"What's the matter again?" Rita asked me, her face showing absolute confusion.
"Alexander is the father of Riven! " I replied through an endless amount of tears, trying to pronounce every word evenly.
"There is no fucking way, Charlotte! NY is huge, how were the odds you've been fucking both father and son?!"
Rita started a five-minute monologue while in a state of shock, maybe more than I. Her shock's root was that I managed to "fuck" a Montrose bloodline in three whole months. While I was crying myself out, she kept asking questions without expecting answers. Rita's shock was mixed with a perverted kind of impressiveness from me, as she mentioned twice that this story would make a perfect film script.
Meanwhile, I was battling my hysteria, knowing I had to finish what I wanted to say and tell her that Riven is still my boyfriend, and that Alexander is still my sponsor. Nothing changed in a routine, except that my mental state became way worse, which I was about to discover.
"Rita! Please stop your talk, I know I fucked up! But I didn't lose both of them. Everything is still the same." I screamed at her as my tears had dried up, and I needed her opinion on a new rule in my contract. She would not help me with her talk regarding Riven, but she surely knows what to say about Alexander.
"What!? How did you do that? So they know yet both of them are still yours?!" she asked while grabbing her hair with her hands, as this level of gossip brought excitement.
"Alexander knows. Riven has no clue. When I got introduced to his parents, Alexander and I recognised each other, but! He started a play as he met me for the first time..."
"He was acting because of his wife nearby, I am sure he won't risk busting you while busting himself and destroying marriage...I mean reputation." Rita interrupted me, as her mouth responds faster than her brain's command to take a pause and let me finish first.
"When I was alone with him, he offered me a deal, saying that he knows Riven loves me and he wants him to be happy..."
"Okay, what's the deal?" she asked. She didn't understand why I was having a breakdown if things are crazy, but it doesn't look like the end of the world.
"He wants to keep seeing me and have sex when he demands, of course. In return, he will keep our relationship secret until he decides to stop it." I turned to Rita and lifted my gaze to see her reaction, as I had been staring at the floor the whole time, causing my face to puff.
"Sweet top of a dick! He is indeed a pervert! I can't wrap my head around what sort of sexual disorder you must have to want to share a woman with your son...that you kind of hate?" Rita went straight to the kitchen to pour us some wine, because this news needed to be washed down with something substantial.
"I agreed, as what else would I do?! He said he will modify our arrangement document, and he demanded that only he will sleep without a condom..."
"It's very devastating news and nasty, absolutely disgusting that he is this hell of a man," she said while pouring a full glass of wine for us and passing it for the beginning of the "alcohol-party" at 12pm. "But, you know me, there is always a good thing to focus on even when you are deep in shit and almost can't breathe!"
I needed to hear something in that moment, as my thoughts were fractured inside my brain without a chance to think about how I would do after today's drama.
"First of all, Riven is still yours. Second of all, Alexander is still giving you money; he is paying for your life because he is obsessed with you, too! You got two men hooked on you, and one is ready to make up the truth for you to be with the other, and you are still crying!…." Rita stated to me the facts that neither she, I, nor they would deny. "But your problem is that you are overreacting to everything, and I am genuinely unsure how you will keep it up after the truth is on the surface. It would be fine for me, but you…."
I started sobbing again.
"Charlotte, I can't be speaking for you. If I were in your situation, I would just not care about my affair with his father, and I would not care even more that he will never find out about it. People lie, people hide truth...just because your Riven looks so good and pure doesn't mean he has zero skeletons in his closet!" Rita interrupted herself with a huge chug of wine, while I was sitting on the floor with a full glass, as my hands were shaking from the emotional overload. "If you want to get that sweet, addictive love from Riven, you should accept that you are not perfect. Just accept it. Let him love you for what he sees, not for what's in your mindfucked brain..." she finished her motivational speech and went to the kitchen to finish cooking.
I saw Rita's disappointment in me as she thinks just because we are both getting our income from sex, we should be prone to emotions with all kinds of males, whether it is a client or a boyfriend.
