Pieces of Truth

Chapter 16

Truth or Dare

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Kyser Harkin’s penthouse was on the top floor in a building on Fifth Avenue, on the upper east side. Every year he threw a lavish party he titled ‘Truth or Dare’. The idea sounded childish, but was, in fact, a dark and glamorous party exclusive for Lappell members and approved guests as a fun meet and greet. All guests were presented with a platter some time during the evening with two cards, one with the word ‘Truth’ and the other that said ‘Dare’. You could only choose one card and your choice was where the fun began.

This year, Kyser’s party happened to fall on my birthday, and given Clint’s and Josh’s mandatory attendance, we all decided to go to the party as a group, with myself and Tess being approved as guests.

“Wait, how do they know truths for each and every person here?” Tess asked me as all four of us stood in the elevator heading to the top floor, to the penthouse. Clint, Josh and myself all stared at Tess like she was an idiot. When she saw our looks, a light bulb went off in her head. “Wait. I should already know the answer to that. But of course. It’s the Lappell”

The Lappell would certainly have a truth for all of us. The idea made me nervous but I had promised Clint I would choose that card, so hopefully it wouldn’t lead to anything bad.

“Did I tell you how sexy you look tonight?” Clint leaned down to whisper into my ear. I adjusted my blood-red beaded Elie Saab gown which had a deep plunging neckline. My hair was up in an elegant twisted bun and I had a blood-red lipstick on that matched my dress.

“Only about a million times,” I whispered back.

Clint squeezed my hand. Josh’s eyes darted across to mine as I stood between him and Clint in the elevator. Tess stood behind the three of us adjusting her emerald green strapless gown.

When the doors opened we walked straight into a foyer which led to an open room, with high ceilings, filled with candlelight and soft music. You could easily see the lights of the city as there was a view from all corners of the room. There were suits mixed with glamorous gowns everywhere. Beading, diamantes, chiffon and silk floating in between well-groomed gentlemen. There was also a large number of waiters carrying platters to people with cards on them. The waiters must have been assigned to certain people because they carried those trays with purpose as they sought out their next assigned guest.

We all took in the sight, our heads moving around to get our bearings. Our amazement was quickly interrupted by a waiter carrying a tray of champagne filled flutes.

“Champagne?” he asked. We all took a glass and started to make our way into the party. We picked a spot next to a window and all stood, gazing out at the city lights that twinkled like lights on a Christmas tree. I began thinking of the Literary Ball back in Morewell, and how Clint’s gardens were lit up that evening. This had the same jaw-dropping effect.

“A toast,” Josh said breaking the silence, “to Norah on her birthday. May your night be as magical as this view. Cheers!” We all turned and clinked our glasses, all saying in unison, “Cheers!” and we all took a sip, smiling as we did.

“Tess Nicholls,” a waiter said, coming up behind us as we brought our glasses back down from our mouths.

She turned around, looking shocked by the waiter saying her name. “That’s me,” she said to the waiter, holding the platter with the two cards.

“You must choose one.”

It was all he said. He just stood and waited for Tess to pick a card. She looked at all of us for assistance. I just shrugged my shoulders as I waited to see what she would do.

“Well, I think the truth is over-rated...so...I will take dare,” said Tess mischievously. Tess picked up the envelope, and the waiter walked off, leaving Tess as she pulled out the little card and read. She laughed and raised her eyebrows.

“What?” Clint asked, as we waited for her to tell us what was on the card. Tess looked back and forth at all of us before she read the card out loud.

“Kiss someone you have never kissed before.” Tess giggled and then looked around again, her eyes finally locking on mine.

“Seriously?” I said, surprised by her selection.

“C’mon Norah. It’s your birthday.”

“And what, this is a gift?” I shook my head at Tess.

“Some people would feel pretty lucky you know.” I turned and looked at Clint, wondering how he felt about Tess’s choice. “Plus we’ve already seen each other naked,” she pointed out.

“Excuse me, what did I miss? You two have been naked together?” His hands went up and he grinned. That comment also made Josh’s head do a double turn. “Ummm, when was this exactly? I need details please!” I punched Clint playfully in the shoulder.

