"I gave you one job!" Gus snarled as he slammed the door to Richard's office shut behind him. "One job! She's been here less than a week and you've already messed that up!"
"What's happened now?" Richard asked without even glancing up from the payroll he was going through.
"She saw him Richard. I begged you to make sure that didn't happen, and the first day of rehearsal you brought her here and she ran into him. I specifically told you to not let her near him! She knew who he was the minute she saw him and started panicking, telling me I needed to get away from here because I couldn't work for a murderer."
Richard finally looked up with his brows raised. "So did you tell her?"
"Are you mad? Of course not! If you saw how she reacted to just seeing him, you would know there is no way in hell I could ever tell her. Why would you ever bring her here in the first place?"
"Because she asked," Richard replied, rolling his eyes. "What was I supposed to say? 'No your fiancé doesn't want you to see what he's hiding from you?' No, I don't think so. I asked your father to stay away from rehearsal, which he did, and even you must know how hard that is for him. I couldn't have predicted her wandering around alone, and I have a job to do so I can't spend all day babysitting the two of them. I did what I could."
"It wasn't enough," Gus snapped.
"Then she needs to hear the truth, and she needs to hear it from you before she hears it from somebody else."
"You wouldn't dare…"
"I'm not going to tell her because I think she deserves to hear it from you, but you and I both know the whole damn theater suspects. It's not going to be long before she starts hearing gossip."
"Then you need to…"
"Dammit Gus! I am just one man. I can't just wave my hand and make the truth disappear. I can't stop the entire world from gossiping. And I certainly cannot condone you lying to my niece like this. You need to get in front of this before it blows up in your face. Because sooner or later, it will. You can't keep ignoring the truth forever."
Gus shot him a glare that would have been terrifying if Richard hadn't spent the last fifteen years working with his father. "If you're not going to help me, then stay out of my way."
"I can't go home, Richard. Not yet."
"Vivian, your father said two weeks. You're lucky I convinced him to let you come for that long."
"But there's something wrong with Gus! Even you must see it. He says it's just stress, but there's something more. I can't leave him like this!"
"Take it up with your father."
"If I get his permission, would you mind?"
"You can stay as long as you like as long as your father is okay with it," Richard replied. "You're family. And Gus could probably benefit from having you around a while longer."
Vivian's eyes lit up. "Really? I can stay longer?"
"If you get permission, and that's a big if. I wish you the best of luck with that."
Not even ten minutes later, Vivian was on the phone. "Please Father. Richard says I can stay. Gus is under a lot of stress right now, and I think it would be good for him if I stayed just a while longer."
"I don't know…" her father sighed. "You've already been gone two weeks. I know your mother has missed you helping around the house."
"It's nothing Evie can't do. And what do you think is going to happen when Gus and I get married? She might as well get used to helping out more now," Vivian protested.
Her father chuckled. "I'm sure she'd love to hear that."
"So I can stay?"
"Well now, I didn't say that."
"Why not? I'm not getting into any trouble here. Gus has been the perfect gentleman; you can ask Richard if you don't believe me. I'm a grown woman now; I'm going to be married in a few months, it's probably good for everyone if we all get used to me being out of the house."
He exhaled slowly. "Viv…"
"Please Papa, Gus really needs me right now," she pleaded. Vivian knew that if calling him Papa didn't work, nothing would. She rarely called him that now she was older, and when she did, she almost always got what she wanted.
"Dammit Vivian," she was sure she had failed and pushed him too far when he finally groaned and continued with, "Put your uncle on the phone."
She waved over her uncle and held out the phone with a triumphant grin. "My father wants to talk to you."
"You're never going to believe it," Vivian announced a few hours later when Gus arrived for what he thought was going to be goodbye.
"Have you gone and gotten yourself into trouble?" he asked with a teasing smile.
"I convinced my father to let me stay a few more weeks! Isn't that amazing? We can spend more time together." She was so proud of herself until she realized the smile had slid off his face. "You're not excited…" Suddenly Vivian found herself wondering if she had made the right decision. "I thought you would be."
"Jesus Viv, of course I'm excited. How could I not be? I get to spend more time with you. You just surprised me, that's all. Honestly I'm amazed Joseph agreed at all; he's a bit old fashioned, you know. It seems I'm marrying a master manipulator." Vivian felt a knot twisting in her stomach. Despite his best attempts at smoothing things over, she didn't believe him. His eyes pleaded with her, and he put his hand on her cheek. "Look Viv, I…I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. It's just there's a lot I'm dealing with right now at the opera house, and I'm just afraid it will be too much. I don't want you to think I'm pushing you away or I don't have time for you because of that. Sometimes I feel like I can't breathe when you're away because I miss you so much, but now that you're here, I'm constantly terrified I'm going to do something to ruin us. And I don't want to do that because I love you."
This time his words were genuine, that much she could tell. But Vivian couldn't fully untie the knot in her stomach, not after this and over hearing the gossip backstage several days earlier. And she wasn't sure she'd be able to until she knew the truth of what Gus was hiding, or even if he was hiding anything at all.
