Rigs Redding University: Bexley 2

Chapter Six

RYKER

Andrew Hayes's daughter is my girlfriend.

Fucking. A.

And I had no idea.

None.

Nobody else seems to have had any idea that Bexley and Artemis Whittaker are Andrew Hayes's daughters.

No one.

I know that's true because it would've been the talk of campus. It will be the talk of campus once it gets out.

The Hayes family is the richest in the country and one of the richest in the world. Although, that's not quite right anymore I suppose, the Smythe family, my family, is slightly richer but only because my sister married three of Russia's richest bachelors. Of course, the originating source of their wealth is an, ahem, quote-unquote mystery, but still very much present, making us incrementally wealthier than the Hayes's.

Nydia's wedding reception...God, I don't want to tell that horrible story. I know Oz would do it, but I really don't think he should have to either. It's a terrible tragedy and it touched the lives of a lot of people on this campus. It affected every person in this backyard in some way with the exception of Bexley and the Yamamoto-Akana twins.

Andrew Hayes escaped the rain of bullets that day having declined the invitation to Nydia's wedding. Bexley would've been eleven and her mother would have passed already but her two fathers were very much still alive. I'll have to ask about why they didn't attend Nydia's wedding sometime. The Yamamoto-Akanas also had to decline because of a timing issue, though I don't recall the details of that.

As inappropriate a time as it is to be thinking this, I'm really excited by the prospect of meeting Andrew Hayes. He's a brilliant businessman and philanthropist, I imagine he has a lot of wisdom to impart.

I realize we're all staring at Bexley who's starting to look uncomfortable. She pulls out her phone and texts someone, looks around at us, gets a response on her phone. Frowns. Shrugs and puts her phone back in her fleece pocket.

"I'm not going to take this personally," she tells us, arching a brow, "Artemis says her boyfriends are equally dumbfounded that we're the Newport Hayes girls."

Bexley hops off Kai's lap and he lets her. She refills her cup and goes to sit back down on Kai but Oz gets up and intercepts her, making her go sit on his lap now.

Fucking hell.

All right.

The wedding story.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

"Nydia had a triad to begin," I try to think over my words carefully, I'd like this to come out right, please God, "Sebby died at the reception." I say, sadness seeping into my tone. I will always miss Sebby. And I will always be angry about his death.

I stop, that's not where to start, I know this, I want to tell her that the wedding was beautiful, my sister looked like an angel. I was fourteen and she was twenty-three, her fiancee's adored her and she them. They were happy. We were all so happy, out from under my parents thumbs, Nydia wrestling my guardianship from our wretched parents with the support of her Russian Mafiya men (not that I know that for sure, cough, cough). I want to tell her that Massimo de Valens objected to the wedding, having loved Nydia since they were children. That he busted into the reception and open fired on the guests killing more than twenty people before Feliks, my brother-in-law, was able to subdue him.

I realize I'm in my head when I hear Oz's voice telling the story.

"Sebby, Sebastian Van Osten, was Nydia's third in the triad set she was marrying. Dima Ivanov and Feliks Vasnetsov being the other two. Man, they were great, all of them. I had spent most of my time at Ryker's since we were real little kids, and Nydia's nine years older than us, so, her triad...it was like having big brothers and they were, like, really, really fucking awesome big brothers. Really awesome."