Lucky Break |
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Page 1 of 9 Book Details
Harlequin Enterprises, Lauren Perkins’ red Porsche looked as out of place in the parking lot of the Bricksville, MA Correctional Institution’s psychiatric ward as it did in Perkins, Massachusetts, the small town her family had founded. She pulled into the spot that might as well have her name on it, so often was she here. She waved to the guard, and walked to the old building where her sister was being held, bypassing the construction of a new wing that had disrupted their visits for the last six months. By now, she recognized some of the men wearing their hard-hats and as usual, a select few eyed Lauren and her car with a sleazy combination of envy and lust. The only thing missing were the catcalls, but she assumed the actual prison being a few hundred yards away, kept them on their best behavior. Lauren stopped short of flipping the men the bird. She had held her own in third world countries and in the Garment Center of Manhattan. Not much could make her uneasy, but this place did, and she hated like hell having to be here. Par for the course when it came to her sister Mary Beth and her antics, Lauren had no choice. She consoled herself with the promise that her visit to the prison would be like her trip to her grandmother’s home. Short and to the point. Paris was waiting and nothing was going to keep her from being there in person when her dress designs debuted under the Galliano label. She’d sold her designs, leaving her with nothing to do in the intervening weeks except wait for the fashion show, which freed her to restore her grandmother’s old Victorian into saleable condition so she could then fly to Paris and watch the fashion show in person. And pray her designs succeed beyond her wildest dreams. Haute Couture Fashion Week in Paris was every designer’s goal and Lauren had been gearing herself up for this for the last five years. After taking fashion classes in the city, working odd jobs to pay for them, and designing at night, she’d earned this chance. Though she was torn between her good fortune and her sister’s situation, there wasn’t anything else she could do for Beth that she wasn’t already doing. She’d already uprooted herself in order to focus on her grandmother’s house because as usual, her parents felt their Doctors Without Borders humanitarian efforts were more important than Lauren’s materialistic pursuits. Never mind that those materialistic pursuits had amounted to a successful career. Her parents had never understood why Lauren and Beth hadn’t shared their calling. Not even Beth’s breakdown had caused them to put their work helping others on hold. They’d only visited their daughter, who was as the doctors called her, unresponsive, once since she’d been incarcerated for Arson among other charges. Lauren still couldn’t get beyond the enormity of her sister’s actions. For reasons trapped in Beth’s mind, she’d attempted to burn down a building full of innocent people about a year ago. Based on Beth’s own hysterical words, the police claimed that she’d been attempting to hang onto the Perkins’ family’s declining power. Since many townspeople had come forward with tales of how her now deceased grandmother, the long time mayor, had consolidated her power using blackmail and other forms of fear and manipulation, it wasn’t a stretch to think Beth, her grandmother’s loyal assistant, had followed in her footsteps. Lauren had no idea how mentally ill her sister had become and felt guilty she’d been too busy with her own life to notice. As for her grandmother’s mental state prior to her death, Lauren wouldn’t have a clue. Except for occasional visits to her sister, Lauren hadn’t had a relationship with the older woman in years. |