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Santos
“Val does not leave. Am I clear, Mother?”
My mother sits in one of the armchairs in what used to be Dad’s study, sipping her vodka martini. It would have been mine, but since I moved out to Augustine’s, she took it over. I don’t really care. I need the space apart from them, honestly, especially now with Madelena in the picture. Truth is, there wasn’t anything new in Thiago’s warning. It just gave more weight to my father’s own warning, to the words that have echoed subtly in my mind for years.
After getting back to Avarice, I left Madelena to rest before tonight’s event and took the opportunity to see Caius and my mother. We need to get some things straight between us.
Caius is quiet, his eyes on us.
“I don’t see why you’re so upset. A soldier is a soldier.”
I step in front of her so she has to look at me. “Am I clear?” I don’t like that she’s sent Val away and replaced him with someone I don’t know.
She shrugs. Sips. “Fine. Besides, we have a more pressing issue.” She sets her drink aside and gets up to walk around her desk. I glance at Caius, who’s been strangely silent, but turn back to my mother as, from inside the drawer, she retrieves a familiar little blue plastic compact and tosses it to me. I catch it. “Care to explain?”
“This again? Where did you get it?” It’s the compact of birth control pills I’d given back to Madelena.
“Ana found them among your wife’s things.”
“What the fuck was Ana doing going through her things?”
“She had time on her hands when your brother was forced to escort Madelena to an event you should have been in attendance for! But you disappeared. For fuck’s sake, Santos. What the hell were you thinking? This is important!”
I tuck the pills into my jacket pocket and sigh.
“What is she doing with those pills?” she continues, pointing an accusing finger at me. “You know what has to happen. Why is she still taking those things?”
“I’m handling it.”
“You’re not handling it.”
“We will do this on my terms.”
She walks around the desk and comes right up to me. “No, Santos, not your terms. Our terms. We had a plan in place. We’ve had a plan in place since before your father died. We Augustines have the same end goal in our minds and hearts—”
“Unless that’s changed,” Caius cuts her off. He speaks the words quietly but they stop everything.
I turn to him, eyes narrowed, and take a step in his direction.
He simply raises his eyebrows and casually sips from his glass.
“Has it changed?” my mother asks, drawing my attention back from my brother.
“For fuck’s sake! No, of course not. We are on track. Nothing has changed. But we will be doing this my way. On. My. Terms.”
The finality in my voice has my mother backing off. She picks up her drink and returns to her seat in front of the fire but keeps her eyes on me.
“We have another issue,” I say, wanting to change this subject.
“What’s that?” she asks.
“The Averys have purchased a property in Avarice.”
My mother’s gaze moves from me to my brother.
Caius finishes his drink and sets his glass down loudly, muttering a curse. “Not an issue,” he says finally.
“No?” Mom asks. “How is that? They’re here to make trouble.”
