Page 37 of Lavish

It was pathetic. Even now. He could’ve made a joke. Something stupid. Something that would’ve made me feel like I wasn’t suffocating.

I could fix things. We weren’t that badly damaged. Nope, not yet. We were the Kings, we would survive?—

Out of nowhere, Mama yelled, “Serena!”

I immediately bolted up the stairs. She was in her office, the door open. I started to head that way, but I could hear the sniffles of Gigi down the hall and Daddy’s voice muttering to her.

My feet didn’t want to move, but I forced myself anyway.

Step.

Step.

Pause.

As I leaned against the wall, my hand was hand was on my chest. I was terrified; my heart leaped into my throat, and I stumbled back.

“Serena, don’t make me call you again.”

My gut said run, but I made myself go into Mama’s office. She was sitting at her desk, a bottle of alcohol in front of her. For the first time, Mama looked…old. Way beyond her fifty-something years, like time and responsibility had collapsed onto her.

She drank straight from the bottle. I closed the doors to her office softly.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“Who is that?” Mama pointed above her, to the back wall where our great-great-great-grandfather Augustus King’s portrait was. He’d lived on the space of the wall for years, looming, watching us to see if we’d made a mistake.

“Augustus King.”

Mama nodded. “Lush wouldn’t exist without him. Without us.”

I’d memorized the story. He founded it after the Tulsa Massacre, then made it flourish.

“We owe it to him. To what he sacrificed. We cannot have it end now. Not because your sister wants to be selfish—” Mama stopped, angry, then drank again. “I can’t. That’s not what I promised my father. And I’ll be damned if we fail.”

Her eyes flicked to me.

“I’ve always said you were the smart one, Serena. You see the cracks before anyone else does.” She stood and came around the desk, her voice softening. “You think I don’t notice, but I do. You’ve always wanted to help. And now I need you. I need someone who won’t run away when things get hard. Someone I can trust not to disappoint me.”

Her fingers curled around my wrist, and I froze. “You can be that. I know you can.”

I swallowed, and nodded slowly.

“Make me proud then. Step up for me, for the family, for Augustus. You don’t want to let him down, do you?”

The mansion was creepily quiet. No staff bustling about, no distant hum of chatter from the other wings. Only the old clock ticking softly in the corner.

I approached the door to Mama’s office. The muffled sound of her irate tone carried through the heavy oak. Even without seeing her, I knew she was pacing, her sharp heels leaving tiny scuffs on the Persian rug.

“This is a disaster,” Mama’s voice cut through the door. I couldn’t hear Daddy’s low response before something crashed.

I reached to knock on the door, but stopped.

“Come in here, Serena.”Mama declared came through the door.

No failures. Only strength.

I opened the door to Mama’s office.