Dinner With a Patriarch

Nick showed up at three in the afternoon on Sunday. He was dressed in a pair of slacks and a polo shirt. To the drooling girl he looked good enough to eat. Esperanza actually handed her a paper towel after letting him into the apartment.

"Abuela!" the nurse said in mortification, looking anywhere but at the IT programmer standing in her living room. When she finally found the courage to meet his gaze, he was smirking at her. Nick approached her when she turned away from him. Draping himself over his woman, he handed her a note.

Don't be embarrassed, love. I've never been so desired by a woman before. I'm enjoying the attention.

"I just… I can't help it if I find you highly attractive. It's embarrassing!"

Would it help if I admitted that I find you just as attractive?

"Oh, I'm not-" He covered her mouth with his hand and then his lips. When she raised passion-glazed eyes to him, the man passed her a note.

Never accuse me of lying to you again, Lillith. I don't say anything that I don't mean with all my heart. You are a gorgeous woman. You're slender with all the right curves in all the right places. And that smile… I was jealous of Lestat when you gave him that sexy smile to get him to accept his restraining order. You are a highly attractive woman, Lillith Winthrop. Accept it. I wouldn't lie to you.

She blushed. "Th-thanks," she finally managed. He looked her over carefully, surprised to see that she didn't believe him. Had she truly spent so much time being obsessed over for her money that she couldn't see that she was beautiful in her own right? Resolving to take more opportunities to make her feel pretty, the man kissed her persuasively.

So… Do I pass inspection? You look lovely, by the way.

"You nailed it. Grandpop can spot a phony a mile away. You look dressed up enough to mark the occasion without being so dressed up that you look like you're trying too hard." She twirled in her knee-length, flare-out, polka-dotted dress. He grinned. "What? I happen to love polka-dots!" He smirked and spun her around again before writing another note.

I've noticed. Ninety-five percent of the outfits you've worn for me on your days off have polka-dots on them. Even your nightgowns are polka-dotted. It's cute.

She grinned at him and grabbed his hand when he started to pull away. "Happy birthday, Nick. Twenty-six is a big year for you." Nick blinked, having forgotten that it was his birthday today. He watched his girl go and get something out of her bedroom and return.

"I didn't want to seem like an overly attached girlfriend or anything, but I wanted to get you something for your big day. So… Here." She shoved a card and present into his open hands. He looked from one to the other and teared up. No one had celebrated his birthday since he was nine years old. Each Halloween had come and gone without comment from his peers or colleagues. Not even Rudy had acknowledged his big day. He decided to read the card first, smiling at the funny things it said. Obviously, she'd decided to go light and humorous for their first major milestone as a couple.

Noticing that she was fidgeting as he looked over his present, the man made as if to eat it. She giggled and settled herself on the couch. Feeling nervous himself all of a sudden, he started to open the gift. Apparently, she would be looking at his reaction to this gift of hers. He really hoped that he would like it. Then he got a good look at it and grinned excitedly, removing the rest of the wrapping paper quickly. It was the very latest model of tablet, designed to be a phone as well. The texting capabilities on this model had been maxed out and he could write his notes on it as well. It was blue, his favorite color, and sleek as hell. Oh, he was going to have a blast setting his new toy up to his exact settings! And he would be the envy of his coworkers; everyone had been talking about the good reviews and desirability of this particular model!

Looking up with tears in his beautiful blue eyes, he kissed her open mouth. Apparently, she'd been talking since he'd looked down. He felt her vibrations through her luscious mouth and smiled. His life was turning out to be so interesting. From a victimized vagrant to a fully employed IT tech with a stupidly rich girlfriend… Wasn't this the Chinese curse? To live in interesting times? Well, if this was a curse, he could certainly handle it!

"Um… As much as I would love to stay here and watch you play with your new toy, we'd better get going. You can charge it in the car. When Grandpop sets a time and you accept, he expects you to be there. No exceptions."

Then, by all means, let's be off. I can play with my new tablet tomorrow at work

You have just made me the envy of my office, you know.

"Oh my," she grinned, grabbing her car keys and a matching polka-dotted jacket for when she got cold in her grandfather's place. Slipping on a heavier coat for the ride, she picked up her purse and headed for the door.

