Chapter 8: Zeke

After the girls left, I was still eating at the table with my friends. X and I were messing around and Theo and Derek was still engulfing everything their eyes laid eyes on. I sat back in my chair because I could not eat another bite.

"Oh my God. Marcella, you need to quit your job at your company and cook for me full time!" I say and Will just laughs.

"Well, I'll take that as 'Marcella, I love your cooking'. Thank you Zeke. You know, don't you guys have to go to work and save the city or something?" Marcella asks shoving a waffle into her mouth.

"You guys know that I'm just a senator not batman, right?" I ask and they all laugh. I stand up and move over to Lucas. "Bud, your mom told you that you have to do your project today right?"

"Um, if I say no, does it mean I don't have to do it?" Lucas asks and he laughs at his own joke. I love that about him. He got that from Devina because she does that all the time. I raise my eyebrow and he smiles at me. "Yeah mom told me, I'll do it today. Do you know where mom keeps the pictures of her family? I don't see any around here."

"That's because your aunt and uncle are a bunch of jackasses that break cameras with their ugliness and bitchiness." Xavier says and the entire room erupts into laughter.

"Why does mom hate her siblings so much?" Lucas asks me and then the entire room falls silent. He looks at me with the big brown eyes that look exactly like D's.

"It's because your aunt and uncle didn't approve of your mom's choices. You know your mom, if she doesn't like it, she won't allow it into her life." He nods in understanding and the room all looks at me. "So, you'll find those pictures in your mom's study in the cabinet beside the bar."

"Thanks Dad." He says and I kissed the top of his head. "Do you have to go to work today? I mean, you can help me with my project."

"I can't bud, I'm sorry. But I can come home early today and I'll make sure your mom does too. We are having dinner with your aunt and your uncle tonight." I say and I hear forks drop and I can feel the stares on my and I can smell the awe.

"What are you doing tonight?" Josephine asks as everyone else still in shock, stares at me. "Why would you do something like that?"

"Those people ruined D's life, and yours and Lucas'!" Xavier yelled at me. He above all people knows how hard losing her family was. I know that is he got the chance; he would kill every single one of them.

"Devina and I are giving them a chance because Max wants to do something huge. It effects my life and D's life and everyone's life." I say

"This sure as hell wasn't Devina's idea and Devina would only do this if you thought it was a good idea. Who talked you into this?" Theo asked me looking me dead into the eye. He knows me too well. Everyone in this room knows me and D too well.

"I thought your wife was supposed to be the psychologist. Don't try to psychoanalyze me." I say to him and then turn to Lucas. He seemed to be very confused with this conversation." Lucas, can you go to your room. We adults need to talk about this alone."

"Dad, I'm going to be eleven in like three weeks." He attempts to put up a fight.

"Come on Lucas. But I promise that before we leave, we will do something that your mom will never let us do. We haven't done this since college." Derek says and winks at me.

"Do what Uncle Eric?" Lucas said while standing up.

"We're going go cart racing!" Eric yells and Theo and X get all excited. Lucas' face brightens up and walks up the stairs. I wait until I hear the door close until we resume our conversation.

"So, I need to tell you all something big and you cant tell anyone." I say and they all roll their eyes. "Why did you all just roll your eyes?"

"Maybe it's because we have been keeping the governors secret for over eleven years!" Josephine said sarcastically. Normally that's Marcella's forte, I guess their changing personalities today.

"That's my girl, being all sarcastic." Xavier says. "Wait, aren't you having lunch with our family today?"

"Yeah, and we're having dinner at the plaza. Good thing too because we're most likely not going to be eating at dinner, rather we're going to be yelling." I say and they all laugh. "It's at mom and dad's place right?"

"Yeah, at 12. You told D right? Mom has been planning this for a week and she's gonna kill you if you try to cancel." Josephine said. She and my mom have always gotten along. Actually my mother, Madeline, Josephine and Devina can get the men in my family to do almost anything.

"So, it's just us close family right?" I inquire.

