Purcel's Little Black Book

Whenever someone sees Julissa Purcel, their first thoughts are, “Wow, she looks like she had it rough.” Her physical frame is fit and well developed, the usual vision of a young woman in her early 20’s. Her clothing is very tattered and her shoes are scuffed and worn down. She has bags under her eyes, dry and blemished skin, and wears a daily expression of exhaustion, making her appear as though she was ten years older.

Julissa lives on the streets, particularly in the business district of downtown New York City. Even in the howling wind, she prefers to choose her sleeping quarters from a vast selection of concrete foundations. She makes her beds out of a combination of industrial trash bags borrowed from maintenance supplies, which she places under old, donated blankets from various charities, and pillows she fashioned by balling up the few articles of clothing she possesses.

She only sleeps in the enclosures of commercial buildings that had to shut down their brick and mortar shops due to the world pandemic. She chooses these buildings specifically because she wants to be close to her job, which is begging for food and money. The area she works in is always buzzing with folks who are either on their way to and from work during rush hour, scurrying to get lunch and make it back to the office on time, and those who are leisurely shopping.

Julissa didn’t always live from hand-to-foot, she comes from a middle-class family who, even though they work long grueling hours and live paycheck to paycheck, they earn honest livings. However, the Purcel family Patriarch, Westchester Purcel and Julissa’s maternal grandfather, is a self-made millionaire who wants nothing to do with his greedy relatives, with the exception of Julissa.

When Julissa was born, no one would dare try to drive a wedge between him and his granddaughter. When she became old enough to go to school, he paid every tuition in full for every school she attended, including college, up until she graduated and acquired her doctoral degree in law.

At her graduation, Julissa was so giddy with excitement, she almost burst waiting to announce the engagement to her family. They appeared to be happy about the news. She didn’t see the smirks on their lips right before they told her that Winchester already made it known that he didn’t approve of the engagement. Once Julissa met, fell in love with, and became engaged to be married, without any explanation whatsoever, her grandfather refused to speak to her anymore.

How Winchester found out about the engagement before she told her family was beyond anyone’s knowledge. She couldn’t decipher or understand why her grandfather turned his back on her and refused to speak to her, after all, Riley Deluth was a young man who was at the top of his class at the Ivy League college where they both studied law. He is the perfect life partner from a well-to-do family. He treats her with respect and will profess his unconditional love to anyone who will listen.

Riley’s family fortunes originates from owning one of the two most successful law firms on the East Coast. She once met his parents and siblings during dinner at their sprawling mansion but never stepped foot in their house again after that one night. The exchanges of whispered, heated words between Riley and his father, Mr. Pasha Deluth caused Riley to snatch Julissa’s hand, vow to never return, and abruptly leave his family’s home.

Each time Julissa asked about the conversation between him and his father, Riley became dismissive, didn’t want to discuss it, and at his insistence, she was to never bring it up again. She let it lay to rest. She had her own family troubles to ponder.

She spoke to her family again to ask why Westchester cut off all communication with her but they offered only wicked smiles and snide, mumbled responses of, “Well, you already know how he is with family,” and “It was only a matter of time before he shut you out too.”

She had no other choice but to bury both their family troubles in the back of her mind and try her best to be as happy as one could imagine; she threw all of her energy into the promises of her future with Riley and did what she thought necessary to make the best of their lives together. On occasion, she found her constantly yearning for the joys of spending precious time with her grandfather and bonding with Riley’s family.

Several times she made mention of her disappointments to Riley. He had a habit of brushing her sadness to the side with diversions. His intentions were cheering her up, a quality of his she became to adore. During one time she was shared her sadness with him, she looked into his eyes, hoping they would reveal a sliver of a hint or solutions in their entirety. It was something about the way his eyes kept darting about the room that day, rather than steadily fix upon her own.

After many attempts, she shed her many troubled thoughts to far and few in between. Less and less her state of mind overwhelmed her. Riley’s frequent coaxing rerouted her thinking patterns to happy thoughts. Nightly habits of unwinding at bedtime was the only time she had to reflect and ponder daily events and the strangeness of his evasive, ocular gestures.

The next morning, she mentioned his eye gestures and her new approach was her own family issues. The master of evasion managed to smoothly transition disturbing matters to delightful topics and appealed to her common sense. He slyly avoided her eyes at the mention of Winchester’s name. He eased her mind with reminders of their wedding. Reluctant but eager, she kissed him and left to indulge in scheduling, arrangements, menus, venues, themes, apparel, footwear, guests, and all other matters of marital bliss.

