Chapter 21
My cold lasted days. I was finally feeling slightly better as I sat on the couch between the twins.
Barrett played Mozart on the piano. Julian was writing his next play that I didn’t get to know anything about until he was finished—I knew what that was like for sure—and Jeremy was working on a project he wanted to show Stephen about an investment opportunity.
Phoenix had been quiet for the last couple of days.
When I’d asked him how he felt seeing the shed he’d told me that he didn’t feel different being there than he had anywhere else.
He could remember now but the actual vicinity to the place did nothing for him.
I wasn’t sure if that was disappointment in his voice or not.
He had been talking to Sam a lot on the phone about why he had taken the sleeping pill.
When he spoke, stopping the quiet of the room, it wasn’t to say anything that I could have expected.
“When I was helping Eric with Kit, it felt really right. I mean I knew what Eric did for a living, but I hadn’t really thought about it.
Not really. I wouldn’t want to do what he does but I might like to do something similar. ”
I wanted to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding him. “You want to be a doctor?”
“Sounds crazy, but yes, I think that is what I want to do. How he knew what to do? How he could save lives.”
Eric was his father. They never discussed those things, but he was, and I’d seen how much he wanted Phoenix to confide in him. He was going to love this.
“I think you should speak to your father. You’d be great at whatever you did.”
Barrett turned around on the piano bench. “So finish high school. Let’s start with that. But yes, speak to Eric. And we’ll see about you actually going to college, which you always said you weren’t going to do. Also, if you’re doing that, I am teaching music. Everyone can kiss my ass.”
Jeremy didn’t look up. “Be a doctor. We obviously have things like gun shots happen in this family. Eric is going to need someone to take over. And yeah, teach music. I’m going to be a lawyer.”
Julian grinned. “I always assumed I would do whatever I wanted. I don’t know what is the matter with the rest of you.”
I couldn’t help my smile. This was so typical of what it was like when the four of them were together. Still, we had hardly discussed what had happened. Or maybe they had. I was just so sick and out of it for the last several days that I hadn’t heard any of it if they had.
“I mean should we have a conversation about what happened?” I swallowed. “Or is it pointless and we all just do better when we don’t bring things up?”
Jer lifted his head. “Oh you mean how Barrett burned rice tonight and none of us are going to be able to cook except you, ever?”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Sure, that’s exactly what I meant.”
“I will conquer the rice.” Barrett laughed.
“We can talk about it.” Jeremy sighed. “I mean we probably should. A guy with a gun came to kill us. Same guy who took my brother and killed some kids. It’s really bad. I am not even sure how to begin to process it. How about the rest of you?”
The door opened and closed. We all jolted. Had anyone else heard a car arrive? We needed to get a little bit better at paying attention to things. Otherwise, there was always the possibility of another guy with a gun coming in. Or maybe I was just really, really paranoid right now.
Eric, Rosalind, and Stephen came in. The latter winked at us and walked past us into the kitchen. “Did you burn something in here?”
Barrett laughed. “I can’t cook.”
“That’s okay, sweetheart.” Rosalind walked over and kissed Barrett’s cheek. “We can get you someone to do that if you want.”
He held up his hands. “I want to be able to do basic things so Alatheia isn’t always thinking she has to do them because we are otherwise incompetent.”
“I don’t think you’re incompetent.” I hadn’t known he felt that way. “There’s no need for you to worry. I like doing things around the house. I mean I might not like to be picking up constantly but anyway, I’m rambling.”
I tended to feel like an idiot in front of their family. I tried not to but there it was. The rambling discomfort rearing its ugly head. It might be better if I just stayed quiet like I used to do.
Rosalind bent over the couch. “Don’t pick up after them.”
“Can I talk to you?” Phoenix rose, addressing his biological father who startled before he nodded. “In private?”
“Sure.” Eric ran a hand through his hair. “Let’s ah… go into the back of the house.”
Rosalind stared at them, her face unreadable. She waited until they had stepped back before she turned to the rest of us. “What is that about?”
“Don’t worry.” Jeremy smiled at his mother. “We all know he’ll tell you in the car. How is Kit?”
She clapped her hands together. “He is getting to go home, and we have decided to go back to the city. Eric really needs to get back to work, and it’ll be good for all of us.
I hoped that you would all come.” She looked over her shoulder.
“I know you are avoiding Alatheia’s family, but they aren’t there currently, I don’t think. Do you hear a car?”
Barrett got to his feet. “We really need to get some security cameras in here. Gran’s place had it and the main house does. Why don’t we have cameras in here?”
“Why would the guest house need security?” Daniel stepped into the house. “Who’s here?”
Rosalind shook her head. “I don’t recognize the car.”
I turned toward the window, heart thrumming—I really didn’t want strangers here right then—and caught sight of the black car as it glided up the gravel drive.
The paint was so glossy it mirrored the sky, each raindrop scattering across its polished hood in silver beads.
Some of it even looked like it might be changing to snow.
Even from a distance, the low, predatory shape and the subtle growl of the engine spoke of money—old money, the kind that didn’t flash but whispered.
Meanly. Chrome trim winked as the car slowed, tires barely crunching.
It was the sort of car you saw in magazines, never expecting it to actually pull up to your house, unless, of course, you were the Lents, and I realized I was holding my breath as it stopped just beyond the porch.
