"Until you realize how easy it is for your mind to be manipulated, you remain the puppet of someone else's game."

──────⊱⁜⊰─────
𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒂𝒏

"-Your products are real good, Morgan, thanks for the body cremes and scrubs." Beck says.

"What?" I fold my arms across my chest.

He looks smug. "That order of ten you got? Yeah, you're welcome."

Oh. My. God.

"Chris?! Chris get up here!" I shout for him and start to pace until he comes running in.

"What, what? What is it?" He shakes me by the shoulder to change the spaced out look on my face.

I hand him my business phone and the piece of paper so he can call the number and see.

Chris holds his gaze on me for some time, questionably, until finally dialing the number.

As it rings, he catches a glimpse of my iPad screen and with furrowed eyebrows, takes another look at the photo of the corner store.

I tell him to put the phone on speaker on he does. We listen to it ring a few more times before finally, someone picks up.

"Y'ello, go for Beck." He speaks.

Chris immediately hangs up and tosses my phone onto the bed behind my back.

"Aye, y'all, get down here!" Jabari yells for us. We don't waste another second.

They're in Chris's office, Lee seated, typing away at the keyboard.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" Chris asks them.

Lee stands up signals Chris and I over.

"See for yourself." Lee mutters aside.

Chris and I look at each other then walk around the desk so we can see what it is they're looking at, all mute.

It's the security footage from last night, but why, I wonder?

"Push play." Lee tells us, hanging his head.

I look at each of their faces and their all long, sorrowful.

Gulp.

Chris impatiently plays the footage and watches intently.

It's Kailyn in her costume - a mod dress with a bird cage on her head. She said it was inspired by both Audrey Hepburn's "look" at the infamous Rothschild party and mix of Drag Race's season fourteen winner Willow Pill's doll house look.

I continue watching the footage and see Kailyn lured into this very study- that was supposed to be locked- by the mystery man in the elaborate Eyes Wide Shut mask and black cloak.

"Can you go back and see who unlocked my office?" Chris asks in a roar.

Lee shakes his head. "Tried. Footage was conveniently deleted. You can see anything before and after that, but whoever the asshole is that did this is a smart ass."

Chris's chest puffs and he cracks his knuckles as the video continues to play:

He stokes her arm and pushes her down to her knees so he's standing over her to judge.

A gesture from him makes Kailyn stand and start to dance between his legs as he sits in Chris's office chair.
With Kay's back turned to him, the man sits and grabs something out of the bottom drawer. It's a calendar- the one I made for Chris from my racy photoshoot.

The masked man stares deliberately in the camera with the calendar in his gloved hands as Kailyn turns to him.

He lifts her chin and it looks like they exchange some words.

She goes in for a kiss but gets rejected and storms out.

"This must be when he told her she isn't old enough." Jabari comments.

"Why the fuck is he still sitting there?" Chris barks, eyes on the screen.

The man goes and stands in the camera and waves after holding up the 'September' spread and kissing my picture.

"It cuts there, he deleted the footage." Lee says, clearing his throat.

Disturbed, but curious, I pull open the bottom drawer and see the calendar lying there. I pick it up and flip through. Each page is sticky and it isn't until I get to the month of September that I realize why and scream, flinging the calendar across the floor.

I speed out of the room to go disinfect my hands. Bleach to the eyes won't hurt either while I'm at it.

To say I'm disgusted doesn't even scratch the surface.

While I am extremely revolted, Chris is downstairs yelling about how he's mad that sicko was in our home, in his office on his chair, touching Kailyn - a minor- and violated me like that.

"Eck." I spit in the sink, feeling sick to my stomach.

"No, no, no, no." I try to get myself together in the mirror and not let this get to me. This isn't about me.

I sniffle and wipe everything down, my hands, my mouth, the sink, the mirror, until I feel clean.

This feeling of unsettlement doesn't ease until I walk passed Kailyn's room and overhear SZA's song "Far."

Knock. Knock. I tap my knuckles against the door but walk in anyway.

