PEGASUS watched Muse go through the five stages of grief as she checked her bank account. The amount of zeros that had been added to her 451 dollars was worse than obscene. It was heart-attack-inducing.
Simply put, she would never have to work again. If she bought every apartment building in New York City, she would still have enough money left over to buy a mansion and a private island and live out the rest of her days being tended to. She never needed to lift a finger again.
"This isn't real," Muse told Pegasus. "I'm dreaming. Come on. Bite me or something."
Pegasus stayed perched atop the bed frame in the wedding suite. Muse, sprawled across the floor, had been attempting to pack for the honeymoon. Every article of her clothing had been tossed out of the closet. A mini skirt dangled on the desk lamp.
Only ten minutes ago, she'd received a phone call from an unknown number. She'd picked up, and been greeted with: "Hello, am I speaking to Muse Marie Gardner?"
"Yes, thats me," she had said.
"This is the Broadway Bank New York. Are you aware of the unusually large sum of money that has been deposited into your account?"
She had figured it was the million dollars Adrien owed her in exchange for the deal, and she'd replied, "Yes, I am."
A long pause. "Sorry for the inconvenience. We're required to check for fraud." Another pause. "Have a good day."
The dial had ended, the swift beeping drowning out everything else in Muse's head. With shaking hands, she had opened her bank account app on her phone. She didn't know why she'd double-checked. She had only felt something was wrong.
And there hadn't been a million dollars in her account. There had been much, much more that. Several zeroes more.
She was going to grab Adrien by the throat. She was going to knock her head into a wall. She was probably going to kill her.
"This just can't be real."
Pegasus purred indifferently.
"There's no way Adrien just has this much money at her disposal. And I bet it didn't even make a dent in her bank account." Muse shook her head, a little hysterical. "I was picking between my hydro bill and gas bill two months ago. How is it possible for any one person to have this much money? How is it possible that I have this much money now?"
Her head felt too light. She praised every god in the universe she had already been sitting on the floor, because she would have fallen to her knees otherwise.
She had never had this much financial security in her life. She didn't know how to feel. What do with herself.
Slowly, she stood. She should have been finished packing an hour ago, but her clothes didn't feel right for a honeymoon. Especially not a honeymoon with Grey, who would likely be judging her and Adrien's every move.
"I should go find Adrien," she said to Pegasus.
Pegasus purred again, with what she imagined was enthusiasm.
Adrien had disappeared a while ago, to help coordinate the departure of the wedding guests with the resort staff. She'd lingered at the door before she'd left, hesitating as if she had something to say, but she'd left without a word and closed the door softly behind her.
Their flight to Hawaii would be later that night. Almost a twenty-four journey on Adrien's private plane. Since Grey and Sherry had one of their own, it would be Adrien and Muse alone the entire time.
"I should go find Adrien," Muse repeated, rising to her feet.
After telling Pegasus to stay put, she closed the door behind her and went in search of Adrien.
She was now conscious that she had bodyguards, security that kept tabs on her to make sure she was safe. She resisted the urge to look back over her shoulder―as if they'd be following her in plain sight like some awful spies in a James Bond movie.
The hotel lobby was packed with guests, with no Adrien in sight.
Mr. and Mrs. Pescuzzi waited on the couch with various Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Gucci luggage bags beside them. A long line of limousines had been parked outside; porters hurried in and out of the entrance. The quick clicking sound of their footsteps, along with the echo of suitcases rolling across marble and the chatter of the guests talking about stocks and their next meetings, created an overwhelming cacophony in Muse's mind.
She surveyed the area again, double-checking Adrien wasn't mid-conversation with one of the guests or the staff.
Phoebe and Agnes sat by the bar, kissing between drinks. Two tote-bags had been slung at the foot of their stools: one green and embroidered with plants, the other pink and starry.
Of course Phoebe and Agnes's vacation bags would look like that.
Muse debated talking to them, but she wanted to find Adrien, and she'd already said all her goodbyes after breakfast. Agnes had kissed her forehead and wished her luck on the honeymoon, with a two-second glower in Grey's direction.
And Phoebe had snatched her glass of tea at breakfast and read the leaves.
"Oh, dear," she had said.
"What? What do my tea leaves say?"
"Disaster," said Phoebe, her face nearly white.
Agnes had swatted at her wife and grabbed the teacup. "Nonsense. Don't listen to her. The time after your wedding is supposed to be blissful." Then she had glanced down at the tea leaves, and the colour had drained from her face, too.
"I thought you weren't into the whole fortune-telling thing," Muse had said.
Agnes's voice had been faint and trembling. "Well, when you've been married for a few decades, you pick it up, my dear."
"What did you read?"
Agnes had looked up at her with wide, hopeless eyes. "It says divorce, not disaster."
Phoebe had reached for the teacup again, still white-faced, and examined it from a different angle.
"Oh, God," she'd gasped. "It says death!"
Muse had decided she'd had enough of the teacup readings then, reassured them there would be no death, disaster, or divorce, and promised she'd see them in a week back in New York.
She'd also said goodbye to Ezra and his wife. Somehow, that been far worse than Phoebe and Agnes's ominous fortune-telling.
They'd both sadly smiled at her, like they knew they were never going to see her again. That look had contained so much bleak knowing that Muse definitely didn't want to approach them again.
Adrien was still nowhere to be found.