“Shit.” Rosalind swore, the word sounding contrary to her sweet, genteel accent. But nothing about Rosalind was exactly what it seemed. That might be her best quality. “It’s Murial Monk.”
It was a good thing I was sitting because I wasn’t sure if my quaking knees wouldn’t have given out just at the sound of her name. “How did she find us?”
“Who’s here?” Phoenix came back in with a smiling Eric.
“Murial.” Jules stood. “Come on. She doesn’t catch you sitting. Power move. On your feet.”
“It’s her cousin.” Barrett crossed in front of me to the door.
“Sure. But even vipers have cousins.” Jeremy sighed.
I blinked. No. I couldn’t get caught in that thing Jer just said. I had to focus on that and not wonder if vipers had cousins.
The doorbell rang and Barrett pulled the door open. I wouldn’t want him to ever look at me with as much disdain as he just sent Murial Monk.
“What a surprise.” Rosalind stepped forward, her smile bright and her gaze wary.
I sort of expected that was the case with my cousin and a lot of people.
For her part, Murial stared around the room, slowly, as though she had no reason to hurry and could simply stand and make people wait for her as long as she wanted.
I’d been with her twice in my life. The first was when I’d gone to her party and she had brought me upstairs—probably to threaten me—and hadn’t because I had known something about the art on her walls and she had decided that I was more interesting than she had believed I would be.
The second time had been in an art museum when she had brought Jeremy and me to see them authenticate a painting her uncle had bought to see if it had been stolen from a Jewish family during the Holocaust. I blinked. I guessed that man was my uncle too.
This was the first time I was seeing her without Davis, our other cousin. There had been four brothers and my late father as the missing one.
Her hair, dark and shiny, was always perfect. She never even had any bumps in it when it was pulled back, as it was now. My own—currently fuzzy—hair didn’t look that way when it was long. Not even close. How could we related at all? It was bizarre to me.
Yet there she stood and when her gaze finally reached me, she tilted her head. “Hello, Cousin.”
I tried not to look at the floor in submission to the sheer power she had just by existing. She was a mean girl. Complicated. But mean nonetheless.
“Hello. What brings you here?” She had ignored Rosalind, but maybe she would answer me.
“Well, we heard you had a break in. That was when we realized you must be in the Hamptons here. I think the Lents would admit we have been patient. Letting them play hero instead of handling our family business ourselves. Now that we know that you are one of us, Darling, you are our business. So I came to see you for myself. Granny is so concerned.”
I rubbed my arms. “Yes, there was a break in.” The fact that the break in had been Rosalind’s brother was left out of the story the police had given to the press. “And thankfully their father will recover from his gunshot wound he got protecting all of us.”
Wow. I really could lie like a Lent. I could protect this family’s secrets too.
“Thankfully.” Rosalind nodded, meeting my gaze.
“Good. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you ever.” She looked over her shoulder. “Here comes Davis.” Aha. So they weren’t separated even now. He held a package wrapped in brown paper.
“Hi, everyone.” His grin was fake. It always was. And it used to give me the creeps. Just because he wouldn’t be hitting on me anymore—I hoped—didn’t mean that it didn’t still have that overall effect on me.
Phoenix groaned. “Davis.”
“Oh, you love me, and you know it.”
Murial turned her head slightly. “Put it down and go back to the car. We’re almost finished here.”
We were? What had she come here to do? Just stare at me across a room?
“Alatheia, we need to proceed now in a manner that befits you. You were taken and that was awful. Your mother’s disgusting family will be found and dealt with.
I can promise you that. It’s already being handled.
As for this, which one of them are you dating?
The nonanswers you give to that are not going to fly.
If you won’t tell me you will tell Granny. I assure you, you want to tell me.”
I hadn’t been prepared for this. What was I supposed to say? I gripped the side of the couch.
“Me.” Barrett spoke fast. “She’s dating me.”
“Excellent. You’re easier to handle than your brothers?”
What did that mean? “Don’t talk about them like that.”
Her smile was slow. “I like loyalty. Good. You and Barrett will be back in the city before the thaw. Got it? Don’t make me come back and get you. That’s for you.” She nodded toward the package. “A reminder that there are benefits to being us. Goodbye, Lents.”
She turned and left as quickly as she had come. We stood, no one talking.
“Wow.” Daniel shook his head. “I really fucking hate them.”
“It had to be me. You know it was always going to have to be me. When you’re all done being mad, you know that.” Barrett turned his back on us. “It’s always the oldest brother.”
“God forbid we do something different.” Jeremy’s tone was cold, unpleasant. “What is in that stupid package? I really can’t stand that we have to deal with them.
Rosalind closed the door to the house. “It’s for Alatheia. Open it when you’re ready.”
I was never going to be ready, but I walked over, knelt down, and tore up the brown packaging. What I saw made my heart skip a beat. No. It couldn’t be. That wasn’t possible. Was it?
“Red. ” Phoenix’s voice was low. “What is it?”
I swallowed. “I think… I think it’s a Rembrandt.”
I am leaving my husbands. I don’t think I can handle it anymore.
Dear reader,
Since I wrote that so much has changed. They came and got me. Found me. I couldn’t believe it. They are so sincerely sorry for all the tension lately, all the unhappiness. They are committed to me. And I do love them. I’m not sure who Dina is anymore without the Lent brothers. They hold my soul.
Plus a miracle has happened. I’m pregnant. Why. How. I don’t know. But I am. As I write this I am crying. This time with happiness.
DL