A Broken Fate (The Beautiful Fate Series book 2) Read online

  “Good afternoon, Ava. Did you find what you were looking for today?” The cashier asked.

  “Uh, yeah.” I answered briefly as she began to remove all of the security devices and then she boxed each item up separately.

  “How can you just assume that these people know who you are, Ava? I mean baio must get new employees all the time; don’t they?”

  I turned to Aggie, “I don’t know, Aggie. They just do. They always have. The employees at every baio I have ever stepped foot into have always known exactly who I am.”

  “Um,” the girl behind the counter said, “they talk about you in orientation. There is a picture of you at each store across the world; Ari too, now that you are married. They play a video of Ms. Baio, she talks about how the company got started, and how you inspire everything she has ever designed. She started the lingerie line when you got married.” The girl smiled. “I think it is so sweet. Ms. Baio sends sugar-free cupcakes to every one of her stores in honor of your birthday for all the employees.”

  I smiled at the girl and nodded. “There, Aggie, you happy?” My tone was a bit harsher than it should have been. “I’m mentioned in their orientation.” I rolled my eyes at the thought. Margaux is absurd. She’s a complete fake. Not once has she even sent me so much as a card on my birthday, yet all of her employees celebrate the day with cupcakes.

  “Have someone bring the boxes to our car, please. It’s a white Audi parked just out front.”

  “Yes,” the girl blushed, “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Alexander. Please forgive me. I shouldn’t have said anything.” I nodded at her.

  “Can we go home now, Aggie?”

  “Sure, Ava.”

  On the ride home, Aggie had her music up loud. The same Snow Patrol album she had on the day before.

  I was expecting Aggie to drop me off at the front door but instead she helped me unload all the baio boxes from her car to my bedroom floor. She turned to open our bedroom closet.

  “Don’t.” I told her.

  “Don’t what?” She opened the closet before I could respond and she gasped a bit at the sight of the God-awful mess.

  Aggie bent down and began to pick the clothes off the floor.

  “Aggie, leave it. I will clean the clothes up later.”

  “Nonsense, I can pick this mess up in no time.”

  “Damn it, I said leave the clothes alone!” I screamed at her. Her hands dropped to her sides in exasperation. Aggie straightened up her posture; she squared her shoulders and stared at me.

  “Ava,” she said calmly. “You will not speak to me in that tone. I realize that you are dealing with some tough issues right now but that doesn’t let you off the hook for treating people with respect. Now, you and I are going to fix this house before Ari gets home. Do you understand me?”

  For a second I considered kicking her out of my home. I contemplated screaming, yelling and even cussing. I even considered name-calling – but for just a second. Instead, without a word, I got down on my knees on the closet floor and began the task of tidying up the clothes. Aggie stayed soundlessly by my side as she folded my jeans and re-hung Ari’s dress shirts. She turned over tossed shoes placing them back on their soles and spit on each one, reciting ‘skorda as she placed them correctly on their soles, warding off the omen of death. The death I knew as certain, unavoidable and inevitable.

  She pulled his sweatshirt up off the floor and began to fold it.

  “I’ll take that.” I said quietly. She handed the gray sweatshirt over and I shoved it in the corner on the floor. “Just, please leave the sweatshirt alone.”

  She nodded slowly, her eyes a bit wide.

  An hour later, my closet was back in its original, organized state and it even included my new, frilly and delicate items from the day’s trip to baio.

  Aggie moved on to making my bed. She tsked and instead of making the bed, she pulled the sheets and blankets off in to a pile on the floor, then she removed the pillows from their cases.

  “Let’s run these through the wash.”

  I looked down at my knotted fingers. She was making me feel like an errant child. I wash our sheets weekly. I may have just missed a week that’s all. I followed Aggie in to the laundry room. She pulled a load of wrinkly clothes out of the dryer and sighed.

  “What were you planning on making for dinner tonight, Ava? Let’s get started on that while I re-wash these clothes.”

  I shook my head from side to side. “I had not planned for anything.”

  “What do you mean? Were you two planning on going out tonight for dinner? Is there a special occasion?”

