Reader Believes

Chapter 11

            “What hush money?” Elthia asked, taking another step closer.

            Damek frowned. “Is someone threatening you two?”

            Rika looked away as she twisted a chunk of her hair between two fingers. “No. It’s the money our parents send us every month. We call it hush money because they made us promise to keep up their stupid fiction of us being a warm, loving family. It’s complete bullshit. The pair of them spend their time travelling around, screwing their lovers, and never bother to call unless they need us for something. They can both drop dead for all I care.”

            Elthia gasped and Damek took a step back at the bitterness of her words.

            Connor’s eyes went to the floor. “Our father’s a director and our mother’s an actress. They’re both more concerned with their work and reputation than us. They don’t deserve the title of parents. But with the paparazzi always on the lookout for a scoop, they keep up appearances with us. We live apart to ‘protect our privacy’, but it’s really so they can hide the fact that they don’t give a damn about us or each other. It’s not so bad now that we’re older, but when we still had nannies…”

            That got Rika looking at him. “They weren’t all bad. Addie was great.”

            Her brother nodded. “She was the only good one. The rest were inexperienced at best, monsters at worst. You were too young to remember the really awful one, and then we had Addie. And our parents never bothered checking up on our nannies, which is how we ended up with so many piss-poor ones. If I hadn’t threatened to spill the whole thing to the press when I was fourteen, we’d still probably have some kind of nanny or babysitter here. I don’t think our parents even realize that we’re both legal adults now.”

            Rika’s laugh was harsh and had all the amusement of a funeral. “They’d have to actually look beyond themselves for once. Out of sight, out of mind for those two.”

            Elthia opened her mouth, shut it, then opened it again. It took her several seconds before she could force the words out. “Rika, I am so sorry. I-”

            She cut the healer off with a shrug, one hand clenched into a fist. “Whatever. It’s fine. Nothing’s going to change, and it’s something we’ve always been dealing with. If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to be by myself right now,” she said, before turning around, and hurrying into her room.

            Connor watched the door close and sighed heavily. “I’m sorry. She doesn’t like talking about it. I think Riks still hopes that one day they’ll realize their mistakes and we’ll be able to be some kind of family then. I know better.”

            Damek shook his head. “You shouldn’t apologize. We had no idea and bringing up stuff that’s painful…”

            The creak of a door opening had him, Connor, and Elthia turning to stare. Connor glared at the black-clad arm he saw pulling the door closed behind it. “If he upsets her further, I’m kicking him out, no matter what Riks says.”

            Elthia and Damek exchanged a look before the healer spoke. “Don’t you have other family members to rely on? Aunts, uncles, grandparents?”

            Connor shook his head and dropped into the couch, waving one hand to indicate the other two should do likewise. “Mother never talks about her family and we’ve never been introduced. Father has a brother who we met once, but he lives in Australia. Our grandparents on Father’s side are dead. We’re lucky though. Addie keeps in contact with us, and Myra’s family has pretty much adopted us. We’ve been spending holidays with them since we got rid of the last of our nannies. Myra’s been a good friend to Rika and her family has been kinder to us than anyone but Addie.”

            “Who’s Addie? Other than an old nanny,” Damek said as his hand creeped towards Elthia’s until they entwined.

            “Her real name is Adelaide, but she always told us to call her Addie. She was our longest running nanny and the only good one we had. If it hadn’t been for her…I don’t think we’d have turned out as anything but monsters, just like our parents. She taught us how to be decent human beings, how to trust others, and how to have confidence in ourselves. If I’d had the power to choose a mother for us, I’d have chosen Addie and not the bitch who gave birth to us. Which I still think was a publicity stunt on her part. I bet if I asked her, she’d admit it. She’s never cared what we thought of her,” he said, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the couch.

            Damek and Elthia exchanged another look. The latter cleared her throat delicately. “There’s no danger of her coming here, is there? I can’t imagine she’d take kindly to us.”

            Connor snorted. “She shows up here maybe once every two or three years, whenever she wants to do a photo shoot or an interview showing her as loving mom. The only good thing I can say about her is that she really is one great actress.”

            Muffled shouts interrupted their conversation. Even without being able to tell that the voice was female, all three of them knew it had to be Rika. They all stood, Connor moving quicker than the other two. Turning the doorknob, he found it locked.

            Glaring, he pounded on the door. “Open the door this instant!”

            A chuckle from behind them, had Damek, Elthia, and Connor spinning around. Only the latter was able to see the grin Shetton was wearing. “My master says that he’s handling it. He also says that if you persist in making such distracting noise, that I get to restrain you. So please, do continue.”

            Hands balled up, Connor held the demon’s gaze with burning eyes. “Tell your master that if he hurts Rika in any way, I’ll kill him.”