Karma's Shift (Magical Midlife in Mystic Hollow Book 2) - Lacey Andersen (black female authors .TXT) 📗

kind of wished I’d had them then and not now. That being said I was happier to have them than not. I wasn’t sure if they were actually magicked, but the second the sweet treat hit my mouth, I felt a lot better. Slamming the remains of my coffee, and only getting a few drops from the cup, I shoved the empty container in the little cup holder, then turned to face the house.

“How do you want to handle this, boss?” I asked Beth.

She put her small shoulders back. “Head on.”

As she hurried across the lawn, she passed a little gnome. Freezing, she pointed at it. “I picked that out. Someone throw it in the trunk.”

I was half surprised that gnomes weren’t real beings in the supernatural world, but Carol grinned, snatched it up without an ounce of hesitation, and headed for the trunk.

As Beth passed a little glass heart partially hidden in a bush, she froze, turned, and kicked it. The glass went flying as it shattered, and a triumphant smile touched her lips. “You know, the twins were at school when they told me they’d been having an affair and wanted me out. All I’d done was cry and pack up. I’d spent hours dragging what I could of the kids’ stuff too and loading up my car, before luckily finding a house for rent from a friend’s parents from high school. I’d been so focused on my broken heart; I hadn’t even gotten angry. And then, afterward, I’d had to play nice for the kids. Now though? Now I don’t have to play nice.”

For some reason, I felt like this was an important moment for Beth. A moment that was long in coming. A time for her to stand up for herself.

Carol was back without the gnome. She gave a nod and dusted off her hands. “Let’s go.”

Beth marched up the porch steps, then rapped on the door firmly.

It didn’t take long for her sister to answer.

Tiffany was wearing a white bikini and a white see-through covering over her shoulders. She wore ridiculously tall high heels, and her face and hair were done to the nines. She’d obviously braided her hair in an intricate design, like something off an online hair tutorial video. And, as much as I felt like a jerk, she didn’t look anything like a grieving widow.

In her hand was a martini glass with two olives, which she swung toward us, sloshing the vodka on the floor before saying, “Oh, it’s you guys.”

“Yeah,” Beth said, tilting her chin up. “It is.”

After an awkward second, she said, “Come in.”

We walked in, through a foyer with a massively tall ceiling with a crystal chandelier. On the floor, in tile, were Roger’s initials. She led us through that room to an open living room, that looked out on a massive pool and a rigid-looking garden. Tiffany sat gingerly on the sofa as Beth’s face reddened.

“Is this the same furniture?” I whispered as quietly as I could do to Deva.

She arched one eyebrow. “Mmhmm.”

Wow. As I glanced around, I realized that it was all the same furniture that Beth had picked out. In fact, the only thing that seemed to have been changed was that all the pictures were swapped out for ones with Tiffany and Roger. Hell, I was willing to bet they’d even used the same silver frames since they looked more to Beth’s tastes than Tiffany’s. Hers would probably be sparkly or nonexistent, similar to her bikini.

Man, if Beth wasn’t pissed before, she should be pissed now. It honestly felt like Roger had swapped her out for a younger version. Except that Tiffany lacked all useful skills, including design skills, so they’d just kept living in the beautiful space Beth had made.

It was awful. And, quite frankly, creepy.

“So,” Beth said stiffly. The tension in the room was palpable. I wanted to burst into song or something to break it. “Here’s what we know. Someone Roger was associated with put a curse on Cliff, Roger’s ex-business partner. Now, Cliff thought it was me that did the curse, but I didn’t know anything about it. There’s no way I could handle the kind of magic that had to be done for this curse.”

Tiffany looked at us with wide eyes. “Well, I didn’t do it. You know I didn’t get magic like you did.”

Yeah, that was something to be grateful for. I couldn’t imagine someone with her lack of an ethical code being given powers. She’d, no doubt, become some kind of fairy tale princess’ villain.

“We thought you might know who it is.” I gave Tiffany a firm look when she wouldn’t meet my gaze. “Tiffany,” I said with a warning in my tone. “You know something.”

She shook her head. “I don’t.”

Carol sighed. “Do you know who Emma here is?”

Tiffany looked at me with wide, worried eyes. “No?”

“She’s Karma.” Deva grinned. “Literally. She can pay you back for every stupid, thoughtless, mean thing you’ve ever done in your life and all she has to do is think about it and that’ll be you, screwed.”

Tiffany gulped. “Here’s the thing. Uh. You know he cheated on you with me, but I wasn’t the only one,” she whispered. “I knew about the other woman, and when he and I started our life together—”

Beth scoffed and glared at her sister. “There’s no way he was cheating before he met you.”

Her sister wouldn’t meet her gaze. “I caught her with him when I was in high school. But you know how he bought me a new car when I turned seventeen? It was actually because I threatened to tell you if he didn’t.”

Beth looked like she’d been physically struck. “You betrayed me for a car?”

“A really nice car,” she rushed out. “And I would’ve eventually told you, but then, I didn’t see them together again, so I just kind of forgot about it.”

“Freaking convenient,” Deva muttered angrily.

Tiffany flinched. “I know. But when we eventually started dating, I told him he had to break