JENNIE
"We're early," Lisa announced, Frowning down at her watch.
A moment before she had been surveying the landscape with the same critical expression she wore whenever she looked at me—as though searching for flaws.
Early, I thought, but something told me the truth was that whoever we were waiting for was simply late.
I wondered who would dare to keep the all-powerful Lisa Manoban waiting, let alone who could possibly have use for land brokered for by a vampire? A reclusive villain aiming to build a blood factory? Raphael? Another 'Dracula' in training? Unwilling to try my luck asking another question, I kept my mouth shut.
The seconds flew past, then minutes. All the while I had nothing to preoccupy myself with but the dark thoughts circling my mind. What kind of game was she playing at?
I didn't have the nerve to ask what her 'owning' me entailed—beside the obvious physical aspects—but so far the arrangement seemed no different from our tense contract. Albeit, I had the marks on my shoulder to prove that something had changed.
And …I was here. While Lisa was certainly going out of her way to make it appear as though my presence was a burden, she had brought me along in the first place, and I was beginning to learn that someone like her didn't act on mere whims.
Curiouser and curiouser, I thought sardonically. Just be careful, Jennie …who knows where this rabbit hole may lead?
The thought taunted me until the sound of an approaching vehicle caught my attention. I turned, witnessing the moment a battered station wagon crested the hill and sputtered down the road in our direction. I didn't know what type of figure I had expected to see emerge from it—but a haggard woman with graying hair wasn't it.
"Ms. Manoban," she greeted, spotting Lisa. "Good afternoon. I hope you don't mind, but I've brought along a few relevant investors to help me make a decision."
She rapped on the roof of the decrepit vehicle and, like clockwork, several tiny figures scrambled out: three small children who rushed to form a neat line, each dressed in a dark blue uniform.
I blinked, convinced that shock was the only thing that kept me from reaching up to rub my eyes just to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating.
"Marvelous," Lisa said. She sounded as cool and distant as always—but I couldn't help noticing thatherusually stern jaw was relaxed, and there was a softness to her gaze that hadn't been there before. "Shall we?"
She led the way toward the field, leaving the rest of us to catch up. After a moment, she grudgingly jerked her head in my direction. "Mrs. Brandston, this is my associate, Jennie Kim …she is the one who secured the sale of this property."
"Ms. Kim." Mrs. Brandston turned to face me, brown eyes warm. "On behalf of the Leyfair Orphanage, I thank you."
My mind skidded to a thudding halt. Orphanage …
I almost choked. One of my heels caught on a patch of grass, nearly causing me to tumble to my doom—not that the benevolent Ms. Manoban would've given a damn. She was beside me in an instant, yanking me upright without so much as a grunt of concern. The next second I found myself shoved aside and she was paces ahead, as if she had never assisted me at all.
"Are you all right?"
I glanced down, into the kind blue eyes of a young girl, whose blonde curls were barely contained by her navy headband. "You should be careful when you walk in pointy shoes," she advised.
Like an imbecile, I could only nod while my mind raced with a million conflicting thoughts. Lisa. Orphans. Land.
Was she, perhaps, planning on opening a blood factory supplied by innocent children? Or maybe she really had drawn too much of my own blood and I was hallucinating?
But when the girl smiled at me, there was nothing insubstantial about it at all. "I'm Anna," she said, still grinning wide enough to reveal her missing front tooth. "What's your name?"
"Jennie," I croaked.
She nodded studiously as if expecting that very answer. "Do you think we'll get to have a soccer field with the new house?"
New house? I glanced around the wide, open expanse of land and only then did it finally sink in like a punch to the stomach. New house. Orphanage. Lisa's special 'plans' for Haswell's land.
"No bloody way …"
The children snickered at my outburst. Both Lisa and Mrs. Brandston's heads whipped around in my direction—and a pair of familiar gray eyes found mine a second later, narrowed in warning.
