Page 21 of Morally Black Betrothal

“Right.” She pouted.

I sighed. “Just say it, whatever it is.”

She ran a hand through her hair, a tangled, thinning mess that said a lot about how well she had been taking care of herself. “Look, I had the best intentions, all right? I just borrowed some money to start a sort of psychedelics-type business.”

“What do you mean, ‘psychedelics’?” I had a feeling I already knew, but I needed to hear her say it. “Mushrooms?”

Selena looked everywhere else but at me. “Mushrooms, yeah. Maybe some therapeutic MDMA. Ayahuasca. Stuff like that.”

“So, drugs. You’re telling me you were going to start dealing drugs to support yourself and your four-year-old, who would probably eat anything that looks like gumdrops.”

“Oh my God, you’resucha prude, Simmy. You make it sound like I was sitting on a corner with dime bags or something, but I had a shop picked out and everything. I didn’t tell you because I knew you wouldn’t believe in me, like always. My plan was toinvite you to my grand opening and surprise you.” She looked almost dreamy. “It was going to be in Providence. This cute little side street near the college. Those Ivy League kids love their drugs.”

I stared at her, genuinely wondering if I was going crazy. “I see. So, are you telling me that you—a single mom who has never held a job for more than a few months at a time—were planning on starting a business where you sold mind-altering substances to people out of a little shop like cupcakes? Is that even legal in Rhode Island?”

“It was going to be.” She stuck out her bottom lip with the same expression Kylie wore when someone told her she couldn’t have another scoop of ice cream. “The state was supposed to make it legal. That’s why I borrowed the money, to get in on the ground floor when it passed. But then…well, I guess the law or whatever didn’t pass. So my landlord pulled my lease. And…yeah.”

“And you were surprised?” I honestly could not believe this.

“Yes, actually. Psilocybin is totally therapeutic! Oregon is opening clinics where you can go and take them with a trusted facilitator. We shouldn’t be far behind, you know, and I want to do that. I want to help people.”

“With magic freaking mushrooms?” I hissed the words to keep from yelling them loud enough for Kylie to hear.

Selena huffed, and suddenly, we were right back in high school, when she’d make fun of my clothes and ditch me at parties and tell everyone else I was just a frigid square but don’t worry, she was the fun twin. “You can make fun of it all you want, Simone. It doesn’t matter anymore, though, because Rhode Island fucked me over royally.”

I darted a worried glance toward Kylie, who was still happily counting bricks. She would make it to five and then start right back over again.

“Okay, so you can’t open the magical mushroom house you borrowed money for?” I asked quietly. “Is that the problem? Just give the money back to the bank. I’m not sure what you want me to do about it.”

“That’s sort of the problem. I didn’t get it from a bank. I got it from Ezra’s family. The, um, the Huntingtons. And I, um…” She grabbed at her hair and bared her teeth.

That told me everything I needed to know. “You spent the money and don’t have it anymore.”

She just looked at the ground.

“Please tell me you spent it all on mushrooms that you can at least sell to give the money back?” I didn’twantmy sister to sell drugs, per se, but at least that was one way to make it back. There was a market. Based on how many patients in the hospital came in looking for a fix, I was sure of it.

“No. I spent it on”—she paused, waving her hands around—“life, you know? Rent, food, gas. Having a kid—do you even know how much she eats?”

“Don’t even think about blaming this on Kylie.”

“I’m not—it’s just that, God, everything is so fucking expensive, Simmy.”

“Oh, please. All this stuff you do doesn’t only impact you. You have another human you need to think of.”

“You think I don’t? Why do you think I was trying to start a business in the first place?”

I sighed. “I’m not saying starting a business was a bad idea. I’m saying starting a business selling something that wasn’t even legal yet was a bad idea. And now, you owe money to Ezra Huntington’s family? What are you going to do?”

“I was sort of hoping you’d have some ideas.” She gave me a hopeful look that charmed many but made me want to strangle her.

“Of course. You want me to pay it back for you.”

My stomach rumbled. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast because I’d stayed in the ICU so long, waiting for Mr. Black’s family to show up. Now I’d have to make do with nuts and pretzels from the bar. Which was disgusting, considering not only how many people touched them, but that Herb, the owner, saved whatever was in the bowls at the end of every night to use the next day.

“How much is it?” I asked after checking my watch for the fourth time. I needed to get inside.

Selena sighed, then reached into her coat pocket, pulled out a slip of paper, and handed it to me.