- Chapter Seventy -

Three Strikes And You're Out, House

[explicit content warning]

'Fuck waiting for an invitation' her personal motto in life, Lily seized the heiress by the wrist, her littlest finger snagging in one of the airy eyelets of her sleeve. Tugging incessantly at the young woman to get her from the bar, those white teeth were everywhere Daniella looked, large and grinning and brilliant. Nose dusted with freckles and eyes set a little too far apart, the longer one looked the less seemingly-perfect Lily got; having said that, those imperfections worked in her favor.

Animated as a new puppy that had yet to be housebroken, the spirited Lily wasn't being overly forceful, but she definitely didn't take the hint either. "It could be fun."

"..." Dumbfounded as a doorstop in December, Dells could feel her attention pulling elsewhere. Say something!

Mid-conversation about what Sully was up to with the businesswoman, neither Nathan nor the distinguished pilot were so engaged that they missed what was happening on their eight. Victor didn't immediately recognize the girl due to her new look, but he was familiar with the way uncertainty could wear a person. Shell-shocked and just going through the motions, if he didn't know any better, the old gent would have supposed she had just come back from a goddamned battlefield.

Even though Sam had finally joined the party via the service entrance, Nate was doing his brother a solid and keeping his eye on the girl. He could have just as easily said that he was doing it for Elena too, but the truth was that she looked just as conflicted as he felt at that age. Her mother lurking nearby had only set him that much closer to the edge.

"Over there is fine." Nursing a sore back with a cold compress, the manager could be heard at the end of the bar giving instructions.

"We were just recording messages." Gaze drifting from his protege to the pretty pair of dames, the mustache felt it prudent to leave it at that. Something about the situation rang all the old bells, as if it could three different ways: hinky, belly-up, or with someone getting very lucky. Although knowing the luck of the Drake brothers, it followed that it just might end in a mix of all three.

"So you didn't need any help?" Signaling over to the heiress behind Lily's back, the ex-adventurer slanted over in his seat, volume a little too loud to not notice what he was attempting to so valiantly do.

Giggling, Lily placed her free hand on Daniella's back once more, swinging around the faux blonde so that she had a good gander at her friends. "You have a close family, I see. Alright, alright, don't want to cause any issues with my neighbors. But," touch slinking lower and lower as she play-acted backing away graciously, Lily whispered directly into Daniella's ear so that only she could hear, "let me know if you change your mind. I'll be in the ladies room in ten." Beaming and bubbly, Lily said to the rest, "Think about it, alright? See you around the store, Mr. Drake!"

Busy lugging over the next batch of supplies for the manager of the coastal pub - because his own back wasn't being punished enough these days - Sam had caught enough to get the gist of what was happening. Goody for him, because the young woman was at a loss; watching Lily's retreating sashay, Dells was confused, shocked, and not entirely taking the other girl's meaning. Was she suggesting that she needed to just stop pussyfooting around and have a very important conversation with Sam? Or, was she suggesting that they...?

All eyes on Daniella, no one there really expected that she would go.

Victor had only met the girl once, and at that time he had written her off as a little slice of fun for Sam - that opinion hadn't changed. Speaking on behalf of both himself and Elena on this one, Nathan was of the mind that the girl was too stuck on a certain someone to even consider such a thing. That, and the poor kid was way too green and insecure to even attempt a gamble like that. Turned up to an eleven, Sam was on the same page as the others. For what it was worth, the girl was just too wrapped up in him to entertain the invitation.

Not that he cared if she accepted it or anything.

"Did that really just happen?" More rhetorical when she didn't realize that the scene had grabbed up a sizable audience, Dells cocked her head at her beverage, curious if there was something funny in the water. Why would anyone like that talk to someone like her? She was...

"Color us surprised too, princess." Setting down the last of the olives where the manager had instructed, the historian dusted his hands off. Now officially square with Ollie, that whole misunderstanding surrounding the mounted beaver was behind them, and he could go back to being in the manager's good graces once more.

