C.A.K.E novel Chapter 9

Melinda Danae Carven-Stone ... The woman whose voice is ripping shreds in the usual harmonious fabric of the Stone household. Elliott's first wife and Arden's sworn enemy.

Ardi is adamant that part of the reason Melinda married Eli was for the clever effect created by the pairing of his last name and her maiden name, Carven-Stone. She's just that superficial and tacky.

“Get your ass down here, Elliott!”

Melinda's blur of blonde strands whips across the screen, as she shouts obscenities at the camera. The anger dancing in her blue eyes transcends the barrier of the screen and freezes Elliott to his core. He feels his heart rate slowing down to a pitiful crawl.

“I know you and that bitch can hear me ... Where the fuck are my goddamned kids?”

“That bitch,” Arden repeats, rolling her eyes so hard they could pop right out of her head.

Elliott looks from the indignant mug of his wife, then back to the raving face of his ex.

“This is not happening to me.” Eli drags his hand down his face.

“What is she even doing here?”

“I don't know.” He shakes his head. “I thought she'd at least call first.”

“I know they're here, Elliott. They bought the fucking plane tickets with my credit card.”

“That's what she's upset about,” Arden smirks. “The money, as usual.”

Eli strokes the stubble on his chin and shakes his head again. He squints at the screen. The small wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepen with every second of Mel's ranting.

“She could have phoned that in. I would have gladly sent her the money.” He glares at the blonde woman harassing the concierge. “Melinda doesn't inconvenience herself unless it benefits her in some way. She came here for a reason.”

“What else could she possibly want from us?”

Arden kneels on the bed behind Eli and wraps her arms around his torso. He grasps her hands in his, as she rests her chin in the crook of his neck.

“I don't know.” He licks his lips. “I don't know.”

Dread fights his wife's warmth, wrapping its frigid arms around Elliott, and letting its chilly breath choke his spine one vertebrae at a time. His breathing has reduced itself to sporadic sputters, like a car savoring its last whiffs of gasoline before chugging to an exhausted stop.

It's never good to see Melinda. The sight of the first woman to bear his last name issues a biological response from him that's akin to a massive heart attack or stroke. It's a wonder he survived being married to her.

She likes to show up on occasion, wielding an ax just above Elliott's neck. Laughing the entire time, as she watches him squirm.

“The longer I have to wait, the worse things are going to get.”

Arden and Elliott observe with their mouths dropped, while Melinda plucks a small vase from the concierge's desk and hurls it at the stone wall. Edward ducks as the vessel sails past his head, just missing his ear. The porcelain screams against the solid surface and shatters into a million opaque shards.

“I'm getting very impatient,” she screams.

Melinda picks up a potted plant and sends it flying across the lobby.

“Oh, she is gone,” Ardi remarks.

“I'd better get down there before she starts ripping up the foundation.”

Elliott retrieves his shirt from the floor and slips it over his head. Arden finds her bra and does up its hooks, before thrusting her legs back into her jeans. She pulls on her shirt and starts brushing her hair up into a ponytail.

The noise of another piece of expensive artwork crashing into the polished walls of the lobby gets their attention.

“Shit,” Elliott mutters.

Eli watches Edward rise from the cover of the expansive marble desk, peeking over its edge to make sure Melinda hasn't found another object to transform into a missile. He informs her that if she doesn't calm down he'll be forced to call the authorities.

“Do whatever you want, hobbit.” She snatches the poor man forward by his collar. “I'm not leaving here without my damn kids. So I suggest you find Dr. and Mrs. Stone for me.”

Melinda addresses the camera again. “You hear that, Elliott? ... I'll be here all night if that's what it takes. Now get your ass down here.”

She releases Edward, shoving him backward. The young man stumbles over a chair and almost hits the concrete floor.

“Ma'am, I've alerted Dr. Stone. Please, just calm down.”

As the melee continues in the lobby, Elliott notices that Arden has redressed and is sitting on the edge of the bed with a pair of Nikes at her side.

“Wait a minute. Where are you going?”

“I'm going with you.” She glances at him, as she finishes doing up the buttons on her blouse.

“No, you're not.”

“You are not going down there alone.”

“Arden, you know how she is. Seeing you will unleash the Kraken for sure.”

“Then call me Perseus.” She shrugs and stares him square in the eyes. “You're not going by yourself.”

Ardi speaks like the subject is closed, so he might as well stop arguing with her. She slips her feet into her sneakers and springs from the bed. Elliott catches her arm, as she walks past him.

He pulls her back toward the bed. “Arden, please. Stay here.”

“No,” she states, her response unyielding.

“Please, just let me handle this.”

“Elliott, no. You'll go down there and roll over for her like you always do.” She shakes her head. “And it's not happening tonight. I'm not letting her take our kids.”

“We don't have a choice.” His voice sounds a little gruffer than he intended.

Arden doesn't notice that Eli is almost yelling. Her tone has climbed to the same stressed pitch.

“We may not.” She gestures from his chest, then back to hers. “But I do.”

Arden pushes past Elliott and out the bedroom door. He runs after her. Eli hooks his arm around her waist, lifting her off the ground.

“Arden, wait.”

“Put me down, Elliott.”

“No.”

She struggles against his grip. “Put me down.”

“Not until you listen to me.”

Her constant movement is making it difficult for him to hang on to her. He rights her but doesn't let go.