"Yeah, Madeline called an emergency family meeting about something important." Xavier said. "Well, what's this thing about Max that is super top secret?"

"Well…" I say and look at all of them. I have their full attention and I kinda don't want it. I hate the attention being on myself when it has to do with gossip. With my track record of being apart of the biggest cover up that the Kingston family has ever pulled off, I thought that the drama would end there. Wouldn't that be enough secrets to last a lifetime? "Max is running for the presidency." I say and they all drop their forks in awe. No one says anything, they just stare at me hoping I show the slightest sign that I was joking, but unfortunately, I'm not.

I'm in a way happy that they are speechless. I know for a fact that they are all trying to figure out how this will affect Lucas. I'm really touched that they all love him like a son. However, I am also on their side in the way on how to keep Lucas out of the public eye.

"Does Max not care that this will affect Lucas in every possible way?!" Theo finally yells and the rest of them nod.

"It's bad enough that he isn't apart of Devina's life as much as a father is supposed to be and he ran away from his responsibilities with Lucas!" Derek yelled.

"You weren't there when she was drinking two bottles of tequila crying about whether or not she would be a good mother." Marcella said.

"You guys weren't there when Madeline and I were all in the kitchen when mom was saying how amazing she was for taking on that responsibility." Josephine says and she smiles.

"You know, maybe this is a good thing." Xavier says and we all look at him. "We all discussed this last night, but you said that he was running for something important. You never specified anything. Being president will take him away, and if you think about it, so will the drama."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Will asked what we were all thinking.

"Max has caused all of this. Obviously not Lorelei's passing, but every drama situation that has had huge implications on yours and D's life and not to mention Lucas' life. Everything has been caused by him. You relationship with Devina…"

"We would've been where we are now, even if Lorelei didn't die." I protest. It's a soft subject for me, but there has always been a part of me that wonders if Devina and I would still be together if we didn't adopt Lucas. "I love Devina and I would still be with her even if we were under different circumstances."

"I don't think he implied that Zeke." Josephine said after Xavier just realized what that statement also meant. "He just means that regardless on you original love for Devina; it grew with Max's interference."

"Yes, I didn't mean it in the way that you wouldn't love her if you didn't have Lucas." Xavier said and I understood. I know that he knows that I love Devina just for being Devina.

"For once, X is making sense. I mean, Max did cause all of this. The life you have now, even though it's great, wouldn't be the life you would have had if he would've accepted his responsibilities."

"but that's not the issue here. Max brought the siblings from hell back to New York to show that even though he is a widow, he has a strong family behind him." I say and they all looked a combination of shocked and angry.

"You can't be fucking serious." Marcella said and she just rolled her eyes. "He has some nerve."

"What the hell does he think he's doing? He's making D form one lie after another. He is causing her more and more pain. Why doesn't she see that?" Theo asked. "She is one of the most intelligent and bad ass person I know. Why is she letting him walk all over her like this?"

"I don't think she's going to. I want to go to this dinner thing because she needs to get rid of all this anger she has built up inside. She needs that. I however will not let them take advantage of her again. They got a free pass once, they are not getting another." I say and put my fist down.

"I think you should take Lucas now. He's been in his room for like thirty minutes now." Josephine points out. "We'll be here to make sure everything is in order for when Devina comes home."

"Okay. But then I have to go to a meeting at 10, then I'll come straight home." I say and they nod.

"We'll be here. I'm not scheduled today so I can stay with the girls and Lucas." Derek said

"I took the day off. Plus they'll call me if they need to tell me anything important." Xavier says and I nod.

"Well, I'll get Lucas. Why don't you guys get your stuff together?" I said as I started walking up the stairs. I notice more and more of the pictures that Devina put up about our life. I see something that I haven't seen before. It's a picture of Devina and I at campus. I remember this day. It was before we had Lucas. We were at the park on campus cramming for mid-terms. She had her hair up in a messy ponytail and was wearing a Delta Beta Theta shirt and sweats and I was wearing my tri-beta shirt. I think Xavier took it, he's really into photography. He minored in photography along with his major in business management. I know he sometimes wished that he perused that field but it was more important to him to help people in third world countries and take on the family business. It was his dream.