I wanted everything to be perfect from the start. And as soon as my sugarcoated life plan gets in trouble with reality, I become paralyzed. As much as I didn't want to accept Rita's words, I agree that if I had her mind, I would just be happy that my dirty secret would be safe forever.
My love-affair triangle is taking over my entire life. I can't imagine life without it now, but I can't live without it either.
For the sake of love, I should be a sex slave for the person who is playing a priest with me, promising to cleanse my sins to his son.
"Rita, where is the liquor you used for tiramisu the other day?" I asked as I slowly stood from the floor and checked myself in the mirror to see how I looked.
"It is in the drawer. Do you want a shot?" Rita asked me, while being nonchalant about the fact that I am leaning towards an extremely high percentage of booze.
"I need a few. Now."
I grabbed a liquor bottle and poured myself a "shot" in a coffee mug, while abandoning the wine glass which Rita gave me in a therapeutic dose. I took a sip. The strength kicked in me instantly, causing my throat and intestines to burn. I took another sip, after which I poured more, and without explaining myself to Rita, I walked to the bedroom.
My bedroom was keeping the sweet, head-over-heels energy from the last time I was here. These few days have changed so much, and I didn't want to accept how I will handle both of my relationships starting from today. The liquor smell started calling my nervous system again, and I took one more sip.
An hour later, I was drunk. I finished a liquor in a mug and a glass of wine, which was room temperature by the time I reached for it. Rita didn't knock on my bedroom door even once, as she knew she had said everything she wanted to say. I was left alone on my bed, with an empty mind and a bloodstream full of alcohol.
Suddenly, I get a call from an unknown number. I looked at my phone's screen for a few seconds before answering the call on speaker, as I was too unbothered to put it to my ear. The call came from the emergency department at New York Hospital, where I used to live. I recognised the hospital name instantly, as it was mine and Chester's hospital, where mom would take us.
The voice sounded familiar, as it was the same voice I had heard the day before my birthday, near the Prada store. It was the same voice that I blocked after hearing that Ashley, my mom, wants to talk with me.
"Miss Taylors, I am calling to inform you about Chester's condition. We had to move him from general to an urgent care as his condition worsened..."
My drunk brain couldn't hear what this woman was saying, as every word she said sounded like a long sentence in a language I don't speak.
"Chester? Why is he there in the first place?!" I mumbled back to her.
"Miss Taylors, your brother got into a car accident on July 2 with another teenager, but he is the only one who got a severe brain injury. We performed a surgery, and he has been in stable condition until now. He is in a coma and is currently breathing through the life support."
These words sobered me up within a few seconds, and I rushed to Rita while keeping the call on speaker.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier! Where is his mom!" I couldn't hold my fear and screamed to whoever called me while Rita and I were about to hear what would change the rest of our day.
"We tried to contact you earlier from another number, but you ended the call, Miss Taylors. His mother is not responding to our calls either, but she was when Chester got admitted. We need your presence in the hospital as soon as possible to discuss the future treatment of your brother."
"Okay, sure, I will be there shortly," I said, my voice tinged with panic, knowing that today is officially the worst day of my life, which I thought couldn't get any worse until this call.
"Thank you."
Rita rushed me to text John and tell him to drive us to the hospital, to which I screamed back that everyone thinks I am an orphan. I felt like karma kicked me in the most inconvenient time, as I started to pay for my actions and lies.
"John wouldn't care why we need to go there! You have a driver, for fucks sake! No one cares about your lies except you!" she shouted back at me, while looking for an Uber on her phone. "I don't understand how you have all of this while being so strict and disgraceful to yourself!
Rita found an under for us before I collected myself for texting John. We rushed downstairs, and within 10 minutes after the call ended, we were on the way. Rita smelled the liquor scent from my mouth and opened the car's window on her side.
"Charlotte, you can't be drunk in the hospital, you know that? They probably called you because your mother is somewhere getting wasted , and you are looking just like her right now!" Rita whispered to me in one exhale, as she didn't want to breathe my drunk oxygen anymore.
