Free Black Opal by Catie Rhodes

ended with Julienne giving each person a job to do. She assigned Dean and Ricky to dishwashing duties. A few minutes later, their loud teasing and arguing drifted in from the kitchen. Colton took the linens to the laundry room. We girls cleared the table, making numerous trips back and forth to the kitchen, which looked like something off a glamorous TV show.
    Lisette waited to strike until Julienne and Madeleine were gone from the room, and I was bent over the table brushing Ricky’s cracker crumbs into a pile.
    “He doesn’t love you.” She stood behind me and hissed the words at my back. Cowardly twit. I turned to face her, not even attempting to keep the fury off my face. Rather than backing away, as I’d expected, she smirked. “I can’t believe Dean would sully himself with such common trash. Once he has enough of the sex, which I’ll admit is probably good with someone like you, he’ll move on. Plus, you’re a freak. And Dean hates freaks.”
    My skin smoldered as embarrassment dug in its filthy claws. But a lifetime of putting up with this kind of shit brought the right words to my lips. “Obviously he hates cheating whores, too. Have you seen the way he looks at you?”
    Lisette gasped and drew back her open hand.
    “Do it,” I said through clenched teeth. “I’ll jump on you and snatch all that gorgeous hair off your head and shove it up your ass.”
    Tears sprang into Lisette’s eyes, probably her secret weapon. Well, they wouldn’t work on me. Not when she started this.
    Voices, Julienne giggling and Madeleine talking, came from outside the room. Lisette jumped away from me so fast I almost didn’t see her move. She manufactured a smile so genuine even I had trouble believing the last few moments really happened. As the other two women stepped into the room, she cut her eyes at me. The malice there was unmistakable. It wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.
    I barely listened as Lisette said her goodbyes, exchanging a tearful hug with Julienne and giving Madeleine a sisterly pat on the shoulder. I had to give Lisette her props. She missed her calling in Hollywood. Or on reality TV.
    Dean’s mother’s cool hand closed around my arm, and she pulled me close to her. “I think we should talk privately.”
    When I tried to meet her eyes, she kept her gaze trained on my neck. Unable to help myself, I reached up to touch the spot she stared at. My fingers met warm metal and stone. That damn necklace again. How did the sonofabitch get there?
    Fuckity fuck. Now, in addition to everything else, Dean’s mother would likely accuse me of theft. And I didn’t know how to convince her it wasn’t true.

8

    Climbing the curving staircase reminded me of the walk to the principal’s office after I got into yet another scuffle. I looked for signs of anger in Julienne but saw none. She climbed, her elegant hand trailing over the smooth, shining wood of the banister, as though the world simply waited on her next command. Her calm confidence reminded me of my grandmother’s, and that brought to mind her cancer and how much I’d miss her when it took her. I tried to swallow around the lump forming in my throat. We walked wordlessly with only the whispers of our footsteps to mark our passage until we reached a closed double door at the end of a wing I’d have never found on my own. Julienne held the door open and motioned me inside.
    Despite not wanting to draw her amusement, I did a slow circle, gaping at the room’s opulence. I had stepped into an antique store where nothing was for sale.
    Julienne watched me taking in everything. “This suite of rooms belonged to my grandmother, Fayette. I grew up in a different part of the house. By the time Fayette died, my own mother was confined to a hospital bed in the wing where she spent most of her married life. It seemed cruel to uproot her at that point. So, Rick and I moved into this suite.”
    “You kept Fayette’s furniture.” I recognized several Art Deco