Read Online Insidious by Aleatha Romig - Free Book Online Page B

mind churned over the proposal before me, the more my stomach twisted with confusion and doubt.
    I knew that I needed to talk with Val. Truthfully, I should’ve called my parents and asked them what the hell they were thinking. I should’ve demanded that they tell me the truth about the situation and why on earth they thought I’d come to their rescue. However, talking to either of them while managing the aftershocks of their bomb blast was not something I wanted to do. Talking to my sister was. We were so close that I worried she’d catch on to my deception. If I’d really been in a fancy hotel, I would’ve called and chatted leisurely. So, I did. I put on my façade of a sister interviewing for a job and talked with her on the phone for over an hour. My concerns were unfounded: she spent most of the conversation talking about my graduation and the TV show we were simultaneously watching. It was one we watched every Sunday evening. Together we’d laugh about the ridiculous way the women treated one another. The situations the contestants found themselves in had seemed ludicrous. That was until I watched the reality show, lying on a big-assed bed, in a huge opulent bedroom, with a TV the size of our dorm room. Suddenly, life competed with reality television for the absurd. For a few minutes I even considered the fact that maybe I was a contestant. Maybe this whole thing was nothing more than a new reality show.
    To that point, I searched for cameras as Val and I spoke. Granted, my knowledge of hidden cameras was nonexistent; however, I was thankful that I didn’t find any.
    As soon as our call ended, I turned off the TV and attacked the manila folders. Since I had a pretty good idea what the nondisclosure agreement would say, I only opened the option B folder to confirm the existence of the fifty-thousand-dollar check. I’d only planned on glancing at it, being sure it was there, but then I saw it. Victoria Conway typed out on the payee line, $50,000 in the small box and spelled out underneath my name, Stewart Harrington’s name and information above, and his signature sprawled in the lower right corner.
    For longer than I cared to admit, I held the check and contemplated the possibilities. I may not be able to tell my mother to fuck off with only fifty thousand dollars, but I could walk away from my graduation with confidence in my future. Marilyn might need expensive shopping, but I didn’t. I could make that amount of money last a good long time.
    But at what expense?
    Was Stewart telling me the truth? Was Randall truly in that much debt? What would happen if I said no? Would I need to live with another death on my hands?
    Each moment that I held the check, my guilt lessened. After all, what had Randall or Marilyn Sound ever done for me? And fifty thousand could help Val too… but what about our half-brothers? What about Marcus and Lyle?
    With trembling fingers, I put the walk-away check back into the folder and reached for the other folder: the one with a contract for my life. The one with a contract to buy me, to make me—as Stewart had so eloquently called it—his whore. I wouldn’t let myself think of the possibilities. Hell, I couldn’t think of the possibilities. My sex life was too nonexistent. I didn’t even read the books that some of the other girls at the academy read. They’d blush and giggle as they sent screen shots of highlighted passages to one another, all the while shifting in their seats. I’d always found it hard to believe that mere words could have that much effect on someone’s libido, but then again, that was all Stewart had used. With words and proximity he’d made me wet, wetter than I’d ever been.
    Slowly, I opened the second folder. Shit! Why was I even considering this? Why didn’t I just laugh in his face earlier in the afternoon and tell him to shove it?
    My neck straightened as I fought with my answer. I didn’t really want to tell my mother and her fancy-ass husband