THE PLOT
The ride home was silent and uncomfortable. Ruth had left her front seat and stayed at the back in favor of Suzanne, and Henry hadn't said anything since they left Andrei Runt's house.
"So…" Suzanne dragged the word. "Are you going to apologize for selling me out, or is this another ploy of yours?"
Henry glanced back at them and sighed. "I'll explain when I get home."
There was nothing to explain, Suzanne knew. He had simply gotten his selfish interest in the way shifted their original plan aside. What was the reason for wanting to drive to Andrei's house in the first place? Why did he go there and do another thing? Suzanne had so many questions to ask, and she was not patient enough to stay put until they got home. She was not her mother.
"Ugh!" she kicked the back of his seat. "What difference does it make if you say it now or later?!"
"The difference is that you get to calm down."
"I am CALM!"
"Suzy, you're raising your voice," this came from her mother.
Suzanne gasped in surprise at the betrayal and rounded in on Ruth. "You are taking his side?"
"Of course I'm not," Ruth blew hotly, stung by the accusation. "I just know that his intentions are good for us."
"Ugh, mom." She kicked her father's back seat again. "I'm going to keep kicking this until you talk to me!"
"Okay, okay," Henry related. "Catch a breath, Suzy, please."
Suzanne inhaled back and forth, slowly. She had anger issues, but she was working on it. That was the reason she had gone to a decorum school in the first place, to manage her anger. She was doing well actually, until she heard of her sister's death and her murderer. The same murderer that had not been brought to book, the same one that her father had gone to meet after months of planning only to go there and sell her out.
Suzanne tried to forget the sting of betrayal when her father accepted Andrei's terms. She remembered his smirk of triumph, like he was one step away from achieving a new bout of success. She remembered him saying he was going to drop by their house in three days with a present. Suzanne could only imagine what the presents were. She grunted and tried to get the disturbing, recurring images out of her head.
Henry glanced at Suzanne, hesitant about the rubbish he was about to spew. Ruth saw his sidelong glance at their daughter and tapped him gently on his shoulder.
"Just tell us what you have in mind honey, so we can get over it," she said.
Henry heaved a sigh. "Suzanne, what if I tell you that the best way to exact revenge on him is to get close to him?"
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's what every protagonist who's out to kill the villain always says. We can always shoot him from the top of the balcony and get over it."
"But that is too easy, isn't it?" Henry lowered his voice. "Death is too easy, Suzy. What happened to making his life so miserable that he'd commit suicide?"
"You're beginning to sound like a poet. What aren't you telling me?"
"I want you to marry him, get close and unearth his secret."
The silence that ensued afterwards was so short that it could not be considered as once. Suzanne laughed. She laughed so hard that tears dropped from her eyes.
"Oh my god," she was still laughing. "What is this? Some classical shit?"
"Watch your words," Ruth admonished.
"Don't you think it's wise?" Henry asked. "Don't you think we should go with the marriage scheme?"
"No, of course not, dad. That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Scratch that, I have never heard anything as dumb as you just said."
"Just so you know, when you get married to him, you need to be lowkey. You know what that means? This attitude of yours should be under the rags."
Suzanne gasped at his words. "My attitude is just fine, thank you very much. And I will not get married to him."
Henry grunted in frustration. "Why don't you see from my own point of view, huh Suzy?"
Suzanne was stunned into silence. She didn't like it when her father starts talking out due to frustration; it usually forces her into feeling for him and being cajoled into doing what he wants.
"In all of this, haven't you thought about Diane?" he continued. "What was it for her, before she died? We have no closure, no nothing. We don't even know how she died! We woke up one morning and her body was delivered to us."
Suzanne gulped noiselessly as she listened to him.
"And what's more, the person she was last with has denied us that closure! Why else won't he, when it is so obvious that he's the one who did the deed?"
Tears clogged Henry's throat as he continued to speak. "He hides behind his wealth because he is invincible with it. What if we take it out? Who will he be without all that money?"
"I don't think marrying him will solve our problem, dad," She moaned.
"It will solve a good portion of it," he answered. "He fixes our company and gives us money every month, you marry him and unearth his secret."
"Like an undercover?" Ruth asked in a small voice.
"Yes, exactly like an undercover. We gotta think outside of the box. Why isn't anyone standing with us? What is it that we don't know?"
Suzanne felt herself being dragged into his scheme little by little.
"What if Diane had uncovered a secret about him and he killed her for it?"
There was an uncomfortable silence following his words. Nobody likes to talk about Diane.
"I know there is something," Henry continued strongly. "And we will bring it to the light, Suzy. You will be the one to do that. We must avenge your sister."
Suzanne felt herself fully roped in the idea. She did not like it one bit, but she did not object too.