Page 73 of Glitterati Omega

Rupert stared at him; he couldn’t do anything more. He wanted to argue with the lawyer, but he didn’t knowhow. What could he possibly say to that?

Winston put his head in his hands, then dragged them down his face. He lifted his head again and peered forward, knocking his thumbs against his lips, as though thinking. “That is why,” he said finally, “I wanted this all behind us. I wanted the money gone—or at least some of it. I want to show them the work.”

His gaze flicked to Rupert, then away again. He sighed heavily. “Good intentions, nice words—that will mean nothing to them. They’ve heard it before. Well-meaning white people, not to be trusted.”

Rupert reached over and took one of the alpha’s hands between his own. “Winnie,” he said, “this is very sweet of you, but you don’t need to prove to your mothers I’m a … good person or whatever you’re trying to prove to them. They can simply learn to accept it, and—”

Winston pulled his hand back. He gazed at Rupert critically. “You think I’m asking you this because I want their approval? No.”

Rupert blinked a couple of times. Winston leaned into his space, crowding him up against the arm of the sofa. “This is for my peace of mind, Rupert.” He jabbed a finger against Rupert’s belly. “Before I put any seed in this womb—I have to know I can do it with clear conscience. I can’t make my child do this work.”

“I …”

“You’ll give them all your wealth and call it inheritance—but what are they supposed to do with it, Rupert? Knowing that it was stolen from their people, that their ancestors on one side murdered their ancestors on the other? What kind of inheritance is that?”

Rupert pressed his lips together. Winston shook his head. “They shouldn’t be the ones to correct it,” he said. “You can give it to them and call it reparations, they can make right by giving it back to their people … but they shouldn’thaveto, Rupert, they shouldn’t have to do the hard work because we couldn’t.”

Rupert frowned. “Why should I have to do it?” he snapped. “Nobody else did—why put it on me?”

Winston took him by the shoulders. “That’s it, that’s exactly it. You’re angry, aren’t you, that you have to do it. Why did no one else do it? Why doyouhave to do the hard work?”

“Well—”

“So, if you don’t do it, you’re just passing it to your child. And they will resent you, for being a coward. For not doing the right thing.”

“Isn’t it right if I give it to them?” Rupert asked. “My child, and it would come back to the people it was stolen from and—”

“And then they have to do the hard work that you don’t want to do right now. You will let the suffering go on, and they will hate you for it.”

Rupert pressed his lips together again. He thought for a long minute, then said, “And … that’s what your mothers don’t like about me. That … that I have money from …”

“Diamonds, mined from land that was stolen from my people. Dug up with their hands. Paid for with their lives. Exploitation and oppression. Everything you have, Rupert—it’s all been stolen from my ancestors. From my family, my people. From me.”

Rupert considered him for a long moment. “What if I just … gave it to you?”

Winston shook his head. “That’s not how reparations work, Rupert. You can’t give it all to me and say the work is done.”

Rupert stared at him for a very long moment. Then, quietly, he asked, “Have you been thinking about this all along? Feeling this way?”

Winston sighed. “Yes. This is my condition for being with you—for having a child with you.”

Rupert put his hands on the alpha’s cheeks, drawing him in a little closer. “I had no idea,” he murmured. “Winnie, I know I’m dense—”

“You are not.”

“—but please tell me these things. I want to understand. I’mtryingto understand, but it’s very difficult, because … because …”

He fumbled for the words. “Well, I don’t know why, but it is.”

“Because it’s the only thing you’ve ever known, poppet.” Winston pressed their cheeks together. “But it is not the only way—I want you to see that. The money—it distorts everything. Even tonight, did you hear what you said to me? That I only wanted you for the money, that I was using you. Rupert, love, nothing could be further from the truth.”

Winston kissed the back of his hand, then rested their foreheads together. “Poppet, I want very much to loveyou—I think … no, I know that you are a good person. That you try to be, and that you are just as caught up in this web as the rest of us. You are solonely—you don’t know if you have real friends, who is here for the money. You cannot trust anyone.”

Rupert inhaled sharply. Winston held his hand fast. “But you’re scared to get rid of the money—because you fear it’s the only reason people put up with you. If you get rid of it, where will you be? Even lonelier than now. But it’s not true—it will come back to you tenfold in love and friendship, poppet. The money obscures it—it’s all people see, and that makes you think you need the money, not the people, but …”

Rupert realized, with a bit of shock, that Winston was very right. He was terrified that people only bothered with him because he was rich—he could give them money. If he didn’t have that, would anyone bother with him at all? He couldn’t imagine being lonelier than he was, but at least with the money, people still came ’round, false friends and fair-weather family though they might have been.

Winston kissed his cheek again. “The money makes it hard to seeyou. Some people see a cash cow—gullible, waiting to be bilked. Some of them see you as their ticket to the top. My mothers see something hateful—an out-of-touch trillionaire who could help but doesn’t, the colonizer who bathes in riches while their people languish and die.”