Rose of Sharon |Courting Trouble BK 2|

Chapter 24 (Part 2)

"Did you hear what happened to your father? " Mirena said as she lounged with her son and daughter in law for afternoon tea. "His properties have all been seized and I am afraid that it may affect your inheritance as well." Ryan's mother told him.

"I do not need that man's blood money."

"It's not all blood money you know. Some of it was my dowry, but I guess, that too must have been tainted by his shrewd way of doing business."

"Mother... Will you be you okay? " Katrina reached out a hand to comfort her mother in law.

"I will be fine. I talked to Lenita. She wants me to go over. "

"You two ironed out that matter?" Ryan questioned thinking back to their last encounter and the things she had said to him. Back then, it had opened his eyes to alot of things. Issues that he had been blind to, when he had thought that whole world was against him.

"Not yet, but I am hopeful. I cannot imagine how much wrong I have done to you my children and yet, you remain so forgiving especially you two. Anyway, how is my grandchild doing? " she asked as she gazed at Katrina's belly meaningfully.

"It's a girl. Ryan wants to name her Mandy but I am going with Sierra."

"Why? Mandy is a perfectly good name." Ryan protested with a grin. Passing on the message that he saw through is wife's ruse and her underhanded way of using his own mother to her own advantage.

"Yes... But I already agreed to your suggestion of using Dawn for a middle name, so this one will have to be my choice."

"mum... " he turned the tables on her.

"I am afraid Ryan. I cannot be of nay help you here. " she said with a laugh clearing enjoying their friendly bickering that had forever been absent from her own marriage. In fact, imagining Marcus behaving in this same manner made her laugh as it was simply asking for the impossible. Everything to him was a calculated move. Every smile, every emotion had all of been meant to propel him to even greater heights in his quest for status and recognition.

"How did you go about it, choosing the names for Ryan and Lenita? "

"Both Marcus and I had M names. So, I did consider it. But I did love the name Lenita and had sworn to give it to my daughter. I guess after that, it was the similarities in the r's and l's that led me to choose his name."

"Marcus did not factor in, in any of that?"

"Hardly. He could have cared less what his children names were. After all he was too busy to even visit them. For him, I guess, they were just bargaining chips and a way to solidify my own dowry as his own.

"I don't get it." Katrina said with a frown and her mother in law smiled as she went into details.

"My grandparents invested a great deal in my dowry, but there was a clause that my husband could only access it after furnishing them with several grandchildren and never divorced me. In a way it was meant to secure my future but unfortunately it attracted the hyenas as well. "

"Mother... "

"It's true." she said as she took a sip from her own cup of tea. "Fortunately for both of us, Ryan here is nothing like that. You heard him. 'I will not have any of his blood money!'" she said as she mimicked his voice and Katrina burst out laughing.

"Mother... " the man in question complained.

"Am I lying? Do you have designs for your wife's properties?"

"I am not sure I can even if I wanted to. The Maracheli's hereditary system is matriarchal so... " Ryan replied and Katrina nodded in agreement.

"But like yours I only come into inheritance after being a mother. And after that I will pass it on to my daughter."

"What happens if a boy is born?"

"In the case of my father he still owns forty percent of the shares. The rest are held I'm trust until such a matriarch is found. It's a secret passed down through generations that even I did not know until just the other day. "

"And as such it keeps the blood thirsty mongrels away? "

"Exactly. " Katrina nodded her acquiescence. "What I don't get though is what made Marcus that way? He can't have been born that way. "

"A hard life? But sometimes it is too much even though I tried to understand him. His ways are too ruthless. One cannot afford to go through life without change and in his case I mean positive change for he keeps on getting worse by the day. "

"What really happened though?" It was Ryan's turn to ask as he thought about what his mother had told them. His father had a lot of influence and to think that the authorities would just up one day and seize his properties. He could not bring himself to believe that they had been investigating him and had only caught a break just then.

"You won't believe this. " His mother said with a laugh. "Apparently he had a run in with ex girlfriend's sister."

"Malisha is here?" Katrina panicked.

"No. Her sister. I think she is twenty or something. She apparently wiped the floor with all his hired goons and knocked down everyone in the house with a sedative. Thankfully, I refused to live in that house."

"Thankfully indeed." Ryan nodded his head thoughtfully. "So wait, this twenty year old did all that on her own?" A general's daughter. It made sense that she could be that good bit why send a twenty year old? What kind of a person was she that Malisha had no qualms sending out to deal with his father? He had to admit that it all showed how little he had known about her. He had dated her for months and still she had managed to keep her background from him and he had not found it suspicious.

"According to Marcus there was another man who delivered the message from the Phaedra. He was escorting her, but unlike her, he refused to show his face."

A spy. Ryan concluded. Now that he thought about it, it reminded him of the times that he had felt like someone was watching him. Could it be that same person? What was he thinking? A monarchy like that of Veterum must have had many spies. The military as well, he thought thinking back to his encounter with a certain someone.

"What did he do? " he finally thought to ask. There must be a reason why they had targeted his father.

"I have no idea and he won't tell me. It terrifies me to think though what those people are capable of. " his told him and at that Katrina shuddered.

"Do you think they will... " she asked worriedly.

"No." Ryan reassured her. "You know better than I that Malisha is not like that. But still, her siblings are some serious angels of vengeance."

"But don't you think it is strange? A twenty year old who is able to do all that?" Morena mused stirring her cup as she looked into it thoughtfully.

"Do you think he fabricated it?" Ryan asked her.

"He has done it before so..."

Ryan nodded his head in agreement, but still he was convinced that there was some truth in all those statements. Otherwise, how could they explain all those sedated goons?

"I honestly don't know whether to be scared or relieved. I am worried though that after everything that happened with Malisha, she may decide to become vengeful. If not her, her husband will. The Phaedras of Veterum have never been known to be that forgiving." Katrina stated and Ryan shuddered thinking back to his encounter with Mishael.

"I certainly hope so. Seeing what your father has suffered through, it would do no harm to remain vigilant." his mother added and as Ryan thought about it, he realised how terrified these two women must have actually been feeling. Was there really a cause for alarm? No, he finally decided. He had peace in his heart and unlike before, he did not intend to go out looking for trouble. His son would come to him when the time was right. He had faith they would not remain separated forever. As for the Phaedra, he had had plenty of chances to deal with him and yet, he had let him go Scot free. It was possible that unlike the previous Phaedras, this present overlord actually possesed a heart and had a working conscience.