"Just don't overdo it again, okay?" Ollie was the best of the old 'mom and pops' mentality, more concerned about the person than the penny. "Franklin," donning the manager cap, Ollie called over to the summer bartender with a personal request, "keep an eye on this lug, will ya? And take care of his friends too."

"Awesome." Enthusiasm at an all-time high, Franklin didn't mind throwing out the friends and family discount - when it was just one or two people. With more than half the beach full of recipients, it wasn't going to be a very profitable day for the books. But screw it, right? It wasn't as if they were looking into the business minor for that promotion. Why would they, when perfect little Julia was there?!

Yet to utter a proper thanks to his good ol' pal with a license to pour, the auburn-haired explorer laid on the charm extra thick, "Aw, you don't have to put yourself out like that Ollie. I'm sure the rest of these guys can pay for their drinks."

Nate clearly could have throttled his sibling at that moment, trying to talk the manager out of a killer deal like that! His big brother had better be working an angle...

"Nonsense!" Ollie was a natural grinner, that much was apparent from the deeply-etched laugh lines, however there was an extra bounce in that sensible summer slip-on when it came to the charismatic silver fox. Dells could't have been the only one to notice that, right?

Grabbing himself one of the better brands of beer from behind the counter, Sam saluted Ollie's generosity before popping the top. Returning to his conversation with the heiress as if there hadn't been a single interruption, the handsome thief leaned across the counter as if he were an employee, "You weren't putting off the vibe that you were interested in the slightest."

Unlike the manager, who always seemed to be right on the cusp of touching Sam. Not that she was keeping track or anything.

As for what had been said verbally, Nate and Sully could agree. Daniella really hadn't done anything to indicate that she was on the market, although for some people it was just enough to get as much as a look from across the bar. From what Nathan could recall of the young woman he'd purchased a new outlet extender from, she had never seemed to be trouble, but then again, it was tough to know when he'd probably spoken to her for less than twenty minutes in total.

"Some way to talk to your customers." Only half as sharp as the knife twisting in her intestines, the young woman's reply was colder than the bottle in the man's hand. "Definitely not the best way to go about getting a tip."

Frown a thin line cut slantwise over his face, Sam didn't realize they were still playing that game. Call him crazy, but he had thought that with a little space and a change of scenery... Well, fuck it.

"Right. My tip. That's what this is all about, isn't it? Mommy and daddy paid the bill, and you got it in your head that that matters more than seeing you. Through this." Tacking on the last bit for the benefit of the others, the grizzled thief kept telling himself that he was only going to take so much more of her shit.

Water the natural savior of all, Dells took a deep sip, as if the lemon might erase what he had just said. Of course it mattered more! Blood money might have been a fine substitute payment, if she didn't know whose blood it was all over the gold. "That's easy for you to say! You've had ten years to come to terms with it - I haven't even had ten hours!" Shrill, the girl was shouting at her glass as if it had been the one that hurt her.

That was... fair. Maybe not one-hundred percent accurate, technically, but fair.

Glad that they were sitting this one out, the context was thinly-veiled and almost too easy to picture, yet somehow the lack of eye-contact between the two warring parties only made it that much more painful to endure. Like a child coming home with a wolf cub and asking their parents if they could keep it, only to have them turn on each other instead. Mom had allergies, dad didn't think it was a good time financially; she thought maybe it was a good idea for a kid to learn responsibility, but he was of the mind that there were better ways to learn that lesson. Things got said, papers were drawn, and in the meantime, the kid was crying in the corner because the cub bit him. Long story short, it was an unmitigated train wreck.

Faking like he was getting anything past the deep gash that used to be his lips, Sam was mulling over how to respond. Maybe he should just pick the scab off at the root, suggest to the dense dingbat there that if she wanted a tip, he would be more than obliged to point out all the areas where she was wrong.

Sure, could have pointed out as her body guard that it would be hard to do his job if there was no body to guard. Or maybe something along the lines of how dumb it was to go for some stranger's invitation when she was supposed to be keeping a low profile. But he wasn't going to do that either. Maybe if the offer wasn't some kind of trap, that other girl could fuck the foul mood out of the heiress. Christ knows somebody needed to at least give it the old college try.

