I was truly and utterly fucked.
Harrison didn’t believe the truth in them, but I did.
9
Keely
It had been one hell of a month. We were not even to the end of it yet, and it sort of went something like this: My entire world was turned upside, but at the same time, it was trying to right itself like it never had before.
With Mari’s help, I started packing up my ratty old apartment, but Cash didn’t tell me where I was going, so that was still a mystery.
In all honesty, I couldn’t wait to step out of my old apartment and into something new. Sierra somehow lingered, and I felt like, for once in her life, she was owed the entire space. She came to me in dreams sometimes, and I’d wake up covered in sweat, my heart about to jump out of my chest. But it was only because she seemed to want this place for herself, and everything in it.
I even admitted to Mari that after Sierra had passed, I felt lighter. Like all of the good things waiting not only for me, but for Mari, were going to start happening. It was the shittiest thing I’d ever felt, but there it was.
Those good things I felt were coming? They felt real for the first time in my life. And that was saying something, since I had to marry a marauder in my near future.
There was also something I couldn’t ignore, though, that was right for Mari but wrong for Harrison.
The night Sierra had been murdered, when Mari had told me she was going out for a bit, she had met a guy named Mac, who owned one of the most prestigious clubs in the city, and she’d fallen for him. Hard. He asked her to marry him not long after. She said yes. “You know when you know,”he’d told her.They were getting married in Italy in the summer.
Sierra had mentioned Mac more than once since she worked at his club. She wanted to marry him. Have his babies. She had said he was the finest man she’d ever seen, and one of New York’s most eligible bachelors.
I’d told her I’d have to see this man for myself, and when I tried to search for him on the computer, NOTHING came up. He catered to some of the richest and dirtiest men in the world. By dirty, I meant gangsters. And I couldn’t find a fucking picture of him online?
What bothered me the most, though, was knowing that I was going to have to tell my brother soon.
The same day I’d told Mari about my feelings toward Sierra, she told me that she had never felt anything but a sisterly love for Harrison. And after Mari told me she’d like to bring the man she called Capo (everyone else called him Mac) to the party at Harrison’s place for my break, I knew he’d lost his chance. I’d never seen Mari so smitten with anything or anyone in her life.
Even though I was happy for her, everything that Harrison had done for her felt like such a waste of his love.
In so many ways Mam was right. Mari’s decision to marry Mac was causing a ripple effect. But I couldn’t fault Mari for following her heart.
I couldn’t fault Harrison for doing what his heart told him to, either. He had built a life for Mari, hoping once he got his life straight, things would happen naturally. Something told me he was going to come clean at the party, but I was going to have to tell him before then.
The only thing keeping me sane in such a chaotic time was the show, but even then, I found myself not fully into it. I was having trouble focusing, even though I had studied my lines over and over and knew them as well as I knew my name.
Keely Ry—
Keely Kelly.
Keely Kelly.
Keely Kelly.
Yeah, try saying that three times fast.
I groaned and Mari looked at me.
She was hurrying to get ready for the party Harrison was throwing at his place. The one Cash insisted we have. I still hadn’t told her about the house on Staten Island, and because she’d just dumped the marriage news on me, I only had a little time to tell Harrison about it. I couldn’t let Mari and Mac show up together and my brother be caught off guard.
“Kee?”
“Yeah?”
Mari looked around. “All packed up. Only the things you need have been left out.” She waved a hairbrush at me.
I nodded. “I’m glad that it’s done. Not that I had much.”