  “No… I just hadn’t thought about dinner yet.”

  Aggie looked down at her watch with a frown. It was half passed four.

  “Dinner is a daily occurrence. It should never just sneak up on you like this.”

  “Whatever.” I mumbled under my breath and Aggie shot me a little warning look.

  I sat in the kitchen and watched Aggie pull ingredients out of my refrigerator and pantry. She pulled out turkey burger, potatoes, breadcrumbs, eggs and a bunch of other items I didn’t know were in my pantry.

  “Turkey meatloaf with mashed potatoes and homemade macaroni and cheese - Ari will love it.” Aggie said as she held out a potato peeler for me to take. I didn’t offer out my hand. Aggie picked my arm up and shoved the peeler in my palm. “Get to work on the potatoes, Ava. I will start the meatloaf.”

  “I don’t like meatloaf.”

  Aggie laughed. “Men love meatloaf so get used to making it!”

  I rolled my eyes at Aggie, playfully, and began to peel potatoes. After a while, Aggie washed her hands and turned to leave my kitchen.

  “Where are you going?” I asked quickly with a bit of panic in my voice. My words popped out of my mouth – I didn’t have a chance to add a filter to the way they made me sound - scared and desperate.

  “The laundry – brand new, state of the art dryer and already the buzzer is broken!” Aggie pointed in the direction of my laundry room.

  “Oh, of course.” I said sounding much more confident.

  Dinner was in the oven, my house was clean. I could hear the rumble of the clothes dryer, which was filled with my fluffy blankets. Aggie stuck around in to the evening.

  “Andy must be wondering where you are.”

  “Andy knows right where I am, Ava.”

  “Oh.”

  “Come here, Baby.” Aggie patted on the cushion next to her on the couch. I took a seat. “You are going to get through this – whatever this is. He can’t hurt you anymore. Damien Kakos is gone. You are safe and you are loved by all of us. Take your time in healing but please be honest with us when you are having a hard day. Please don’t ever hesitate to ask any member of this family for help.”

  I could feel tears stinging the back of my eyes. “I’m fine.”

  “Look at me.” I looked up in to Aggie’s eyes. “Ava Alexander, you are very far ways away from being fine.”

  The reverberation of the garage door was just enough of a distraction for me to narrowly escape an emotional breakdown.

  Ari walked in to the house just moments later and his presence alone put me at ease.

  “Hi Baby.” Ari’s crease was there in his forehead.

  He looked me up and down over and over again. He pulled me in to his arms and held me in a warm hug. He kissed the top of my head, then my forehead. He smiled down at me and then kissed me on the lips, softly and chastely.

  “Did you make it to the Doctor in time?”

  “Yes.” I looked down at the floor. Ari looked over to his mother.

  “We made it in time.” She answered. “He wants her back in four weeks.”

  “Did you make an appointment?” He asked me.

  “No, the nurse is going to mail me an appointment card.”

  He nodded. “How was your day? What else did you do?”

  “Uh… we went to lunch, and then we went to baio, then we came home… that’s it.”

/>   “What did you get at baio?” Ari asked. “God knows the last thing you need is more clothes.”

  I shrugged, pulled at the hem of my shirt and blushed a bit. “Nothing really... just some stuff.”

  Aggie giggled. “I have to get going. I am sure your father is famished. Your dinner is in the oven, Ari. It should be ready in fifteen minutes.”

  “Call Dad, have him come over, you two can eat here.” Ari suggested to his mother.

  “Thank you for the offer, but no. You two need some time together. Call me if you need me.”

  Ari unlaced his fingers from the small of my back. “I’ll walk you out.”

  The two of them walked to the door. I could hear them talking in hushed tones. They had a lengthy conversation and then I finally heard the door close. I pulled out the meatloaf and the mac and cheese. I dished up plates, gathered the silverware, the drinks and set the dinner table. Ari and I had a nice evening, quiet but nice. He told me about work, how his meeting went. I told him about baio and the fact that every store has our picture. He told me he already knew that – that he had seen the orientation video when he was hired, a mandatory sort of thing. We went to bed early. I donned on my usual tee-shirt and boxers, Ari petted my hair, and stoked his long fingers up and down the length of my arm, he occasionally traced the outline of my tattoos until I fell asleep.

