Chapter 8 – Rifts
Jake had literally known his eldest daughter her entire life and in that time, he had grown to understand her personality and she loved to spend money, she always did. Generally, Rose and he didn't have an issue with it, they had money and they had plenty of it to spend, there had only been one time when Jake and Rose had to put a stop to it. When she was fifteen, she had gotten into the habit of chartering a limousine to school, every single day and after complaints from parents, they had put their foot down and put a stop to it. When she turned eighteen, she came into her nine figure trust fund and at that point, they couldn't do anything about it, but when he saw things like what he saw in front of him, it made him want to contact his lawyer and pull the five hundred million dollars that she had gotten as an eighteenth birthday present.
Alexandra had a daughter who she should have been taking care of at the moment, she had a meeting at her school, in which her husband was the parent present, her husband who had a job. Not to mention the newborn baby she had, but the baby could have been taken care of by the nanny for a little while. Regardless, he was very disappointed at the sight of his daughter trying on shoes in Macey's Department Store in the middle of the day. With his sister at his side, he stopped before his daughter, who was taking that time to try on a very expensive-looking pair of shoes and put his hands on his hips, "Is there some reason that you're standing there like you want to kill me Daddy?"
"Why aren't you at your daughters meeting at school? You realize that your husband has a job and a very important one, and you couldn't go to it because you had to buy shoes?" Jake raised a questioning eyebrow at her.
"Daddy, you don't live in my house, nor do you know what I do for my kids," Alex looked up to her father with an indignant scowl, "We take turns, I do one meeting, he does the next, and so on, this one is Zach's turn."
From beside him, Haley raised an eyebrow, "What about your baby, is all of that money filling your back fat head?"
Jake growled and turned to his sister, baring his teeth, and his expression alone said that if they were alone, he'd be ripping her a brand new asshole right now. However, Alex merely smiled in that way that reminded him of Rose. Of all of the children in her family, the only two that knew about the little spat between Jake and Haley were Trevor and Alexandra. Trevor tried to be polite to his Aunt, and she returned the gesture, but the situation was different with Alexandra. Alexandra hated the way Haley judged her lifestyle that her father had provided for her, and she hated the way that her aunt treated her mother – Haley had always been rather adamant in her reasoning.
She and Jake took up for each other when around Haley Long and they were almost always successful.
"It's been three months since I've had the baby," Alex shrugged and leaned back down to properly fit the shoe on her foot, "The part time Nanny that I hired is barely getting work – I think she deserved to get a check this week."
Jake sighed and shook his head, "I'm not here to debate the ethics of parenting with you darling, we don't have that much time, I'm double parked outside and we have to get to your great-grandfather's shop."
Alex raised an eyebrow as she pried the shoe off of her feet, "I don't want to know why, but I have a bad feeling about this, alright, let me just pay for these."
As Alex slipped her regular heels on and picked up the pair of new shoes, she stood up and hooked her purse up with her free hand, "Jesus, how much are those things?"
These were the moments that Alexandra's vindictiveness came out and it was usually spurred on by the sneer that the older woman had on her face, these were the moments when she really flaunted her money, "$1000 Dollars."
"That's a month's rent," Haley rubbed her eyes and shook her head.
Alexandra tossed her hair over her shoulder and laughed, "Well… I just spent on a pair of shoes with what you spend on your rent… guess that goes to show that my dad made some very good choices, where you did not."
"Your father was given everything," Haley hissed, her eyebrows narrowing down into a deeply hateful glare.
"No, I worked for everything I have, I gave Alex here pretty much everything I started out with $500 Million Dollars," Jake smirked from beside his daughter, their smirks actually matched, "You're just a bitter little peasant."
Haley put her hands on her hips in indignation, "You two are the reason people hate the rich."
"No," Jake shook his head as the trio began to walk to the checkout counter, "People resent success, you so obviously hate the fact that I became successful and you blew what little money that mom and dad gave you."
"You were always grandma's favorite," She insisted.
Jake couldn't help but snort and nod, "Well sure, that's because I gave a damn about her – and she gave me a half a billion dollars and her company, what did she give you exactly?"
Nothing, her grandmother had given her absolutely nothing and that was the source of this all for Haley – Jake had been going absolutely nowhere and he had gotten it all.
