Fortune

She blinked.

She had been born Samantha Elisabeth McTaggart but her friends just called her Sapphire. She was a smart, enthusiastic and clever little girl, or at least that’s what the adults always said when her friends came over to play. So that was why it came as no surprise to Samantha, that she now held the most valuable book in the world in her hands. It didn’t look like much but she knew better, it was often the least inconspicuous objects that held the most worth.

She had found it in the woods, in a small plastic bag, hidden inside a log. It had been placed there, no doubt, by pirates or some long lost fairy king who refused to share his gold. When she had opened it she instantly knew what it was for the long lines of heavily scrawled text simply screamed treasure.

She blinked.

She smiled to herself sitting in the dank cozy café. Thinking of her innocent young child of a self and how she had been right in a way, the book had held treasure, but not the type buried by pirates or spun from fine silken fairy fingers. It had been an accounts book, and one which held the names of some very powerful men. She chuckled to herself, if only she knew back then the life of luxury she was destined for, she might not have shown her father.

She checked her watch, and noted that her appointment was late, as usual. He was number 87 after all and she was willing to bet that this was going to be their last engagement. After all she had extorted many men for the better part of the last decade, and in her experience it was something that seldom held sway for long. She felt the familiar twinge of guilt and quickly sipped her dark roast coffee. Her bills were paid, she had never had to truly work hard for what she so rightly deserved, in her books the ends justified the means, and they were expensive ends after all.

She blinked.

Two blocks west a short hurried man in a thick wool trench coat pushed his way through the blustering cold of a New York winter day. William, or number 87 as Sapphire called him, was indeed running late, but not by accident or habit as she had assumed. In fact for the last two months he had intentionally kept her waiting while his contacts at the FBI searched through her private apartments. It had taken longer than he would have liked but that was because they had taken the utmost care to leave everything as it was found. Today though, today was the day that all his time and patience had finally paid off. They had found the book! That blasted black book that his accountant had hidden those many years ago as his insurance policy all while swearing he was keeping no records.

William smiled coldly when he thought of the pleading expression of that tiny fat man when his time truly came. “Ha!” It was shortly after that moment of hopeless pleading that his accountant had learned why people did exactly what they were told when they worked for him. Sapphire would be no different, she would beg and plead but in the end he had no mercy for those who crossed him.

She blinked

Her father had read those pages very carefully at first and had made some calls. A short month passed and they had packed up and moved to the big city. Private tutors and fancy parties became the norm, expensive shopping trips and lavish vacations often. Sapphire was blown over by her father’s love and quickly became accustomed to their new life.

On her eighteenth birthday dad had taken her aside and explained the family business. That little black treasure book becoming the all important lynch pin holding everything together. It was her father who introduced her to numbers 40 through 57 and she had taken in from there. Taking it farther than even he had believed possible. She was a master, and men and women alike bowed at her feet and it was all thanks to this little black book.

She blinked.

The sky was red and number 62 was on one knee apologizing since it was not the moment that he had intended to ask her. He said he had hoped it would be on a warmer day, when the sun was sparkling off the rippling lake water. He said, life is seldom so gracious or kind that it allows circumstance to line up perfectly with all we intend. He said he wanted her forever, but she knew better. So there he knelt on the edge of the cracked and broken sidewalk staring deeply into her eyes with expectation.

It was a ruse, like all numbers before he was just trying to get at her book. It was pitiful the lengths people would go to gain their personal power back.

She blinked.

The door of the café blew open ringing the little bell in a frantic tone. He wore black, it was the end. Sapphire lay there on the floor of the café, gasping slowly as all light faded around her

She blinked.