  Chapter 14

  Ava Babysitting

  “You again?” I said to August as I emerged from Ari’s and my bedroom in the morning.

  “I thought I told you to wear something nicer than men’s underwear to bed.”

  I rolled my eyes at August. “Leave me alone. What are you doing here anyway?”

  “What does it look like I am doing? I live here; remember? I don’t have a coffee pot in my designated area and I like to read the paper in the morning.”

  I eased up on a stool next to him and worked on eating a bowl of Greek yogurt and granola. August kept checking the time on his watch. Ari flew down the staircase tying his tie. He looked down at his watch, too then to the back door.

  “I gotta run.” He said over a cup of coffee. “Ava, I love you.”

  “Love you.” I said in return.

  Ari patted August on the shoulder. August looked down at his watch again; Ari grimaced then looked back at the sliding glass door.

  “I’ll call you, Ava, in a few hours to check in.” Ari said right before he opened the door leading to the garage. I watched him leave. I felt August shift off the stool. He grabbed his messenger bag and took another sip of coffee. There was a light rap at the glass door, August mumbled something under his breath and slid open the door allowing Julia to enter. August slipped past her and left for work.

  “Hey, Babe!” Julia smiled.

  “Hi?” I looked up a Julia. She had a bikini on under a little sundress. Her sunglasses were pushed up on top of her head, keeping the hair out of her eyes. She walked across the kitchen, her flip flops smacked the backs of her feet with each step she took.

  “It is supposed to be eighty degrees and sunny today. Is it cool if I use your pool?”

  “Whatever.” I shrugged.

  “Cool! Hurry up, get your bikini on and join me. I have some gossip for you.”

  I strummed my fingers along the counter top, thinking of the nicest way to say no.

  “Hurry! We are wasting sunlight!” She commanded.

  “It’s like… nine in the morning.”

  “Yes, and look at me… I am pale. I need all day to even this tan out.”

  “Don’t you have class?” I asked bemused by Julia’s behavior.

  “Well, yeah but just the pointless ones. I’m cool to skip. A girl needs a break every now and then; you know?”

  And so, Julia and I spent the day by the pool sipping ice tea and eating sugar-free popsicles. She combed through pages of gossip magazines and relayed her juicy news, which was nothing more than a semi-scandalous story involving Lauren, her new beau, Luke and an after-hours rendezvous in the campus dance studio.

  “Oh, my gosh!” Julia squealed.

  I had just begun to doze off in the sun. I cracked one eye open and looked at her. “What?”

  “Look!” She shook the glossy pages of one of her magazines at me.

  “I can’t see anything – stop shaking it!”

  “It’s you!”

  I sat up and took the magazine out of her manicured hand. Sure enough, there I was with Ari just outside of Killer Dana Surf Shop. In fact, a few pictures had been snapped of me doing various mundane daily actives. Pictures I had not even known were taken. There was a photo of me climbing out of Aggie’s car to go in to Ralph’s my hair was piled on top of my head and I was wearing huge sunglasses. There was one of me taken a few weeks earlier in L.A. on my way to one of my doctor appointments.

  “Look Julia, there you are.”

  “Gimmie!” She pulled the magazine back out of my hands and studied a picture of Ari, Rory, Julia and myself just outside of the L.A. restaurant Eveleigh. Julia’s back was turned so the photo only showed her from behind but I knew it was her.

  “baio heiress, Ava Alexander …” Julia began to read the article aloud. The magazine editorial went in to some of the details of my background including the facts that I was bilingual and grew up in Montréal and then Chicago. The article went in to some of the details of Ari’s and my relationship - how I was married at only eighteen. After a recap of my life, the piece spoke of my kidnapping and then took it upon itself to tell the world that I was “struggling to cope with my traumatizing kidnapping experiences.” The magazine then asked its readers, “Will the baio heiress be stable enough to one day run her grandmother’s clothing empire?”

  Julia quit reading. I laid my head back in my chair.

