“My father bought a nice-size home in a beautiful suburban neighborhood. Every year we went on wonderful vacations. On Christmas and birthdays, Nic and I got whatever we wanted. But my father and mother both came from nothing. And they were hell-bent on living modestly.”
She says the word modestly as if it is absolute trash. Like they were living on the street. When Nico tells the story, he talks about a loving home and fun family trips. He doesn’t refer to his childhood as lacking in any way.
“From the outside looking in, we were a happy, loving family.”
Benjamin scoffs at that notion.
“But I was miserable. I knew I was meant for bigger and better things.” She stops pacing to glare at me.
“I’d ask for jewelry or name-brand clothes, and my mother would turn her nose up at me. She’d ask why I would need such expensive things. She told me that material things had little value. Like she knew anything about fashion and style. I wanted to look like the celebrities I saw. I deserved to have nice things.I was a good kid, unlike my brother with his mental health bullshit.”
Mental health? Come on, Tiff, use your head. You know what she’s talking about.
“I’ve always dealt with my temper.”Nico’s words that day by his parent’s grave comes back. She’s talking about his anger issues.
“I was sick and tired of begging them to hear me out. To buy me the things that I wanted.” Marissa jabs a finger at her chest to emphasize her point.
“The day I heard Daddy and Uncle Walter arguing about Walter’s money issues, I knew that I was with the wrong people. I was too good for that family, and the only person who would understand me, was Walter.” She stops pacing and turns to face me.
For some reason, the smirk on her face makes my heart race.
“I came up with a plan. I knew that Uncle Walter was our godfather. If anything happened to my parents, we would go to him, along with our inheritance.”
That unsettling feeling increases. Without her saying the words, I already know what she did.
“You killed them?”
She laughs a high-pitched evil cackle. “Yes. I cut their brakes. I dated a guy in high school that worked at an auto shop. He’s the one who told me not to cut the entire brake line, but to make a small enough hole so that the brake fluid would slowly leak. That night before they went for their regular drive, I put a hole in the brake line.” She laughs as if this is in any way funny.
“They didn’t stand a chance. And the best thing about it was that my stupid little brother asked them to make an extra stop on their night out. If not for him and his burger request, they might’ve made it home safely.”
I feel sick to my stomach. Knowing that all these years, it was her that caused the wreck. Nico thought it was his uncle, but all this time it was Marissa. Plus, it’s because of her that he was drowning in guilt because he sent them to that burger spot.
“You really fucked them over, babe.” Benjamin snorts a line of the white powdery substance before laughing.
“You’re sick,” I tell her.
She grins. “You don’t even know the half of it. Once Walter took over, things were great. He had no problems spending Daddy’s money. And as long as I signed on the dotted line, he gave me whatever I wanted. Things were perfect for a while until Nicholas caught on.”
She rolls her eyes in disgust. “I immediately told my uncle that Nic was asking questions. He had no idea how to handle him, so I told him how to push Nic to the edge. I told him about his little anger problem, and if we only exacerbated it, we could send him away.” She shrugs.
“Took less than six months for him to lose his shit on some kid at school. He got sent away, and life was great.”
I didn’t tell her that her selfish desires had put my husband at that fucking school where he was abused and tortured. Her greed caused him to be scarred for most of his life. I don’t tell her any of this, because this stupid bitch wouldn’t care.
“If life was so great, why are you doing this?”
Her gaze narrows. “Because nothing lasts forever. Walter got too cocky. Started spending more than he was giving me. I called him on his bullshit, and when I turned twenty-five, he kicked me out with only ten thousand dollars. That was all that was left of me and Nic’s inheritance.
“I tried to go to Nic. He was making a little money on the streets by then. But do you know he had the nerve to put me out too? He chose those fake, so-called brothers over me. It’s okay though, I left with fifty thousand dollars of his money.”
“That’s when we met.” Benjamin comes up to her and wraps his hands around her waist, kissing her neck.
She giggles like a schoolgirl, turning in his arms to grin up into his face. “That’s right. And you taught me how to survive.” They make out like two rabid fish trying to suck each other’s faces off.
“We started off with small scams. A little check fraud and credit card fraud.” She turns back to me, wiping her mouth. “Then we graduated to bigger fish, identity theft, and online investment scams, all the way to investment frauds. Hell, we’re even in the art world now, right Ezra?”
He chuckles. “Hell yeah. Bankman’s stolen artwork has made us almost ten million dollars.”