“I'm done talking.”

Arden cements her feet to the floor, grounding her weight. She bends, making him overextend his back. Eli moves right with her, tightening his grasp on her waist. He knows she's either trying to flip him or force him to break his hold on her.

His feet begin to lift off the ground until he's standing on his tiptoes. Arden has always had strength. She is a former athlete, after all. But tonight she's besting him like Hercules hopped up on Popeye's spinach with a Red Bull chaser.

“Just ... listen.” He drags out his words, as he strains to maintain his leverage.

While Elliott tries to convince Arden to leave the damage control to him, Melinda continues to harass Edward downstairs.

Her ranting can be seen and heard over the main intercom in the living room.

Mel ignores Edward's various warnings and picks up her one-sided argument with the surveillance camera again.

“And wake up the Hershey's kiss, too. I know the little bitch had something to do with this,” Melinda yells.

Arden makes a sound that's a combination of a low chuckle and a growl.

“I'm not gon' be too many more bitches, Eli.” A little bit of that hood girl who lives in every woman to some extent is coming to the forefront.

“Arden!” Melinda climbs on top of the front desk so that her pale features are in superb focus. She taps the camera lens with her decrepit index finger.

“I know your thieving ass has my damn kids. Try having some crumb snatchers of your own for a change, instead of trying to steal mine.”

“Elliott ... unless you want to be on the receiving end of the first ass-kicking of the night, I suggest you let go of me.” Arden's tone is low and controlled. Like someone who has resolved to do what must be done, consequences be damned.

He has to rein her in—and fast. She has never reached a breaking point where Melinda is concerned. But tonight could be one for the record books. It looks like his ex has finally pushed a woman with the patience of Job to her limit.

He doesn't know whether or not he can handle that. Eli knows what Melinda's bat shit crazy entails. But seeing someone as quiet as Arden lose her shit would be like watching an F5 twister decimate a town. No warning. No escape. Just destruction. The only hope for survival would be to hunker down and ride it out, as you watch in awe at its raw power.

“Arden, baby.” Elliott puts Ardi in a bear hug and places his hand over her heart. The adrenaline courses through her veins, pounding her heart against his palm at breakneck speed. It makes him tremble.

He speaks to her in a voice so soft and sweet, even the most nefarious of villains couldn't resist its charm.

“Calm down ... Ignore her.” Eli reminds her that the evil bitch downstairs feeds off anger, and she's only seeking a reaction out of them.

Arden knows this. She has become very well accustomed to Melinda's modus operandi. That woman has been the bane of Arden's existence for the last sixteen years. She knows Melinda says shit just to fuck with her.

Ardi is aware that Mel has even referred to her as a whore in front of the twins. She is also privy to the scathing "anonymous" blog Melinda has dedicated to blasting her ex-husband's second wife. She remembers convincing her father not to lodge a civil suit against Mel for defamation of character.

Ardi also recalls smiling while Melinda introduced herself as Eli's wife at a Mitchell family function. At that same gathering, Mel managed to mention the absence of any little ones who bear a resemblance to Arden to everyone in attendance at least twice.

Her exact comment was, “You have to wonder when a woman as ... striking ... as Arden hasn't given her husband any children. Must be something wrong with her plumbing, or he's found some other little slut to take care of his needs. Either way, I feel so sorry for her. A woman who can't have kids isn't really a woman at all. Elliott must be so disappointed.”

At least that's how Arden's aunt, Wilhelmina, relayed the message to her in the kitchen of her childhood home. Arden cursed the ground that Melinda slithered on, as she bore a hole in the travertine tile floor with her Valentino heels. She gritted her teeth, as Wilhelmina urged her to set the maniacal ho straight. Arden refused.

Instead, Ardi watched from the bay window while that bitch tossed her head back, cackling as she drank Dom Pérignon in the backyard of the Mitchells’ forty-acre estate. She didn't say anything. Just let Melinda's venom roll right off her back.

Of course, Melinda picked up on Arden's unwillingness to acknowledge her smear campaign and upped the ante. Yet, she still got no reaction from the current Mrs. Elliott Stone. Ardi remained mum, as she overheard Melinda make yet another reference to her perceived imperfection.

“The doctors must have misplaced something when they stitched her back together after the accident.”

Melinda stared right at Arden as she spoke, daring her to offer some challenge to the bile she was spreading all over the beautifully landscaped garden.

Arden's entire body shut down. Her hands lost their grip on the silverware she'd been holding, sending it crashing down onto the expensive china. Her brown eyes glistened, as moisture strained against her eyelids. For a second, she forgot how to breathe.

That one hurt. It was a two-for-one punch. The barb almost made her lunge across the pristine white tablecloth, and bust Melinda dead in her throat.

Even Wilhelmina was ready to light up Melinda's pasty behind for that remark. Seeing the anguish on her niece's face was all the motivation she needed to pull off her earrings and snatch a bitch.

Any slight mention of the day she lost her mother sends Arden into an emotional tailspin. And everyone close to her is conscious of that fact, including her best enemy. She wanted nothing more than to lay her ass out. But she wasn't going to allow herself, or her aunt, to sink to Mel's level.

“Mitchell women are ladies first,” Lillian Mitchell's gentle voice reminded her. Arden's mom would not have approved of such an outburst. Especially not in the company of most of her extended family. And she wasn't about to disappoint her mommy.