What did Haley get, a small portion of the small portion that her grandmother had given to her mother and that was all.
And he wondered why she was bitter?
For all of his successes and triumphs, her brother was quite an idiot.
When the exited the department store, Jake was pleasantly surprised that his limousine hadn't been ticketed or towed. In fact it was now parked in one of the front parking spots of the store. Raising his sunglasses, he strode to the humming limousine and opened the door to the back. Holding it open for his daughter and sister, he began to take deep breaths in, he was not looking forward to seeing his grandfather.
The last time they had seen each other was two years ago at Alexandra's Wedding – and other than that and other family events, they wouldn't be caught dead in a room with each other. Jake supposed that since this technically was a family event, it wasn't breaking the rhythm of things, but he'd still eat a bowl of leeches and bleed to death from the inside out then see him and the Dragon Council again, "What is this about exactly?"
Jake turned his head to his son, who was looking out the window with an air of nervousness, "You're Great-Grandfather is making me do this, if I had my way, then none of you would be involved with this and Haley could let her son have the mantle of the American Dragon, but he wants us there too."
"There is no way in hell that I'm doing it," Alexandra sighed irritably.
"Me neither," Shawn agreed with an adamant nod.
"In case your insipid father forgot to mention, I'm not pawning the American Dragon off on any of you, this is what Grandfather wants and he usually gets what he wants or we all suffer for it," Haley sighed and rubbed her forehead, before fastening her seatbelt, "Can we all just shut up about it and do it."
"As much as I hate to admit it your right," Jake sighed and looked out the window.
"Since when did you two start hating each other?" Shawn raised an eyebrow.
Alex snorted and looked down to her nail, "Since before I was born Shawn."
"What?" Shawn looked to his Aunt and Father as the car began to move.
"I'll explain it to you later son," Jake turned and smiled gently at the boy.
It would probably take a while and knowing his son, he would probably want Haley and himself to make up, which was going to happen as soon as they started selling parkas in hell. Folding his arms over his chest, he narrowed his eyes and continued to stare out the window at in particular. He was not looking forward to going to the Isle of Draco – he happened to know that the Dragon Council looked down upon the fact that he had forsaken his heritage to become a business man in the human world.
They looked down upon the fact that he had married the former Huntsgirl, not to mention, the former Huntsmistress and had contaminated his gene pool. Though it was quite clear that the Dragon Council looked down upon him for his choice in spouse, he wasn't sure if they felt the same way about his children. He had never been able to get a clear reading on it.
"So we're going to the Isle of Draco?" Alexandra raised an eyebrow.
"Yes dear," Jake nodded, "We are unfortunately."
Slipping her sunglasses into her purse, Rose looked at the door in front of her and sighed, she hadn't heard from Trevor in a while and she was starting to get worried about it. That's why she had gone into the city today to visit him while Jake was at work today – she just wanted to know how he was doing. After knocking for the fifth time, Rose was starting to get impatient.
Looking up to the door frame, she rolled her eyes and shook her head, she wanted to get into the condo, but if her son had become so predictable that he'd leave his key in a cliché place, she'd become even more disappointed.
She might not have completed his training when he was the Huntsboy, but she'd like to think that she'd taught him enough to hide his spare key in a place that any ordinary person with a brain would think to look. Sighing, she reached up to the door molding and ran her hand over it. When she reached the end, a key fell off of the door frame and fell to the floor in a clatter.
Reaching down, she picked it up and inserted the key into the lock. Pulling it out, she made sure to slip it into her pocket before opening the door. When she stepped into the condo, she was met by the rank stench of alcohol – and she knew immediately that her son had been drinking. Setting her purse down on the counter, her heels clicked against the hardwood floor as she walked into the living room. And with the position that she found her son on the couch, her sadness and her disappointment increased tenfold.
Trevor lay there, snoring with a half empty bottle of vodka laying on the carpet, with his outstretched hand, she could tell that he had fallen asleep with it in his hand. Sighing, she leaned down and picked the bottle up before setting it down on the table. Thinking of her next few options, she put a hand on her hip and with her free hand, reached down and slapped him across the face, "Wake up!"
Trevor's eyes blue eyes fluttered open, "Mom! W-What the hell are you-…"
"Shut up," Rose snapped, "Get cleaned up, we're going for a walk."