"Goodnight Abuela!"

"Goodnight, my angelote! Be safe!"

Why the rush?

"Oh, Grandpop doesn't live around here. For some strange reason, he decided that the best way to celebrate being a multi-billionaire was to build an obscenely large and spacious mansion in New Jersey of all places." She shuddered at the name, earning a raised eyebrow from her boyfriend. "Sorry. It's a running joke throughout the Tri-state area that New Jersey is the parts of Pennsylvania and New York that we didn't want. You have to pay to get out of Jersey." She giggled at her own jokes. "Come on, I don't want to be late for dinner. I really hope that you brought your appetite. Grandpop puts on quite a spread at these things."

Nick smiled at his woman as she sped through the streets to her destination. It wasn't that she was an unsafe driver or anything. She was just a bit of a speed demon and had little patience for those that weren't.

"No, really. Please, take your time," she huffed as she pulled up to a stoplight. Noticing Nick laughing at her, she pushed him playfully. "Yuk it up, jerk," she said mock-sternly, going around the slow driver when it was safe to do so. She turned on the music and sang along to help her temper. "I'mma get there. It may be tomorrow, but I'mma get there!"

She wasn't going that slow, Sweetness. You need to relax.

"Oh whatever," she grouched, putting the note down as she got onto the interstate. "When you're driving, you get to make the commentary on the drivers. Until then, back off." He laughed at his grumpy little one, amused by her impatience on the road. Driving was where her aggression came out; she was usually reasonably patient and understanding off the road. Booting up his tablet off its partial charge, he started playing with the settings, adjusting them to him. The girl had gotten the tablet's factory settings altered for him before she'd purchased it. The rich really did live better.

Thus distracted, he didn't notice when the already spacious and extravagant houses in New Jersey fell away to reveal her grandfather's monstrosity of a mansion. It was amazingly large and gaudy, Nick knew that such a building would never exist in Nebraska. Approaching it felt like approaching some large, hungry beast. He felt that he was going to be swallowed whole by it, and he had a sneaking suspicion that the owner of the mansion had made it that way intentionally. Putting his shiny new toy under the seat to make sure that it didn't get confiscated or broken somehow, he got ready to enter the lair of the beast. She put a soft hand on his muscular arm.

"Not yet," the girl said. "Miles said that Grandpop wouldn't be opening the doors until six sharp. We're about twenty minutes early. We can relax until then." He drew her close and she came to him willingly, relaxing in the circle of his arms.

I could definitely get used to this, little one

"You and me both, baby," she yawned. He was so strong and comfortable to lay against… She closed her eyes and simply breathed him in. That is until obnoxious knocking interrupted her light doze. She looked up and saw her father banging on her car window. He was in a starched suit that he'd obviously just bought for the occasion. She held up her watch to the window without unlocking the door. He growled and banged on the window again, but this time he'd knocked too hard since he grabbed his hand immediately afterward, walking away from her car. Her mother was likewise dressed in clothes she wouldn't usually be caught dead in, all but wearing a nun's habit for this dinner. Hoo boy, this was going to be fun.

"My parents want to meet you, but they can wait until dinner is served to grill you."

It's going to have to happen eventually, love. I can handle it. I suspect that your grandfather will grill me pretty thoroughly during this dinner. You have to let me stand on my own with your family. I'm a big boy. I promise that they won't break me

"Famous last words," Lily groaned. "Fine. You don't want to take advantage of my twenty-four years of experience dealing with these assholes I grew up with, that's fine. Let's go get this shit show over with right now." She opened her door and he pulled her back towards him.

Sweetness, you're not offering me advice on how to navigate your family dynamic. You're sheltering me from them. You can't keep it up forever. I have a feeling that you won't even be able to shelter me from them for the rest of the night. I can do this. Believe in me.

She seemed to consider this when the door swung open and her mother attempted to drag her out of the car by her lapels. Lily simply pushed the older woman away from her and came out of the car on her own.

"You broke your father's hand!" the woman screeched in her daughter's face.

"He decided to punch my window like he was the Terminator. I didn't do a thing to him."

"You awful child! That was his right hand. I like that hand!"