"Whatever." Deadly and benign all at once, that one little word was possibly second only to 'wow', which was a noun, verb, exclamation, or the thing he could have said.

"Guess this is the best I can hope for." Downing the rest of her drink like it had the power to change the world and knock her off her feet, the heiress slammed the empty cup back down on the bar. Would that she wasn't so nauseous at the idea of alcohol these days. "Excuse me, gents," Dells nodded at the only other two seated at the bar, "but I don't have the bladder of a camel."

Three guesses where she was really going, and why.

"Well," Sullivan held up his glass and watched the young woman depart from beneath the rim, her figure disappearing into the squat building just in front of the parking lot, "I'll be dammed. The only way that could have gone worse was if you sent the girl off in tears."

Except, nope, Nathan could do him one better. Getting a clear enough image of the picture if not the full scope of it, the younger of the two brothers shook his head in disagreement, "Now that's where you're wrong, Sully." If Nate had explained it to his big brother once, he must have done it a dozen other times: Sam had to learn to take other people's feelings into account. It really wasn't all that hard. "He could've sent her off with his blessing."

Sully hummed through his mustache, peering over at Sam. They hadn't gotten off to the easiest starts, but so far as he was concerned both of the Drake boys were as good as sons to him. As their father-figure of sorts, it fell on his shoulders in moments like these to offer guidance, even when it wasn't asked for. "Isn't it your job to make sure she's okay?"

Stubborn as a mule, Sam returned the inquiry with a sullen gulp, the hops less amber gold and more flat than usual. "She can scream if she needs me."

"I think she already is, boy-o." Nathan had been working on his Victor impression some, but it was still a far cry from the real deal. In all seriousness, he had a point to make. "Chances are, she'll be in pain for a while. I won't pretend to know what else is going on with her, but Sam, we're deep into her family business. We were both there when her father died, and now her mother hired you to keep her safe from her own grandfather? That's enough to screw with anyone's head."

Less than amused by the unflattering impersonation, the pilot could still see the merits in what the kid was saying. "He's not wrong, you know."

Veneer scratched to holy hell and insides scrambled even further, he supposed that they weren't wrong that the heiress was under a great deal of strain. Between being accosted by a twerp that thought himself a big man and learning that the guy she'd been screwing was responsible for her life falling into shambles at her feet, Dells had gone through a ton. He wasn't disputing that. He was just...

Encyclopedia certain to contain a word (or two) for what he was just, Sam had been trying to give her space. Pretending for a moment that his intentions were so innocent, the question was how was he expected to do that when it was his job to stay on her like white on rice? Stink on a fly, cherries on a sundae, or thorns on a wild rose? They were stuck together for an indefinite amount of time, and since she had been approached by the enemy, wasn't that even more reason to be together?

Reason to be close together, rather. Making up justifications in his head, the man wasn't entirely sure when he had set his beverage down, or had turned to face the pack of outhouses. Cluster of Johns? Whichever the plural form for an assortment of conjoined public bathrooms was. Granted, there might not have been a term for it... Regardless, the grizzled brunette knew that they were right. He had to look out for Dells, even if she didn't thank him for it.

[Worthy Of The Throne]

Awkwardly slip-sliding against the side of the outer wall, Daniella hadn't intended to really walk all the way there... just close enough to the basic blockade to leave the impression that she had gone through with it. Positioning herself differently against the plaster more than once, the part that was trying to make the most of the situation was attempting (and most probably failing) to be seductive. Confident.

The rest was... a mess.

Fueled by indignation and spite for the most part, the young woman might have admitted that she was only doing this to distract herself (although if it would work remained to be seen). Pretty as that might've sounded - or petty - the private truth was that she needed to prove to herself that she wasn't completely hung up on her knight in stolen armor.

