New Works
Beneath a
Bloodstained Moon
by Josh Stafford
Beneath a Bloodstained Moon is the third novel in the
Lee family series.
Publication date is still to be determined, but is expected to be
towards the end of 2011.
Check back for more news, or visit my blog.
The
weak October sun is well above the Boston skyline when Warwick Lee
wakes. For a while he lies in the narrow bed, staring at the ceiling,
uncomfortable. He is tall - too tall for the bed: if he were at home in
China he would be in a king-size bed where he could snuggle into the
soft curves of a beautiful female, but this is America and he is in a
small three-quarter size bed where there is hardly enough room for one,
let alone another.
He looks at the
woman beside him; she is not his, she is his brother's. Seducing her
was intentional, deliberate, but now that he has done it he feels
guilty. It was to be his final act before he leaves, a slap in his
brother's face, bedding his girlfriend, even getting her pregnant.
It was easy, he
thinks,
too easy. God, I don't know what he sees in her. She's not
even good in bed.
Three things clash
in his mind: his twin, his father, and Jeena. Hurting Garrett was just
spite, he realises now. But last night it was different: he was angry,
angry at being set up, angry at being arrested, angry at the Harvard
University Police, angry at everybody. Including Garrett, because… he
closes his eyes and curses silently in his mind… because he never
does anything wrong. Anger surfaces again, but still the nagging
guilt tears at the pit of his stomach.
He slept with his
brother's girl because he wanted to make her pregnant; Garrett wouldn't
know; Garrett would be blamed. Warwick wanted that to happen. And
Garrett would think the child was his: condoms weren't infallible;
sometimes accidents happen; sometimes there's a leak. And Father
will… Warwick thinks, resentment surging within him, what
will he do to Garrett? Nothing! Jeena will have the child; Father and
Mother will take it and raise it as their own, or raise it for Garrett.
There will be no abortion: their parents are pro-life to the
extreme. Father will pay Jeena to have the child, and then take it
away.
In his mind Warwick
sees his parents fussing over the infant boy: marvelling over the
child, "He's so beautiful, Garrett! He's like you when you were a
baby." Not 'like you and Warwick', he thinks. Like Garrett.
But he won't be Garrett's baby. He'll be mine. And you, Father, you
will be clucking and fussing over my son, loving my son. If you found
out, Father, will you hate my child as you hate me? And what will you
do to Garrett for making a woman pregnant out of wedlock? Will you
punish him by making him spend a year with Mr Yue? Will you insist that
Mr Yue supervise him twenty-four hours a day as you had him do for me?
Even in the bathroom like when I had to take a dump? No, Father, you
won't, because he's your favourite. I did my year of punishment with Mr
Yue, but I got my revenge. And I won. You gave in. I won.
But he didn't win.
Nobody won. Not him, not his father. His victory was just pyrrhic as
the brief interlude of an unfaithful husband's forbidden orgasm: he
wins another lover but loses love.
With Warwick the
first girl was a mistake, but the next two were deliberate, lashing out
at his father's year of harsh punishment: Do what you like, Father.
I will win this. And
when his father reacted, sentencing him to two more years of Mr Yue's
constant supervision, Warwick told him next time he'd make four girls
pregnant and then tell the authorities, forcing four abortions. Next
time it would be eight. Then sixteen. It was not an idle threat. His
parents knew their rebel son could - and would - carry through with his
promise: girls are drawn to all the Lee boys like a magnet, not because
of their handsome looks, but because their father is one of China's
growing number of billionaires.
His parents backed
down; even giving in to allowing him girls in his room, all on the
promise that he would use condoms. And he took full advantage of their
abdication, flaunting the girls in front of his parents as if to prove
his victory. His father was disgusted; his mother devastated. Their
silent disapproval - as was the rest of the family's contempt - was
loudly voiced by ignoring whatever girl he had, treating her as if she
were not there: a ghost from a different reality, unseen and unknown in
this. When food was put on the family table, place amongst the family
was only set for Warwick; if he tried to set a place for her it was
quickly removed by the butler; if he tried to take food to his room it
would be knocked from his hands.
Socially Warwick
soon became a pariah; no self-respecting girl would be seen dead with
him, but still he persisted in his battle, bringing classless girls to
his bed, all no better than common whores, all hoping for a taste of
the Lee wealth in exchange for humiliation by his family. Those that
were persistent Warwick rewarded with expensive gifts, not as payment
for sex, but instead as acknowledgement of their support in his ongoing
battle with his father.
And so Warwick Lee
lost the respect of his parents; with it the affection that he'd been
shown before it happened. Now his father puts up a masquerade of
fairness: in material things Warwick and Garrett are almost equal; in
relationship, very different. They get the same allowance, drive
similarly expensive vehicles, but Garrett is loved. Warwick is not.
Truth be told, the
pregnancy with Ming really was an accident. Warwick was thirteen at the
time, petrified his father would find out. Then he learned that if a
teen went to the family planning officials, a private, secret abortion
would be arranged. The parents would not find out. Only Ming didn't
want to have an abortion, so he tricked her into meeting the officials;
they cajoled her, and when she still refused, they threatened her. The
child was aborted, it was nineteen weeks old, and they showed it to
him.
It was a boy.
Ming told her
parents.
They told his
parents.
His punishment was
extreme: a year of constant supervision by an adult, twenty-four hours
a day, seven days a week. The only time old Mr Yue wasn't with him was
when old man himself had to go to the bathroom. At school, Mr Yue sat
beside Warwick, slept in the bedroom with him, watched him as he
showered, supervised him when he went to the toilet. Then, a month into
his punishment, at school when Mr Yue was dozing off, Garrett slipped
Warwick a note: Tomorrow I'll be you. You be me. It was easy to
fool the old man: he was never able to tell the twins apart.
It is still
difficult to tell the twins from each other. He and Garrett, his elder
by a minute, are unusually identical: even now, at nineteen years of
age they sill can fool their close friends into thinking the one is the
other by adopting each other's mannerisms. Yet for all the similarity
in looks, they are very different in character: Garrett is the cool,
calm, focussed one; Warwick is the hot-head rebel playboy.
Garrett helped me,
Warwick thinks, remembering his brother still does. Many times Garret
has taken the fall for him, knowing his punishment would be far less
severe than his wayward brother's. And after all that he has done
for me, I'm doing this to him?
