Broken Rivalry

Prologue – Poppy

Enjoy what you have while you have it because one day, something might come and fuck it all up for you.

Well, that’s not exactly how the quote goes, but it’s exactly how it feels now as I stop my brand-new red Audi convertible—a seventeenth-birthday present—in the driveway. I grip the steering wheel, my heart racing as I take in the scene. The distant chatter of police radios fills the air, punctuated by the occasional door slam. The flashing police lights momentarily blind me, casting eerie blue and red shadows on the mansion’s facade.
An FBI agent, all sharp suit and stern face, strides over. “Miss Lockwood?” he asks. Before I can respond, he’s opening my car door. The implied command is clear: Get out.
“What’s going on?” Panic edges my voice. My mind races, trying to find a reason. Could this be about the silly prank I pulled on Ethan Hawthorne? Only some Jell-O in his locker, petty revenge for what he did to my Louboutins. But as I take in the swarm of officers and the gravity on their faces, I realize this is way beyond any high school drama.
“Poppy!” my mother screams, coming out of the house with tears running down her face, ruining her usually perfect makeup. I can hardly recognize her as she stops in front of me. I’d never seen my mother other than perfectly presentable.
“Poppy!” Mom’s voice breaks through my thoughts. She’s a mess, mascara streaking her face. “They’re taking him. They’re taking everything!”
“Taking w—” The rest of the sentence dies on my lips as I see two police officers exit the house with my father walking between them in handcuffs.
“Poppy, calm your mother down! We can’t have the neighbors talking. Remember, appearances are everything…” He doesn’t finish his sentence as the police officer shoves him not so nicely in the back of the patrol car.
I huff; that’s my father in a nutshell—far more worried about what our posh neighbors from Ridge Hill will think of my mother’s outburst than the reasons for him being taken away and our house being invaded by the authorities.
“I’ll take care of her. I’ll go to school and pick up the boys,” I shout at him, suspecting he can’t hear me from the car that is already going down our paved driveway.
I turn to my mother. “Get in the car, we’re go—”
The agent’s grip tightens on my car door. “Sorry, but you’re not going anywhere in this. Everything in Alan Lockwood’s name is now government property.”
I square off with him, scowling at his hand on my car as anger bubbles up. “This is my car. You can’t just take it!” I add, tapping my foot for good measure.
Very mature, Poppy. I can hear my mother’s voice in my head, and she would be telling me off if she was not a crying mess.
“The car, as well as all the assets, are registered to Alan Lockwood and, therefore, are now seized by the US government.” I can’t believe this is happening. Merely hours ago, I was worried about school assignments, and now, our entire world is collapsing. How did we get here?
I keep on scowling, unmoving from my spot in front of the open car door.
“Please step away from the vehicle,” he adds, his previous calm, almost gentle demeanor taking an exasperated edge.
I look at my mother, her distress now making so much more sense.
“Everything, Poppy, they are taking everything.”
My entire life, as I knew it, is unraveling before my eyes. The world I grew up in. The luxuries I took for granted are all crumbling. I’m left standing in the wreckage, wondering what comes next.