24

Tiv

Thursday 8th February, Year 825

After a three-hour car journey, in which I chose to take a private car so I was away from the rest of the family, I had to endure a seven-hour yacht trip. The water was rough and the weather was stormy and grey. I spent the entire journey in my private cabin. I did not want to talk to anyone. Even if I did want to, seasickness ensured my head was in the toilet for most of the trip. I hated going to Lambent… I hadn't spoken to anyone in eleven hours. The only person I wanted to talk to was an ocean away and even if she wasn't, Marco had ensured I was a dead man if I ever went near her again.

He left me in the mud after his assault on Alayna. After discovering my battered car outside of her house, I decided it would be more prudent just to leave rather than let her father and brother pull me apart for Marco's crimes.

Knowing Mother's skill for handling difficult situations, I couldn't help thinking she would have known how to sort everything. Even though her death caused it. I found myself begging for an exchange: my Mother for my Father. Then I hated myself for even considering it. I thought about my last full conversation with Mother. I was a disappointment to her. Poisonous self-hatred washed over me as I stared at the wooden ceiling of the empty cabin.

We finally disembarked before getting stuck at the Lambentian border for an hour. We still had another eight-hour flight to take. I was at my wit's end. It was too hot and I shuffled uncomfortably in the visa office, waiting for a car.

"It should not be too long," Meredith smiled as if it was a normal day.

My brows knit together, "Did you get the phone?"

She pressed her lips together and handed me a boxed mobile phone.

"Thank you," I grumbled.

"Darling, perhaps this could be a fresh start for everyone-"

"Don't even start," I barked.

She immediately put her head down and I flushed. What was wrong with me?

"I'm sorry," I grumbled.

"Tempers are running high," she whispered before clearing her throat and looking up. "Our time ahead will be difficult. We mustn't make it so hard, must we?"

I couldn't decide if I was being scolded. Meredith always spoke as if she was a hundred years old. I looked down at the phone and sighed.

"Thanks for getting this, Em," I said.

She patted my face and gave a chirpy smile, again acting as if it was a normal day. I pulled the scrappy piece of paper containing Alayna's number from my pocket and her face dropped for an infinitesimal moment before her soft smile was back. I gave her an inquisitorial look however, before any words were spoken, Marco grabbed for me. A rush of blood surged to my temples as his fingers curled around the phone, wrenching it from my grasp with a casual yet firm dominance. The world narrowed to the heat of that touch, a silent assertion of control that prickled across my skin like an unwelcome rash.

"Give me it back," I growled through gritted teeth, the muscles in my jaw tightening to the point of pain.

"I don't want to fight with you. I just do not think you should give her the time of day," Marco replied, his voice level and infuriatingly composed.

"I can't believe you touched her," I hissed; the residual anger from the morning brimming to the surface. "Do you realise, had we stayed, her brother and father would have destroyed you? I would have laughed as they did it too."

"Marco-" Meredith began to admonish, her eyes wide.

He dismissed her with a flicker of his gaze before returning his insolent stare to me. "Alayna Jameson was using you! She told me herself on the phone after she proved to everyone at college she was a basketcase. That bitch got an absolute high from playing us off against each other. She's trying to get us fighting!"

"I'm sure," I sneered, disbelief splintering my sarcasm.

"She was furious because of the bet. Yes, it was in bad taste. However don't be fooled, she's a lunatic. Absolutely hysterical," he justified.

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I ground my teeth, "You are full of it. Nothing more than a jealous pig. If you ever lay a finger on her again-"

"I won't get a chance. We aren't going back. Don't delude yourself into thinking otherwise," he interrupted.

"Won't get a chance!" I bellowed.

My anger had swelled exponentially until I was shouting inches from Marco's face. Defensively he pushed me backwards and before my brain had made a proper connection with the rest of my body my right fist was hurtling towards his face. I punched him hard, knocking him down. He was up in an instant before Meredith propelled herself forward with an agility that belied her usual gracefulness. "Boys, enough!" Her voice carried not only authority but also a tremble of fear that vibrated through the air.

My breaths came heavy and ragged as I reeled back from Marco, Meredith's pale blue eyes piercing into mine with desperation.

Then came the iron clamp of fingers around my forearm—a grip that bore years of strict expectation and cold authority—Father's presence towering over me like an eclipse shadowing the sun.

