Page 126 of Devious Lies (Cruel Crown)
Dad lost the T.V. remote last night, and Ma yelled, “Ain’t nothing lost until I can’t find it.” I asked her if she could find my fucking hope. I was kidding. She didn’t find it funny. She begged me not to say anything like that again.
I was gonna ask her what she thought of me leavin’ for Harvard or Wilton, but I didn’t after that.
I got into Harvard, Yale, and Wilton.
(Fuck Yale.)
Can you believe it? The Eastridge Prep scholarship kid at Harvard. Probably won’t go, but still… Some things you’ve just gotta say out loud to make sure they’re happening.
Nash
You know how they say money can’t buy happiness? Everyone on this side of Eastridge is so damn rich, and I have a theory. I think they’ve managed to buy themselves different degrees of misery.
The Kensingtons are both richer and less miserable than the Abbots, but the Abbots are richer and less miserable than the Grimaldi family, who is richer and less miserable than the Stryker family. I wonder if it’s like that anywhere else. Norway? Côte d’Ivoire? Trinidad and Tobago?
Nash
It occurred to me that I knew parts of Nash no one else did. I didn’t know what to think of that except to exorcise it from my head.
I cut off Ida Marie’s complaints about being assigned the North Carolina location, “Giving up sets you up for failure. It’s like saying you want something, but not hard enough to work for it.”
“Being assigned the Haling Cove branch set us up for failure.” Ida Marie perched a fist on each hip. “You know it only happened because we’re on Mary-Kate’s team. They’re not going to let Chantilly take over a project that actually matters to Prescott Hotels. She doesn’t have the experience.”
“Every project matters to Prescott Hotels,” I argued, except doubt trickled in.
This all started to feel like fate—as if so many events clicked into place to land me this job.
Mary-Kate’s Tinder one-night stand led to a baby.
That baby led to her maternity leave.
The maternity leave led to Chantilly’s promotion as the interim head of the design team.
Nash’s need to dominate North Carolina led to a branch opening in Haling Cove.
Chantilly’s inexperience led to the team being assigned to Haling Cove because Ida Marie had been right—Nash did treat the North Carolina Prescott Hotels as throwaways.
A gazillion events led to me needing a job.
Something Reed did for Delilah led to Delilah owing Reed a favor.
That favor led to Prescott Hotels hiring me.
Someone retiring on Chantilly’s team led to me being assigned to Haling Cove.
Being assigned to Haling Cove led me to that elevator and my work with Nash.
How many moving pieces was that?
Eleven.
More, actually, if you broke down my dive into poverty. What more could Fate throw at me? Hell, what was it trying to tell me?
Ida Marie stretched her arms above her head instead of answering and nodded to Hannah and Cayden as they entered with Chantilly. The three of them eyed the fridge before Cayden walked up and studied the contents.
“Neat.” He pulled out some cold cuts and a can of soda. “It’s the good stuff. Perhaps the king has a heart after all.”
Ten years ago, maybe. It’s long gone now—buried so deep, he has forgotten it ever existed.