"He's got two hands. You'll be fine, Mother." The woman hauled off to slap her and Lily blocked it. "Stop trying to lay your hands on me. You know that hasn't worked since I was thirteen."

"You… You…"

"Insults don't work either. Look, it's two minutes to six. How do you want to play this?" The two women glared at each other.

"You're nothing but a harlot," the older woman growled. "Sleeping around with some dirty little peasant. A disabled one too!" Lily laughed without humor at the accusation.

"Harlots get some," the girl said at last. "I'm not sleeping with anyone. And Nick is my choice, not yours. Next." Before the incensed mother could think of something else to say, Miles opened the front doors for his employer's guests.

"Lily! It's good to see you. Thank you for being prompt," the Irishman said. She disengaged from her mother and skipped up the stairs to hug the older man. Sylvia stopped Nick with a hand on his well-toned chest.

"You don't belong here. You know that, don't you?" The deafmute's eyes narrowed in fury at her suddenly smug look. As if she had scored some cosmic point by saying something so cold and petty. His eyes narrowed and he pulled out his pad.

I belong wherever my lady is.

She reeled back as if he'd smacked her and attacked him. He pushed the enraged woman away from him, bringing her husband's wrath down on him. Frank swung at him, but Nick saw it coming out of the corner of his eye and ducked.

"Hey!" Lily shouted, grabbing her parents' attention. "The doors are open. And my man is a born scrapper. How do you want this to go down?" Frank and Sylvia looked at each other and then walked up the stairs as if they hadn't just tried to physically assault her boyfriend. They passed into the house without a backward glance. Lily held out her hand for her deafmute. He recovered from his dazed state and came up the stairs, more thankful than ever that he'd left his tablet in the car. The couple passed into the mansion in as stately a fashion as Miles could have hoped for. But Miles, knowing what was in store for the night, couldn't help but smile at them.

Her father went and got some ice for his swelling hand before settling in the living room. "I'll have a Scotch on the rocks," he told the bartender. Her mother likewise ordered something sophisticated sounding.

"May I have a half cranberry juice and a half apple juice. No liquor, please."

"Here you go, miss," the attractive bartender gave her a charming smile. She smiled back and moved away. Nick handed over a note to the man and accepted a glass of beer.

"There you go, flirting with the help again," Sylvia said in disgust. Or that may have been the Shirley Temple she was sipping her way through.

"Who's flirting?" the girl blinked. "I have a boyfriend."

"Oh may I please have a cran-apple juice." the woman said in an overly breathy voice. Lily rolled her eyes and turned to her man.

"Nick, was I flirting?" she asked. The man smiled at her fondly and handed her a note.

You weren't. You were being your usual, friendly self. But the bartender definitely was.

I'm going to have to keep my eye on you tonight.

"Hey!" she protested as she passed the note to her parents. They snickered around their drinks. The conversation was very stilted after what had happened outside.

"William Winthrop is ready to receive you all," the butler announced, showing the guests into the dining room. The large, long, rectangular table was set for five. Grandpop used to delight in throwing extravagant dinner parties before her grandmother died. Lily also knew that the table was sectioned so that they could be moved with ease for dancing. She used to tap dance all over this room to the amazing sound system he had. Knowing all of these things, she sighed. Seemed like Grandpop was in the mood to show off. She found Nick's hand behind her and squeezed it, hoping against hope that the man was serious about being able to handle her family.

"Hey Grandpop," the girl called when she spotted him at the head of the table. She skipped up to the man and threw her arms around him.

"There's our girl," the man said with a tender smile, hugging her back. William was in great shape for his age. He'd married a level-headed girl and taken it for granted that she would always be there as he partied his life away. Then she was gone and he'd been lost. The party had ended that day for him, but he liked to think that he'd gotten his lady love back in a way whenever he looked at his granddaughter. The girl was as straight-laced as a corset and level-headed in a way that would have made his wife proud. She was kind and she was generous, often donating to causes and people who needed it. "You don't visit us often enough, Lillith. We miss our only granddaughter."

"Sorry, Grandpop," she said, pulling back from the man. "Work often keeps me busy. I'll try to make more time to come around."

