The Evil Stepsister (Fairytale Killers #2)

Concepts Like Narcissist and Sociopath

"I can't believe you slept with our driver," Caterina's eyes went all over Carmela, as if looking for traces of the crime.

"Please don't," Carmela replied. "I'm thinking how to tell Franco."

"Just play him your sex tape," Caterina smiled deviously. Staying in her lane had paid off: she was not afraid of The Rawlings visiting, despite it meaning she would most probably be the one Jack Rawlings settled to marry. Carmela was relieved, it was what she wanted, but she still dreaded talking to their stepfather.

"I say talk to Mom, first," Caterina said. Carmela closed her eyes, her mother would also not understand why she didn't just wait to turn twenty-five. 'Rich and free' was a promise that kept getting pushed back one year. Carmela had started rebelling long before their mother had told them her plan to escape Franco, so her virginity was not really a bargaining chip anymore.

She sighed, "Yes, let's tell our mother how we went to Entropy to follow Jack Rawlings around, mingled in his creepy Walter twin lookalike squad."

"Exactly," Caterina beamed. "Tell her that I find him hot and that I wouldn't mind marrying him. You know, see where it takes me," she winked. "That's there's no need for us to escape anywhere? You get off free, Catalina gets to finally live. Everyone wins."

"You can't marry Jack Rawlings. You think you want to, but you really don't. He has an entourage of women who look like us!"

Carmela's judgment left no traces on Caterina's grin, "Kinda hot, no?"

"At all!" Carmela uselessly tried to get through to her sister. "Let's just go along with mom's plan: indulge Franco until we can safely flee."

It all hinged on if they would convince their little sister, currently unaware there was an escape plan, left to fight her father's opinions alone, at dinner. As the other three women had learned over the years, there was no point.

"The driver is also hot," Caterina poked her. "I see now why you left me in the club."

"Please, Stan was already looking for you. I had a dozen messages begging me to just come back home." No one had to know they were out, was all he wanted.

The girls had the majority of Franco's men under some sort of pressure, to make them more useful to them, they were the few people they interacted with, on a daily basis. Since Franco was no threat to the girls, getting away with whatever they wanted if they cried long enough, they could also convince Franco not to punish his men's incompetence with the death penalty, Carmela had promised, extending a stack of bills that would've bought a designer bag. It was a symbiosis that worked well: Franco was happy, his men got some extra cash, and the girls got some space to breathe.

Until the new driver. Not sure how to approach the subject, Carmela closed her eyes, thinking of a way to keep him out of their business. 

"It's weird he showed up, two years later, but I think he doesn't remember me."

It took Carmela a few minutes of hearing the new driver talk, in Franco's office, to realize she had met him before. She knew she should've remembered him, he was a tall guy whose big brown hair and beard stood out, making him look like a bear, one of her favorite types of men to take into bed. So the thought lingered over the day, until she had the idea to check her phone's 'nuclear folder', rarely visited, not once since last year, one video on it: the sex tape that would stop any attempt from anyone to marry her with Rawlings. Because maybe he'd bypass the virginity condition, but Carmela was fully prepared to go public with the tape, making it impossible for him or his father to ignore it. 

"Entropy is very popular," Caterina liked to remember how the club was Jack's, and as with everything that belonged to her future husband, she already considered it hers. "Did Max mention what he did for a living?"

"We didn't talk... the music made conversations impossible. And when we got out, we were busy already."

Caterina giggled, her sister's affairs were the only contact with men she allowed herself to have, except for stalking Jack Rawlings and group texting with him and his father. The moment a group was created, by Old Rawlings, adding the sisters' shared Caterina Walter account and his son's, Carmela knew she had to extract herself out of the picture. It was all too weird. So Caterina was the one who sent the morning selfies of the both of them, the goodnight messages. There was no mute button accessible quick enough.

Franco had presented it to the sisters as a way for them to get to know Jack Rawlings better, otherwise, their first contact would've been at the engagement, second at the wedding. It was also a way for Rawlings Senior to determine if he should wait for Catalina to be of age, or could he settle with one of the twins for his son. And for Jack to monitor his future wife, see if her personality is a match for his. The group was a promotion channel.

The entire conversation was vomit-inducing, so Carmela had never been happier about losing her virginity at sixteen. By the way he talked, asking about every detail of their day, Jack Rawlings was not going to ignore that disobedience. He was adamant about her being pure, his father had negotiated on his behalf. He was even worse than his father, she feared.

He wasn't a good fit for Caterina either, but repressed sexuality had a way of deforming concepts like 'narcissist' and 'psychopath'.

"Go to mom," Caterina said, as usual. "She'll know what to do."