Avion
M y father’s estate was far outside the city, making it that much more ridiculous that he should insist upon the limo picking me up first when I lived only a few minutes from our first destination.
The issue was that my father soaked up on chances to get familial candids because people loved seeing a happy family.
When my mom was still alive, she was the one responsible for smashing her face against his and taking pictures that belied how fucked up our family was, but once she died, my father’s obsession with the concept changed.
Now, he wanted all of his children together when he was in any place where photographs would be taken of him.
He liked to claim that his loving wife’s death made his family even closer, as evidenced by the fact that we were always together.
What a farce.
It also meant that I was forced to spend close to an hour with my brothers on the way to pick my father up, and then more than that with the whole gang on the way back into town. Vincent had his phone in one hand and his tablet in the other, and I knew it was going to be a less than thrilling ride.
“Can you give me a rundown of the day?” Vincent asked.
I shot him a narrowed glare, irritated with the way that he treated me like some dumb, floozy assistant. “Do you even know that we have a word for asking people nicely? I know you struggle, if you read it slowly, you should be able to sound it out.”
Vincent’s eyes shot up to me. “What was that?”
“I also sent you the schedule via email,” I hissed, “or is making use of my hard work not worth your time?”
“Hey, come on,” Anton interjected. “He didn’t mean it like that, right Vince? You’re our campaign manager extraordinaire. No one knows better than you.”
I wasn’t stupid. In general, Anton didn’t think much more of me than Vincent did, but he was trying to keep the peace, which I appreciated.
We did have a long day ahead of us after all, and it was only going to be longer if we were fighting, so as much as I hated to do so, I swallowed my pride and dragged my phone out of my purse.
Navigating to where I had the schedule for the day saved, I sighed at the amount of work I’d put into making it easy to read and understand.
The staff below my father and brothers got a pared down version of the schedule, specified to what each group of staff needed to know for the day, but the one I referenced was sent only to my brothers and father.
Vincent clearly hadn’t read it, Anton likely hadn’t read it, and I knew when I sent it that my father wouldn't read it.
All my hard work had been for nothing.
"Our first engagement is at ten-thirty the bi-centennial celebration at the children's hospital.
Dad is giving a televised speech and so are you.
Anton, you're off the hook, but there will be cameras everywhere, so you and I will help present wishes to some of the children while the speeches are happening. "
"You got it," Anton confirmed.
"We'll be eating lunch in the limo on the way to the Hannah Conservatory for a photoshoot in front of the Narzand expansion.
All three of you are expected to be in those.
That starts at one and we absolutely cannot be there longer than an hour because we're expected at the Veteran's luncheon for speeches by two-thirty.
Vince and dad both, plus a toast from you, Anton. "
“Okay,” Anton said.
“Then, of course, we finish the night at the CosmoCo hotel, which is attached to the Apex Founders Technology, ribbon cutting. All three of you are expected for speeches.” Then I sighed. “I don’t even know why I went over all of this right now. I’ll have to say it all again when dad gets in.”
“No,” Anton said. “He doesn’t need to know the schedule.”
I furrowed my brow. “What?”
“Everything of importance is being taken care of by me with Vince’s help.
You just worry about keeping him in front of the cameras, kiss any babies, and for the love of god, make sure he keeps his hands to himself.
The last thing we need is another Charice situation,” Anton said.
“If we weren’t able to pay her off, that would have been bad. ”
Vincent let out a snicker. “Sick mothers are good for something after all.”
Rage boiled up in my blood and it took everything in my body not to chuck something across the limo at Vincent’s head. “You are a real piece of shit, you know that?”
"Geez, what's gotten into you? I usually have to keep Vince from starting shit up," Anton hissed.
“Me? What about what he just said?” I squawked. “After what our mother went through.”
Though we’d never been The Brady Bunch, we were much closer when my mother was still alive. Even my brothers took her death hard. That Vincent could say something so awful about a woman who’d been harassed by my father and her sick mother proved just how disgusting a human being he was.
