*victress: thanks for your comment. i honestly feel compelled to give you my own background for karma (granted this is basic and corny as hell). what happened to karma in this story is simple, she followed someone else's dream to make that person happy but that person stopped loving her (and maybe never did) way before the dream was actually achieved and that person never saw what they were doing to her or to her life. to me, karma without amy in high school would fall head-over-heels for liam despite the warning signs of a disastrous relationship. liam doesn't actually make her happy, but karma thinks liam is everything that she wants and needs. liam is more worried about his own life to see what his girlfriend/wife is giving up for him, he's basically always fucking up and asking more than he should of the person who loves him, barely seeing her feelings and her wishes and her problems and her life. in this backstory karma did everything liam suggested. in this backstory karma was liam's biggest fangirl, his biggest cheerleader. imagine elle woods if warren never broke up with her. imagine elle woods (from legally blonde) following warren through law school and helping warren look better while she's becoming a far better lawyer than him. imagine warren using her, rarely seeing her wants needs and helps and then dumping her regardless of what she did to win him and stuff. karma became the best lawyer in texas just to look good on liam's arm and be accepted by him and his family. she took classes with him and went to college with him because all she wanted was him and that's it. and yes, the problem is, she didn't really want any of the things she achieved. she wanted liam but she couldn't win him in the end. no matter what karma did, liam was bound to leave her. he was bound to be unhappy because he was never really in love with any of the things he was doing. if he was in love he could never let her do the things she did for him. she thought she wanted these things (a firm, a career in law) because at the time she wanted to please liam more than she wanted to do anything else (just like liam wanted to please his parents). amy wasn't there so liam was all she had. he was all that was hers and she wanted to keep him. but karma didn't really want to be a lawyer, she wanted to be a singer. karma never wanted to make her parents unhappy and make her family feel like all they had taught her was for nought. to me karma is at a point in her life, now in this story, where she is looking back and seeing that she has done everything for her husband who isn't really in love with her. it's a sad state of affairs. it's no wonder she's ready to have an affair. she chose liam as her life and liam chose to let her down and love her less. he may not have planned that but he let her become everything he wanted her to become. he didn't stop that. he didn't push her to pursue her interests and her dreams, he did the opposite and she thought she was making him happy. that's why now in this story karma is so broken. there's no taking back over ten years of your life. she can't go back and un-date liam. she can't go back and choose a youtube channel over law school. she can't go back and go to hollywood at 18 just to see what will happen. she's successful but in a way she never really connected with her work (possibly because it's so anti-her). she's great at her job but she was only ever great because she thought it would make her lover happy. she gave up everything for him because to her he had been enough, he was everything. but he gave up on her, regardless. he wasn't in love. and he should've stopped things the first second he realized but he didn't. so that's that. that's karma's background, that's the place where she's coming from. she built herself up to be his queen and now she's a queen of an empire she never wanted and a kingdom she never felt an affinity for. without him in her life pretty much all of it seems a waste. the distance from her family, the career built for him, it all seems unnecessary and if anything almost harmful to her soul because she's working corporate and taking money from mostly rich punks who keep honest-folk down. it's a big mess. it's a huge mess. her soul is icky. she needs to wash it clean. she needs a change. and then amy comes in at the perfect time.*

Chapter 15

Time to Wake Up

In the morning, Lauren didn't wake her up. Amy got up around noon and wandered into the kitchen where no one else was. She had slept so sound that she didn't dream or hear when her mother and Lauren both left.

There were no messages on her phone and everyone was gone.

Amy found herself at a loss. For once she actually didn't want to be the odd man out.

She got dressed and ready and decided to visit the office just to see if she could help. When she got there though the door was locked and the place looked abandoned again. Out front by the curb Amy noticed that there were no cars. But she noticed more that one, in particular, was missing over all the others.

"Great…" She sighed to herself. The heat was trying to bite at her and she hated it. She looked left and right and wondered where Karma and Lauren could both be. Then she got in her car and began to drive around. In the moment she just told herself that she was bored and wanted something to do so she was driving. But really she was driving by all the places she thought Lauren could be.