“It was nothing, right Tess?” I gave Tess a look that I hope she interpreted correctly because I didn’t want to have to bring up our encounter with Leo. I didn’t want anything spoiling tonight and Clint hearing about that day would surely lead to a thousand questions I didn’t want to answer.

Tess saw my look and knew what she needed to do. “It was just some drunk evening when we were mucking around. Don’t get too excited guys. Nothing to report.” Her eyes found mine again. “C’mon Norah, don’t be a prude.”

Oh they were fighting words!

“Alright, alright. It’s not a big deal. Let’s do this.” I didn’t really care that I was about to kiss Tess. It was just a bit of fun, it didn’t mean anything. Why not do something a little out of my comfort zone on my birthday, and if anything, it would shut Tess up and stop her from accidentally bringing up the day we saw Leo. I handed Clint my champagne glass and Tess did the same, handing hers to Josh. The boys were dead silent as we readied ourselves. I don’t think they wanted to say anything for fear we would change our minds.

Boys.

We were both giggling as she grabbed onto my waist. “Are we really going to do this?” I asked Tess in between giggles.

“I chose dare...sooooo...” Tess then put her lips on mine and I stopped giggling. Her lips were very soft which was the first thing I noticed when they touched. After a few seconds of our lips on one another, we opened our mouths and very slowly, allowed our tongues to intertwine. It was nice, intimate. I didn’t feel my body react the same way it did when Clint or even Josh kissed me, but the act of the kiss itself was lovely. Tess had a very nice kissing style. I enjoyed the kiss, but it did nothing to cause a sexual explosion inside my body. At least it confirmed that I wasn’t harboring any other tendencies that I wasn’t aware of. When our lips parted, we could hear Clint and Josh each take a huge gulp of air. We both turned our heads to look at two guys whose mouths were hung open like they had witnessed a miracle.

“I am so choosing dare if this is what I can look forward to,” Josh said like a horny teenage boy.

I rolled my eyes as I stepped away from Tess, and took my champagne glass back from Clint, who still looked like he was trying to clear his head. “It was just a kiss guys. Relax. It didn’t mean anything.”

“Yeah, but did you like it?” Josh joked, and I tried to swipe at him but he moved away from my flying hand. Suddenly another waiter came up to our group. He stopped at us with another platter and said, “Lenorah Rossi.”

I took another sip and looked at the tray. “OK, well I think I will go with truth.” I smiled, “I’ve already been pretty daring tonight.” I picked up my truth envelope and pulled out the card. “Someone special has a big surprise for you.”

Well that was pretty harmless.

“Oh really! I wonder who?” Clint winked at me and I knew it must be to do with my present he had planned to give me after the party.

“Sounds pretty accurate.” Clint squeezed my hand tighter.

“My turn,” said Josh, as he saw a waiter walking up to him. The waiter holding the platter with both envelopes for him said his name. “I’m taking dare. They look like lots of fun. Right girls.” He picked the dare envelope and removed the card. “You must dance Gangnam Style on the dance floor.”

Josh groaned. “Fuuuuuck! What a gyp! Tess gets girl-on-girl action and I get to make a fool of myself.”

We all laughed. This was a lot of fun and turning into a great way to spend my birthday.

Clint’s turn was last. The waiter was right behind him after Josh’s waiter departed. “Well, like my girl, I’m going for truth.” Clint selected the envelope and read his card. His face changed to a look of sheer horror as he scrunched up the card, reaching into his pants’ pocket to retrieve his cell.

“What did it say Clint? What’s wrong?” I tried to get Clint’s attention but his eyes were searching the crowd, not doing anything else but being on high alert.

What the hell was on that card?

Clint’s head turned from one side to the other, his eyes cold and wide. “Nothing Norah. Everything is fine. Just fine. Stay here. I have a call to make.” Clint brushed past me, and as he did, he accidentally dropped his scrunched up card he had tried to jam into his pocket. I debated going after Clint, but after seeing his reaction, I needed to know what was written on the card. I looked at the card on the floor. Tess noticed what I was about to do.

“Don’t do it Norah. Just let Clint deal with whatever it is.” Whatever was on the card was bad, and had made Clint run off, looking freaked out.

