Privilege 1 - Privilege (17 page)

"Whatever," Briana Leigh said, brushing her off. "It's either this or I keep walking around with you in last year's collections. Talk about embarrassing."

Ariana controlled her humiliated blush and glanced back toward the dressing rooms, where a floor clerk was just removing the Calvin Klein from the hook where she'd left it.

Soon, she told herself, narrowing her eyes at Briana Leigh. Soon you'll be free to do whatever you want.

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OVER

Ariana awoke early Thursday morning to the sound of a screaming wail and for a split second fully believed she was back in her cell at the Brenda T. She clutched the silky covers to her chest for a good long moment, waiting for her breath to return to normal. For her to realize that she was awake, alive, and still in Texas. Slowly, her mind focused on the noise. On the actual screaming, crying words.

"You have these people going through my things?" Briana Leigh wailed. "How could you?"

There was a response, but it was calm and even and at a much lower volume. Ariana jumped out of bed, grabbed a flowered silk robe from the closet, and slipped it on as she raced out of her room. In the hallway the commotion was much louder, and Ariana realized that Briana Leigh and her tormentor were standing in the great room downstairs. She paused at the end of the hallway where it opened up like a loft over the cavernous room below, and peeked around the corner.

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The calm voice belonged to Grandma Covington. Ariana hadn't seen her in a couple of days--she'd been holed up in the guesthouse, nursing a cold. But she appeared to be better now. Sitting up in her wheelchair, Grandma C. was the picture of strength. She glared up at Briana Leigh with smoldering fury, as if she was facing off with the devil herself.

"Just tell me why!" Briana Leigh wailed, still wearing her flimsy nightgown, pushing her hands into her hair as she cried.

"It's for your own good," her grandmother said through her teeth. "And thank God I do it! Otherwise I never would have known that my only granddaughter planned on marrying before she even graduates high school!"

"But I love him!" Briana Leigh cried.

Ariana heard the anguish in Briana Leigh's voice and thought of that moment at the boutique the day before. How much Briana Leigh was looking forward to the future, to finally having a family. It made her heart ache for the girl.

Stop it. You're not supposed to feel sorry for her, she reminded herself.

"He's not appropriate," her grandmother replied, clucking her tongue. "And that is neither here nor there, because you will not be marrying anyone. Y will go to Atherton-Pryce Hall and you will graduate on time. I have already phoned the headmaster, and he has agreed to give you the

ou special attention you need. He will personally be sending me your report cards, as well as a weekly progress report."

"Great! You're going to have the headmaster spying on me too?" Briana Leigh cried.

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"Yes. And come August, I'll be taking you to the plane myself so that we don't have another Paris incident," her grandmother said.

Paris incident? I wonder what happened there, Ariana thought.

"You can't do this to me," Briana Leigh said, trying to hold her quivering chin up. "You can't."

"Y ou've brought this upon yourself," Grandma Covington said. "Ever since your mother died, your behavior has been deplorable. Y father may

our have tolerated it because he felt sorry for you, but it's about time you grew up and realized that you have responsibilities."

She flicked her wrist and something small and sparkling pinged against the tile floor, bounced a few times, and landed at Briana Leigh's feet. Ariana held her hand over her mouth when she realized it was Briana Leigh's engagement ring. So that was how her grandmother had found out. One of the help had snooped and uncovered the ring.

"May as well give that back to him," Grandma Covington said, using the controls on her wheelchair to reverse. The chair made a soft whirring sound as it worked. "I'm sure he can find some other willing girl to give it to."

Briana Leigh clutched her stomach and doubled over, sobbing. Ariana's heart automatically went out to her again. Her grandmother was so awful to her. This woman in no way meshed with the image of the sweet old lady Kaitlynn had painted for her. Had Grandma C. changed in the years since Kaitlynn had been imprisoned, or had the old lady favored Kaitlynn for some reason? As Ariana considered this, Grandma C. turned her chair and, without looking back, navigated

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her way across the great room and out the open back door. Briana Leigh picked up the ring in her trembling fingers and continued bawling, looking broken and pathetic. After she finally got hold of herself and dried her eyes, she lifted her head slowly and glared at the door through which her grandmother had gone. Then she slipped the ring back onto her left ring finger.