"Boy, we have an image to maintain," his voice whispered with lethal stillness.

Anger still coursed through me, "I cannot express how indifferent I am about your image."

The pressure on my arm spiked, punctuated by a squeeze meant to bring obedience without bruises visible from afar.

Calm down before he kills you.

"Sir-" Meredith started.

"Not now, woman," he snapped.

"Anthony," she tried again with a soothing tone, nodding behind him to where we no doubt had spectators.

He had relaxed his furious expression and his grasp on me.

"All this for a scab girl?" he questioned softly, his words seeming almost foreign given their tone laced with something akin to understanding.

I turned to look at him. He was exhausted. However no amount of sleep deprivation had ever made Father take a break and I did not think the loss of his wife, however estranged, would improve that.

"Marco was looking out for you on my command. That girl and her entire family are nothing but trouble. Unfortunately, when you have the resources we do it is hard to find people you can really trust, especially enough to have a relationship with. The Jamesons are covetous and that means strife for us."

"Father, Marco is just pissed off because Alayna humiliated him," I barked.

"Watch your language, boy," Father snapped before calming himself again. "Marco is not acting out of his own interests at all in this case. I know this for a fact."

"Oh really? and how do you know this for a fact?" I sneered.

My father gave me a warning look. A voice in the back of my mind told me I had jumped clear over the line and would be punished accordingly for it when we were behind closed doors. However, I could not help it. He was lying. Alayna Jameson was not the girl my family insisted on telling me that she was. Father read my defiant expression and sighed deeply.

"As you know, I took refuge at the Jameson residence last night. This was partly due to the fact Julie and I had been rather good friends." I knew exactly what that meant. I'd met plenty of his female friends before. Nausea overcame me at the notion. "However, the main reason was that your Mother and Julie Jameson were very close and I thought I owed it to her to tell her face-to-face. Unfortunately, Julie's response was not as I thought it would be. She mourned for minutes, if that. When her husband left us alone, she made advances towards me and asked more than once if she should leave her family to come to Lambent with us. Offended on behalf of my wife, your Mother, I left immediately," he explained.

"That is not true…" I whispered, taken aback.

"I'm afraid it is. Now, I realise you like Julie's daughter however look at yourself! You never put a toe out of line until you met her. Now your attendance has plummeted at college—yes, of course I know all about that—the papers are reporting you're paying prostitutes, and if you think it has slipped my attention you have two official fines on your record, you're woefully mistaken. You and your brother have fought twice in the last day because of this girl. She pretends to have feelings for you but she is like her Mother: deceitful and uncaring. They would both use us for pretty little trinkets with no concern for the ruin of our family as long as they get what they want."

Father sounded bitter. It threw me entirely. He had affairs constantly, never quietly. Yet the notion he had given Julie trinkets astounded me. Mother had always insisted they were best friends. My stomach clenched uncomfortably at the thought of the mobile and the beads I gifted Alayna. Those beads were something Mother had given me for my sixteenth birthday… I would never get another gift from her again yet I still gave what I had from her away, easily. I immediately pushed the uncertainty out of my mind. Alayna was not like her mother… Then I recalled Mother telling me Alayna was exactly like Julie. I shuddered.

"Sir, all the paperwork is complete. We are ready to go," the annoying crooked-nosed man interrupted.

My Father nodded and the man walked away. He turned back to me, "You are a teenage boy and she is just the first pretty thing that has come along. There will be plenty more."

I glared at him. Talking to me like I was a child did not make me feel better.

"Sorry she was not who you thought she was, however we are in Lambent now. This means a new start and a new life for all of us… A new start without the Jamesons," he clarified.

With that, he took the ragged piece of paper holding Alayna's number out of my hand and ripped it into tiny pieces. I watched the paper fall to the floor as he walked away, closely followed by Marco.

Meredith put her hand on my back, "Darling, he is right. Let it be a new start."

I ignored her.

No matter how I tried there was no getting the doubt out of my mind. I couldn't comprehend how Alayna's Mother could betray our family like that. I expected it of Father but not of Julie. I would not let myself wonder if Alayna was the same as her mother. I refused to believe she was; she cared about me. Regardless, I would have my conversation with Alayna and find out the truth.