An FWA Story by Nussaïbah Raja and Timi Reeder
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Tears rushed down her cheeks, smudging the make-up her personal esthetician has taken so long to apply, but Rae didn’t care. She had to let everything out, even if she was ruining her makeup or her Prada dress. Fifteen years had passed since she had been propelled in this selfish world of these so-called elites and she was still not used to the cruel ways of those people who would practically do anything to get to their goals. She sank to the floor, wishing that she still was in that rundown apartment with her mother and brother, instead of this million dollar condo where everything just seemed so fake. She had hoped she would have been to get away as soon as she had finished her law degree but here she was at 21, drowning in a sea of deadly sharks at the head of the Beaumont Corporation, one of the richest multinationals that have ever existed.
Rae had inherited everything from her grandfather, shocking everyone, including herself. It was not as if she had been the favourite of her grandfather. On the contrary, it was as if he loathed her for what she was: the pitiful illegitimate daughter of his late son, not that he had any prejudice against Ashton, Rae’s big brother. Being the eldest son of the family, he was the most privileged one, the one everybody took care of, but that didn’t stopped Rae from making him the person she really looked up too. Even though he didn’t have any time with his lessons and meetings, he would always make a must to come see her at night to talk to her and kiss her goodnight.
Rae remembered how she waited for him to come that night, telling herself that he had just been held up and would be here any minute. She would hear lots of noise coming from the downstairs hushed voices and people walking around, so she had closed her eyes shut so that nobody would scold her if ever they came in. Maybe it was a surprise or something, which she wasn’t to know about, she told herself, but the angry voice of her grandfather convinced her otherwise. She had silently got out of her room and had climbed down the stairs, her little bunny in her arms to see what was happening. And she had found everyone in the living room with some strangers in uniforms who were saying that they had not found him yet.
Sitting on the staircase, she had hugged her bunny as she had continued listening to them. Then as silently as she had come down, she had gone up and slipped in bed, wishing that what she had just witnessed was just a nightmare. But reality had sunk in the day after when she had been summoned by her grandfather in his intimidating office. With his serious businesslike voice, he had told her that her brother had disappeared during his business trip to Sweden and that according to the authorities, no clue had been found yet. And then, he had dismissed his twelve year ol granddaughter like a mere maid, not even caring for her feelings as he had announced the bad news. Rae had held her tears in as she had walked past everyone to finally let go in the silence of her room. She had no idea how long she had stayed there, crying but no one had commented on her puffy red eyes during dinner.
It was as if nothing had changed; she still was in a house of strangers. Her grandfather never had time for her and her half-brothers could only smile to her from afar; their mother, Claire de Beaumont, had forbidden them from talking to her, and she, of course, hated her for even existing. It was one thing to know that your husband had a mistress but it was another to have the product of it living under the same roof. And no need to say that she had been outraged by the news of Rae inheriting everything, leaving her with only the huge collection of paintings the Beaumont family owned. Her sons had been luckier, they had each received a share in the company, but Tristan de Beaumont had outdone himself when he had left most of his shares to his youngest grandchild, naming her President.
And she had gone from Rae to Axana Raelyn Hastings de Beaumont overnight; desperately trying to live up to the expectations of the man who during his life had always ignored her, making as if she did not even exist. Rae would have refused everything, if not for the letter that Tristan’s lawyer had given to her afterward…
Dear Axana Raelyn,
I am dying, it’s a fact. If you are reading this right now, it just means I’m not here anymore to make sure nothing happens to you as well. During my long life, I’ve seen how the one I loved would get always get hurt. I lost my wife, my son and then, Ashton. I was not prepared to lose another one too. So, if you’ve wondered all this time why I have ignored you as such, here is the reason. If keeping you away from me meant keeping you alive, then it was worth it. Your mother, Kaie Hastings was an amazing woman and God knows you’re just like her. She would have probably made a better wife than Claire; it’s just that I had been too stupid to know that the happiness of my son was more important than the business deal his marriage could bring me. I don’t want it to be the same for any of you, this is why I ask you, please take care of your brothers, they need you… with that mother of theirs.
Attached to this letter are documents I have found while searching for Ashton. Letters, pictures, everything that my men could have found are in there, you don’t really think I would give up just because the authorities said it was no use. You now have access to every single resource I possess, please find him. I know what he means to you. My men would be more than happy to serve you, for you are now the head of the family, whatever others might say.
I love you.
Tristan de Beaumont
Rae traced the beautiful handwriting of her grandfather as she read his letter again. She would have never imagined, not even in her wildest dreams, that Tristan had actually loved her. She smiled as she thought of the things she had done just to piss him off; as a result, she now had a tattoo on her back, drove a Red Ferrari as remembrance of her street racing days and still stayed in contact with her old gang members. Unlike her fake socialite friends who only cared about her money, they really treated her as family, listening to her when she had to vent out her anger or even lending her a shoulder when she was feeling down.
The ringing of her phone brought her out of her daze. It was Eric, the gang leader, sending her a text.
Found something. Meet me tonight.
They never used names or anything. They had their secret hideout back from her crazy days and still used it. Quickly, Rae rinsed off her scary face and slipped into her oldest clothes she usually wore when she went to the slums.
She knew it could never happen, there were too many events in the past which still haunted her and would never let her go no matter how hard she tried to run away from them. The phoenix rising out of the ashes... it was a dream that could never come true; the shadows of the past and would always hang over her.
Despite all her doubts, she knew she could not refuse the offer from Eric; as she slipped further and further away from her past, the gang acted as an anchor, tying her back to the life she had once led.
