Only Human

Playing the Part

Dad eyed me cautiously. "Okay...?"

I narrowed my gaze on him, pulling myself up straight and stiff as a board. The trick, I thought, to being a Blackbourne is to not let on that you feel the slightest bit nervous about anything.

Trust your family... I mentally chanted in my head. You have incredible instincts, Miss Sorenson. I heard the phrase as loudly in my head as if he was standing right beside me, one hand on my elbow to support me and he'd said it directly in my ear. I did have incredible instincts. And some of his earlier advice to me in dealing with Marie and our compromise months ago was to negotiate. This plan that I was formulating on the fly would deal heavily in negotiation.

I returned his gaze as sharply as I could manage on what little sleep I'd had last night. "You need some money, I think your first step would be to cancel those school enrollments. That would put half a year tuition for Marie back in your pocket and two and a half years for mine back to you as well." I said, glancing at Marie for a moment.

She looked at me, a small glimmer of hope and trust showing in her eyes. "That's right." She agreed with me. She knew above all that if she wanted to have the house to herself still, then we needed to be on the same page. She knew I'd stay at Nathan's and she could be here. But if he forced us both to leave then it would be a problem. I did have somewhere to go. I had lots of somewhere to go but she didn't. She gave a slight nod. "Seems like that was a huge waste of money, you know, when you could have made sure we still had a phone line." Her jaw tightened as she glowered at him.

"Excellent point, Marie." I nodded and he seemed to shuffle slightly under the power of the two gazes we pinned on him. I held up a hand. "Never mind the excuses, we've managed." I said flatly. "You're going to give us 6 months minimum in this house. Once Marie graduates, I'm sure she'll be looking into other things to do or places to move to. In spite of what you think, I believe her mother might be doing better and you shouldn't be so certain that she isn't going to return home." I sneered at him, my lip curling up slightly. "You will have a responsibility for that... unless you're going to be processing some divorce proceedings already." I tossed out at him.

He pursed his lips slightly and I could tell he was considering his options.

"I mean, you wouldn't want to do anything illegal... can't have more than one wife at a time that you're actually married to." I pinned my gaze on him. "You know, not like ... keeping the existence of a child secret from even the social security administration."

He blanched at the statement and he instantly looked ill and I could tell that I had him almost where I wanted him. It was time to turn up the heat and turn it all the way up until I got what I needed from him.

"So you did know." I said. Marie looked interested suddenly and her gaze darted between us. "Was it your idea? Did you force my mother to give me up?"

"You don't know what you're asking."

"I know a lot more than you think I know." I retorted. "I think that you don't want to push me on this and find out just what I know." I said, dropping my tone to something rather dark that I'd heard Mr. Blackbourne use against Mr. Hendricks in the classroom one day.

A chill seemed to settle on the room and he shifted his feet again, visibly nervous. "Maybe Marie should step out..." He said.

Marie crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him. "I know things." She stated. "Mom was pretty clear a couple months ago about you and her mom." She jerked a thumb in my direction. I blinked slightly. I knew she knew, because Gabriel had told me in the car on the way over but I was completely surprised that she was on my side.

He blanched again, realizing that Marie could certainly know an awful lot about things if his wife had been spouting off her rage. "I... I...." He sputtered.

"Yeah, YOU... it's always been about you, hasn't it Dad?" I asked, a small glimmer of a different idea popping into my head. "That's why we really had to leave Illinois, isn't it..." I said, straightening up and stepping a step closer. He blinked at me. "Do we have another sibling?" I asked, tilting my head and letting my gaze go laser sharp on him and actually enjoyed seeing him flinch. "We do, don't we..." I shook my head. "Couldn't manage to snatch that kid away from their mom in time, hmm?"

I was probably enjoying holding the upper hand a bit too much. That was confirmed when I felt the slight zing of a redline call against my rear. I let my gaze wander slightly to where I knew the camera was in the room and gave a slight shoulder shrug as Dad began to pace slightly, muttering things under his breath.

I can turn it on

Be a good machine

I can hold the weight of worlds

If that's what you need

Be your everything