Vincent crossed his arms. "It was a joke; you can normally take those at least. Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed today or something?"
I frowned. "I woke up to the unfortunate news that I'm losing the job I've only had for a handful of months after working towards it my entire life, so you'll have to excuse me if I'm not my typical level of subservient."
"I told you already that you aren't losing your job," Vincent growled. "You'll work for me."
"I told you already that I'm not working for you." I crossed my arms to match Vincent. "I made no promises to serve you, and though it apparently comes as a big surprise to you, I'm not the least bit interested in doing so. Go find yourself someone who knows how to kiss your rings. It won't be me."
"Even if I'm the one who's governor now, we'll still be a family," Vincent said. "And we'll still need to act like one."
I scowled at his vapid attempt to sound heart-warming. "Already practicing your victory speech, I see. How touching. I'll try not to gag until I get home."
"You appear to be under the impression that you have a choice in the matter," Vincent said.
"We've built an image, a brand. Whether or not you like it, you're a part of it.
What Cur—our father's plans are, I'm unsure, but I know he intends to keep us as a unit, so stop being such a sniveling brat and fall in line. "
"And who's gonna make me? You?"
He smiled as if to say, challenge accepted. "My god, you are such an insufferable bitch."
Despite being slightly fearful of the tone in his voice, I made sure to smile back. "That's funny, I was just thinking the same about you."
Anton stamped his foot against the floor of the limo.
"That's enough, both of you. Holy shit, at this rate, I wish I were losing my job.
" He shifted his gaze specifically to me.
"We're offering you a chance to maintain the role you worked so hard for it, but if you don't want it, fine, we'll find someone else. "
"Hey," Vincent barked, glaring at Anton. "You're speaking out of turn."
But Anton just held up his hand and Vincent quieted.
I never quite understood the relationship between my brothers, they'd always been thick as thieves despite the fact that Vincent had never been pleasant to be around, even as a child.
There were three years between them, but Anton always behaved like he and Vincent were the same age, if not older.
Whatever responsible, commitment-to-duty, and honor traits normally landed within the eldest child, they'd skipped right over Vincent and landed on Anton, leaving Vincent as nothing more than a spoiled brat.
Still, maybe it was because they were brothers or like-minded or both, but Vincent didn't seem to be as harsh with Anton and Anton somehow managed to baby his older brother without giving in to his sadistic need for control.
If the circumstances were any different, it would almost be sweet.
Instead, they were two halves of a whole demon.
"Once dad has stepped down from his post, if you want to quit and leave, we won't stop you, but don't be mad at us if we kill you off," Anton hissed. "In the media I mean."
"I'm perfectly fine to hightail it as far from New York City as possible. I'll take on Lemaire and live perfectly happy being disassociated with the Narzand’s," I spat back. "You just tell me when I'm supposed to leave."
"On second thought, being rid of you for good does sound appealing," Vincent tacked on. "For once, we all agree on a plan."
Anton checked his watch as the limo started up the long drive to my father's estate.
"In any event, nothing is changing today.
You're still Lieutenant Governor," he pointed to Vincent, "I'm still Secretary of State, and you're still the governor's campaign manager," he stabbed his finger in my direction.
"Not to mention, we're all Governor Curtis Narzand's children.
We have to spend the next twelve hours pretending we're a loving, happy, unified family, and since it's clearly going to take you two some time to get into character, why don't we all practice the virtue of silence?
" Neither Vincent nor I responded, so Anton said, "Excellent," before silence fell over the limo.
Finally, the car came to a stop at the cul-de-sac drive around in front of my father’s estate.
The front doors were already open, and his staff was standing there patiently waiting for him to come out, but he wasn’t there.
All three of us watched out the window, knowing our father’s penchant for running behind schedule, not to mention getting drunk before major engagements, but just as Anton was about to get out to go after him, he came striding between the doors.
One staff member closed the doors behind him while another ran forward to open the door for him to get into the limo. He actually looked like he had his wits about him for once, at least as much as a man like Curtis Narzand could have.