--
"Shall we discuss a timeline, Mrs. Brandston?" Lisa suggested before leading the woman to another end of the field. Left behind, I found myself immediately swarmed by all three children.
Anna spearheaded the motley crew, flanked on either side by a boy, the youngest who appeared to be no more than eight years old.
"She's pretty," I heard him mutter into the sleeve of his blue sweatshirt.
The other, who seemed a bit older, glanced at him with a scoff. "No, she's not."
My cheeks flamed, though I couldn't blame the boy—whose name I guessed was "Rory!" as Anna exclaimed it in horror—for just saying what the whole world thought. Once again, I was resigned to my status as merely the "other Kim girl."
"Yes, she is!" The first boy shouted indignantly, surprising me. "She glows," he added, peeking at me from underneath his eye lashes. "Like an angel."
A wave of gratitude unlike anything I had ever felt crashed through me and I found myself sinking down to one knee. "Why, thank you!"
"I guess," Rory grumbled, but before I could respond Anna launched into a rather dramatic retelling of a game of jacks and I was riveted.
For almost ten minutes, I allowed the children to regale me with their stories. They were fascinating little creatures. I didn't think I had ever interacted with anyone younger than thirty outside of my own childhood, apart from Rosé and the younger servants. In my world, a 'child' had been more or less a mythical creature that could serve as a convenient prop for photo ops.
"See this?" Anna exclaimed, brandishing a cheap ring on her finger as though it sported the Hope Diamond. Its plastic band was painted silver and adorned with fake filigree resembling a flower. Glued to the center of it was a cracked blue bead—altogether, it was the kind of worthless bauble I would have killed for at her age.
"I love it, Anna," I gushed with genuine admiration.
"It's my most prized possession in the whole, wide world," she gloated.
"I have one too!"
"Me too!"
Not to be outdone, the two boys—Lucas and Rory respectively—both launched into declarations of their own worldly passions; a mud-encrusted baseball and a chewed, partially torn trading card.
I could only stare, oddly entranced, and wonder if this was all some kind of bizarre hallucination brought on by blood loss.
It had to be a joke, some sick prank on Lisa's part. I waited for the punch line, for the other proverbial shoe to drop. This is a new home for orphans—though, some may use the term 'sweatshop.' But not even five minutes later, she and Mrs. Brandston reappeared without a single sinister glance shared between them.
"Thank you, Ms. Manoban," the older woman said, voice trembling with gratitude. "The land will do perfectly. Leyfair enjoys your continued patronage."
Continued?
"I'm glad the property satisfies you," Lisa said, sounding way too humble for my liking. "It's a donation, of course, though I would be more than willing to oversee the construction."
Mrs. Brandston continued to spill her thanks, and I could only gape at the exchange like some witless imbecile. Then, without much fanfare, the woman began to wrangle her charges and usher them back to their vehicle.
Once again, my gaze drifted over to Lisa.her jaw had tightened as if she was aware of the thoughts unfolding in my head and wasn't at all pleased with the picture they presented.
"You can wait in the car, Jennie."
I swayed as those gray eyes found mine, cold and unfathomable. Obediently, I turned on my heel, too confused to object—but before I could even go a full step a sudden thought took hold and I was shrugging my purse from my shoulders before I had even really processed the motion.
"Wait!" I turned to the station wagon and staggered towards it, all but shoving my bag—and the money stuffed within—into the hands of a startled Mrs. Brandston. "Take this," I insisted. "Please. Consider it an …overdue donation from the Kim family."
I spun back around before I could see her reaction and all but ran to Lisa's car. My family had always made their token donations to charity, but the rush of a genuine act of goodwill affected me more strongly than I would have ever expected. I reached out, fingers scraping the handle of the car door, but before I could pull it open, a cool hand batted mine away.
Without warning, Lisa yanked me around by my wrist. I tensed, not knowing what to expect. Disapproval?
