Kings and Queens - Mayans M.C.

CHAPTER 11

Miguel walks into his palatial home and eyes the scattered baby toys all over the floor. He waits to hear the giggle of his son, but is greeted with silence instead "Emily?"

"Out here." He spots a hand wave from a lounge chair on their patio facing the mountains. He then spies a wine bottle and half empty wine glass resting next to her chair on a table. He walks out and seats himself in the chair next to her.

"Rough day?" He stares out to the horizon, but she knows his eyes are really on her.

"No, not particularly." She sighs and reaches over taking another draw from her wine glass, still keeping her eyes fixed on the mountains in the distance instead of making eye contact with her husband.

Miguel sees her body language is rigid, but notes that she has almost completely drained the wine bottle. He asks nonchalantly, despite knowing where she has been already, "What did you do today?"

"Why don't you tell me?" She answers back slightly snotty, and finally gives him a side glance.

"Okay. Fine. What did you learn from your visit at the new Reyes/Castillo Residence?" He takes a more business-like tone, realizing that while he had insisted on Emily meeting with Cassidy, he had probably set her up to be triggered with all sorts of emotions. He had a long day himself and wasn't prepared to deal with a moody Emily, but steeled himself in preparation for the conversation.

"She is not working with her father to buy real estate and take over the market here." Emily answers flatly.

"Uh huh, and did you just flat out ask her that?" Miguel instantly becomes agitated. Clearly his wife hadn't been as tactful has he had hoped, or she was being factitious to aggravate him.

"I did actually. I also just flat out asked her if she was fucking EZ's brother, Angel." Emily starts laughing and Miguel looks at her, startled by her outburst.

"What? Why would you ask her that?" Miguel looks at her completely lost.

Emily shrugs, chuckling in disbelief of her own behavior, speaking out loud but not necessarily to Miguel, "I actually walked into her house, saw Angel leaving, and asked her if she was sleeping with him."

Miguel remains confused, "I still don't understand."

"You wouldn't understand, would you? I'm surprised you even care. Because all you care about is that I stay as far away from Ezekiel as possible, right? Because you're afraid if we're left alone for two seconds, we'll pounce on each other like the old horny teenagers we were. Because, what? Because you don't trust me. You don't trust that your wife, who vowed to love only you, you don't trust that I'm over him? But you sent me right into his beautiful new home that is covered in pictures of him and his beautiful new girlfriend, who was happily scrubbing the counters in his old T-Shirt like some fucking TV show housewife..." Emily starts to ramble on and leaves the topic of her faux pas question behind them.

"Just wait, calm down a second, I never said I didn't trust you." Miguel tries to cut her off from a downhill fall into a nonsensical tirade.

"Did you ever tell EZ to stay away from me?" Emily stands up and pours the remaining bit of wine from the bottle in her glass while glaring at Miguel. He can now see she is clearly drunk, and angry, although he can't tell if it is truly with him or with what she perceived was the picture-perfect life she observed EZ living.

"I might have discouraged him from catching up with you." Miguel answers plainly and tries not to match Emily's anger.

"Uh huh, you did. And then you went and had a little rendezvous with his fucking girlfriend in private. What was that? Payback?" Emily presses. She had been furious about Miguel's meeting with Cassidy in L.A. from the moment she learned about it. Miguel had dropped the comment in passing about his "weekend business trip," as if it was just an odd coincidence, but Emily knew her husband enough to know better.

"That was different..." Miguel starts to speak but Emily's maniacal laughter cuts him of, she had predicted such a response.

"Of course, it was different. It's always different rules for you, my King." Emily bows at him, as she dips her head, she feels the world tilt and realizes she had certainly had enough wine. She ignores it, straightens herself up and takes another large gulp from her glass, still holding the empty bottle in her hand.

Miguel stands up and impulsively takes a step towards Emily as he sees she is clearly unsteady on her feet. Emily places the empty bottle down on table. She points at him to stop his advancing, and then sits herself back down in her chair, staring out to the horizon again. Miguel speaks softly, "Em, please. It wasn't meant like that, you know that. Do you want to talk about something? Was it something Cassidy said? Do you think they're planning something?"

Emily shakes her head and sighs. Miguel loved her and their son, she never doubted that. But Miguel's ambition overshadowed his love for his family in every way. She knew that what was the best for the business and what was best for their family were constantly at odds. The two values were destined to be polar opposites, and Miguel would spend his life forced to choose one of the over, and lately, it was not his family values that won out, despite the fact that he believed choosing a successful business meant success for his family. He had yet to understand that the dichotomy caused a rife in his family dynamic instead of strengthening it. "I don't want to be with EZ, Miguel, I am married to you, I am your wife. But there is a very small part of me, seventeen-year-old Emily, that doesn't want anyone else to be with EZ either." Emily gives a sideways glance to Miguel to see if he is listening, and not just listening, but if he's hearing her. "She's pretty, smart, successful. And he loves her. And for whatever fucking reason, after all these years, and how much I love you, and our family and our life, all of which I love more than I have ever loved him and would not trade for anything, seeing it...it hurts."

"I am sorry I asked you to get involved." Miguel takes her hand and she finally looks back him. She squeezes his hand in return and softly smiles back. He heard her. When he had met Emily he was impressed with how strong she was. He did not learn of the traumatic events of her and EZ's past until they had been together for a year or so. She had kept herself very guarded. He had pursued her intently, even when she had initially made it clear she wasn't interested in the beginning. Their wedding had truly been the happiest day of his life, but this admission, made him question if it was truly hers. He did not believe she could really mean what she said if she was somehow harboring feelings for EZ, even if they were for seventeen-year-old EZ.

"I didn't do it just because you asked. I make my own decisions." Emily says firmly, even though she's doing it more to convince herself than she is him.

"Okay, well. We have our answer. You don't need to put yourself in that position again." Miguel tries to cradle her face in his hands softly, trying to hold her close.

"That's what you think. I'm having lunch with her next week." Emily smiles up at him, but her body, subconsciously, remains rigid. She wanted him to believe it was to help his cause, but really, it was to help her own. She hadn't told him what Cassidy had actually revealed about her plans for the town, and she wasn't sure she ever wanted to. Seventeen-year-old Emily, also did not want to see her Town overrun by the Cartel, even if it was disguised with promises of growth and change for their small community. As much as she had just pledged her love for Miguel, looking into his eyes now, she wasn't sure she saw the same love returned. He was always playing a game, and he never would let her be a true Queen, he thought pawns were more useful.