Okay, to lazy to write this into the chapter so, this is the seating at the dinner table. Heads of table: Talia, her husband. One side of table: (next to Talia) Rhade, Beka, Raif (next to husband).
Not sure how old Raif is, so I'm going to pretend that he's three years older then Beka.
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Rhade stared at the vision before him as all the air in his lungs was sucked out.
She was beautiful.
Swallowing, he tried to make words come out of his mouth but was unable to. Luckily, she didn't appear notice as she walked toward him, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.
"That bad?" she asked nervously. She had exited the room only to have Rhade gawk at her. She thought that she looked wonderful. Guess not.
"No! No, no. You look gorgeous." He managed to stumble out. The last almost whispered as she stopped before him. "Beka, there's something I want to tell you. I- "
'Knock, knock, knock.'
Rhade glared at the door.
Beka slipped past him and opened it, her face filled with shock.
"Well aren't you stunning, Valentine Smart."
"Wish I could say the same."
"So, heard you had a date. Trying to give her a heart attack already. What are you going to do, straddle him at the table, feed each other and, makeout?"
"Well there's an idea I hadn't thought of yet."
Rhade strode over to door, liking this new person because A. he didn't seem to be interested in Beka. B. the idea he just gave to Beka. And C. she didn't entirely shut the idea down.
"Holy crap he's an uber."
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The three walked to dinner. Raif and Rhade already properly introduced. They entered to dining hall to find Beka's mother already inside and seated. When they entered she looked up and smiled, hesitantly. "Welcome. Err, Rhade was it? Why don't you come sit next to me? Beka, you can sit next to him. And Raif, you can sit next to your sister." She smiled at them, brightly this time.
Rhade merely nodded and pulled Beka's chair out for her, before sitting down himself, hands folded in his lap. He sat straight in the chair, watching Beka out of the corner of his eye. Beka sat in the chair that Rhade pulled out for her, looking at the table as he pushed her chair back in, refusing to look at the woman who gave birth to her.
Raif smiled at his mother and plopped down into the chair. Sure he hated the woman, she had messed up his dad, his sister, his life. But maybe now he could finally get something out of her. Guilt made people do a lot of things, maybe she would give them some money or something, she seemed pretty well off. And she definitely owed them. They grew up poor and with a dad who beat him while here she was living it up. Oh yeah, she definitely owed them, and the explanation had better be good.
Besides, he heard her husband didn't like neitzscheans. So this oughtta be fun.
"So, Rhade, what do you do?"
"Don't talk to him."
Talia's smile faltered at the hate in Beka's voice. "I was merely wondering how you two met?" She said, her smile coming back.
"Well maybe if you had been a real mother you would know." Beka replied, looking at her for the first time, pure anger raging in her eyes.
This time when her smile faded she didn't bother to try smiling again.
Rhade reached over and grabbed Beka's hand, squeezing it. She looked at him, and smiled gratefully. She didn't know what she would do if she were here alone. Actually, she probably would have bailed by now. It was nice to know that someone was there for her. Plus she had Raif, she who was happy to see again. And it only made sense that Raif would be here as well. The witch probably wanted to give the same lie to them, make sure she tells them both the same thing incase they met up and talked later. Plus Beka's position on the Andromeda gave her credibility. If she said who her mother was, the family loving Senator, it could destroy Talia's career that she abandoned a husband and two children. Cover all her bases.
She squeezed Rhade's hand back, not letting go.
A man walked into the room and sat down opposite Talia. He was an older man, with graying brown hair. He unfolded the cloth napkin and put it on his lap. Moved his glass a bit to the left. And put his silverware in straight lines. Not noticing three sets of eyes following this. Finally, he looked up.
"Yes, well, hello it's lovely to met all of you. I thought you said there were only two Talia dear?"
"This one," she said gesturing to Rhade with her hand, "is here with Beka."
"Right. And you are again?"
"Raif."
"Right, right, right, yes, I remember now. I'm sorry; you'll have to excuse me. You see I didn't even know of your existence until about a month or so ago. So things like names tend to slip my mind. After all, it is a lot to take in when your wife tells you that she had a family before you and just never thought it was necessary to tell you."
Raif stared at him and calmly said, "It's a lot to take in when you're 10 years old and your father tells you that your mother doesn't want you anymore. And you have to console and take care of your 7-year-old sister and try to convince her that it's not her fault that her mommy left, when secretly you're blaming yourself. And then your dad starts doing flash because his heart was broken and he can't handle it. And then he starts to beat you and all the time you're trying to hide it from your little sister and protect her from him. And she's convinced that he's the greatest person ever and you want to shake her and tell her he's worthless, but you can't because she clings to him because she's afraid he'll leave her too. And you see her grow up and you watch the boys she's interested in. And you see her lose her childhood even when you gave up yours to try to let he keep hers. And you see her heart break and her grow without a woman to teach her. And when you can finally escape your flash fired violent dad, she won't come with you. And you see the pain at you leaving her, but you can't take staying any longer because if you do it will kill you. But you're scared that if you leave he will kill her. Maybe not physically, but on the inside. She stays and cares for him even though he was worth shit all because some woman decided that she didn't want your family or your life anymore. She upgraded to a better one."
Beka smiled, she loved her brother.