"I am not that drunk, okay? I am having the worst day in my life, and I'm not sure if I will survive it, and you are just saturating it with your words!"
"Easy on complicated words, you can't pronounce them correctly. If you don't feel well, I can speak with the doctors." Rita offered her unconditional help once again.
"I am capable of dealing with things on my own..." I replied while holding my head with my arms, as I started to feel dizzy and nauseous at the same time.
"Since you can deal with things on your own, I wanted to tell you something later, but I feel like you'd better hear it now. I am moving out."
Rita decided not to wait longer and let me fight all the new problems that appeared in one day. She felt right about adding an extra junk to the already-filled trash can. "Phil rented me a place. He is going through a divorce with his wife, and we can finally live together. I found out about it a few weeks ago, but he insisted I move in now..."
I slowly turned my head to Rita and gave her a stare that didn't reflect any specific emotion, except that it was a stare. My overloaded brain, which was under the influence of liquor, tried to process what she said.
"So you mean you will not live with me anymore?"
"No, and I shouldn't be living with you in the first place, but that time, my relationship with Phil was fucked. I am forever grateful you let me stay at your place, but I need to settle my life, too. This day would come, Charlotte," she replied while holding her emotions about this weird, bitter-sweet moment.
The timing to announce this to me was wrong as never before, and I heard it just a few days later. I would be happy for her, but now all I could think about is that Rita was my leash, she was holding me from many bad things I could potentially put myself into. Just a thought of staying alone gave me fear, fear for myself and any future actions.
"I am happy for you, Rita, at least someone is not fucking up their life..."
We reached the hospital almost half an hour later. I was on the edge of throwing up, and Rita was blowing the wind to my face with her hands, as it would make anything better. As soon as we walked into the hospital, Rita rushed to find any information stands or registration. She found a nurse, who took us to the emergency care unit, where we were told to wait for Chester's doctor to come and talk with us.
I went to the toilet and washed my face with cold water a few times. None of the hospital workers should know or suspect I am drunk without being 21. As soon as I got back from the "cold plunges", Rita passed me a mint gum, and we started our wait, which seemed like an eternity.
"Hello, is this Miss Taylor?" I heard while staring at the floor, as it was helping me to get my attention and reaction span back.
"Yes, I am Charlotte Taylors, Chester's sister!" I quickly stood up, but Rita lowered me back to the chair, as she was worried sudden activities would bounce me back to a drunk state.
"We tried to contact your mother, but she seems unavailable to each of us for the last two days. Your brother has brain damage, which we thought we could stabilize with surgery. Unfortunately, his condition is critical now. We just ran a few tests, and he is showing signs of brain swelling..."
I didn't know what to do with this information, as neither Rita nor I has medical knowledge, and the doctor's words sounded just scary without an actual understanding.
"What are the options in his treatment?" Rita interrupted, as she saw I got confused and froze.
"That's why we asked you to come, to discuss whether to continue his life support or not."
"What do you mean by continue or not?! Are you planning to kill him?!" I asked with animal aggression, almost spitting my toxic saliva at the doctor's face.
"I am sorry, Miss Taylors, but the damage is not compatible with life. Even if we manage to wake him up from a coma, he will be in a vegetative state with no awareness. Other doctors and I predict the chance of waking up is less than five percent."
"I don't want you to turn off the machine! I don't believe you! He must wake up, you just don't want to give him a chance!" I detonated into another hysteria, where my eyes were wet to the point I couldn't see.
Rita tried to calm me down and talk with the doctor instead, as keeping a normal conversation became impossible. Rita found out how the incident happened and how Chester ended up in a coma: he and his friend were driving a car, with Chester being in the front passenger seat. The driver was unlicensed and crashed into a fire hydrant at high speed. Chester didn't use a seatbelt, so he flew away from the car's front window and landed on the concrete meters away. Apart from that, he has a few broken bones and an endless bone cracks, but they are not the primary reason to worry. When just admitted, on July 2, Ashley spent the night in the hospital with him, waiting for him to undergo a whole surgery. He never woke up or spoke to her, and she left the hospital 24 hours later, when the hospital held her the bills.
