Page 49 of Poison Vows

“Anytime you need a reality check, call me!” With that, she passes me a familiar-looking embossed black card but this one has the gold words printed in a fancy cursive font, detailing Scar’s contact details.

“You carry business cards?” I ask, impressed by her.

“Uh, who doesn’t?”

“Me and, well, everyone else?”

“Evidently, you’re not everyone else. I’m sure you’ll get your own soon.”

“Wait, why?”

Scar hums knowingly, her eyes sparkling. “Now that we’re friends, maybe it’s okay to talk about it.”

“Yes, we’re friends, so spill.”

She chuckles and then she gets to work, pushing my shoulders down into the cloud-like chair in front of the vanity, then she starts to work on my makeup.

“Back to your delusion. We’re not a Mafia Family per se, but we did start out like one, centuries ago.”

“Centuries?”

“Yes, we’re that kind of old money.”

“What’s your family like? Besides the old wealth and stuff.”

Scar is silent for a beat. “Why do you ask?”

“I just… I don’t want to be naïve anymore.” Scarlet pauses and eyes me seriously, which unnerves me. “What?”

“Nothing,” she mutters. “It’s just that there’s a raging fire in your eyes…”

“Well, it’s about time I grow a spine.”

“I like that. To be honest, that’s an oddly refreshing question. Usually, people hear the name and immediately sign up to do whatever they can to get close. No one ever asks questions. But I’m not sure if I should answer that, for all I know my cousin might get mad at me… and no one wants to make an enemy out of that intimidating iceberg.”

I can imagine. “I don’t need the deep family secrets, just something to keep in mind, if you don’t mind.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea! Best be on guard,” she agrees, and then she starts opening the makeup packages, arranging them on the vanity. “My family is complicated but also very clear, depending on your view. We’re not some regular, run-of-the-mill underworld family. And even though the history of the House started that way, it has evolved to unprecedented heights of power and wealth. We sure as hell are not involved in those lowly evil gimmicks like distributing opioids or human trafficking and prostitution.” Her voice takes a hard edge. “As a matter of fact, my cousin goes to great lengths to uproot any traces of that crap.”

A chill goes down my spine when I remember the way Emmett reacted when he showed me the code to that trafficking-bidding site.

What was that about? I need to find my brother and ask him.

“Are presidential picks part of that realm of power?”

“You’re not far off. I hear Grandfather is flirting with a desperate politician currently,” Scar says nonchalantly. “It’s not exactly new but this time around, the way things are happening is strange.”

Senator Hughes…

“What usually happens?” I ask, soaking in as much as I can for later.

“Have you ever wondered how some world shifts are done? Like the crucial, small decisions that impact millions of people?”

“Uh, I don’t tend to think about that too closely. I’d be depressed forever.”

“Well, you’re not wrong,” she says with a small, sad smile. “It’s difficult to discern. In a sense, there’s a top, highly exclusive group of old families, so to speak, that are interwoven into practically everything in society and business all over the world. The subtle and the prominent. The trivial and the crucial. Practically everything.”

“Hmmm… so it’s like a secret society of the most powerful and influential families?” This I kind of already knew since I was a little girl.

---