual feelings. He doesn’t feel.”

My chin trembles as I look down at my nearly empty coffee mug.

“Poison, maybe.”

“You want me to get close to him?” I whisper-shout. “I’m no assassin, I-I help build homes. I’m an interior designer for Christ sakes.”

“You’re pretty and have the smarts to get close. In two weeks, he is getting out of prison. I’ve already got people working to put the file right onto your mother’s desk. She’ll inevitably tell your stepdad, but if she doesn’t, you need to pretend like you saw it in some online news article.”

Holy fucking shit… what is happening…

“You’re a smart, educated woman, Calista. An empath it would seem, considering you’re still wanting to save your poor mother. I’m sure you can make it work… I’ll get you a poison that works over time.” I turn my head on a swivel, afraid that someone is overhearing this blasphemous conversation.

“Don’t worry so much.”

I focus back on her.

“It’ll be humane. He probably doesn’t even want to live.”

“Then you’ll leave me alone for good?” My chest aches. I could care less about my mom at this point. They can go after her, but when I’m done, I’m disappearing.

“You can live your pretty little life alone, blondie.”

Maybe whoever this guy is will just kill me instead, and I won’t have to live with the guilt.

“Okay…” I can’t believe that I’m even considering killing someone I don’t even know. “What’s his name?”

Her filthy grin churns my stomach. “Ronan Byrne.”

One month later

Over the course of the next two weeks after meeting Samantha, I planted the seed into Eamon. Reminded him of the cabin, and complained how we never go up there. How my mom hasn’t even thought about it in nearly three years. I mentioned a party I had there several months ago and openly dismissed ever going back because of how badly it was maintained.

Then I staged the fire, made sure that no one was home, and it looked like an accident. I couldn’t move into the cabin while still having a house, and this way, when I was done I could just move somewhere without having any ties. I’d miss Gene but I’m tired of living my life for someone else.

The plans to renovate the property were for several reasons. One, a distraction for myself, but to also have a place to bury the body. Samantha promised to send men to help when it was done, and once he was buried under a patch behind the main cabin, I plan to put in a jacuzzi.

I knew Eamon wouldn’t say anything to my mother, and she wouldn’t mention it to him because of just how good of a manipulator I am with her. She feels guilty and really would give me anything I asked. She should feel that way, especially since I had planned on murdering someone for her.

She ruined my life once again because she couldn’t get her shit together before it was too fucking late.

The problem was that the moment I looked into his blue eyes, I don’t know if it was my humanity reminding me that murder is wrong, or I saw a man that was worth saving.

I’m standing a distance away from the cabin that we’ve been in for nearly a month together. Construction is loud, and even though Ronan watched me leave, I pointed to my phone and scurried out into the forest.

The phone rings in my ear, and when her voice comes over the line, I take a deep breath.

“Is it finally fucking done?”

I bite hard on my bottom lip, nearly jumping in place. “I can’t do it.”

She screams so loud that I nearly throw my phone. “What the fuck do you mean you can’t do it?!”

“I’ve tried… I swear!” The poison, I put it into the alcohol, but according to the darker part of the web, I have to do it in small portions. Except, he’s stopped drinking. He doesn’t drink coffee, only water and sometimes a soda, but not enough of it for me to know when he’ll go for it.

We’ve been ordering food, I can’t prepare his dinner like that.

The other problem, even if he had continued drinking, I would’ve already stopped after the first two weeks anyway. I’m finding that I’m becoming attracted to him, and it terrifies me.

“You will do this, Calista, or so help me—”

“No…” I say defiantly. “A-And you know what…” I swallow so hard it feels like knives are slicing the entire length down. “If you leak it, I’ll tell him everything. I’ve heard him talking to people. He has connections, Samantha.”

“You are making a fucking mistake,” she seethes.

“No, I think I’m making the right decision. He’s a good person…”

“He KILLED my brOTHER!” she shouts. “Fuck you, Calista. He is going to die—”

“No!” I scream and immediately slap my hand over my mouth. “I’ll tell him everything, right here, right now.”

A grumble comes from her side. I’m looking around me, turning every few seconds to make sure that Ronan doesn’t come out to find me.

“This can stop…” I plead. “He got his justice…”

“Fifteen years is nothing. He deserves to die like my brother did.”

Wrapping one of my arms around my waist, I shake my head. “Please leave him alone and just move on. It isn’t worth it.”

The phone goes dead before I can say anymore.

I stare at my phone when a text message comes through from an unknown number.

Bitch

Watch your back

He’ll leave you high and dry, just like every bitch before you

You are nothing