I probably should have left that scrunched up card on the floor, and I probably shouldn’t have read it. But it wasn’t about what was right or wrong; it was about all the doubt and wonder I had stored inside me for months and how I had the worst feeling in my stomach right now . I felt it had all led to this.

Ignoring Tess, I picked up the card, unfolded it, and read. It said, ‘Someone is going to spill your secret tonight’.

My hands began to get clammy as I held the card. I had experienced this feeling before. It was the morning after the Literary ball when Josh told me the truth about Clint. Suddenly the moment that crushed me came back into my head, opening up the vault that imprisoned my darkness. The door was had been unlocked, and my darkness was readying itself to come out.

“Can you two go find Clint please? I need a minute.” They hurried off as I stood frozen, the world spinning all around me. My whole body tensing. I slipped into a mental dreamlike state. I could hear the sounds of people around me, the idle chatter, the reactions of when they read their cards, but my feet were numb, and the presence of all the other guests, looked like the soft glow of a street lamp. I was somewhere between truth and lies, reality and imagination. There was a sensation on my shoulder. A tapping suddenly made my whole body jump. I turned to see Kyser Harkin standing behind me.

“Miss Rossi, I was hoping you could help me with my dare.” He broke my trance with his steady voice. I snapped back into something that resembled normal, and tried my best to focus on his words.

“How can I do that?” I asked him, showing only disinterest in my voice. The smile I had walked in with this evening had now left the building.

“By dancing with me,” Kyser said and held out his hand. There was some jazz music playing in the background which I could make out in between my thoughts that held a myriad of mixed emotions at that moment.

“I don’t see how that helps with any dare.” I didn’t like Kyser Harkin and didn’t trust anything that came out of his mouth.

“Well Ms. Rossi, my dare is ‘dance with someone dangerous’.”

I eyed him suspiciously. “What makes me so dangerous?”

“Well, look at you. Men are willing to do whatever it takes to have you. That makes you very dangerous Ms Rossi. I wouldn’t want to be chasing you.”

He knew something, it was obvious, and he was enjoying playing with my head. “Tell me what you know?”

Kyser finally dropped his hand, realizing I wasn’t going to dance with him. “I know that I should admire you from afar,” his eyes went to someone standing behind me, “and by the looks of it, our time together has come to an end.”

“What are you talking about?” I spun around, coming face to face with another waiter holding a silver platter with a new and larger envelope with the word TRUTH in large letters written on it. Something seemed so familiar about this waiter. Spiky blond hair, dimples on his cheeks, and I could see traces of a tribal tattoo from under his long-sleeved button-up waiter’s shirt.

How do I know him?

“For you Alice.”

“Excuse me?” I said.

He lifted the envelope and presented it again. “For you Norah.”

I must have heard wrong.

He smiled devilishly as I took the card and then turned and strode back into the crowd. I held the envelope in my hand and looked at it. It was much bigger than the other little envelopes handed out at the start of the evening. I already knew what it was. I wasn’t stupid. Whatever secret Clint was hiding, was going to be revealed in this envelope. This was it, Pandora’s box, and I was about to open it up.

Why Samuel? Why choose my birthday to do this to me? I lifted the folder up piece of paper from the envelope, hands shaking, and began reading.

Is it true? It can’t be true. But it looks true. But it can’t be true. This can NOT be true! My eyes were reading the words that would not form the reality in my head. My gaze lifted suddenly to a figure running through the crowd and directly towards me. People parted as the gorgeous blond haired guy ran my way.

Clint leapt for me, his mouth immediately on mine, his kiss desperate and scared. I let him kiss me, let him feel my lips and be this close to me this one last time, because I knew it was the last time I would ever let him. After I couldn’t bear it any more, I pushed Clint off my mouth.

The first words to come out of his mouth were, “Norah, I can explain.” He trembled as he spoke.

“It’s true isn’t it?” I could barely breathe.

Tess and Josh came running up to us. They stood back as I gripped the piece of paper to my chest. “Tell me the truth Clint, did you do this?”

“Norah, let me talk to you in private.”

“No!” I yelled, my voice rising. “I asked you a question Clint.”