"Fucking Sam..." Terse, that seemed to sum it all up rather nicely in a lovely velvet bow. Muttering to herself under her breath, Dells was prepared to listen to that dying smarter half and just walk away when the young woman from the bar rounded the corner. Well, crap.

Armed with that atomic smile and a jean handbag on a cup of caramel- er, a tawny leather strap, Lily waved cheerfully at the heiress. "Sam, huh? That the name of the one that has you twisted so tight you can't even see straight?" Playful as the question seemed on the surface, it was a loaded gun. "The silver fox? I wouldn't mind if you wanted to ask him to join us."

Something green and slimy twinged inside Daniella when the other woman spoke about her thief. Not that he was her thief, per say, but he was... important to her. "Yeah... You know, I don't really know about this."

"Oh? You sure? Part of you must have been a little curious at least, since you showed up here." Closing the space between them, Lily stopped just shy of touching the heiress, her hand matching Daniella's until they were both leaning up against the wall. "It because of him? Or have you never been with another girl before?"

Depends on how you want to look at it, the heiress almost said. That night at Mr. Drake's dock was her first time with anyone ever, when she'd... Well, this once it was alright that it came back around to Sam, she supposed, because the real thing that was giving her pause was the flashback to the last time she had stepped out of sight. Chloe had been doing business, she had nearly murdered one of the guys that cracked open her head and almost caused her to drown, and... Angel and Ashley had seemed harmless enough too.

"Um, either? Both? I..." Whatever Daniella was about to say was lost to the void, Lily breaking the barrier and bringing her lips down gently over her own. The very first thing to hit Dells was the zing of liquor, followed by a fruity aftertaste, kinda like that gum with the Zebra. It was definitely a more pleasant taste than ash, that much was for sure. "Hello!"

"Hey." Laugh like bells, Lily brushed her thumb down Daniella's lips, smearing the little bit of shared moisture down her chin. "So, make up that pretty little mind of yours yet?"

If this had been the person she was so hellbent on not thinking about, Dells could visualize herself kissing him back, teasing that she might need another to help her decide. But this girl whose name she wasn't even sure she had heard yet? Attractive as this woman was, Sleeping Beauty wasn't feeling it. Not yet...?

Closing her eyes, she tried again. Plush and pleasantly fruity, kissing the stranger wasn't bad in theory, but it wasn't the same as kissing Sam.

With him, there was a ravenous undead hunger that took over, a driving need to have more and the innate knowledge that nothing else would suffice. Gasoline dousing a gas station off the highway, it was like there was an underground cavern filled to bursting with forgotten powder kegs, the chain reaction the closest thing there was to eternal fire on earth. Every touch seared in the right way, and the only thing that came remotely close to explaining it was magnets. Just thinking about kissing him again was enough to set off the tingle, making the heiress bite her lower lip.

Zingy, with the girl from the bar there was an absence of ash, a constant reminder of artificial sugar layered into honey and... kiwi? Cherry? Sweet as it tasted, the heiress would rather have a smoker if it meant getting even half the spark that gripped her so tight and refused to let go.

Maybe that could be attributed to just how much experience he had over them combined, or maybe it was something else entirely - all Dells knew was that it was different.

Thinking for a moment that if this had been the historian, she allowed that she would probably be in a similar place; as opposed to struggling to feel anything at all, the young woman would have been flooded by thoughts of her parents. Unsavory images, memories that never were dancing before her eyes, and more than that, the reminder that nothing was what she had believed it to be.

What happened to the Mama that loved her father more than anything in the world? The same one that had been married twice out of necessity but had never truly moved on? Daniella could pretend that she had retained enough of her father to paint a story of indignation and betrayal, shock, or... something! Fact was, she couldn't come up with anything like she could for her mother. The person she loved more than anything else in the world, and he was hardly more than a shade now...

And neither loved her. At least not the way she thought they had.

How can I be a good daughter when I don't have parents that are worthy of me? Worthy of my admiration, adoration, and unconditional love? I was only an inconvenience to them, an accident that they had had no choice but to put up on a pedestal. They are unworthy of me, and I... I'm just unworthy.