She had never looked at me this way—as if she was peering deeper beneath the same old 'Jennie' exterior. I felt stripped naked, exposed. The next second, she turned away and I could only slump against the car and stare as she returned to Mrs. Brandston. They exchanged a few words, before the woman entered her own vehicle smiling.
Moments later, the wagon drove off, and the sounds of the children squabbling about who should sit in the middle faded to silence. Once again, I was left alone with someone who barely seemed to acknowledge my existence.
Without a word, Lisa brushed past me and entered the car. I could only follow her, collapsing weakly on the seat.
"An orphanage?" I blurted as the car lurched into motion. "All for an orphanage?"
Ice crossed my vision ashergaze found mine and held it for so long that I felt frozen when she finally turned away.
"I have many investments," she remarked while tilting her head to gaze from the window. "You are one of them."
I flinched at the not-so-subtle reminder.
"Why an orphanage, though?" I pressed. "Why not a blood factory or a torture chamber, or another club?"
All evil, dark establishments that I could easily picture someone like her owning.
"I must say that I'm getting rather annoyed with all these questions."
My heart lurched at the threat in her tone—especially as two pale fingers came to lift up my chin, forcing me to meet her gaze. Instead of anger, the only thing I found there amongst the silver was an elusive emotion I couldn't put a name to—and I wasn't willing to try. It terrified me, that look, even as she finally turned away.
"Here," she grumbled, tossing something unceremoniously onto my lap.
I glanced down, not knowing what to expect—but a tiny, silver piece of plastic was not it. Confused, I shifted to trap the object in my palm.
"What is …"
I trailed off as a glimmer of sunlight caught the cheap stone that formed the centerpiece of a small, gaudy ring. My eyes widened and my throat went dry. It was Anna's ring—apparently, her most 'prized' possession—and fear lanced my chest as I realized that she wouldn't have parted with it easily.
"How did you—"
"Relax …" Lisa's mouth twitched. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was actually insulted. "I acquired it in a fair trade."
She deliberately tugged on the sleeve of her jacket and I noticed that only one arm was sporting an expensive, silver cufflink. Its mate was missing.
"W-Why?" I stammered as the magnitude of what she had done sank in. While she claimed she didn't give a damn about money, trading a priceless accessory for a worthless plastic ring was not something that even the most philanthropic rich bastard would do—not without a motive.
If I wanted to believe that it was because of some sort of a sentimental, caring reason, Lisa's frown promptly squashed that suspicion.
"I wanted you to see how foolish it was to ever desire such a thing in the first place," she said coldly, but the fact that she had remembered my trivial confession at all negated the impact of her words. "Now tell me, Jennie; how does it feel to have everything you've ever wanted?"
She was mocking me—but I couldn't escape this sneaking little thought that there was something else hidden in her tone as well. Something hoarse that grew as I proudly slipped the ring onto my finger and brandished it like a hard-fought spoil of war.
"It feels wonderful," I declared with an impish grin. "It's not exactly from a gumball machine ... Regardless; I shall never take it off."
There was a dare in my tone that I couldn't deny. An eavesdropper might have suspected that the proclamation was done out of gratitude, but no—rather than 'I shall wear it and remember you always,' I meant, 'I shall wear it stubbornly even if my finger turns gangrene and falls off.'
Oddly enough, Lisa's eyes took on a satisfied tint.
"I will hold you to that. Let's just hope it doesn't turn your finger green. After all, the purity of your skin is one of your few redeeming qualities …"
I let the barb slip by unchallenged.
"Perhaps my next life goal should be a necklace?" I wondered, eyeing her throat for a glimpse of that silver chain. "One like yours?"
"No."
Something in me tightened at her tone, but I didn't have long to ponder why before her face fell back into its usual blank mask.
"I have another meeting," she said, shrugging me off physically as well as verbally. "I'll have you dropped off at your house."
"So, I'm being dismissed then? Until …" I prompted, suddenly uneasy as to the terms of our new 'arrangement.'
She shrugged again. "Until I have use for you, of course."