Last Breath (The Good Daughter 0.5)(36)
“Florabama Faulkner.” Maude stuck her hands on her hips. “Why would you tell her that?”
Flora shrugged. “People fight harder when they think you’re helpless.”
“I would’ve fought for you!” Charlie shouted. “If you’d been honest about your problem to begin with, I still would’ve helped you.”
“Not like you did in there,” Flora said. “You would’a been trying to cut a deal, not helping me take a walk. You got your code, like you said—you don’t wanna suffer the ramifications of being a dirty lawyer like your paw.”
Charlie let the dig at her father slide. “Is that why you told me about your mother dying? To manipulate me? You know my mother was murdered. What happened to my sister. They were real people. They meant something to me. And all you saw about that tragedy was a way to use me. Is my life all just a game to you?”
Flora looked down. She snubbed her sneaker on the concrete walk. “I’m sorry, Miss Quinn. I know I should’ve been honest. I promise I won’t—”
“You were playing the Pattersons, too, weren’t you? You were stringing Mark along, letting him think you’d sell him the apartments if he let you move into his house?”
“He wasn’t going to hold onto his land that long. And I’ve been working with the bank to get that house. I figured I could charge them rent if it came to that.” She shrugged. “You might think I’m a bad person, but I’m not in the business of kicking people out of their homes.”
Charlie wasn’t interested in land deals or rental agreements. She wanted Flora to say the real reason she’d pulled Charlie into this mess. “Your grandfather said he was going to rehab. He’s the executor of the trust. If he sobered up, you couldn’t bribe him with meth anymore.”
“Son of a bitch,” Maude hissed. “Stupid bastard left for the clinic an hour ago.”
Flora said, “That don’t matter, Meemaw. The thing about Paw is, there’s always something he wants.” She gave Charlie a pointed look. “Everybody has a price. Whether it’s meth or cookies or a state approved highway access point, all you gotta do is dangle it in front of ’em and they’ll jump as high as you say.”
Charlie felt the implied dig. Her price had been exactly zero.
“I tried to do this easy,” Flora said. “I was being honest when I said I didn’t want to get Meemaw and Paw into trouble. I need the money now. Not in two years. Not while I’m waiting for Paw to fall off the wagon. This town is about to take off. More people are coming up from Atlanta. We’ll get liquor sales approved any day now. The economy’s on the upswing. Right now is the time to buy.”
Charlie said, “You’re pretty convincing—except for the part where you turned into a drug dealer.”
“Three million dollars,” Flora told her. “That’s the amount of money that was in the trust after the lawyers got paid. It’s down to less than nine hundred grand, last time I checked. Putting it into land is the only investment that makes sense. Land never drops in value.”
Charlie said, “Your mother wouldn’t have wanted this.”
“You didn’t know my mama.”
“No, but I know what mothers are like,” Charlie said. “My mother loved me with her last breath, Flora. Her last breath. You were with your mom when she died, same as I was. I know she was the same way with you. She wanted you to do good things.”
“She wanted me to survive,” Flora countered. “That’s what she told me with her last breath, right before that semi near about took off her head. She was yelling at me, telling me to get out of this shitty place and make something of myself no matter who I had to step over to get there. You can’t do that with nine hundred grand.”
“You can if you don’t drive a fifty-thousand-dollar Porsche.”
“It was sixty-eight thousand,” Flora countered. “And it was leased, ’cause that’s better for the taxes. Driving a flashy car is part of the cost of doing business. You’ve gotta put on a show for people. Success breeds success.”
“You sold meth to kids. You hooked your own grandfather—” Charlie ran out of words. Telling the conniving shit that she was hurting people seemed like a vast waste of time. Flora knew she hurt people. That was part of the fun.
Charlie had her keys in her hand. “Don’t ever try to get in touch with me again. Don’t even think about asking for my help. Or my father’s. I’m finished with you.”
“Don’t worry about me, Miss Quinn. I’ll figure something out.”
“I bet you will.” Charlie wanted to leave, but she could not let it go. She hadn’t felt this angry, this used, in a long time. “I was really worried about you. I spent my whole day trying to figure out how to help.”
“You did help me. You got me outta that mess in there. And you were right about letting them talk, because they told me a lot with their questions.”
“What did they tell you?”
“That they don’t really have a case. That if it comes down to it, Paw and Oliver look guiltier than I do, just like I meant it to look. That I can wind things down for a while, wait out Mr. Coin’s interest, and start back up again when I’m ready.” She shrugged. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter to me what I’m selling. People want what they want, and if you’re willing to give it to them, there’s profit to be made.”