Encouraged by the way that the heiress had bit down on her own lip, Lily presumed to kiss her again. Whereas the first had been a friendly invitation to play, this one was sloppy, the tip of her tongue running along Daniella's upper lip. It was meant to give an idea of what to expect, the prying more a balm before an attempt to dominate. Dells had no clue why her partner would be so keen to fight for the role of leader when there was no competition, but she supposed that that was the way it was for some people?

"Wait..." Holding her hand up to the other girl's chest to slow things down, Dells was still having reservations about this. Removing her relationship with Sam from the equation, and how her intended might feel about her engaging in this kind of behavior, everything was moving too fast.

Both ears broken apparently, Lily paid more attention where the heiress's hand had gone than to the words that were coming out of her mouth. Gentleness ebbing away, the local placed her palm over the vacationer's, guiding it underneath the scant protection of her bikini top. Encouraging exploration, she made the blonde rub small circles over her breast, tightening ever closer to her stiffening nipples.

Pretty as she was, Lily was aggressive, and she had grown bored of all the fish on the island - she knew who would and wouldn't engage with her, and she was tired of her options. She wanted short, anonymous flings with unfaithful husbands, grieving widows, mothers living the dreams of their dead children, college kids on spring break, girls on the run and broken boys trying to sort out their own drama.

"It's now or never. Either you follow me into that outhouse, or you can live a life of always wondering what could be." Making a valid point in the worst possible way, Lily allowed the tiny-weenie triangular strip to fail, flashing her bare boob to anyone blessed enough to catch it.

Stealing a quick glance back towards the bar, it would have been lying to deny that a small part of her heart broke off the bottom when she saw that it was only Sullivan and Mr. Drake at the counter. You should be keeping me safe, not screwing Ollie... Selfish, Dells bobbed her head and followed the strange young woman off into the single-story complex of chamber pots.

[Doghouse, Outhouse]

Elena, having traded places with her husband in terms of whose turn it was to watch the dog, ran up to the bathrooms, blissfully unaware of what she was about to get right in the middle of. Natural blonde locks bouncing slightly with every hasty step, the white t-shirt covering up her bathing suit was absolutely covered in sand, so forget about the state of her denim shorts. Casual in every sense of the word, the woman slowed to a stop outside the bank of bidets.

"Hey," cheerful as ever, the personification of sunshine and goodness hailed her brother-in-law the moment she spotted him, "fancy meeting you here." Looking all kinds of suspicious and lurking outside an encampment of soldiers named Lou...?

Need to pee not so pressing that she couldn't survey the scene with her investigative journalist hat (dusty as it was), Elena noted the unlit cigarette. He'd been there for a while now, although how long exactly remained to be seen. Shoulders squared as he leaned against the maw of a painted turtle, everything about his body langue said that he was agitated, tense, possibly even spilling into angry. And "Ella" was no where to be seen.

Cutting through the connecting silence like a machete through a stick of softened butter, the young woman may not have been visible, but a very female noise jarringly filled in that blank. Straining her ears to be absolutely certain that she heard what she thought she heard, Elena knitted her brow as she listened.

High-pitched and ragged, someone was really feeling themselves in a public place. Hotter sometimes when there was danger, from the panting it seemed like the end was nigh, born on the wings of the divine. Going harder from the sound of it, the juicy slosh that accompanied intercourse (or serious masturbation) was rising with the flood, everything getting faster and faster as the crescendo came. Devolving from prayer to swear, another murmur was picking up beneath the heady whimpers, breathing shallow.

Were there... two someones in there?

"Oh, God!" Familiar somehow, but that voice definitely didn't belong to their Ella.

Well that would definitely explain the look on her brother's mug.

Unsure exactly what she could even say (the fact that there were children at play in the vicinity coming to mind and yet being somewhat hypocritical), the blonde was spared having to try. Straightening out her person as she clomped out of the restroom in lifted wedges, Lily emerged right as Elena was opening her mouth to speak.

