HIS GUILTY PLEASURE

The rain was falling hard, so it was hard to see, but it wasn’t hard to deny-that was my sister’s husband, and he had just ended someone’s life. I put my hand over my mouth and muffled a scream. He cursed under his breath when he looked over in my direction. The sudden realization of what I had just witnessed had just hit him. He uncloaked the gun and walked over to the car. Placing the gun on the floor, he showed me his bare hands as if surrendering. ‘Kiara, it’s not what you think’, he tried to explain, the rain was falling hard all over him. My instinct was to tackle him, but I was outnumbered. Is this the day I die? What never changed was that he just killed a person. ‘Get away from me!’, I screamed. We were surrounded by men in suits. They were so corporate; I couldn’t tell from a glance that they were thugs. They stood in the rain waiting for his command. He was the leader of the mafia group I’ve been chasing for half of my career. I had to get out of here and fast. ‘Come on Kiara, don’t be like this’, he said almost angrily, then raked his dark hair, from this light, I couldn’t help but notice how unbelievably handsome he was, ‘Let’s do this some other. This place isn’t safe. How about that?’ ‘You can tell that to Lee’, I opened the other door and exited the car. I bolted away, but I didn’t know where I was going. I could hear him call at the distance, but I wasn’t going to stop. Before long, I heard a shot and then a stabbing pain in my neck. My head hit the ground before I could resist death’s strong pull. Have I just been killed by my sister’s mafia husband? I tried to muffle a scream, but I was paralyzed. I guess the dead really can’t speak. Pause. That, my friends, is the fate of a family caught up by high society and this is the story of Liyoung- my sister. You see, being the firstborn came with more responsibilities than she could shoulder. She took virtually every bullet for me. Like when my father was obsessed with law school, she took the fall for me, allowing me to fulfill my dream of being a cop. And when my father wanted one of us to be a manager for his cooperation, she was more than qualified to do so. My father was nothing short of strict, pushy and overbearing. He was some sort of godfather to all the successful politicians in the country-safe to say, his hands were not clean, and I dreaded the day I'd have to put him in cuffs. But this isn’t about me, it’s about Liyoung. It all began when she married the son of a gun, Nicholas Moretti. Or when my father engaged her to the said son of a gun. I remember the sullen day it all went down. I had just visited the house for the first time in a long time. I moved out ages ago; out of the webs of my scheming father. Sadly, I had to leave my sister behind. I met her in the home office as usual, heels off and on the couch engrossed in a document. I lightly knocked on the door for her to notice me. ‘Look who’s here, the prodigal daughter’, she said with a smile on her face. A smile that tabloids and newspapers could never capture whenever she was by my father, she wore a serious face. ‘I brought your favourite’. I lifted the box of cake in my hand. She sat up excited, ‘You are such a baby.’ ‘How’s work treating you?’ ‘Same same. We’re trying to get some thugs. Some sort of mafia group. Their operations are so stealth I have to give it to them. They are impressive.’ ‘I’ve never seen a cop impressed by a criminal’, she chuckled. ‘You have to recognize a masterpiece when you see one. Speaking of masterpiece, how is your side job going’ She rolled her perfect siren eyes, ‘don’t call it that. My painting is just a hobby’ ‘Yeah. A hobby that’s occupied the whole of the artic. Really, you should prepare for an exhibition someday’ ‘Oh please. Don’t string me on’, she laughed. Right then, just at this perfect moment, my father walked in and, just like that, the mood was damp. Oh, but he didn’t come alone. There he was, a very mysterious man, one of the pillars of high society. He had green eyes and jet-black hair just like my sister’s. His aura was mysterious but, more than that, dangerous. It was a work hazard, but I found my profiling him. The build under his black suit suggested he did a lot more than just brain work and just beneath his sleeve a tattoo was peeking out. His eyes were dark, I could tell he doesn’t sleep very much, suggesting a lot of night activities. He was Nicholas Moretti. ‘Good evening’, he said, his voice complimenting his face, soft, slow yet firm. ‘These are my daughters. Liyoung and Kiara’, my father said. He held out a handshake to Liyoung first, and she took it with a smile- or that fake smile, then to me. I made an effort, but my face betrayed me. ‘Sit down’, my father said to no one in particular. When we were all sitting, ‘I understand that your father has promised some sort of collaboration between us seeing he’s running in the presidential campaign’, he paused and looked over at me, as if I was some sort of spy. ‘Robert Moretti is a strong leading candidate’, my sister added. I see why my father preferred her. She knew what to say and when to say it. She was intelligent yet easy to manipulate. ‘Yes. That is why, to seal this union, the Moretti have proposed marriage’, my father pronounced. My body moved ahead of common sense as I scoffed and rolled my eyes, ‘Dad, this cannot be happening right now.’ My sister placed a comforting hand over mine, and she smiled as she said, ‘surely there are other ways to do business.’ ‘I would have loved there to be another way. But I understand that as your father needs to secure a multinational merger of our companies, my father requires his political influence’, he said, ‘but of course, this is not without your consent’. My father began to speak, but I could tell my sister wasn’t listening. She was weighing her options, calculating and assessing. I wondered why in God’s name is she not saying no already. If she won’t, I will. I opened my mouth to speak when I was cut short with the lowest question I have ever heard. ‘Which would you like?’, he said. Shock was at the surface of what I was feeling, a burning anger was under that. But before I could speak my mind as I usually do. Liyoung held out a hand, ‘it would be a pleasure to do business with you’ What?! Did she just willingly enter the lion’s den? But after the shock came a wave of guilt. She was obviously doing this for me because if she wouldn’t, I would have to. ‘Lee’, I began to say as I watched Nicholas take her hand. ‘But’, she said firmly, this time not with the plastic smile, ‘I’ll be the one to draft the prenup’. ‘I’ll leave that to you’, he replied. My father chuckled heartily. That laugh sounded like a million dollars, ‘I see we have made headway. Come on to my office, we have a lot to discuss’. They exited the room and I saw my sister letting out a breath she had been holding. The sudden realization of how screwed she was washed through her. ‘What do you think you were doing?’ ‘I’m aware of what I just did’, she said regretfully as she massaged her temple. ‘It’s not too late, we can go and tell dad’, I said as I stood up. ‘No’, she held my hand, ‘no, don’t do that.’ ‘If you’re doing this for me-‘ ‘It’s not that’, I could tell she was lying. ‘It’s probably for the best’, she picked her phone, ‘Scott, I need you to come to the office at the house immediately. We need to draft a prenup’. I kept telling myself, this cannot be happening.