She was so exhausted when she finally made it back home. As she slipped her wedding planner in the draw of the console table in the entrance hall, she saw a little black book. She didn’t bother to flip through its pages. She remembered seeing Riley reading it and did not spend two more seconds thinking about it as she made her merry way to their bedroom for a refreshing nap. She wanted to be revitalized so she could give Riley a full account of her day when he returned.

The sound of the phone ringing awakened her. The caller’s voice was an unfamiliar one who urged her to make haste to Metropolitan hospital. She insisted they tell her who they were, demanded to know why she should hurry to the hospital but they hung up too fast. She could not call back; the ID panel displayed “private,” leaving her with no idea who called.

She tried to go back to sleep and couldn’t. The distressed caller’s tone prevented her from keeping her eyes closed. She finally made tracks to the hospital. The person didn’t even tell her what to say when she arrived. She went to the emergency room and told the desk clerk her name. She had no idea they were expecting her. A male nurse immediately took her through the doors to the area where triaged patients waited for medical attention.

She gasped as she saw Riley’s bloody body laying completely still. His chest did not rise and fall to indicate whether or not he was breathing. Tears slid down her cheeks, her clouded mind would not allow her to imagine what could have happened. The nurse spoke to her. She did not hear him as she was shock, and jumped out of her skin when the nurse touched her shoulder to get her attention. The nurse was saying that Riley repeated her name, telling them to get Julissa on the phone. He kept saying it over and over until he passed out.

The nurse attempted to explain Riley’s condition and before he could complete a sentence, he was interrupted by the commotion of Riley’s parents and siblings approaching. The vibrations of Riley’s father’s agitated voice resonated above them all. He aggressively commanded the presence of the attending doctor. The male nurse ran away to catch up with the group of security officers who advanced towards them to calm Mr. Deluth down but once Mr. Deluth saw Julissa, he got quiet, his facial expression softened and just as quickly, he pursed his lips so tightly, you could see them turn red around their deep lines. The rest of Riley’s family saw her too. They all did an about face and headed to the nurses’ station to get answers.

Unexpectedly, the male nurse came back to let Julissa know that she had to leave the hospital at the insistence of Riley’s father. Tearfully, she let him know she was Riley’s fiancé. She did not understand why all of a sudden she was asked to leave. The nurse could not offer the answers. Julissa noticed his expression was sympathetic and he had no authority except follow the instructions of Riley’s father. He could only gently remind her that she was not a family member and continue to babble on about hospital policy.

She rode a cab back to her home. When she got there, plainclothes detectives insisted she was to be escorted in to retrieve whatever belongings she could carry. Her mind raced to figure out what was going on. It was her home. She and Riley lived there.

As she packed, she overheard bits and pieces of conversations involving the words murder, Riley, and investigation. The only thing she could think of doing was going back to her family. On her way out the door, she grabbed her wedding planner from the console table drawer in the hallway. She took another cab to her family’s home. When she arrived, they opened the door then slammed it shut, right in her face, and she heard them shouting she better never disgrace their doorstep again or she would suffer bodily harm.

She had no one, she had become totally dependent on Riley and now he was gone. It all happened so fast, no one could explain, she was totally lost. Her depression took her on a journey from suburban life to the curbs of the street. She lost the will to depend on herself. Her soul was weak, she didn’t know what to do.

Her first night living on the streets, she had an unsettling dream. Her spirits screamed at her conscious, her imagination flung eerie, nightmarish shadows into her mind’s eye, shadows that morphed into Winchester Purcel and Pasha Deluth, both who were standing over Riley’s bloody body. She tossed and turned. Her eyes fluttered then flew open. She quickly remembered who and where she was. She grabbed her wedding planner, then sat up to stare at the memories. She opened the planner and the little black book fell into her lap. It distracted her intentions to reminisce her once upon a time future with the man she loved.

She opened the book to its contents which held a short list of names, two of which were Winchester’s worst enemies. Across from the names were their weaknesses, and the threats they posed. To him, they were deadly and detrimental to his future prosperities. There were also potential business opportunities coupled with a list of strategies to weaken his competitive opponents and strengthen his own business ventures. At the top of the list of names was Pasha Deluth and Abner Purcel. Abner was Julissa’s father.

The next page rudely explained why Winchester seemingly shut her out of his life. It also explained why he despised Abner and Pasha. On the third page was plans to shut Pasha down by depriving him of what he cherished the most. The detailed plans ws to murder Riley, Deluth’s only weakness. Riley was Deluth’s only biological child, or so everyone thought. The other children were adopted.

Once upon a time Winchester and Pasha were as close as blood brothers. Pasha betrayed Winchester by impregnating Lily, Julissa’s mother and Winchester’s daughter. Winchester knew that Riley and Julissa were half brother and sister. He knew Julissa was innocent and did not know who her real father was. He could not let her marry her brother. To keep the marriage from taking place and to get back at Pasha, he decided he would take Riley’s life.