Recognizing the young woman as the girl that worked at one of the stores in town, Elena hadn't really spoken to Lily, but she had seemed her glued to her phone while on her shift. Most kids were, so it was hardly a crime. What might have been close to criminal was the way she smiled when she saw Sam. Sparing the man as second look as she fled the scene, it was almost as if she were trying to communicate with him, but something had been lost in translation. As for Elena, the dark-haired demigodess had glanced at the wife and mother only the once.

Sam shifted the limp cylinder from one side of his mouth to the other, watching the girl retreating for all of two paces before going back to staring at space, spine to the vertical like a good bodyguard that isn't paid to notice jack and shit.

Once more on the verge of committing to an action, the former reporter was rudely slammed in the shoulder as a red blur cut her off on the way to the toilet. Forget that there was already a cue forming outside this particular cubicle, and that on an empty day like today there were no shortages of others available - it was that there was no remorse whatsoever. Almost like the move had been calculated. Briskly rubbing the side of her arm, the blonde frowned at her in-law, mutely asking if he believed the nerve of that woman.

Great, just who they needed to join the fray.

Willing to bet big bucks that their bat-outta-hell had been skulking nearby on purpose, having known her for about twenty years give or take, yeah, he really could. Wen Bai was not a pleasant woman, no matter how you sliced it.

Inside the generically tiled lavatory, the bespectacled beauty lost any remaining respect she might have still had for her daughter. Having no interest in the tropical plants hanging from open rope nets, the woman's frozen gaze lingered on the shrubbery just long enough to identify the strands that had been pulled out of shape. Recently yanked down or not, one of which hung lower than the flat leaves within.

"Is making a mockery of our family all you know how to do?" Fingers clacking like alien talons as she squeezed her progeny's jaw between them, Bai sneered in her daughter's face without so much as a single pleasantry, "It wasn't enough to run around with the likes of that man? Now you have to go around spreading your legs for anyone that comes before you? I don't know what sickens me more."

Barely able to gather the first shard of her dignity from the checkered squares before Lily bailed, Daniella wasn't sure she had breathed once since their first kiss. Her mind hadn't danced it's merry way back to the family portrait in her mind, but why would it with someone that had no connection to the people in the painting?

Racked by something that wore the same terrible skin that guilt did, the young woman hadn't felt right about what she had done. Not the act itself, nor the emotional hoopla that came pre-attached. None of it, yet she'd powered through, determined to see this song through to the end. Dells never had caught the girl's name, and maybe that had been a part of it, but somehow, it seemed like there was more to it than that.

Maybe I'm not cut out for one-night stands with strangers... Or.... Perhaps the heiress was more than her body. Mind already erasing the evidence that someone else had snuck inside to play, it occurred to the young woman that it might not have been the sex but the person she was having it with.

Something she would have needed to do sooner or later anyways, it wasn't as if there was anything binding her to any particular individual. Recalling that hotel before they had came to the island, just after she had been recovered from the Tiger's clutches and before the bath that had torn her to actual pieces, there was a moment. Sam had been asleep, napping on a plain sofa with the television on, and she had just woken up. Terrified of her new surroundings, unsure who had gotten her dressed, and so many shades of unraveled, it had seemed like a good idea at the time to crawl into his arms.

Out like a light, she'd asked herself what harm could have come from it - turns out the answer was a lot. Sam had made it clear from the beginning that he wasn't opposed to fucking her, that he would be out of her life at the first possible convenience. Clear as day, everything had been laid out in the open; and yet the further down the rabbit hole she fell, the hazier that line had gotten to her. Somewhere along the lines... Somehow...

Tap gushing over the top of her thoughts, the heiress hadn't immediately realized that her mother was standing there in the mirror. Then she felt the claws cutting into the one part of her face that wasn't bandaged (yet). "Is making a mockery of our family all you know how to do?" So much for pleasantries. "It wasn't enough to run around with the likes of that man? Now you have to go around spreading your legs for anyone that comes before you? I don't know what sickens me more."

