And their daughter Chrissy, my best friend. She’d been in on it all along, acting as a courier for her parents, getting rich on the backs of high school junkies.
“Chrissy, why?” I’d asked plaintively, visiting her in jail. She was to be tried as a juvenile, her case bifurcated from her parents. “Why did you guys do this?”
She’d shrugged, her blonde hair glossy even in the dim light of the county jail. Her expression was haughty but she wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Why else?” she sniffed. “Money. We needed it, we couldn’t keep up with everyone else in St. Francis Wood, so Mom and Dad decided to go for it,” she shrugged. “I can’t help that Brian Adams and Tyler Needham got addicted. It was their own fault,” she snapped.
“But you didn’t have to work for your parents,” I said slowly. “You didn’t have to make drug dealing a family business.”
“I know,” she tossed off nonchalantly. “But Valerie didn’t join and look what happened to her? A junkie in rehab without a penny to her name.”
That was true. Valerie had been in bad shape since her rescue, entering a live-in addiction center in Southern California, her health precarious. But at least there were no charges pending against Valerie, even the DA recognized that she’d caught a bad break.#p#分页标题#e#
“Valerie made her choices, and they were hard ones,” I said slowly. “But …” I shook my head. “Why didn’t you tell someone? Why did keep this secret? I would have helped you get out.”
“Oh please Callie,” blew Chrissy impatiently. “Please, your family is a bigger mess than mine, your sister a so-called porn star, your other sister stole her fiancé, all that shit. So don’t tell me what to do,” she snapped.
A stricken look on my face, I turned to go. This was a total one-eighty. Chrissy and the Gordons had always been so kind to me, but I guess it had always been a farce. I suppose they’d never cared about me, I was just an innocent school friend who provided a layer of normalcy to cover their deception.
“Okay,” I said slowly, as the guard arrived at the gate. “I guess this is goodbye then,” I said. “But I wanted to let you know … I’m getting married to Blake Hanson.”
“Oh good,” snarked Chrissy. “That leaves Bryan for me.”
I shook my head again. The cold, hard facts obviously still hadn’t penetrated Chrissy’s head yet. She didn’t realize that she was looking at five years in the slammer minimum. Sentencing was tough, even for minors.
Softly I murmured, “Goodbye Chrissy,” turning to leave.
But only silence followed me, echoing in the jail cell. I really was dead to my closest friend, our ties severed forever.
EPILOGUE
Callie
Nothing will bring Tyler Needham and Brian Adams back. They live on in our memories as nice boys who met untimely deaths, Brian on the football field and Tyler after an unexplained fainting spell. Only a few know the terrible truth – that they were innocent boys drawn into a dark web of greed, lies, and crime.
I wish things had worked out differently, I really do, but at least the crisis has changed my life for the better. I’ve learned who’s really on my side and who’s just using me as a pawn. Unfortunately, the world is filled with people who don’t give a shit about you, whether real or surrogate families.
So I’m lucky that I have my husbands with me, twin bedrocks of solace and support. Although I was only able to marry Blake at City Hall, in fact we have a very workable threesome, Bryan, Blake and I. I still remember the ceremony. I walked towards Blake in a wispy white dress, escorted by Bryan. The city official looked at me askance when I didn’t let go of Bryan’s arm at the altar.
“Ms. … um, Ms. Walsh,” he stuttered. “You realize you can only marry one man?”
“Of course,” I said sweetly. “But Bryan means just as much to me as Blake and we’re three witnesses to this holy covenant.”
The official shrugged helplessly. He’d seen all sorts of kooks in San Francisco and it was no crime to have an additional observer at the altar.
So when he’d pronounced us man and wife I hadn’t hesitated to give Blake a kiss, and then turn and lock lips with Brian as well, our breaths mingling hotly, the sensation bringing my toes to a curl.
“Mmm, wifey,” he murmured, his lips hungry on mine, “you taste delicious.”
“Mine too,” rumbled Blake from the other side, his hand possessive on my hip, trailing slowly to my bottom, squeezing the juicy flesh there.