SHARED BY THE RIVAL SPADE BROTHERS.

Chapter 2: Desperation

CORALINE

A week was all it took for the Preminger household to crumble into dust. Shantel was losing her mind. We were bankrupt, so the maids and household staff had been dismissed because there was no money to pay them.

And here I was, still trying to accept that Vanessa had gambled away my trust fund.

Everything had become worse for me. I was responsible for scrubbing floors, washing dishes, and cleaning many more rooms once handled by the staff. My body ached, yet Vanessa acted as if the world had conspired against her, not that she had thrown away my future.

“Coraline!”

Shantel’s witchy voice rang through the mansion, making me flinch.

“Yes?” I answered, hurrying to the sitting room.

She sprawled on the sofa, pressing a wet cloth to her forehead.

“Make me some tea immediately.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And don't take forever. I have enough problems without your sluggishness.” She pointed at me. “And if you break this teacup like you broke the last one, I will take the broken pieces and stick them into your skin and use your blood for glue. Do you understand?”

Vanessa had broken the last cup, but I knew better than to correct her.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She waved me away like an annoying insect.

I prepared the tea, measuring the sugar exactly as she liked it. I then placed the cup on a stainless-steel tray. As I reached for the spoon, I noticed a jar of rat poison on the counter. A small, devilish thought entered my head.

What if I put some in her tea?

For a moment, I imagined watching Shantel suffer. Then I shook the thought away. I would never do it. Besides, she was also a she-Alpha, way stronger than me in fact. I was weak, and my immune system would not handle poison. She on the other hand could survive and make me regret it.

I pushed the jar away and picked up the tray.

Shantel was gone when I reached the sitting room, so I headed upstairs to deliver it to her guestroom instead because I figured she'd be there. I was a knock away from announcing my presence when I heard a furious exchange of whispers and an instruction Vanessa was clearly disagreeing with.

“Mom, there is no way I am going to do that. Goddess forbid. I am not doing it.”

Curiosity got the better of me. I stopped outside and pressed my ear against the door. It was not every day I heard fear in Vanessa’s voice. Usually, she was the one making other people afraid.

“Stop whining,” Shantel snapped. “Can you not see that this is the solution to our problems? If we don't do something, we are going to starve. We could sell everything in this house and still would not have enough money to last us more than a few days. This man is offering us a way out.”

“Yeah, a way out into a grave.” She shot back. “He wants a marriage arrangement. He wants to marry me off to his sons, all three of his crazy sons, mom.”

“Vanessa, listen—”

“No, Mom. The Spade family is crazy. His sons are the literal spawns of the devil. Do you know how destructive those men are? There is no way in hell I am involving myself in that arrangement. We have to find another way out, I don't know but this won't cut it.”

My fingers tightened around the tray.

The Spade family?

I knew little about them. I had no phone to look up any information online, but I had heard the name before. My father used to do business with Victor Spade, the influential family patriarch. The triplet brothers were known for their wealth, their hatred for one another, and the many times they had tried to ruin each other. Even powerful people were careful not to get caught between them.

“This is the only solution,” Shantel insisted. “Nobody else is offering us this kind of money. We are bankrupt, Vanessa! Look around. Our lives are falling apart, and I refuse to return to poverty. I would rather die than go back to barely affording two meals a day. I will not let everything we have worked so hard for slip away. Do you know what it took me to get us to where we are today?”

“Then you marry one of them instead. Or if you can't, seduce and get pregnant for the old man if you must. Why should I be the one to suffer? Have you forgotten what people say about them? The first is a mafia don who skins employees as a hobby. He skins people for fun, Mom. The second is the business mogul who does not just destroy a person’s life, he ruins their entire generations with one power move. And the third is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, literally. He doesn't just just score with a hockey stick, he ruins careers both on and off the ice. It's too much, mother and I'm getting mixed up with any of them, much less all three sadistic men. I have no interest in walking into a suicide mission.”

“Vanessa, there is no one else that can help us out of this mess.”

Her tone was beyond desperate and I heard a crash. It sounded like she had smashed a vase against the wall out of anger.

“Are you not listening to me, Vanessa?” she demanded. “For f**k’s sake I'm not asking you to fall in love with them. They have money, and they are not bad-looking. Keep your head down, be obedient, and do what they ask. Maybe things won't be so bad. Please, Vanessa.”

“No, Mom. No.”

“The old man will be here any moment to take you with him. I already told him that you were interested. If he comes here and you refuse, he will leave, and this opportunity will be gone for good.”

“Then let it be gone. I am not sending myself on a suicide mission and that is final.”

Shantel went on another rage-rant on how the opportunity was golden but I couldn't hear much. Then suddenly, the door swung open. I lost my balance and stumbled into the room. The stainless-steel tray slipped from my hands and clattered to the floor. The teacup shattered, and tea splashed across the tiles and soaked into my clothes. I landed in the mess, my palms stinging as I pushed myself upright.

When I raised my head, Vanessa was staring down at me. My hair was wet with tea, and Shantel’s expression hardened at the mess.

But all of a sudden, her irritation slowly curved into a smile. I knew that smile. It was the same one she wore whenever she found a new way to make my life miserable. She turned toward her mother and pointed at my tea-stained self.

“Mom,” she said sweetly, “what if we give Coraline to the old man in my place?”