You know, when your own mother is calling you a slut, it's probably time you re-evaluate your priorities in life. Either that or you throw her own dirty laundry back in her face.

"Funny, I thought you would be proud that I'm upholding the family legacy." Flinching a thing she might have done prior to meeting the Devil, Daniella held her ground as she leered at the woman she used to call her mother.

"..." Meeting her daughter's combative gaze with no context and even less fear, Bai tapped her index along that battered little cheek, seeing if the gesture would distract or break the girl's resolve. A touch proud, the heiress held firm. "What gives you that idea? Better yet, who told you you could speak to your mother that way?"

Done with trying to bend to the living liar, it was harder to be finished with the deceased. "I know what you did behind my father's back." Had the nails not been blunted as much as they were, the points would have sunk into her skin and drew first blood. "All these years... Even now, the only thing I could ever admire about you was that you were faithful to the man you loved, but you weren't."

Hiss inhuman, the businesswoman's eyes took on a dangerous hue that was almost otherworldly, "How dare you!? You think your father was such a saint, but he wasn't... Rafe will always be the love of my life, but it was far from perfect. He grew bored just like anyone would, but I stayed loyal, even when he flaunted his affairs in front of me. I wasn't strong enough to stay faithful when all he gave me was silence. Loneliness." Too many bad memories, and only one ungrateful child that had lived passed infancy. "It may have been for my own good, but he locked me in a room for weeks at a time. Other times, I had to lock him out, or we'd beat each other black and blue. It was fun a first, but you don't want to fall in love with a hurricane - you'll be sorry if you do."

Wilting beneath the withering intensity of her mother's negative experiences, Daniella had to admit that she hadn't really stopped to put herself in her mother's shoes. But it made too much sense to question. "I never said I was on his side."

"You'd be a fool if you were. He probably would have smothered you a hundred different nights if I hadn't been there to protect you." Really, it was quite the miracle what all a locked door could accomplish. "It was probably only a matter of time... Rafe may have grown to tolerate you, but I promise you that if he had lived, you would know how cruel your father can be."

That was probably - sadly - true. But Daniella wasn't here to talk about her father, not right now. "There she is, the suit deflecting again. You've always been so good at that, it's no wonder how you've made it where you have today." Belly full of piss and vinegar, the heiress shoved her mother off so she could leave the bathroom. "You can justify it however you want to, but it doesn't change what you did."

Outside in the scant shade offered by the metal awning, neither Elena nor Sam made to move from their places; for Sam, it made sense to remain rooted in place, but Elena? The duo both knew that she was a little too nosy to just leave it be. Turned out that that was a good thing.

"Is making a mockery of our family all you know how to do?" Rushing straight to the accusations, it might have been difficult to overhear the exchange over the gentle gurgle of water in the backdrop, had the woman not been screaming. "It wasn't enough to run around with the likes of that man? Now you have to go around spreading your legs for anyone that comes before you? I don't know what sickens me more."

Full picture already more than an outline on the first page, the blonde glanced over at her brother-in-law. He seemed walled-off, like he was hiding something behind that unlit cigarette.

While Elena was proficient in several different Asian languages and dialects, Sam was not, so the last thing he understood was a very sassy, "Funny, I thought you would be proud that I'm upholding the family legacy."

Simpler to speak in the native tongue you were born into, Elena wasn't a hundred percent she knew the dialect Bai was leaning into, so she was glad that she wasn't expected to translate. If she had been, the blonde might have picked up that the daughter was being enlightened by her elder. She definitely caught Rafe's name, a comparative to the weather, and she was fairly certain she had heard the word for love being lobbed like grenades.

They all heard the resounding slap that echoed through both space and time.

Author's Note:

Because Marilyn Manson was one of my favorite artists when I was in high school, and "Wow" is a true masterpiece.

Also, having written a large chunk of the following chapter at the same time as this, there is a good chance that they'll be posted one right after another. Having said that, I'm no psychic, so that might not be the case.