Page 71 of Start With A Slap

The grunts kept coming. She slammed a pillow over her head, wishing for earplugs and a Unisom or twelve. Maybe he kept some in his bedside drawer...

Locked. So much for sleep aidage.

Though she did have a bobby pin in her bag... which was how she used to get into her father’s desk drawer for candy.

“Haven’t lost my touch,” she congratulated herself when she finally jimmied it open. However, inside was nothing but a couple of pens, a lighter and a musty, broken-spined hardcover ofCrime and Punishment.

She opened the cover. On the dedication page was a manic scrawl:

HAVE A

NICE

FUCKIN

LIFE

MOTHER

FUCKER!!

The opposite page was marred with an X. So was the next, and the next... When Ivy took it out of the drawer to inspect it further, a black envelope slid out of the book and into her lap.

The envelope was addressed to Sever from a production company in London. It had clearly been handled a lot since its initial opening... and it was sent roughly eight years earlier — the last time he claimed he’d been truly intimate with anyone.Could this be the cause? And if so, why would he leave it on his plane? Unless it was so important to him he brought it wherever he went...

It was a moral quandary. On the one hand, this was private property, and she had no right. On the other, she was dying of curiosity, and Sever was a dick.

She pulled out the note.

This was all I could find — Marked Records Xmas bash. Forgive me the clandestine bits — as I’m sure you’re aware I was infatuated with her like everyone else. Destroyed as per your request — this is the only copy.

Respectfully,

Clement

Inside, a flash drive with a scotch-taped paper label:Roxie.

The date was there too, and she did the math:27 years ago.

Oh, boy.

Ivy might as well have been handed a map to the Holy Grail. Jason’s enigmatic dead mother captured on film the year of Jason’s conception, very likely interacting with Sever? This was huge. This could be the key toeverything.

Her eyes slid to the USB-input on the TV, to the locked bedroom door, and back to the flash drive.

Her snoozing principles snapped awake when she was midway to the TV. She couldn’t do this. Sever aside, it wouldn’t be fair to Jason. He was the one who deserved to know more about his mother, not her. And what exactly was she looking for at this point? Now that she was involved with Sever, her motives couldn’t be justified as simple curiosity anymore. This was herlover’s ex. This was dangerous, any way you sliced it.

Taking the high road, or the highest road available to her at this stage, she put everything back exactly as she’d found it and closed the top drawer. It made her feel better.

Until, as she struggled to lock it, she began to wonder about the bottom drawer. Twice the depth of the top, it had enough room for a lifetime of Mark family puzzle pieces. What else did Sever have to hide?

She saw the pheasant feather first. It was long and soft, with a gilded base. Then she saw what was under it:

A pocket knife. Leather gloves. Black rope. A blindfold. A leather paddle. And three boxes of L’Eggs pantyhose.

She shut the drawer, heart pounding, and came to a conclusion:

“I’m watching it.”

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