It Won't Work

It Won't Work


"Enough, Allison!" Georgina snapped angrily, standing up from her couch so fast that the cushions bounced behind her. Her face was flushed red with fury, and her hands were trembling at her sides.

"Do you even know that it's your mother you're speaking to in this manner?" she continued, her voice getting shriller with each word. "How dare you talk to me like I'm some stranger on the street? I raised you, I fed you, I clothed you!"

"Everything I did was for the betterment of this family," Georgina said, trying to control her voice but failing miserably. "I wanted us to be respected, to have a place in high society, to never have to worry about money again. I wanted—"

"You were greedy, that's all," Allison cut her off without hesitation. "You don't have to use the excuse that you wanted to give us a better life. That's just what you tell yourself so you can sleep at night after playing such cruel tricks on Queenie."

Allison stood up too, facing her mother with her chin raised defiantly. "Mother, you were just greedy and nothing else. You saw an opportunity to use that girl for your own benefit, and you took it without caring about how much it would hurt her."

The sound of Georgina's hand connecting with Allison's cheek echoed through the room like a gunshot. The slap was so hard that Allison's head snapped to the side, and a red handprint immediately began forming on her pale skin.

"You know nothing!" Georgina screamed, her chest heaving with rage. "You think Queenie deserves to be in that position? You think she earned it somehow?"

"It was supposed to be one of you," she continued, pointing wildly at both Catalina and Allison. "It was supposed to be one of my daughters who married into that family, who became Mrs. Deveraux. Why should she be the one to marry Jamal Deveraux? Why can't it be one of my own flesh and blood?"

Georgina started pacing again, her high heels clicking frantically against the floor. "I worked so hard to position you girls in the right circles, to make the right connections. Catalina, I spent thousands of dollars on your education, your clothes, your social events. And for what? So that some nobody could swoop in and take what should have been yours?"

"You claim that she should punish us," Georgina said, whirling around to face Allison again. "But I guess you're forgetting something very important here, young lady."

"What's that?" Allison asked, still holding her burning cheek but refusing to back down.

"If our company goes down, then we're all doomed," Georgina said slowly, like she was explaining something to a child. "We have nowhere else to go and nothing else to fall back on. Everything we own, everything we are, is tied up in this business."

"If we end up out on the streets begging for scraps, you'll be right there with us," she continued. "So I'll advise you, Allison, to think very carefully about who you're supporting here. Because when push comes to shove, blood is thicker than water, and Queenie's blood isn't flowing through your veins."

Allison chuckled slightly, shaking her head in disbelief. "I knew you would say something like this," she muttered under her breath. "I knew you'd try to scare me into taking your side."

But then she looked up and met her mother's eyes directly. "But I still stand by every word I said, mother. Everything I told you is true, and deep down you know it too."

With that, she turned and walked toward the door, her footsteps steady and determined despite the red mark still glowing on her cheek.

"Where do you think you're going?" Georgina called after her.

"Anywhere but here," Allison replied without turning around. "I need some fresh air. The atmosphere in this house is getting toxic."

The door slammed behind her with a finality that made both Georgina and Catalina jump.

Georgina sighed deeply and sank back down onto the couch, suddenly looking older than her years. "What has gotten into that girl?" she muttered to herself, rubbing her temples where a headache was starting to form.

"Mother, now isn't the time to worry about Allison's attitude when we have a much bigger problem on our hands," Catalina said, moving closer to her mother. She'd been quiet during the argument, but now her own panic was starting to show.

"We've lost a business deal worth millions of dollars, and that happened just one day after Queenie became Jamal's wife," Catalina continued, her voice getting more anxious with each word. "One day, mother. What do you think is going to happen to us after three months of their marriage? Six months? A year?"

Catalina started pacing now too, wringing her hands nervously. "What if she convinces him to blacklist our company completely? What if she turns him against every business associate we have? She knows all our secrets, all our weaknesses. She lived in this house for ten years—she knows exactly how to hurt us where it counts."

"You don't need to worry about any of that, Catalina," Georgina said, and suddenly her voice was calmer, more controlled. A cold smile began forming on her lips, the kind of smile that never reached her eyes.

"I have a backup plan," she continued, reaching into her purse and pulling out her phone. "Their marriage won't even reach three months, I can guarantee you that."

"What do you mean?" Catalina asked, though something about her mother's expression made her stomach clench with unease.

"Obviously this marriage is just a business arrangement," Georgina said, scrolling through her phone with deliberate movements. "It has to be based on mutual benefits only, because as far as I know, Queenie didn't even know Jamal existed until after she left this house."

"Think about it," she continued, her smile growing wider and more cruel. "A girl like her, with no education, no connections, no money—what could she possibly offer a man like Jamal Deveraux except for whatever lies she's told him about herself?"

Catalina leaned forward, intrigued despite herself. "What are you getting at, mother?"

"Remember, I still have that video," Georgina said softly, holding up her phone so Catalina could see the screen. "The one from Queenie's eighteenth birthday party, when she got so drunk that she—well, let's just say she wasn't acting like the innocent little angel she pretends to be."

Catalina's eyes widened as the memory came flooding back. "You still have that?"

"Oh yes," Georgina said, her voice dripping with satisfaction. "I kept it all these years, just in case I ever needed it. And now, it seems like that time has come."

"Once Jamal sees this video, I can assure you that he'll throw Queenie out of his house so fast her head will spin," Georgina continued. "And then where will she go? She has no family except for us, no friends, no money of her own. She'll have nowhere else to turn except to come crawling back here, begging for our forgiveness."

"Their marriage can never work out," she said with absolute certainty. "I'll make sure of that. And when it falls apart, we'll be right here waiting to pick up the pieces—on our terms this time.”