Authors: Abby Weeks
Tags: #Literary, #Contemporary, #Fiction, #Romance, #Suspense, #Erotica, #Womens
The Assignment 4 (13 page)
“This place is beautiful,” Lacey said.
“It is,” Claire said, but there was such sadness in her voice that Lacey knew the poor girl could never be happy there. She realized that Claire had only been pretending to be excited about the apartment the night before. Even an indoor swimming pool, high above the streets of Manhattan, would lose its appeal when you were the property of someone else.
There were two sinks and they each stood in front of one of them.
“There should be a set of toiletries for you in that drawer,” Claire said, indicating a cabinet beneath the second sink.
Lacey opened it and was amazed to see that it contained absolutely everything that she could possibly hope for. There was an unopened toothbrush, toothpaste, high quality hand and face lotion, an entire range of cosmetic products, a selection of small perfume samples. Every designer brand Lacey had ever heard of was represented.
“Wow,” she said.
Claire nodded. “It’s convenient,” she said.
They both got ready and went back out to the bed. Lacey was shocked to see that two identical outfits had been laid out on the bed for them to wear. They were black Chanel dresses with white belts and matching white shoes.
“Where did these come from?” Lacey said.
“A servant laid them out. It’s like this every morning. Wolf gets a kick out of deciding what I wear. He’s obsessed with control, Lacey. I can’t do anything without him controlling it. He has to control every detail.”
Lacey held the dress up. It was a perfect fit. She actually liked it but didn’t want to say so as she could see Claire was upset. As well as the dress there was underwear and everything else she could possibly need. They dressed in silence.
Downstairs there was coffee waiting for them. They were in a sitting area on the east side of the apartment, facing over the park. The light was beautiful.
“Are you okay?” Lacey said to her as she stirred some cream into her coffee. She usually drank it black but today she felt like she needed the comfort of a little cream.
Claire looked so defeated. She smiled but Lacey knew it was just for show. She reached out and touched Claire’s arm. Claire looked at her.
“It’s just so difficult,” Claire said.
“Life?”
“Everything, Lacey. You have no idea.”
Lacey nodded.
“I mean, of course you do have some idea. I know what you went through last night. It’s just, living here, day after day, week after week, it’s so
depressing
.”
“I can imagine,” Lacey said.
“I always pictured the man I would marry,” Claire said. “When I was a little girl I would imagine what he would be like. I pictured a handsome, fun, friendly man. And he was always kind. In my mind, the way I imagined him, it was always a kind man that I married.”
“But that’s not what you got.”
“No. I mean, I don’t hate Mark. But I can’t love him.”
“He’s a lot older than you are.”
“He is, but that’s not even the worst part. The really worst thing, the thing I can’t forgive, is that he knew what was going on. He knew that my father was forcing me to marry him. He pretended not to be aware of it. My father made a big deal about me pretending I wanted the marriage and Mark was able to act like it was all for real, like it wasn’t an arranged marriage, but there was no doubt. I cried on our wedding day. I cried every day leading up to it, too. I shed so many tears they could have formed a river. On our wedding night, I was crying when he first entered me. He didn’t care. He just wanted to consummate the marriage. He didn’t care that I was devastated.”
“That’s awful, Claire.”
“I felt like I would never get out from under my father’s thumb.”
Lacey knew what Claire meant. She understood that for a girl like that, living with a father like Lally, marriage would have always seemed like the only escape. She would have spent her childhood waiting for the day she could get married and escape from her father’s oppressive influence. To find out that the marriage was a sham, arranged by her father, would have been devastating. It would mean that there would never be an escape. She would be Lally’s slave forever.
“You thought marriage would be an escape?” Lacey said, trying to encourage Claire.
“I thought it would be an escape from my father.”
“But it wasn’t.”
“Not at all. I’m under my father’s control as much as I ever was. The only difference is that now I have to please Mark too. It’s hell, Lacey. Sometimes, I think about ending it. I fantasize about falling from the rooftop garden. Sometimes I feel like jumping. The temptation is overwhelming.”
“Don’t,” Lacey said. “Don’t hurt yourself, Claire. Things can always get better.”
“That’s what I used to think,” Claire said. “I really believed that, Lacey. All through my childhood, all through those years of torture and agony, I fantasized about what things would be like when I became free. I held on to that hope through it all. But now, all hope is lost. I’ve had my marriage, I’ve had my chance of escape, and nothing’s changed. It’s only gotten worse.”
“What if I told you that things could get better?” Lacey said. “What if I promised you that I could change things?”
“How can you?” Claire said. “No one can help me.”
“I can,” Lacey said, “or at least I hope I can.”
Claire looked at her a long time. She took a sip of coffee. Lacey held her gaze.
“Okay,” Claire said at last, “what do you need to know?”