"Hey." I speak gently, pulling my cardigan over my chest.

"Hey." She says quietly.

She sits in bed and does nothing but looks beautiful. If only she knew it.

"Wanna talk or you still hate me?" I ask, sitting at her feet.

She sits up with a pillow in her lap. "I don't hate you, Morgan. I was just annoyed. It sucks that I was rejected for you."

"That wasn't rejection, that was psychopathy. Trust me. You're lucky he didn't want you. Kailyn, I thought we talked about this: you can't go around seducing older men."

She sighs. "They're the only ones that really give me attention. Seth didn't tell me I'm pretty or want to even do hand stuff."

I put my hands on her shoulders and make her look me in the eyes when I say, "You should not be worried about sex at your age. You're a smart girl, act like it."

"I'm not smart." She laughs sarcastically.

"You are, you showed me your report card - straight A's. I think that's pretty smart. And smart girls are pretty."

She starts to smile. "Why do you always know what to say?"

I exhale deeply. "I don't. I just tell you the truth."

Kailyn puts her head on my shoulder. "I'm sorry I gave you shit earlier. It's just hard not to be intimidated by you."

"There's nothing intimidating about me, Kay, I promise."

"How do you get guys just to be obsessed with you?"

"You don't want that."

"I do. Like, Chris is totally obsessed with you, that's a good thing, right?"

"That's different, that's... true love. I don't know how to explain it but the way he's obsessed with me is special. It means he'll do anything for me in my best interest, and vice versa. He's my whole world. Erm, it's healthy. You'll know when it's not."

Kailyn nods her head, hopefully understanding everything I'm saying. "Can we have the birds and the bees talk now? I think I'm ready. I mean, I know what I feel down there you know?"

"No, I don't know." I laugh and push her down on the mattress playfully.

"Just, be safe alright and make good decisions. If you really think you're ready for sex then tell your parents."

Her face goes pale, eyes large. "No, I can't do that!"

I reach the door and grab the knob.

With a smile, I tell her, "Then you're not ready. You don't have to stay locked in here all day, but if you do leave it has to be with your brother and I'll be calling you every hour to check in. Charge your phone now, I don't want to hear the 'my phone died' excuse. And no, you can't have any money, go find something free to do."

I listen to her groan until I close the bedroom door and laugh faintly. Teenagers, what did I say?

"Psst." Lee whispers to me from down the hall.

He steps out of the guest bathroom and turns the light off so it's dark where we are.

"What's up?" I ask him in a muted tone.

He looks around as if we're being watched, and wets his lips before talking. "I'm sorry you had to see that. I know that wasn't easy for you - Kailyn, your calendar and all."

I rub the back of my neck, uncomfortable, as I listen to him go on.

"I'm worried about Chris, he isn't taking this well. The way he was talking, this won't end good for any of us."

"Us?"

"He's my brother, ride or die. Plus I hate that I gave him the drugs. If I didn't, he would've been on his guard and stopped that shit."

"What do you think he's gonna do?"

Lee shakes his head. "I don't know, Morgan, but I called Trey just in case."

"Lee, you dragged Trey into this?! He's all the way in Colorado-"

"Not anymore, he's on his way to the airport right now."

I shake my head. "It won't get to that point."

"I hope not, but just in case-"

"I won't let it."

Lee throws his hands up, backing off. "I'm just looking out. For you, too."

"I appreciate it. Thanks, Lee."

He gives me a hug and says, "You have my number."

"Bye, Morgan." Izzy sings from downstairs. "Lee, you ready?"

"Coming." He shouts, jogging down the stairs.

"Bye, Mo." Jas says to me with a forced smile. She waves like JB and Chris shows them out.

Chris shuts the door once everyone's gone, including Jack and Kailyn, and looks up at me but only briefly before he disappears around the corner without saying a word to me.

I sigh and start to follow him but a text message stops me so I can read it.

It's from Reese. It reads:

I made Trey turn around I'm sorry. he can't afford to get in anymore trouble. Whatever this is you gotta handle it mamas. Good luck