Josh and Tess just stood back watching, not knowing what was happening. “Norah,” Clint started to say but I stopped him.

“This piece of paper informs me of a contract. A contract you signed Clint. A contract with a man called Devon Lockley to find and get rid of my friend and ex-fiancé Samuel. To kill him.”

Clint’s eyes welled.

“Did you, or did you not sign this Clint? Is this not your signature signing away the life of my friend, Samuel.”

Tess stepped forward to try and comfort me, but Josh held her back. It was not the right moment to come too close. Josh knew.

“Norah, you have to understand that Samuel did it to me first. What I did was protection for me and for us. It was retaliation. He fired first. He did it first. He put a contract on me, so I put one on him.”

So much darkness in and all around me. The thoughts of what I would do if I had a gun in my hands at that moment and where it would be pointed. Clint had purposely hired a man to get rid of my friend, someone I loved, someone I had wanted to marry. Clint was like my father, trying to control me and using threats and force to do so. He should know how much this would kill me inside. How totally opposed to this I would be. How could I love someone who would purposely hire a man to hurt my friend? This was all sorts of wrong.

“I loved you Clint. I really did.” I couldn’t find the rage that would usually erupt from inside me. I couldn’t summon the anger that would tear him down. The pain felt too deep. All that would come out of my mouth were stuttered fragments of hurt emotion. It was a side of me that had felt too much pain already and couldn’t fight back. I was weak now. I was a different version of my old self, and it was too hard for me to try and hide my devastation.

“I, I, I trusted you. I moved away with you.” I glanced over to Josh, who looked helpless as he stared at us, and then I turned back to Clint again. “I defended you. Even when I was informed you were keeping a secret from me, I still believed they were wrong. I still believed in you.”

“Please don’t say this. I’m sorry. I made a mistake.” He tried to move closer but with each step he took towards me, I took two back.

“No. No. No! I don’t know you.” I couldn’t look at Clint. The sickening thought of him hiring a man to hurt Samuel. It was too much, it was too wrong. “I don’t know you,” I yelled at him. “I don’t know who the hell you are.”

“Norah I’m Clint. We are in love.” Clint’s voice was unrecognizable. It was sad and desperate.

I threw the piece of paper at him. “The person I love would never do this to me. They would never hurt me like this, and they would never hurt someone I care about.”

“I beg you Norah, please come home and we will talk about this. Sort it all out. It’s your birthday. Tonight I was going to... Oh please. Please come home.” Clint’s legs had buckled and he looked like he was almost on his knees, begging.

“I don’t have a home any more. I don’t have a boyfriend any more. I don’t even think I even have a heart after all this. You have stomped on it, ripped it out and f*cking wrote away our future together.”

I started to walk backwards faster, and Clint, Tess and Josh started gaining pace as they tried to move towards me.

“STOP! Do not follow me. Any of you.” I couldn’t stay. I would rip the walls down in rage with my own two hands if I stayed there. My only option was to run before I hurt myself or someone else.

I saw the tears on Clint’s face. Saw the intense fear in his eyes. But my heart was gone. It had left the moment I saw his signature. I could not feel compassion for him. Not now, not after all this. No, no, no.

A waiter walked past me with a tray of champagne filled glasses. I smashed the tray from his hands so the glasses fell in front of me, separating Clint, Tess and Josh from getting any closer, allowing me to bolt and slide into the crowd that all turned and moved in to see the commotion. The sudden influx of people all moving towards the noise, allowed me to slip out and make my escape.

As I ran out onto the street, I started walking, not taking notice of which direction I was headed, but realizing after a few blocks that I was being followed. I wasn’t a fool. I recognized the car. It was one of my Dad’s. Normally I ignored the tail my Dad usually set on me, but tonight I had a use for it.

I stopped walking and ran back to the car. It had already stopped and the two men simply sat, staring in the opposite direction, acting like they didn’t know me.

I leaned in on the car door, “Hey Frankie, hey Marco.”

They huffed a bit, “Oh hey Lenorah, fancy seeing you here.”

“Cut the shit. I need you to take me home. And I mean back to my Dad’s place. I want to get changed and there are a few things I need to get.”

Like my Glock.

And then I was going to lose this tail.