Lacey couldn’t believe it. At last she was getting her chance to get to the information she needed. Claire was going to open up. If there was something illegal going on, then Claire would know about it. She had to.
“Are your husband and father bribing the mayor?”
“You mean to get the financial district closed off?”
“Closed off?”
“Yes, that’s their plan. They want to create their own autonomous zone on the southern end of Manhattan.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean what it sounds like,” Claire said. “They want to create their own private zone down there. They’ll have their own security force, their own tax system, their own laws, everything.”
“Is that even possible?” Lacey said.
“It is if you’re rich enough.”
“Rich enough for what?”
“To buy all the real estate first of all.”
“Have they done that?”
“Pretty much. That’s what all the members of The Club have in common. They’re a consortium who have been buying up all the real estate in Lower Manhattan. Their goal is to recreate the old Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, just as it originally was, before the British arrived.”
“You mean the original settlement of New York?”
“Yes. The old settlement was completely fortified. It was walled off. They want to recreate that! They want their own colony, a replica of New Amsterdam, just as it was in the seventeenth century.”
“You’re kidding?”
“I’m serious. They’re in deep, Lacey. They’ve got the mayor and all his people on board. They’re working now on getting congressional support. They’re bringing members of congress and senators and people in the president’s circle into The Club. They’re going to buy all the support they need to pass the necessary legislation.”
“Claire, that’s big news! That’s huge!”
“That’s why they’re keeping it all under wraps at the moment.”
“Are they going to wall off the whole area?”
“They are, and it won’t be accessible to the public.”
“What about the Statue of Liberty?”
“I don’t know. That’s in the bay. I think that will still belong to the people.”
“Claire, why are they doing this?”
“They want freedom, Lacey. They want freedom from taxes. They want a place they can control. They want to create their own rules, their own laws. They want to control who can get in and out of the area. And most importantly of all, they want to control the stock exchange and the financial center.”
“Claire, I’ve never heard of anything like it.”
“It’s like those people who buy up land in Nevada or Utah and try to create their own communes.”
“Yes, but they’re going to do it in downtown Manhattan, and take the stock exchange with them.”
“They’re ambitious,” Claire said.
“I’ll say!” Lacey said.
“They say that it will be like Monte Carlo,” Claire said. “Their own kingdom, where they get to make the rules.”
Lacey had to take a breath. This was bigger than anything she had imagined. These men would stop at nothing, it seemed. They had to have everything, and they had to have it just the way they wanted. They didn’t just want to own buildings. They wanted to have their own private city. And they wanted it in New York. So many important landmarks would be theirs, the stock exchange, Wall Street, Battery Park, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the site of the World Trade Center. Maybe even Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty would be included. Lacey almost got dizzy at the thought of it. Those were symbols of freedom and national pride for the entire country, for the entire world. How could one small group of rich men be buying it all up?
They had to be stopped. She had to get this information to Gretchen and Sandra. This was a real story. Congress was already looking into allowing these men to create a private security force. That was already big news. But now it seemed it was just the first phase in an ultimate plan to take control of Lower Manhattan and bring the whole district into private hands. They really were going to create their own private fiefdom. She knew she had to get this information to Sandra and Gretchen as quickly as possible. Every second counted. If they were already buying the support they needed in Congress, then it might even be too late!
Lacey shuddered suddenly. She shuddered at the thought of what life would be like for the women who were lured into that private domain. The law would be different in there. The reach of the government would be curtailed. Lacey knew enough to know that The Club would have no trouble attracting its share of women. With the wealth and power that they could offer, there would always be ambitious girls who would be attracted to it like bees to honey. But Lacey had already seen enough of how these men treated women, even their own daughters and wives, to know that life would barely be tolerable in such a place.
She took deep breaths.
“It’s a lot to take in,” Claire said.
“It’s almost too much,” Lacey said. “Can you imagine what it would be like if men like these had their own private colony to control?”
As soon as she’d said the words, Lacey realized that Claire was the one woman in the world who knew exactly what it would be like to live under the dominion of men like Lally and Wolf. She was already living it. For her, their dominion was already a reality.
“Yes I can,” she said. “Now do you see why I fantasize about jumping off the roof?”
Lacey looked at her hard. She knew that it was a real possibility that these men would succeed in creating this new colony, this New Amsterdam of their imaginings. They would get to recreate a miniature society entirely of their own devising. And not only would they control that little colony, but they would also have in their possession the financial heart of the entire world! It was too much!
She couldn’t breathe.
“Yes,” she said, trying to catch her breath. “Yes I can.”
“Can you stop them?” Claire said.
Lacey’s head was spinning. She didn’t know the answer to that. It wasn’t up to her. It would take more than a story in a magazine to stop men like these, men who were already securing the support of the US Congress for their scheme.
“I can try,” she said, more to herself than to Claire.
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