Carefully putting down her grandfather’s letter onto an old mahogany table, she picked up a heavy black coat and glided silently through her front door...
A harsh, autumnal wind whipped against her face as she stepped out of her apartment building. She had always hated these months, trapped in a tortured transition between the summer heat and the winter snow. On the steps leading up to the grand revolving doors, a homeless man wrapped only in a thin blanket was begging passers by for money. Rae had trained herself to ignore their pleas, to pretend as if they were not there. As the winds around her intensified, she realised that, unconsciously, she had picked out a few spare pieces of change from her coat pocket and had begun to move slowly in his direction. Seeing the kind young woman offering money, the man smiled up broadly towards her as she dropped a few spare cents into his upturned cap. He thanked her in a creaky voice, well beyond his years.
“That could always have been me” she whispered gently to herself, as the young man leafed through the coins he had collected that evening. She knew that on her journey back into the slums she would see many more.
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Between two rows of old abandoned terraced houses was a small alleyway. No one ever came down here, filled as it was with ancient graffiti and toppled rubbish bins. Despite its appearances, the old side street led to one of the most beautiful places in the city, one of the overgrown parks scattered across the suburbs. The rusty gate at the end of the alleyway creaked and moaned heavily as Rae opened it up. She knew it didn’t matter, all the old families who had lived in these houses for generations were now long gone. Not too far in the distance, she could see the old shack just hidden within a small grove of trees.
She tapped three times on the wooden door, an almost childish action they had agreed upon back in the early days. There was the faint sound of movement and then the door swung open to reveal the tired and worn out face of the gang’s leader, and beyond him, the watching eyes of many more of her old friends.
Despite all their tattoos and heavy leather clothes, they were nowhere near as intimidating as the media and the corrupt city council made them out to be; she knew that here were her true friends, miles away from the banquets and balls of her high society life. She knew too that these people would always be here for her, never casting out a critical eye, never judging her.
Eric’s face lit up in a smile, happy to see his childhood friend once again.
“Hey Rae, what’s wrong?” He said wrapping his arms around her in a warm embrace; clearly the signs of the evening’s tears were still visible for all to see. As the bus had rambled along the city’s congested streets, she had been unable to stop few tears falling as the sites and scenes of her childhood had flickered past; nostalgia could be found everywhere.
She opened her mouth trying to find the words to express her deep melancholy, but found herself silence once again. Catching Eric’s smile, she gazed back into his eyes.
“It’s nothing” she said gently “things have just been a little difficult lately; I just needed to get away from it all”
Eric smiled once more. Ever since Rae had received her inheritance, things had always been differ between them and whilst they still were the greatest of friends, despite often spending months apart, they both knew that the past could never be fully reconciled with the broken present.
But there was still hope.
The conversations amongst the gang members had begun again as Rae and Eric sat down together in a corner of the old hideout. Eric hoped that his news would be able to bring comfort to the troubled soul in front of him.
“Rae, we’ve found something” Eric began, unsure as to how best phrase the information that he held. “We think we may have found Ashton”
Rae stared back at him, unable to respond. In the Hell in which she had been living, the memory of her older brother had kept her going, even on the darkest days. Surely Eric could not be telling the truth; he had only met Ashton a few times, back when he was still just a child. If he were still alive today, he would certainly not be the same at all.
“What... How did... I don’t understand” Rae responded. “How did you...”
“I saw him” Eric said sharply “a group of us were riding through the northern parts of the city, when a guy walking along the sidewalk caught my eye. I couldn’t tell where he had come from or where I had seen him before; he seem to trigger a distant memory. So distant I couldn’t place it
“I went back again a few days later, just hanging around the same spot, and there he was again, walking down past the boarded-up windows and doors of forgotten houses. He looked like any other ordinary guy, and that night I struggled once more to figure out where I had seen him before.”
Rae was locked by his words, trying so hard not to let herself believe that it could be true, that it really was him.
“And then one day, I remembered where had seen him before, a face from the distant past” Eric continued “It’s him Rae, I’m sure of it”
Rae felt herself smile fully and without doubt for the first time in what felt like an eternity. A part of her still refused to believe that it could possibly be true, but as she listened to Eric’s kind voice, she felt all her doubts disappear.
“I went back again a few days later and finding him walking down along the same street once more. I followed him, trying to find out where he was returning back to” Eric said, seemingly transfixed by the smile on Rae’s face “I followed him all the way along the old industrial streets, back to a house amongst them.
“I would never tell you this Rae unless I was absolutely certain. It is him”
Rae realise that a few tears had fallen down her face as Eric had told her the news, but she was too happy to worry or care about them. A few of the other gang members, people who had watched her transformation over the years were gazing over in her direction. Even though destiny’s games had taken her down a different path, she would always be one of them...
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Even as a young child, Rae had always enjoyed watching the dawn break out over the city. Seeing the flickering street lights slowly dim away to nothing as the sky turned from darkness to the golden colours of the dawn. Despite all of her troubles, the dawn seemed to bring with it the promise of hope.
Rae had read her grandfather’s letter once again that night. His love, frozen in time, filled her with happiness as she considered the position she was now in.
“The homeless man outside cannot see the dawn from this high” she whispered aloud. Folding up the letter once more, and carefully placing it back inside an ornate box, she picked up the small scrap of paper on which Eric had quickly scrawled down an address amidst the celebrations of the previous night. Before she closed the door behind her, she looked back inside her finely decorated apartment.
“Maybe I’ve kept these worlds apart for too long” she mused to herself, before setting out to find another piece of her past.