The second place she checked was Liam's mansion. She buzzed the gate and it opened. There, in the drive-way, was one of two matching cars. Amy kicked herself for not knowing the license plate. There was no way for her to know which person was inside.

She shrugged though, nervously. Either way, it was normal for her to be there right? Either way, it wasn't weird?

She parked and got out. The walk was familiar but she felt nervous for coming without an invite. In her head she was asking herself if she was desperate and if any of this was really about Lauren at all. In truth she knew the answer. It was about Karma. Of course it was about Karma. Amy wanted to see her again. She'd been away from her for only a few hours but she already wanted to see her again. The urge was insufferable. And she had that picture now, the one she couldn't avoid. In her pocket it called to her but she resisted and felt safe just knowing it was there.

Opening the door to Shane's ridiculous mansion, Amy stepped inside and went in.

"Hello?" She called.

"Out here!" A voice yelled. Lauren, Amy knew. Her shoulders slumped down and she felt sadly disappointed. She had wanted it to be Karma, she really did.

Nevertheless, Amy followed the voice out to see that Lauren and Shane were both by the pool laying on those long chairs and tanning and talking as lazy as ever two people could be.

"Whatcha guys doin'?" Amy asked, once she had gotten so close she could block Lauren's sun and act a nuisance towards her.

"We're strategizing," Lauren bit, annoyed by her presence. "It's important."

"Oh," Amy said, pretending to care.

"Hi Amy," Shane groaned sleepily. He was lying on his stomach and trying to recover from his parties and his horror-show of a flight that had disgusting turbulence for no apparent reason. He'd chewed Lauren's ear off all morning about some judgmental lady in first class who was rude to him and then moaned the whole flight and inappropriately clung unto him the second she became scared.

"Hi Shane," Amy said. She felt like they were already friends and she liked that. Either they were friends or she just didn't give a shit. Amy couldn't be sure which was true but it really didn't matter.

"As you well know, Liam took off," Lauren reminded.

"Yeah," Amy agreed. She moved to sit down on the chair next to Lauren and relax. She wanted to ask where Karma was right away but she felt stupid and swallowed her curiosity down. She pulled her phone out since she was frustrated. Since the feeling was strong, she text her quick just to appease herself. Where are you? Are you okay?

"Shane called a few of our standbys back in. Theo's with Karma in court right now. They're dealing with that Morris Vector case. Thank god. But Karma needs help."

"So, naturally, you're both sitting poolside," Amy teased.

"Hey!" Lauren said sitting up. "Don't act all judgmental. You're sitting poolside too."

"Yeah, Lauren, because no one has told me how this firm works. I would've been up this morning if I knew Karma needed me."

"What?" Lauren asked, sizing her sister up and feeling strange about that sentence she had just heard. Why all of a sudden was Amy Raudenfeld so onboard?

"I-I just mean if you need help that's why I'm here," Amy tried to hide her true reason for being upset. She hated the thought of Karma in court all alone after yesterday.

"No, no, no, no, no, you said if KARMA needs me. You said that," Lauren corrected.

"Yeah well, she's the one in court right now, isn't she? Of course I said that." Amy covered.

"What happened with you two," Lauren said, suddenly aware. "You were out all day with her and all night," she wanted to know everything but her sister was a hard one. Amy always seemed to wiggle her way from quick explanations. She was obviously uncomfortable though and to Lauren that meant that SOMETHING.

"Yeah, you ditched me, remember?" Amy wasn't about to give Lauren any kind of scoop.

"Something happened," Lauren was sure. "You're acting all weird and you showed up here when you could be sleeping. You love sleep. You hate work. Why are you here? This doesn't make any sense. You're hiding something." Lauren talked so fast, it was her way. Amy and Shane were both used to tuning her out and rolling with her long-winded banter.

"I hung out with Karma all day yesterday. I watched her work. I feel bad for her okay?" But that wasn't it, that wasn't why. To Lauren though, it was a very Amy thing to say and feel.

"Oh," Lauren said. "K." She liked reminders of how weak other people were, how emotions could rule them, and this was one of those. "God, as long as you're not like falling in love with her because, yeah, no thanks."

