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I turn my glare towards her, not even bothering to hide it, and the look of contempt that’s slowly bleeding into her eyes speaks volumes.
“I will make myself clear, since we are being blunt,” she says coldly. “I know your type. Classless little sluts with no breeding and no prospects of their own are often seen sniffing about wherever there are credits. If you think I will allow another such disgrace to wander into my son’s life again, to attach herself to the family name, then you have even more air in your head than the last one.”
“What?”
“Oh, yes, you think I don’t see through you?” She flicks her cane at me in a dismissive gesture, and I have to take several steps back to avoid being clobbered by it.
“What the hell?” I splutter angrily. “I thought you wanted to talk about Asili, not Vahadr and—”
“Vahadr now, is it?” She takes a step towards me, and her cane echoes across the foyer with another tap. “Already on a first-name basis, you little trollop?”
“I’m not a—what? A trollop?” I’m not even entirely sure what that means, but I can take a freaking guess… “Where do you get off talking to people like this?”
“My son,” she enunciates evenly as she takes another echoing step forward, “has been used quite enough by bottom-feeders like yourself. When he does re-marry, it will be to a proper Zvezdi female with a good family name and manners, not like the last scheming harlot he picked up off the streets, and certainly not like you.”
“Manners? What, you mean like yours?” I snap, crossing my arms with a glare. I don’t care who she is, she’s got some nerve coming out of nowhere and talking to me like this! “I’ve met toilet-cleaners with better manners than you.”
“You dare—”
“Grandmother?” We both turn to see Asili walking carefully towards us, holding a small crystal glass filled with a dark liquid in both his hands. “I have your drink.”
“Oh, you silly little infant.” She snatches the glass from his fingers with a huff. “You’ve overfilled it. Why didn’t you have one of the staff do this?”
As she takes a long sip as if only to drain the sherry down from the lip of the cup, the front doors swing slowly open across the room and Vahadr steps in to complete our happy little entourage.
“And you, my son, where have you been all this time?”
“Mother.” Vahadr makes his way calmly across the foyer. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
It isn’t until he’s almost beside us that I realize how very tired he looks.
“I received a call today from that tart of yours, Miss Petrz,” she says with a waspish sort of nonchalance, and Vahadr pauses in his tracks, looking for all the world like he wants nothing more than to walk back the way he came.
She flicks her cane up into the air so that she catches it around the middle, and points the ornate platinum edge at him. “I think you have some explaining to do.”
“There’s nothing to explain,” Vahadr says emotionlessly, taking the last few steps to the drawing room and holding the door open for us to enter. “I have answered none of her calls, and plan to continue in this fashion.”
“Well, I should hope she never calls you again,” Mrs. Tzelik strides past with a rustle of her skirts, barely even seeming to care that her son looks half dead. “Because present company excluded, you could do no worse than that bloody female.”
My glare comes back full force as Mrs. Tzelik looks my way, as if checking to make sure I caught her insult, and I open my mouth to respond.
“Please,” Vahadr breaths, lifting a hand to rub at his forehead, and I press my lips shut.
I sigh stepping fully into the room, Asili at my heels.
“Listen, that Petrz is no good,” Mrs. Tzelik drawls, setting her cane down before her with a thud against the rugs. “She only wants to squirm her way back in with us now that her lover, that horrible celebrity news anchor she left you for, has gambled away all his credits and she’s back to having an empty account.”
Vahadr closes his eyes beneath his fingers.
“She has no lineage, darling, she’s poor stock. We can’t allow her to dilute our line any further than she already has. I mean, look at the offspring she’s left us with. What makes you think she could give you anything better next round?”
I feel an angry, prickling heat wash through me and I open my mouth to say something, anything, but Vahadr abruptly drops his fingers and takes a step forward. “Mother.”
“Vahadr, look at this.” She sets her drink onto a nearby coffee table with a decisive click, swiping her cane around to bat at the back of Asili’s legs. When he stumbles forward, she grabs him by the shoulders and holds him before her. “Look. The genetics of that female are clearly flawed, and you aren’t learning your lesson. Bringing in another common whore to warm your bed—and this one not even Zvezdi! She certainly won’t birth you anything better than this disappointment.”
I gasp at what she’s saying, my jaw dropping open as I stare. How could she…how could anyone be so cruel? Asili is right here, and despite the absolute blank look on the young boy’s face right now, it’s not like he can’t hear, can’t understand everything she’s saying.
“I do not need anyone other than Asili,” Vahadr says quietly, and he takes another step forward and draws the boy away from her grasping fingers. “He is my son.”
