A Man of Honor.

Act: II Oh Brother.

Chapter: 24
"We're not children here. The law is-how should I put it? A convenience. Or a convenience for some people, and an inconvenience for other people. Like, take the law that says you can't go into someone else's housel have a house, so, hey, I like that law. The guy without a house-what's he think of it? Stay out in the rain, schnook. That's what the law means to him." ~ Paul Castellano.

Vale, present day.

Saphron stared into her empty glass trying to contemplate Jaune's tale.

His story... it couldn't be real. It just couldn't, it defied all sense of logic, it defied everything she understood about her one and only brother.

The strong whiskey had gone to her head. Her goofy little brother. Jaune. He couldn't have done all these things, he just couldn't have. But she could see that he had changed, even the way he talked, she didn't pick up on it at first but the way he spoke, the way he carried himself. It was all different, it was like someone pretending to be her brother was here in front of her.

"You want me to freshen that up for you?" Jaune asked her as he dropped the burnt cigar into the ashtray to burn itself out.

She realized that she had been staring into the bottom of the glass for far too long and shook her head to him.

"No... I think I've had enough," she said, looking up at him and setting the glass down on his polished wood desk. "I shouldn't be drinking on an empty stomach anyhow." She told him, regretting that the room service she had ordered back at her hotel had probably found an empty room.

He smiled at her and stood up from his leather chair. How could a criminal smile so innocently? How could a murderer look at her like that?

"How about I cook you up a steak?" He suggested as he stretched out and walked around his desk and out the door. "This butcher shop that pays me protection just gifted me some wonderful looking ribeyes."

She took a moment before standing up and following him into the kitchen where he got to work. She watched as he set out a cast iron skillet onto the burners and rummaged in the fridge for two slabs of beef. She had to admit to herself that they did look delectable.

"There's no need to be so quiet, I know you have questions for me sis," he told her as she poured some olive oil into the cast iron and turned the heat on. "Go ahead... ask away."

That was an understatement. So many times she wanted to stop his story to ask him about everything he was telling her but just as she had one question she found herself with another. Listening seemed to be all she could do as he told her his gritty tale. And what's more, she wondered if she could stomach the answers to her questions.

But now with Jaune asking her to begin some kind of interrogation it was like a dam opening for her and she couldn't contain herself.

"Why are you telling me all of this!?" She burst out trying to imagine her little brother beating people to a bloody pulp, imagining him stealing, imagining him shooting two people in cold blood.

"You're family... and you deserve to know the truth," he answered her plainly.

"And how do I know that this is the truth!?" She spat angrily slamming her fist down on the marble counter.

"Do you think I'd lie about this Saph?" He asked her as he pulled salt and spices from the counter to apply to the steak. "If I was interested in lying to you I'd say something like I won the lottery or that I got a job working for some stock broker and made some smart and lucky investments."

"You think I would have believed any of that?" she asked him, finding that lie to be ridiculous.

"Would it have been that difficult compared to the truth?" He retorted with a frank look as he sprinkled salt and pepper onto the well marbled meat.