Fortunes

“I need more time to think about it.” Justin growled as he tossed his cigarette butt off the cliff. “I’m sick of arguing about it!”

Cora sighed as she debated what to say next. “Can’t you give me a real answer? Why won’t you do it?”

Justin tilted his head and squinted at her as he lit another cigarette. He inhaled deeply, held the smoke in a bit longer than usual, then slowly exhaled as he tried not to lose his temper.

“You’re expecting an awful lot from me.” He paused and pointed the two fingers holding the cigarette at her as his anger grew. “If it’s so important to you, why don’t you do it yourself?”

“We’ve been over and over this. You know I can’t do it myself.” Cora smiled sadly. “If you really loved me, you’d do it without hesitation. It’s the only way.”

Justin looked at the beautiful blonde standing in front of him. She coyly pulled up her skirt to expose just a hint of her left thigh and adjusted her stocking with a subtle mix of embarrassment and excitement. He couldn’t reconcile her angelic beauty with the deceptive, cunning woman he knew her to be. 

She’d seemed so sweet, so innocent when they’d met. His Uncle John had pointed her out as one of the daughters of multi-millionaire Albert Forlagen at the fall festival last October. Forlagen had recently died, leaving everything to his two daughters.

He remembered how shy she’d been. How she’d repeatedly turned down his requests to dance with her. When she agreed to dance with someone else, he jumped at the chance to cut in on them. Cora had no polite choice but to finish the dance in his arms and he’d never let go.

He really believed he was the one manipulating her using his dark, brooding good looks and substantial charm to win her over so he could marry her for the money. With a bit of help from John on the nuisances and expectations of high society types, he spent month after month wooing her properly. Always with his eye on the huge payoff to come.

Justin had endured endless family dinners supervised by her Aunt Gertrude, had joined Cora at church every Sunday, and had attended all the horribly boring Sunday socials. He’d smiled and played his part over and over and over. He even avoided the temptation to make a play for her twin sister Clara; he was sure she was interested in him.

Two weeks ago, Cora finally slept with him after he promised to marry her. He knew immediately it wasn’t her first time. Her shy, innocent façade cracked a bit when he realized it, and shattered completely when she’d brought it up for the first time as she stroked him hard again.

“Justin? This is going to sound terrible.” She hesitated, looking up at him with those big blue eyes. “You know that if something happened to Clara … well, all the money would be mine … ours. I can’t believe I’m even saying this, but do you think you could arrange for her to have an accident?” She looked so gorgeous … so innocent. He was stunned.

They’d been fighting about it ever since.

Justin watched her stroll along the cliff, the sun dropping over the distant horizon as the ocean crashed into the beach far below. She kept glancing at him over her shoulder. He almost believed her jittery reluctance.

Cora steadied herself and turned back to him. “Please, please prove your love for me! It’s the only way to make our dreams come true, no matter how much the idea pains me.” Her bottom lip trembled as she spoke, and he was once again taken aback at how adept she was at deception.

Justin knew it was time to make his decision. He’d put it off long enough.

He squared his shoulders and walked toward her with purpose. “Cora, I love you more than you can know. I will do it. I will prove my love for you beyond the shadow of a doubt!”

She smiled and held out her arms.

As they kissed, Justin could feel her excitement and … was there just a bit of hesitation? She ended the long, deep kiss and turned in his arms, leaning her head back on his shoulder. They watched silently as the sun slipped below the horizon, leaving blazing shades of pink, orange and purple across the sky and dancing on the waves. 

“Justin? Will you make love to me before we leave?” she asked timidly.

He took a deep breath, released her from his embrace, and stepped back. As she began to turn toward him, Justin pushed her over the edge of the cliff. Cora screamed as she fell to her death.

He pulled on his driving gloves, opened the picnic basket she’d brought and took his time making it look like Cora had picnicked here alone. He glanced longingly at her brand new red 1940 Cadillac custom convertible. Leaving the car where it was, he began the long walk back to town.

While his uncle had helped him with his plan to marry Cora for her money, it took a lot of persuading for Justin to convince John to provide him with an alibi for the time of her death. They agreed he should turn his attention toward Clara, but slowly, carefully.

They were questioned by the police several times and always told the same story. They’d been fishing an hour up the coast on the day of the tragedy and hadn’t returned to San Francisco until well after 10pm.

Justin spent as much time as possible at the Forlagen mansion comforting Clara. He used their shared grief as a means of ingratiating himself with the sole heir to the family fortune.

Each time he went to see her he dressed carefully, wanting to look his best. He always brought her a small gift. She loved the flowers and the candy and seemed to look forward to their time together. Clara was overwhelmed the day he gave her a gold locket with the picture of her and Cora he’d gotten from Gertrude.

It took more than three months for the police to decide Cora’s death had been an unfortunate accident.

The day after the investigation was closed, Clara sent for him.

He greeted her with a hug and a lingering kiss on the cheek. She’d slowly been allowing him to increase the physical contact between them. She held out her hand and led him out the parlor door to the vast terrace surrounding the swimming pool.

She pointed to a nearby table and chairs and he sat down while she walked to the edge of the pool and began to pace. After a few minutes, she stopped and turned to face him.

“Justin, I don’t know how to tell you this. I’m ashamed and embarrassed, but I need to tell you.” Tears glistened in her eyes. “I know you loved my sister and you’re in mourning, and so am I. But I’ve fallen in love with you. I have!”

Justin savored the moment of victory.

He slowly got to his feet and looked at her. He took a single step forward, bowed his head, and covered his face with his hands. He waited, counting to thirty in his head, then closed the distance between them and pulled her into a fierce kiss. “Oh Clara, I love you too! I’ve felt so guilty these past few months as my feelings for you have grown. You are so sweet, so caring and so beautiful that I couldn’t help falling in love with you.”