Abner thought it was a good idea to sleep with Pasha’s wife. Her first and only biological child was Riley but she never told Pasha that Riley was not his son. James, Abner and Lily’s was the only child who belonged to both of them. As soon as Riley was born, Pasha secretly had a DNA test and learned who Riley’s biological father was. He did not want the shame of his wife’s infidelity to destroy his reputation in the business world. He never let on how fullly aware he was. It enraged Pasha to the point of him vowing to destroy Winchester’s livelihood. The other two children he adopted were his biologically but he did not tell his wife. It was his way to get even. Once he destroyed Winchester, he would tell his wife of his own fidelity.

The Purcels decided to also adopt a child named Jiffany to distract everyone from figuring out James and Julissa’s facial features were so different. When Jiffany was adopted, no one except Pasha knew that the adoption agency was paid by Pasha to push Jiffany on the Purcels because she was his biologically.

Pasha’s mission was to acquire all of Winchester’s business ventures as his own. It was also the start of a family feud which those in their business circles jumped on the bandwagons to Winchester and Pasha’s demise, none of them knowing why their professional missions were to destroy each other’s businesses. As far as business was concerned, the usual deceits were just the nature of competitive business tactics.

Both Pasha and Winchester did their dirty deeds, Pasha had Riley murdered but made it look like Winchester did it. Lily told Pasha about Winchester’s plans to kill Riley. Pasha confronted Winchester about it but he denied having plans to kill anyone. Winchester had lost his little black book, Lily found it and threw it into the air out of disbelief. It landed between sofa cushions. James had found and read it. On one of his visits to see Julissa, he slipped it into the console table. Neither Julissa or Riley knew how it got there and James never let on how much he knew. He thought it was the right thing to do to keep Julissa and Riley from making the mistake of getting married. Riley discovered the book but never told Julissa. He wanted her to read the book so they would discuss together how they would live their lives. He figured she’d be curious enough about the book to read it herself but she ignored it until it fell in her lap, after the ugliness of their family secrets unraveled her life.

As Julissa continued reading what was written in the book, she got her answers to her and Riley’s family issues. She noticed a folded document that was stapled to the last page. It was Winchester’s will. Winchester learned later who the father of Lily and Abner’s adopted children were. He already became attached to Julissa before he found out the truth and felt sorry for her because she had nothing to do with any of the deceit and lies that tore the families apart. He felt leaving his estate and his entire, multi-million dollar fortunes to Julissa would satisfy his vendetta against both families. Julissa pulled herself together and made her way to her family’s house.

Julissa’s family loved and hated Westchester. They knew the reason for his timely death. They were always jealous of Julissa’s relationship with Westchester and when he died, they lost hope to ever get their hooks into his fortune and worldly possessions. After Westchester’s death, they learned from the reading of the will that he left everything to Julissa, in spite of him refusing to further participate in anything having to do with her after she announced her engagement to Riley.

They plotted a few plans to warm up to her. Their only problem was they threatened to hurt her and did not know where she was. To them, it was a God sent Blessing when they overheard Tiffany telling James about her shopping excursion with her silly little friends.

While on a shopping spree on the city’s Fifth Avenue, Tiffany, Julissa’s younger sister and her little bougie friends, caught a glimpse of and made fun of a destitute woman. The only reason they noticed her is because she stood out significantly from the people who were dressed to impress. Tiffany, disregarding the few years she spent attending etiquette and finishing school, tactlessly laughed really hard as she roared out to her girlfriends of how the derelict reminded her of her older sister. They all giggled uncontrollably and continued on with their pampered lives.

When Tiffany got home, she told James about the poor, unfortunate woman she saw, laughing at the idea of how much she favored Julissa. James always had a soft spot for Julissa, he was the only one who sympathized with her, especially when he learned that Riley, the love of her life was murdered and at the fact that she didn’t know that Westchester was gone forever.

James, having earned his doctoral degree in forensics, made it his mission to investigate the possibilities that there may very well be some truth to Tiffany’s giggled ramblings seeing Julissa. He was just as curious to know exactly what happened to Riley, especially since it is the reason Julissa vanished without a trace. He wanted to be sure she was still alive.

As he opened the door to go track Julissa down, she was just about to knock on the door when it opened. They stared at each other for a few seconds, the first thing James did was tell her about Winchester’s death. Julissa’s eyes closed as she almost crumbled to the floor. James caught her right before she collapsed and carried her to the car. He drove her to her new home, Winchester’s old mansion. Winchester’s nurse helped James carry her into a bedroom to recover.