Old Money Madness

6. Learn Your Place

Janine Peters.

What a fucking bitch. Here she is with her high maintenance blonde bob and a little culturally insensitive tanned skin. None of her is real anymore. She'll say her ass is, but after five husbands, we all know that's a lie.

She never liked me because I never gave her that swallow respect my parents and siblings bothered to dish out.

"River Knight, hi darling." She smiled.

"What do you want Jan." She tensed at the name. She hates the nickname Jan. Says it makes her sound old. Please the only thing holding this woman up is her over the knee boots and pounds of surgical glue.

"Janine." She corrected.

"I know what the fuck I said. What I don't know is what you want."

"Just came to give my apologies. You parents were-."

"You hated my mother because she bagged my father. You hated my father because he chose my mother. You don't give two shits about my family or their deaths. You came over here to see if I, as heir to the Knight fortune, would continued donating funds to your business."

"Well-."

"No bitch."

"Excuse me?"

"Oh is the old lady hard of hearing? I said no." With that I wrapped my arms around Dox' arm and Daisy's. I led us to the table that was littered with d'oeuvres and mimosas.

"Miss you need to improve your attitude when dealing with the other, chair holders." Daisy prodded while making me a plate of snacks and pouring me a glass of water.

"You mean I have to play nice with the other stobby rich folk."

"Yes Miss."

"Well not today. Today I am going to be the pain in the ass I was born to be."

"How about we start walking around a little to cool down?" Dox pulled at my arm and held my plate.

"Sure. Daisy, when I'm done interacting with these people we can leave some prayers and a rose for my parents then go."

"Whatever you'd like Miss."

Dox dropped his hand on the small of my back and led me throw tons of people. All the interactions were awkward due to them knowing my not so wonderful teenage years. Still they wished me healthy, apologized for my loss, and told me their favorite stories of my parents. Some woman gave me photos they had of my parents and men promised a large donation to the Knight charity. In the end, I was glad I came to the wake. All these people had beautiful ideas of my parents and it was comforting to know so many loved them and cared for their well being.

It was however getting annoying to keep saying that I'm not dating Dox. My time away from old money made me think that you could hang out with a man and people wouldn't ask 'where's the ring?'. Still, this was a nice ceremony and wake.

"River?"

"What Stable boy?"

"Really narration now?"

"I'm in a better mood. That was just a joke. So what?"

"After the wake, maybe in a few days I thought you could tell me a little more about all the people you spoke to today. They all know you so well."

"Look around the room. This is what every single holiday, gathering, or birthday party looked like for the Knight family. Minus the caskets in the corner and the dark balloons."

"Last thing before I shut up about the case, what cause was the Knight charity for?"

"It is a two way charity. Half of the funds went to a cause my mother wanted and the other half for a cause my father cared about. My mother put her money to the preservation of history and environment. My father used his to put children of low income homes or homeless in general, through school and into business school."