Clara told him she wanted to go on a picnic the next day. She didn’t want to hide her happiness, but it wasn’t right to flaunt their love in front of her Aunt Gertrude or the mansion’s staff. She wanted him to meet her rather than picking her up at home.

He asked where she wanted to go. She hesitated, took his hand, and asked him to show her the place Cora had died because it would help bring her closure. 

Justin protested, and although he didn’t like the idea, he reluctantly agreed. He told Clara how to get to the cliffside park.

When Justin arrived at the park the next day, he found Clara sitting in Cora’s convertible. She pointed to the picnic basket in the back seat and waited for him to open the door.

He helped her out of the car, grabbed the basket, and led her to the same spot he staged Cora’s picnic. They spread the blanket on the ground. She sat down, carefully smoothing her skirt around her and turned her attention to setting out the food.

After they finished eating, she stood and asked him to show her the spot where Cora fell.

He took her hand and led her to the edge of the cliff. She cautiously looked over the side, wrapped her arms around herself and took a few steps back from the edge. He could see her breathing deeply.

Justin lit a cigarette as he watched her. “Are you okay darling?”

She nodded. “I didn’t know what to expect … coming here.” Her hands were shaking. “It’s harder than I thought it would be.”

She shot him a worried look. “Can I tell you a story about me and my sister? It’s … well it’s something I’ve never told anyone.”

“Of course, Clara. You can tell me anything,” he replied as he continued to smoke.

“Well, we were never really close. Cora was always the brave one. The social one. The one willing to try anything. I was, still am, cautious. Afraid to trust anyone … at least until I met you.” She waited for his reaction.

He gave her a half smile and gestured for her to continue.

“She was always trying to get me to be part of her schemes. To join in her adventures.” Clara began to pace. “Cora had a lot of boyfriends. I’m sorry, but it’s true. I never had one. I’d never even been kissed, and I so wanted to be.”

She furrowed her brow and looked at him again. “Are you sure anything I tell you won’t change how you feel about me?”

He assumed the most sincere look he could muster. “I love you. Nothing can change that. Just tell me my love.”

“Okay.” She exhaled loudly and took a few deep breaths before continuing. “Cora came up with the idea of the two of us switching places. She’d tell me all the things I needed to know about her current boyfriend, what to talk about, what questions to ask and how to answer the ones she thought he might ask me. Sometimes the things she told me to say didn’t make sense, but she assured me her beau would understand.”

She watched Justin carefully. He stood with his back to her at the edge of the cliff, looking out at the ocean. She couldn’t see his face.

“She wanted me to kiss them, to … go farther. But I could never, never do anything more than kiss them. None of the men ever figured it out and Cora enjoyed it far, far too much.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “She’d send me out pretending to be her, while she went on a date with someone else. She enjoyed making people uncomfortable and absolutely adored seeing what kind of trouble she could cause.”

She covered her face with her hands. “I hated it, but she threatened to tell my father how I’d deceived the men and how I did … things … with her boyfriends. After he died, she said she’d tell Aunt Gertrude. She insisted on sharing the details of all her schemes with me, so she’d always be able to control me. She loved controlling me more than anything else.” She was trembling. “I was too afraid to stand up to her.”

“Oh, Clara! How terrible that must have been for you.” Justin turned toward her, trying to look sympathetic as he thought how easy it was going to be to manipulate her once they were married. So very, very, easy.

Clara stopped pacing and slowly approached him with an anxious look on her face. “You don’t hate me?”

“No. You had no choice, my love. Cora was obviously cruel to you. I will protect you and you’ll never have to do such things again.” Justin kissed her forehead.

“There’s one more thing you must know,” Clara said as she hugged him. “Are you absolutely sure, nothing I can say will sway your feelings for me?”

“Yes. Yes. Of course, my darling,” Justin replied. “Whatever it is, we’ll get through it together.” Oh, he was so close to those millions and millions of dollars!

Clara stepped back and grabbed Justin by the shoulders. She searched his face, sighed, and drove her knee into his crotch. He doubled-over, grimaced and looked up at her in shock.

“I’m Cora you idiot! Thanks for killing my pathetic sister. She was so infatuated with you. It was simple to convince her to meet you here that day … to tell her what to say,” she sneered.

“By the way, John and I will be married later this year. It was our mutual grief over losing our loved ones that brought us together.” She laughed viciously. “He was right. You were incredibly easy to manipulate,” she said as she shoved him off the cliff.

 “Oh, poor Justin. It’s just so sad your grief over Cora’s death led you to commit suicide,” she said as she looked over the edge at his broken body on the beach far, far below.

After packing the picnic basket and stowing it in the back seat, she raced down the Pacific Coast Highway to the beach house she’d rented for the week. She’d told Aunt Gertrude she needed time alone to think and to say a private, final goodbye to her sister and she asked to borrow Cora’s car. Gertrude had been so supportive. She’d left the mansion two days ago, making sure to be seen around the small coastal town near the rental property both days.

 John was waiting for her at the beach house to celebrate. They spent the next five days making love, eating seafood, drinking champagne, swimming, and talking endlessly about the future.

The morning she left the beach house, John packed the car as she checked to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. They spent a long-time hugging and kissing on the beach, before walking hand in hand to the car. She blew him a kiss as she drove off.

Halfway back to the mansion the Cadillac’s brakes failed and she was killed in a car crash.

The entire family fortune went to Aunt Gertrude; the only living Forlagen relative.

Gertrude and John were married several months later. They always told their friends it was mutual grief over the loss of their loved ones that brought them together.