"See that you do," he said mock-sternly, caressing her cheek. In the time it had taken to have this little exchange, Nick had caught up to his girlfriend. He placed a hand on the back of her neck and smiled at the patriarch of the family. William's smile turned colder as he observed his little granddaughter's choice for a husband. The girl had once confessed to him that she would never date anyone that she wasn't willing to marry.

"Hello, young man. We are William Angelo Winthrop. We are the head of this family and the keeper of the money. It's good that you're keeping our grandchild happy. She's precious to us."

She's precious to me as well, Mr. Winthrop. I'm Nicholas Arthur Andros.

"Yes. Sid Barry was extremely thorough in his investigation of you. We're very sorry to hear about your parents. Your mother sounded like a good woman." The deafmute blinked. "That's right, Nick. We had you investigated the minute we learned that our little girl had an interest in you. Did she not tell you?"

She may have been a little vague on the details of just how thorough her investigation was, but she did mention that she had her private investigator check me out.

"Well good. The best way for you two to survive as a couple is for there to be no secrets between you. Uh, no son, your seat is across from hers," he said when Nick tried to sit down next to his woman. The man shrugged and moved to the seat where his name was written in bold, gold letters. He passed a note before heading off.

Why am I all the way over there?

"Because the last time Grandpop threw a dinner party, my parents were all but making out on the table," Lily shrugged. Sylvia turned as if to slap her and Lily smirked at her. "Tell me it's not true."

The food was served and it was amazing. Nick was suddenly glad that his stomach had been in knots and he hadn't eaten all day. He gave a note complimenting the food to Frank and was surprised when he balled it up and threw it over his shoulder.

"Don't be such a child, Father," the girl said, getting up to retrieve the note. Nick went to write something else and she covered his hand.

"We don't talk during the meal, love." He looked up at her in confusion and she sighed. "It's considered rude to talk with your mouth full. Save it for after the dishes are cleared away." With that, she returned to her seat and continued her meal.

Only the sounds of chewing and faint requests for more libations were heard for the next hour. Frank smiled maliciously when the deafmute started writing again after the first course, but he didn't pass it over. He'd been looking forward to denying him 'speech'. Like everyone else on the planet, he'd had the interloper investigated. In fact, Barry had likely been paid three times for the same report. This Nebraska kid was clean, but he still wasn't good enough for his daughter. Lestat would have given her some prestige. Not to mention that his coffers would have added to the family fortune. What did this bedraggled kid have to offer his daughter?

"Father, you're growling," Lily said. He glared at his stubborn daughter and dug into his Creme Brulee, trying to think of how to reverse the restraining order she'd taken out on him the other day. This was one of those instances where having a large entourage actually worked against him. Everyone had seen her hand him the papers. And even if his people were willing to lie, hers weren't. No, it seemed that Lestat was out. There had to be another candidate for her that didn't involve stupid, poor deafmutes who had acquired a small stack of notes over the course of the seven-course meal.

"What the hell are you writing, mutie?" he asked rudely, reaching over as if to take his pile of notes. Nick moved them out of the way at the last minute. Frank went to attack him and stopped only when his father called his name.

"We will not have you disrupting our dinner party and turning it into a brawl. Besides, he can take you."

"What? I have a black belt in-"

"Uh-huh. And how much of that gut is beer and whiskey, son? Unlike our granddaughter here, you haven't kept up with your training. She could take your soft-living ass too. And all indications say that she will if you mess with her man. Go get some fresh ice for your hand." Frank went to do as he was told, making as if to rush the man on the way and was surprised when he didn't flinch.

"Now, we must admit curiosity. You've been writing pretty much non-stop since the meal began. Let's see your stash." Nick passed over his pile and William read them over calmly. "Most of these questions would be best answered by the chef. As for our decor, we were always a horror movie fiend. We made this house as a younger man. We weren't always so restrained and dignified. It seems your man is a closet francophile," he looked up at his granddaughter. "He knows a lot about French cuisine." She grinned at the two and each man savored that smile.

"Now, we believe that it's time for the hard-hitting questions. How did the two of you meet?"

I was beaten up pretty thoroughly upon my arrival to Philadelphia. I ended up in the hospital and your granddaughter was one of the nurses to take care of me.

She took an instant liking to me and I found her fascinating.