  “They don’t know, Ava. They are just a bunch of idiots. No one else could have survived what you’ve survived…”

  “Julia, just stop.”

  “I’m sorry I showed you.”

  “It’s fine. I needed to know.”

  I fell asleep in the sun in the afternoon and woke to Ari who was angry at Julia for not waking me sooner and for not using enough sunscreen. I calmed him down by pointing out that I had been under the shade for most of the afternoon and then proceeded to show him the magazine article.

  “This will all blow over.” He said as we walked into the house for the evening.

  A pattern ensued. I woke in the morning to August waiting at the kitchen island impatiently. Ari would leave for work, someone would show up, out of the blue, at my door and then August would take his cue to leave. I hung out with Rory one day. He needed to utilize our utility closet so he could wrap Julia’s birthday gifts. I helped Lauren on her day off from school with a project for her French class and lectured her on the misuse of campus property. This went on for a week. I answered the door one morning to Andy. I rolled my eyes, annoyed, and let him in to my home.

  “Ari suckered you in to babysitting this morning, huh? Don’t you have work? Don’t you have something important to do?”

  “Yes, I do. But what is most important right now, Ava is you.”

  “Andy, listen, I don’t want you here. I don’t want anyone here. I had an anxiety attack; so what? It happens. Move on. I am not a child. I do not need to be babysat. I don’t need anyone. Leave me alone. I’m fine!”

  I was a big, fat liar.

  I turned and walked away slamming the door to my bedroom.

  I heard Andy pace the floor as he talked loudly on his cell. I had pissed him off majorly and I was sure to get an ear full from Ari later.

  I heard Andy’s footsteps recede, I heard the door open and shut and for the first time in a long time, I was all alone. I got up and locked all of the doors to the house. I went back to the bedroom and locked myself in there as well. I turned out the lights and I buried myself under the blankets on Ari’s side of the bed.

  My body shook at the violence of my sobs. I gasped for air and wiped my running nose with the back
of my shirtsleeve. I was terrified. Every noise I heard made me quiver and cower in fear. No.7 was out there and I was going to die. I knew the only way for this mess to finally end, was to truly accept my fate and give my life to The Kakos.

  My phone rang repeatedly. My cell phone’s caller id display showed that it was Ari calling every time. The ringing made my head hurt and I eventually just shut off the phone.

  ****

  I wonder what dying will be like. I thought to myself as I teetered delicately on the creaky stool in No. 6’s basement. My bladder was full and the pressure and urge to urinate was immense. The longer I stood the heavier the rope around my neck became. I tried to hold as still as I could but the urge to pee was too great and I kept wiggling. Each time I moved, the rough, natural fiber rope would scratch in to my skin. In time, a rash formed and then little drips of blood began to run down my body. It tickled so bad that it made me itchy. I wiggled some more in an attempt to ease the pressure in my bladder. I heard No. 6 laugh aloud upstairs. The noise startled me and urine began to run down my legs. I squeezed my thighs together but it was too late.

  ****

  “Shit!” I said aloud to myself. “Gross.” I peed the bed. I tore off the blankets and freed my tangled feet from the sheets. As fast as I could, I made my way to the shower and turned the showerheads on. I was still fully clothed. I rinsed out my clothes out and then began to peel them off my wet skin. I washed myself completely and then washed again. I climbed out of the shower and dried off.

  Someone was knocking on the front door. I assumed it was Aggie coming to “check on me.” She would just have to wait. Scurrying off to the closet, I found some clean clothes and then combed out my wet hair. I pulled the sheets and blankets from my bed and carried them, with much disgust in myself, down to the laundry room. The pounding on my front door continued.

  I started the wash and shoved all the sheets into one load. As I reached for the detergent, I stole a glance out of the laundry room window. The window looked out in to our long, curvy driveway. I cocked my head to the side. There was a beaten, old, blue Honda parked outside. No one I knew drove a car like that. The pounding on my front door grew stronger and louder. I slammed the washer lid and ran through the house. I snuck into the study where the window looks out at both the driveway and the front door. I peeked out of the shades. My heart was pounding though my chest. I blinked.