Good for you, Ariana thought. In that moment she couldn't help respecting the girl. She pushed herself away from the wall as Briana Leigh came barreling up the stairs. The girl stopped in her tracks when she saw Ariana.

"I heard the shouting... ," Ariana said with an apologetic shrug.

Briana Leigh sniffed and raised her chin. "Well, then you know I'm screwed."

"Why?" Ariana asked as Briana Leigh breezed right by her. She followed the girl into her room and stood in the center of the hardwood floor as Briana Leigh flung herself dramatically onto her unmade bed.

"Because! I have to go to Atherton! I can't marry Teo. She'll throw me out on the street! She'll disinherit me!" Briana Leigh said, sitting up straight and turning her palms out.

Ariana bit her tongue and cinched the belt on her robe. "So what?" she asked, sitting down on the edge of Briana Leigh's bed. "Let her disinherit you. You can take care of yourself."

Briana Leigh stared at her blankly. Ariana felt a flutter of uncertainty in her heart. For some reason the figure $2401.56 flashed through her mind.

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"You do have your own money don't you?" Ariana asked, her voice sounding strained. "Your inheritance. From your parents."

Briana Leigh rolled her eyes and she fell onto her back again. "Uh, no"

Ariana felt as if the bright sun outside was mocking her. As if the four posts around the bed were tilting in around her, getting ready to clamp her down to the mattress and swallow her through the floor and into hell. So powerful, that one word.

No.

"What do you mean?" Ariana asked, fighting to keep her voice even. "Your parents didn't leave you anything?"

"Oh, no. They left me everything," Briana Leigh said in a bitter, sarcastic tone. "They just made sure that I wouldn't get any of it until I was twenty- five. It's held in a trust, and my grandmother controls it all."

"What?" Ariana breathed.

Suddenly she saw her whole world collapse around her. All her plans, her dreams, her future. Everything had hinged on coming here, gaining Briana Leigh's trust, and getting her inheritance. Ariana needed that money. But there was no inheritance. There wouldn't be one for another nine years.

Ariana's mind started to whirl, trying to find some logic. Something to latch onto. She had thought that Briana Leigh had murdered her father to get the cash. That was what Kaitlynn had always said. Had Kaitlynn been somehow misled? Or was it Briana Leigh who had been duped? Maybe she hadn't known about the trust clause until after her father was dead.

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God, that must have sucked. Murder your own father and then find out it was all for nothing? Ariana knew the feeling, at least in a way. She had let Sergei die on that awful day nearly three years ago, had held him under the freezing water until he went limp, and had then learned that he was perfectly innocent. Ariana could only imagine Briana Leigh's face when the will had been read. It must have been classic. Suddenly she wasn't sure whether to laugh at Briana Leigh's misfortune or cry for her own.

"Y Until then all I get is a monthly allowance," Briana Leigh said, raising her hand to look at her sparkling diamond ring. She sighed and buried

ep. her face in a down pillow.

Ariana felt suddenly weak. She turned and lay back on Briana Leigh's bed, Briana Leigh's feet uncomfortably close to her cheek. Still, she didn't move. Couldn't have done so if she tried.

It was over. All over. There would be no starting fresh. No living the dream. What was she going to do now? Where was she going to go? She had no one. Nothing. Not a friend in the world.

Ariana's fingers closed around her forearm and squeezed.

In, one... two... three...

Out, one... two... three...

The breathing wasn't working. Ariana was starting to panic. Her vision spotted over and she felt sweat pricking under her arms, at the small of her back, along her temples. She had lost control of the situation. There was nothing she could do. Nothing at all.

175

REALITY

The sky outside Ariana's windows was just starting to turn pink, but she had yet to close her eyes. Sleepless nights had been a regular thing for her inside the Brenda T, but since she had been out, she had been so exhausted from the activity, the acting, the hope for the future, that she'd slept like a rock the whole week she'd been in Dallas.

Not this night, however. This night had been one of the worst she had ever experienced.