I got called here to decide on whether to end my brother's life or not, for which I have to sign the papers that I am willing to pay the hospital fees for his admission, surgery, and life support.
Upon Rita's investigation, she found out that my mom didn't renew medical insurance for him, which caused his entire treatment to be self-funded.
The guilt, anger, and hopelessness made me crave clean medical alcohol and fighting my mom for being who she is. It is her fault that she did not look after Chester, which made him get in trouble! I wanted to throw the furniture around me, to release all the emotions that had been building up in me, like a pancake stack, since this morning. But instead, all I did was listen to Rita, my head low and my hands locked together, as she told me what she had learned after speaking with the medical staff.
"Bring me the papers. I will not let him die like that. I have enough money in the savings, I can pay for his life support." I stated out loud to both Rita and the medical workers around.
Shortly after, I placed my signature under the agreement to fully fund his medical bills, which will allow Chester to fight for his life longer. If our mom neglects him once again, I will do my best to make the miracle happen.
The doctor allowed Rita and me to see Chester, whom I hadn't seen since the day I left home. I was nervous to see him, as I didn't know how he looked after the incident, but I feared he knew I had come and that he was still angry about leaving him, even though he understood my choice.
We walked into the room, which had a fully equipped bed with endless tubes and monitors attached. The lighting is very dim; the only lamp that was turned on is right above the hospital bed, where Chester was resting.
I came over closer to him, and I saw the same Chester, the same brother of mine, who looked like he was just sleeping, except the tube keeping his mouth open. He had several marks of injury from falling on his face, and a freshly shaved side of his head with a slightly bloody stitch on it.
"He is as handsome as you are...your mom gave birth to two supermodels," Rita said quietly as we were both looking at him.
I smiled and agreed with her; we both giggled a little, which made the situation a little bit hopeful that he would get better.
"The doctor said around a 5 percent chance he will wake up...I know my brother, he will. He is strong." I said while wishing I could touch his hand, while nurses said it is prohibited to do so since we are not sterile.
Rita hugged me and told me that I did everything right. We spent a few more minutes there before leaving the hospital to go back home.
This day couldn't get any worse, and I was happy we were on the way to finally rest. We spent almost an entire ride back in silence, except I remembered that Rita told me she would move out of my place.
"So, when do you want to move out?" I asked as I looked out the window at the fast-changing view.
"If you don't mind, I will do it tonight...But I think you need me to stay with you this night," she replied with a clear hidden meaning that she wants to move out today, as she spent a few weeks keeping this news from me.
"Stop the bullshit, Rita, you can move out today. Between us two, I am the good liar, and even I fucked up, but you can't lie, so don't even try. I will not be mad; you can freely move out."
I turned to Rita and gave her a smile despite the process of digesting tough thoughts, as she is not guilty that all this happened in my life within one day. She has the right to do whatever she wants.
"Charlotte, I will always be near. Anytime, just give me a call or a text, and I will be standing like a soldier at any location you need me."
"I know that...but I need to start living under my own rules, and the earlier I start, the better for me and my messed-up situation."
The car ride seemed to ease the tension between me and Rita. I had an endless curiosity about my mom, who ran away from the hospital like a rat when she saw the bills. I needed to reconnect with her as soon as possible, whether I liked it or not. Chester's life made me forget about Alexander and Riven for a moment, which I planned to get back to as soon as I fully sober up.
As the best "cherry on top" of today, I got a message from Alexander, just as soon as I thought about him. It makes sense that he can feel my mental presence in his head when I think of him, as Riven and I are insanely tuned with each other like Avatar. What can I say? Like father, like son...
-John dropped the new contract rules. I want to see you tomorrow at one of my properties. Do not wear underwear.
I swallowed the dense air and replied to him:
-Okay, anything you desire