"A lamentable beginning to a relationship. But if you two met back in March-"

I never mentioned anything about a time

The old man smiled a mysterious smile. "If you met in March, why are we only hearing about you in October? Happy Birthday, by the way. Bet you wish that you'd brought that tablet of yours in to answer all of these questions."

Once I had recovered enough, I set out to build a life of my own, complete with a job and an apartment of my own. It wouldn't have been fair for me to just attach myself to your granddaughter like some kind of parasite. Thanks for the birthday wishes. How did you know about that tablet?

"From all indications, our granddaughter wouldn't have minded."

I would have minded. A lot. And how did you know about the tablet?

Lily sighed when she read the question after her grandfather and mother did. "Grandpop has my place bugged," she said with an exasperated sigh in her elder's direction. At Nick's shocked look, she sighed again. "I've tried removing the bugs, but every time I find one, he has another one put in. I finally got sick of trying. I live a very clean life and I've got nothing to hide. It's no big deal."

It's an invasion of privacy! Your grandfather has no right to have you under surveillance!

God, is this what you meant by 'the walls have ears'?

She shrugged. "In truth, I agree with your whole-heartedly, but Grandpop is ridiculously rich and eccentric. How do you fight that?" Nick was at a loss for an answer. Deciding to table the discussion for the moment, the deafmute pressed on with the conversation.

You seem to delight in referring to yourself as the royal 'we'

When did that start?

"Around the time we lost our wife," William answered, giving the young man props for calling him out on this habit of his. Most people just accepted it as a quirk in his personality and left it at that. "Lillith. Are you pregnant with this man's child?"

"No," she blinked. "I'm untouched." William stared at his granddaughter intensely. Like most people, the girl had a tell when she was lying to him. But she was telling the truth. The girl was such an open book anyway, that her tells hardly mattered.

"We will give you five billion dollars if she remains a virgin until her wedding night"

"Grandpop!"

Nick blinked at the proposal.

"Twenty billion if she remains completely untouched until then," the man added without a second thought.

"That's enough, Grandpop! You have no right to decide something so personal for us! This is my life!"

"You're right, of course, my lovely girl," he said with an indulgent smile. Sharp, knowing eyes found the deafmute's across the room, letting him know that he was serious. Nick nodded faintly, knowing that he had a decision to make.

"Where was this proposal when I was growing up?" Frank asked, sitting down with fresh ice on his hand and lipstick on his collar. Lily groaned in disgust. Her parents were not exclusive at all. She would have considered such behavior adulterous, but they weren't really in love and had only married because his father had commanded it. As it was, Sylvia had become accustomed to her lifestyle, and Frank wasn't willing to split his inheritance.

"You wouldn't have honored it," William said. "You were always so eager to be like us. Maybe that was the problem all along," he muttered to himself. His butler came to talk to him quietly and he knew it was time to reveal the reason that he had called them together in the first place.

"Love is in the air it seems. We would like you all to meet your new matriarch, Abigail Garnier." A beautiful, kind-looking older woman entered the estate just then, smiling at them all. "How was the flight, honey?"

"Dreadful, darling. Vegas flights are so crowded and crazy. And I still don't understand why I had to be without you so soon after our wedding."

"You married her? How could you do this to us?" Frank and Sylvia started protesting this move, thinking of their inheritance being split four ways instead of three. While this was happening, the extra tables were moved so that Lily and Nick were next to the new woman at the table. She smiled at the two young people and Lily felt her good intentions towards her grandfather. She finally spoke up.

"Grandpop? Why weren't we invited to share in your happiness?" she asked innocently. "Weddings are kind of a big, permanent deal."

"Come here, little one," the man said, continuing to ignore his son and daughter-in-law. Lily approached him with a pout on her face and he laughed as he hugged her. He decided, just this once, to drop his royalty schtick in front of his wayward son and speak to her like a person, seeing how much this was upsetting her. "If you'd been around more often these last six months, you would have seen her. We weren't keeping our love a secret, just no one noticed us with all the world speculating on your depression. Truly, I should have guessed that you were in love. You're usually such a happy-go-lucky child and you visit me so often. I'm looking forward to your wedding. I'm sure that it'll outdo anything I could have come up with for my own nuptials."

"I want a small ceremony with friends and family only," she told him with a sweet smile. "The marriage is the important part."