Letting out a deep sigh, Ariana rolled onto her back and stared at the revolting chandelier above her bed. What the hell was she doing here? Why was she torturing herself with Briana Leigh's company, bending backward to please her and her horrible fashion sense, if the girl didn't have any money? And what the hell was she going to do next? Where was she going to go?

All night long she had been asking herself these questions, and she had yet to devise an answer. Because there was nowhere. The moment

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she stepped off this compound, she'd be nothing but a fugitive with a crappy cell phone and less than three hundred dollars to her name. She supposed she could steal some of Briana Leigh's couture and a few pieces of jewelry and hock them, but that money would only last so long. She could go back to her parents, but if she did that, it would only be a matter of time before she was caught. It was simply too dangerous.

She needed Briana Leigh's millions. Needed the money so that she and Kaitlynn could truly disappear and start over. The thought of that money was all that had kept her going those last few months on the inside. It was completely inconceivable that she might leave here without it.

There was only one answer. All night long Ariana had kept returning to the obvious, but all night long she had shoved the thought into the back of her mind. She couldn't go there. She wouldn't. There had to be another way.

But now, in the dim light of dawn, she was starting to realize there was not. If she wanted her new life, she was going to have to make this sacrifice.

Taking a deep breath, Ariana let the cold hardness of the truth settle over her. Felt the weight of it in her veins. Let the reality seep into her mind. First she had to accept it. Only then would she be able to do what she had to do.

A moment later she shoved the covers aside, grabbed her robe, and was gone.

She walked calmly down the stairs and crossed the great room with

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a swiftness born of necessity. The back door slid open soundlessly and she was outside, crossing the stone patio in her bare feet. The air was already warm, and somewhere on the grounds a lawnmower roared. Ariana looked around to make sure none of the staff were in sight. She was alone.

The sliding backdoor of Grandma Covington's small bungalow was, thankfully, unlocked. Ariana opened it a few inches and turned sideways to slip inside, closing the door behind her with the tiniest of clicks. The cozy kitchen gleamed in the gathering morning sunshine, everything in its place. On her way through Ariana spotted a pill bottle and paused, snatching it up in curiosity.

Ambien. A full bottle. She pocketed half the pills. Past experience proved that something like these could come in handy one day.

Slowly, Ariana crept down the short hall, assuming the bedroom would be at the very end. On her way she passed by the open door to an office and paused. Sitting in the middle of the desk were two sets of legal-size papers. One was flagged with pink Post-its indicating places to sign. The temptation was too great. With a quick glance at the bedroom door, Ariana turned and stepped into the office.

Positioned on the west side of the house with the blinds drawn, the room was dimly lit. Ariana's eyes adjusted quickly as she picked up the papers and quickly scanned their contents. It was a will. Grandma Covington's will. Both a new version and an old. Ariana scanned the pages to find what had changed. Her eyes fell on Kaitlynn's name in the old version and her heart stood still. Grandma Covington had set aside two million dollars for Kaitlynn Nottingham.

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Palms sweating, Ariana quickly scanned the new version.

"She's removing Kaitlynn from her will," Ariana whispered to herself. After the fond manner in which Kaitlynn had spoken about Grandma Covington, Ariana wasn't surprised that Kaitlynn had once been in her will. But Kaitlynn had been convicted of killing Grandma Covington's son more than two years ago. Why had the woman waited this long to take Kaitlynn out?

Suddenly Ariana felt a rush of realization. Maybe Grandma Covington hadn't believed that Kaitlynn was guilty. Maybe she had been hoping that her adopted granddaughter would be released. But since Kaitlynn had lost her chance at an appeal...

It all made sense. Suddenly, Ariana found a soft spot for the old woman growing inside her chest. This lady loved Kaitlynn just like Ariana did. How could Ariana murder the only other person in the world who cared about Kaitlynn?

She couldn't. It was as simple as that. Ariana breathed in and felt her mind start to clear. Once again she had let herself come far too close to the abyss. Once again she had been saved.

Ariana was just turning to go when she heard a whir and a creak. Her heart hit her throat and she made a move for the sliding glass door, but it was too late. Grandma Covington wheeled her way into the room and paused near the door.