From across the lobby, a blonde woman with black, oversized―probably designer―sunglasses strode quickly past the couch with Mr. and Mrs. Pescuzzi. Something about her was familiar in a stomach-wrenching way. But before Muse could think about it, Mrs. Pescuzzi caught her eye. Her neon pink, lipstick-painted mouth split into a grin. Not unlike a vulture.
Muse imagined Mrs. Pescuzzi grabbing her wrist with a bony, manicured hand, nodding to the pile of enormous Louis Vuitton suitcases beside the couch, and saying with a wink, "You know how it is! A woman needs her wardrobe."
She had no choice. She smiled faintly at Mrs. Pescuzzi, and ducked into a random hallway as if she had somewhere urgent to be.
If she had to socialize with a disgustingly rich, narcissistic aristocrat right now, she might kill them instead of Adrien.
The hallway she'd chosen at random was empty. The gold-flecked, bronze marble tiles glistened under the skylights of the high, arched ceilings. Muse kept walking. Distantly, she heard the sound of a mother coaxing her children into towels, and a couple arguing about how the boyfriend had treated the waiter at lunch. The resort was a maze. She didn't know how many times she turned, or went up the stairs―only that, by the end, if security had indeed been tailing her, they didn't have a chance anymore.
Muse found herself in a hallway on the rooftop, with a balcony overlooking the beach. The hot air dampened her skin. At least she'd changed into a mini, flowy black skirt, and a white tank top with spaghetti straps, before leaving the room.
A sun-kissed breeze swirled by, ruffling her hair out of place. She touched a strand self-consciously. She'd deep-conditioned her hair twice since being here, but the humidity kept making the curls frizzy.
Ahead, a maid pushed a trolley full of cleaning supplies around the corner. Then she stopped abruptly at a door out of sight.
Muse faintly overheard a piece of the conversation.
"Get out." A man's voice.
"Sorry," said the maid. "I didn't mean to interrupt―"
"I don't want your apology. I said get the fuck out."
A calm female voice cut through before the door slammed shut, as if she were talking to a child: "Grey, do not speak to my staff like that."
Adrien?
The sound muted. The maid turned the corner, hurriedly pushing her trolley. Probably as far away as she could get from Grey.
Muse took the opportunity to get close to the door.
It appeared Grey had slammed it so hard it had bounced slightly open. A sliver between the door and the doorframe remained. Muse couldn't see anything, but she heard Grey say, "Take my advice, Adrien. Your father wouldn't want this."
"I don't care what my father wants. He's a lying, cheating―"
"It's not a crime to lie or cheat," Grey said. "It's just a part of being a man."
"You're speaking like you've done both," Adrien said dryly.
Muse pictured Grey sleeping with other women while Sherry was pregnant. She remembered how Sherry had been in tears as she'd said, "He doesn't touch me anymore."
He reminded Muse so much of certain men from the time she'd spent as a prostitute. The misogyny had been so deeply ingrained in them, they didn't just hate women―women were nothing to them.
Grey didn't respond to Adrien. He only said, "I know what you're like, Adrien. I know your reputation. It's only a matter of time before you become just like the older men in your father's company. Only a matter of time before you crack." He said crack with pure relish.
"You're disgusting."
"Picture this. You see a hot, blonde woman in a sexy little dress. You're not gonna try and fuck that? I know that's your type. I've seen some of the women you've―"
"Enough, Grey."
Muse felt sick. She wondered how he could talk to Adrien like that, knowing she was a woman herself. Was it the fact that she was more masculine in appearance? Did he think of her as just another man he could degrade women with?
"I'm just saying. You've been busy with the wedding so far. But don't you think you'll get tired of your wife? Don't you think you'll get bored of fucking her? Women are like food. You can have a favourite one, but if you eat it all the time, you'll get sick of it. So you eat something else, you try new flavours. That's all I'm saying." He laughed.to himself. "I know you better than you know yourself. I think if I serve a new flavour right to you, you'll―"
"I'll what, Grey?" Adrien said. It sounded like her willpower was fraying, like she was trying to contain a deep-seated fury.
Muse didn't want to hear anymore of this. Didn't want to hear Grey speak about women like that, didn't want to hear him comparing fucking women to trying different flavours of food.
She almost turned away, almost backed up.
But Grey said, "She's not good enough."
"What?"
"She's never going to fit into this world." His voice was softer, almost consolatory. As if he were soothing Adrien. "She's nothing. She's too poor, and too slutty, and if you have children with her, they'll come out . . . mixed." He said the word mixed like he'd say the word filthy.
Muse couldn't believe what she was hearing. She wanted to leave, but she felt rooted to the spot.
"You know that saying, about putting lipstick on a pig? Go ahead and put her in fancy clothes, and fancy jewelry, and put her in your fancy apartment and play house with her. It doesn't matter. End of the day, she'll only just be another woman you fuck and discard. Because that's just who you are, Adrien. And that's just who she is."
A long silence saturated the air. Muse leaned closer to the door, waiting for the response. Her heart was pounding, her fingertips numb. She didn't know why she felt the world was about to end. She knew Adrien, didn't she?
At last, the silence disintegrated.
"You're right," Adrien said softly.
Those words―You're right―seemed to thaw the force that had frozen Muse to the spot. She had been wrong. She didn't know Adrien at all. Without making a sound, she retreated around the corner, and fled.
***
I SEE MY GIRLFRIEND TUESDAY MORNING. Also pleaseee use your crystals and pray I pass my English lit exam tomorrow evening and my gf passes their kin exam tomorrow morning/afternoon. I'll update another chapter sooo soon.
From the moon and back,
Sarai