"I should have trusted you to be there, little one," he said, hugging her again.

"Now," he said with his usual swagger, "we have more announcements to make. So pay attention." His children settled at that, Lily moving back to her seat. "Abigail has opened our eyes to a lot of things that we've been overlooking or just plain ignoring for years. The first being the bad behavior of our son and his bride. Frank, you have had twenty-four years to mend your broken ways to become a good and productive member of society. Imagine, forty-five years old and still refusing to live like adults. As little Lily's housekeeper says all the time, it's shameful. So shameful in fact, that we have decided to take you out of our will."

"What?" Sylvia said in a strangled voice. She'd only stayed with her disgusting husband all these years for the truly disgusting amount of money she would receive upon her father-in-law's death.

"We understand that this will be a hard adjustment for you both, so you will receive a greatly reduced yearly stipend effective immediately. But on our death, you will get nothing." Sylvia was starting to worry about Frank. He had yet to say anything about this alarming turn of events.

"Now, it's time to talk about the good behavior of our grandchild. You have never once indulged in the vices of your station, choosing to live an honorable life. You barely use the stipend we give you, most of what you do use being for generous donations to worthy causes and worthier people. Like your boyfriend there. You've bought cars and saved houses from foreclosure for people that needed it. Started foundations for causes that you felt worthwhile and donated to those that already exist. You've also been strategically buying up rental properties in Philly and other states and renovating them to improve the lives of the tenants. You collect the rent from these apartments as a secondary income should your stipend disappear suddenly. You actually own the apartment complex you live at. It was the first apartment building you bought. Since then, you have bought almost all of the apartments and mortgages of the people around you. You have invested these earnings wisely and you currently have a small fortune of your own that you use lawyers and bankers to manage and oversee. All of this through a shell company so that you can work in anonymity and avoid the press and our scrutiny." At Nick's impressed nod, the man looked at him sternly.

"What? Did you think that 'zero' on your hospital bill was a coincidence or your grant money at work? Lily paid your bill as soon as you got out of there. She does little things like that, anonymously paying off hospital bills and paying down other people's debts without accepting credit for it. Though we would prefer that she didn't. A man needs to stand on his own feet to-"

"Don't talk to me about standing on your own, Grandpop," she said through the storm of her embarrassment at being found out. "You inherited your fortune." The two stared at each other until William smiled and nodded his concession of the point to her.

"As a reward for your hard work, ingenuity, and good deeds, we have decided to make you and our new wife the sole heirs of our fortune upon our death. Though you will receive 75 percent of the inheritance to our new wife's 25 percent. Should I outlive either one of you, your portion of the inheritance goes to a number of the charities that you have subscribed to over the years. And there have been so many of them, haven't there, granddaughter?" She blushed prettily, trying not to look at anyone at the table. Sylvia was desperately trying to catch her daughter's eye and so was Nick.

"That is all we had to say tonight. Our decision is final. We have discussed this at length with our lawyers and our good wife. You all thought that no one was keeping tally on your actions all this time, but we obviously have. Have a safe trip back to Philadelphia."

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME, DAD," Frank Winthrop suddenly screamed. He started detailing his own good deeds, most of which involved not firing people for incompetence or what he considered mistakes in their jobs. His stance resembled that of a cornered alley cat with his back up. Sylvia in the meantime was reeling. She couldn't even divorce the bastard and cut her losses; she'd accepted one hundred million dollars - all of which was long gone - to sign a contract that if she divorced him she would walk away with nothing. Twenty-one at the time, pregnant with the golden child, and money-obsessed, she hadn't thought twice about signing that stupid contract until she'd come to her father-in-law quietly about divorce when her daughter had graduated high school. That's when he had pulled out her contract and reality had set in. She was trapped in her marriage to Frank. And now the asshole wasn't even worth anything!

So that was the big announcement? And how the heck did Grandpop know so much about her business dealings? Hmm... seems the old man is over-involved in his family's dealings. In the Patriarch's defense, though, can you really blame him with billions on the line? Join me next chapter for Lillith's reaction to this situation. Hell, let's just see how Nick reacts to his girlfriend's circumstances? Will he walk away? Remember, reviews are loved! ^_^