Chapter 4
How would the cops see this? A grown woman, willingly filming explicit videos and getting involved in illicit transactions.
At most, they'd call it prostitution, just a misdemeanor.
The Botanist and his crew were way too cunning to ever leave behind any real evidence.
All that would happen was that Nahla's life would be completely ruined, and she'd become the laughingstock of everyone around her.
But if I didn't call the cops, was I really just going to stand by and watch Nahla ruin herself?
I didn't even want to think about what could happen to her if some creep actually got her on camera.
Just as my mind was in turmoil, my phone started ringing.
It was Nahla.
I took a deep breath and answered.
"Angeline," Nahla said.
Her voice was calm, almost a little annoyed.
"Did you and Dwayne have a fight?" she asked.
"He just called and yelled at me, saying I was the reason you two broke up," she said.
Before I could say anything, she just kept going, like she was just stating facts about someone else.
"Angeline, this is my own business. Can you just leave it alone?" she said.
"I'm an adult. I know exactly what I'm doing. Do you think I'm stupid? Or just pathetic?" she said.
She let out a cold laugh.
She asked, "Angeline, how much do you make working your ass off every month? 3 thousand dollars? 6 thousand dollars?"
"Do you even know how much I can make from just one of those so-called 'tastings'?"
"The starting price is 150 thousand dollars, and there's no cap.
"That loser Dwayne actually thinks he deserves half? Please. He's just a mutt I sent out to sniff around for me."
"Angeline, I'm telling you. Stay out of my business, and don't even think about calling the cops," Nahla said, her tone icy.
"Because if you do, I'll be the first one to tell the police it was you, my dear sister, making up lies about me out of jealousy just because I'm raking in real money."
"What did you just say?" I stammered, barely believing my ears.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
Nahla repeated herself, her voice colder and more scornful than I'd ever heard before.
"I said, stay out of my business," she snapped.
She sneered, "You're packed in the subway every day, surviving on takeout, busting your ass for a couple thousand bucks in bonuses. Aren't you tired of living like that?
"I'm just choosing a different way to live, and you just can't accept it?
"Angeline, is it that you just can't stand to see me doing better than you?"
My mind went totally blank.
This was the same girl who used to trail after me, clinging to my side and calling me "Angel" in that soft, syrupy voice.
She would also bury her face in my arms and sob whenever she flunked a test.
She was the one I'd always tried to protect and the one I wanted to shower with everything good in the world.
But now, she felt like a complete stranger, like some kind of demon I couldn't even recognize.
"Nahla, do you even hear yourself right now?" My voice was shaking.
"This isn't making money. It's selling yourself off like you're just some object!" I shouted.
"All for a bag? For some designer junk? Is that really worth degrading yourself?" I said.
"Degrading myself?" Nahla snapped back.
She let out a shrill, piercing laugh.
She said, "Angeline, you're so naive.
"You really think working your ass off is going to get you the life you want?
"I'm just taking a shortcut; that's all."
"Look at me," Nahla scoffed. "The skincare I use is worth your whole paycheck for the month.
"Just last week, I was vacationing in Coral Bay. You can't even dream about living that kind of life, can you?"
She was showing off, parading her wins like a public execution, humiliating me for all to see.
Everything I'd worked for, my honest, grounded life. She was grinding it beneath her feet, shattering all the pride I'd ever had.
"Those men are more than willing to spend money on me. I keep them company, they get what they want, I get what I want. What's wrong with that?" Nahla said, sounding completely unfazed.
"It's a straightforward deal, way more honest than your boyfriend, who's all talk and no action," she added.
She brought up Dwayne like he was nothing, just a mutt she barely acknowledged.
"So everything Dwayne said was true?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
"You really asked him to find buyers for you?"
"Yeah," she admitted without a hint of hesitation.
"I needed a middleman, and he seemed like the biggest idiot, totally easy to handle," Nahla said, icy as ever.
"Who knew he'd be so useless? He messed up over something so small," she sneered.
My heart went completely cold.
I'd always thought it was that loser Dwayne who led my sweet little sister astray.
But now I realized that Dwayne was just a sucker she toyed with, nothing more than a pawn in her game.
And my sister, Nahla, was the real Botanist.
She'd turned herself into an Orchid, putting herself on the market, just waiting for the highest bidder.
"Angeline, that's all I have to say," Nahla said, her voice cold and final.
"Just drop out of that group. And don't get involved in our business anymore," she added, her tone icy and unyielding.