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“How, Ethan?! How?”
“I don’t know! It’s your job to figure out!” He groaned rubbing the side of his head. “You’ve gotten your vengeance. You can’t keep being Ivy O’Davoren. You must be Ivy Callahan. Who Ivy Callahan is up to you but know that it’s also a reflection of me and our family.”
“So now you’re telling me I need to change?” I didn’t want to change. And I wasn’t going to.
“No,” he said placing his hands on my face. “I don’t want you to change. I’m not telling you to change. I’m telling you that you’re going to have to do what we all do in this family, and that is to pick a mask to wear for the world and only take it off when you’re with me.”
It was only when he’d said it that I remembered how Dona sucked in her anger. I knew going there would piss her off, yet I didn’t notice anything off about her… She even seemed happy. How long ago had she picked her mask?
“Okay.” I nodded. “Don’t get angry if I mess this up. I’m not as good at this as the rest of you yet.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll always clean up your mess.” He kissed my forehead.
I didn’t like how he said it, but I understood and it made me feel better. Frowning still, I muttered, “I still want to play whack-a-mole with those women’s heads though.”
“Maybe one day you will.”
“Just remember, all of those women, all
their power… It can be replaced, and replaced by your word. Speak to them like that. You’re the one who holds their lives in your hand. You don’t have to kill them, but you can squeeze.”
Next time…at the next meeting I’d show them all.
DONATELLA
“O’Phelan, I want anything that will go with a glass of Rosé,” I said as I sat in the empty dining room. It was well past dinner and I’d come home this late for one reason…to be alone. I kicked off my heels, leaning back in my seat, and relaxing when all of sudden the door opened.
“Good evening, big brother. How was your day?” I smiled, crossing my legs in his chair at the head of the table.
“Quite interesting, thanks to the list of traitors you were able to get me,” he said walking up the opposite end of the table.
“You’re welcome; what are sisters for?” I shrugged, resting my chin on my palm. “Did you come down just to tell me that?”
“No,” He replied, picking up one of the knives from the table settings. “How was your day, little sister?”
“A few hiccups here and there but nothing I couldn’t handle, of course.”
He nodded, spinning the knife in his hands. “Was one of the hiccups my wife, and did it you handle it by dragging her past through the mud?”
“I didn’t say anything you couldn’t read on Wikipedia,” I replied, sitting up straight as he moved closer to me. “Why, was she hurt?”
“Would you like her to be hurt?”
I snickered. “I’d be disappointed if she were hurt so easily. It would mean she was weak and you were stupid enough to marry weak, and arrogant enough to think she could so easily replace me.”
“Dona,” he said my name through clenched teeth, gripping the knife in his hands. “She is family; you do not embarrass—”
“YOU EMBARRASSED ME!” I hollered, slamming my fist on the table and rising to my feet. “Without warning, once again big brother you put your wife in my face! Four years I’ve run that foundation! Mom’s foundation. Four fucking years of being judge, jury, and executioner; it has been ME who has told you when we needed a new governor, which judges might be in debt or having an affair. ME who sat and listened to those women bitch and moan just so you could hold an axe over them all. For years I did that for you, big brother. And you didn’t have the decency to tell me you were sending her!”
“I did tell you! What do you think the fucking wedding meant?” he snapped back. “She is my wife!”
“Which is why she let her take over today,” a new voice chimed in.
Looking over to the side door that led to the kitchen, I watched as Gabriel came forward; a plate in one hand and bottle of Rosé in the other with a towel over his shoulder. He placed the plate in front of me and then lifted the bottle to pour as he spoke. “Ivy is your wife; she has the right to be at the head of the foundation. Your sister respected that. She stepped back, allowed her to take over and your wife stumbled. That isn’t Dona’s fault. No matter what Donatella said, Ivy was going to stumble because she is a baby wolf left alone in the forest. If her teeth aren’t sharp enough, that isn’t Donatella’s fault. If a child falls, don’t blame the floor; blame the parent who put her there, wouldn’t you say?”
I cracked my jaw to the side; “This isn’t about you. I don’t need you to back me up—”
“I wasn’t backing you up,” he said, handing me the wine glass. “I was simply telling the facts as they are, knowing your brother is a reasonable man and will see the truth himself.”