"Funny," Amy teased angrily with a fake smile and a look that meant she sorta wanted to murder her dear sister.

"Wait what?" Shane turned over and sat up.

"Amy fucked her last boss. It's kind of the reason she needed a new job." Lauren blurted out. She hated when other people didn't know important things.

"I didn't need a new job," Amy fought to rectify the lies. "And we slept together but it was only once."

"Why only once?" Shane teased, giving her a smile.

"She wanted more. Her boss didn't." Lauren said, laying back down and shutting her eyes in the sun.

"How was it? Was he good?"

Lauren sat up again and started to laugh.

"You think Amy slept with Oliver?" She laughed.

"It's not that funny asshole," Amy was wondering how they got on this topic at all and then she remembered that it was Lauren's fault. It was always Lauren's fault when secrets like this were aired out.

"Reagan?!" Shane was shocked but in a good way. He looked Amy up and down. "Damn girrrrl," he said, almost imagining it.

"Okay, you guys can stop now please," this bullshit was childish.

"Yeah," Lauren said taking a deep breath in and lying back down again. It took that long to recover from her laughing fit. "So you can see why I might think-"

"Amy and Karma," Shane mused to himself. "I like it." But he knew she was straight. "Karma wouldn't though, she loves Liam." Amy swallowed a bit of her nervousness down. If she said nothing from here, the conversation might actually drop.

Her phone buzzed.

Karma: In court. Vector is a pill. Wish you were here.

"Who are you texting?" Lauren asked nosily.

"Just mom," Amy lied but Lauren believed it, those two were disgustingly close. It made Lauren jealous sometimes. But Farrah was great so it was all Amy's fault naturally.

Amy: Want me to come? I tried to find you. I'm with Lauren and Shane.

"On Monday things with the firm will be back to normal," Lauren pushed with a sigh. "Shane called Liam. He's coming back. Plus the offices will be full and all the junior partners will be back in rotation. We weren't supposed to be in court this week. We were supposed to go on a full pause but things happen. Shane made exceptions like the dumbass he is."

"Hey!" Shane warned. For Shane, it was much too early for insults and excuses. They should be drinking Bloody-Mary's and laughing over brunch. This wasn't right.

"He means well," Lauren gave a bit. She was rambling really. The sun beating down on her as she absorbed all its goodness. She loved the mansion. It was an excellent buy. It was like having her own resort close by.

Amy sat beside her sister and felt strange. If this was a slow week what were their busy weeks like? She thought about Karma in court and wished she was sitting by her side.

Karma: Omg. You're so sweet! Meet for dinner?

Amy: Love to :D

"Yeah, okay, you're smiling like a stupid idiot. Now I know you're not texting Mom."

"Shit. It's none of your business Lauren. Plus I need to talk to you about all this. I don't like not knowing where I should be. I like being good at my job." Shane was there so Amy felt a bit strange talking about all this. As she spoke her voice nearly trailed into an angry whisper.

This time, Lauren and Shane BOTH started to laugh.

"Fine, whatever," Amy scoffed and got up to leave. She'd had enough of the giggle twins. Everything was obviously just a joke to them.

"Ahhh, don't go," Shane whined and felt guilty. Amy was so cute with all her seriousness and her caring. "Have a pool day with us. We're gonna talk shop and make drinks."

"I have to meet someone," Amy lied off-hand. She'd had enough of the layabouts. She didn't want to become one of them, not while Karma was working and stressing out. It just wouldn't be right. The potential info she could get from them would not outweigh the risk of some of her truths coming out about Karma and what they did or did not do yesterday. And though she wanted to talk to Lauren it was all a mess and she needed to do that while Lauren was completely alone. It was pointless. It all was.

"Fine, keep your secrets," Lauren teased. Amy was bad with secrets, they both knew. Lauren would get the truth soon enough, it was only a matter of when and where.

"See ya guys later," Amy said and made a sad face. Shane mimicked it and waved as she left.

"She's weird," Shane said once Amy was far enough away that she could never in her life hear him.

"Something's up," Lauren answered him, without even turning her head or opening her eyes. She knew something happened; there was no question about any of that.