I finally got to his door and I knocked. I could hear the guns and the screams from his video game from outside his door. I opened the door and he was on his game chair I guess with his head set thing on.

"Lucas?" I said knocking again. I looked at him, but his eyes never left the television. It was like he was in a trance that he couldn't break out of. I walked to the wall plug and unplugged the electrical cord. He looked so shocked, and then he looked at me.

"DAD!" he yelled at me. "I was just about to beat mom's kill ratio." We take this game very seriously in our house. Devina obviously has the high score and everyone is trying to beat it. I haven't won against her since college when I first introduced her to the video game world.

"Come on bud, let's go." I said with a big smile on my face. Lucas unwillingly got out of his game chair and I noticed the way he was dressed. It's nothing like what Devina and I wear on our daily basis. He looks the way I did when I was in college. Casual jeans and a regular t-shirt.

"What?" Lucas said as he noticed I was staring at him. I smiled and he looked at me funny. "You're so weird dad."

"Well we need to go before I have to meet your Uncle Bradley." I say and we both make our way down the stairs. We meet the guys at the main floor. "Jelly and Marcella aren't coming?"

"No." Xavier replied as he handed me my jacket and briefcase. "They said something about organizing the backyard."

"Yeah, they said that they wanted to fix Devina's roses or something like that." Will said as he opened the door. We all filed out and headed towards Xavier's car. I got in the passengers seat while everyone else adjusted themselves into the back seat. Xavier began driving.

"You know, you might want to think about getting yourself a car." Will said as he clasped my shoulder.

"I don't know. Devina always had this thing where it's not what normal families do. I mean, she is always going on about how we aren't a normal family."

"You know most families don't have a father who's a senator and a mother that isn't a shark. Normal families aren't on the cover of newspapers every week." Eric said as the rest of the car laughed.

"Normal is boring. I wouldn't change the life you and mom have given me." Lucas said and I looked at Xavier. He nods at me and I just smile. "I mean, why does mom want to be normal?"

"It goes back to about five months before you were born. When your grandma and your uncle died." I say and look back at him. "Your mom's life changed completely that day and she just wanted her life to go back to the way it was before the accident."

"Is that why mom doesn't want to have a maid and she tries to force us to do normal people things?" Lucas asked.

"Are you kidding? She's like replicating her childhood for you. I've known your mom all her life and I remember when we were playing outside one time and she had to do chores." Xavier said and I remember that day.

"How was Devina as a child? Is she different now?" Eric asked and I grinned.

"No, she was worse back then." I said and they all laughed. We finally pulled into the parking lot of the go cart racing place called "Race your cart off". I've been going here since X and I were little kids.

"Okay Lucas. Your Grandpa Kyle and X have been going here since I was 7. It's really cool." I say as he jumps out of Xavier's 2014 jeep. We all walk to the entrance and we're immediately greeted by the owner Howard Beaver.

"Well, look who the devil let out of hell." Howard said to me as he stepped behind the counter and gave me a hug; he high fived X and waved to Theo, Eric and Will. "I believe that the last time you were here, you were only five."

"I've been here before?" Lucas asked him.

"Yes you have, your mother rode with you on her lap, even though I begged her not to do it, but who can talk D out of doing something that she wants to do?" Howard asked and we all laughed.

"Well, I need to blow off some steam and everyone here is joining me." I said as I gestured towards everyone. "Can we all race each other?"

"Slow morning. Yeah, you know where the gear is right?" Howard asked and I nod. Xavier is already on his way to getting a helmet and picking a car and taking everyone with him. I walk with Howard and he sits down at a bench. "Why do you need to blow off steam? Is it the wedding? Sherri is really excited about it, and so am I."

"Sherri as in my ex-girlfriend? She's invited?" I ask very confused. Devina never really took a liking to Sherri, even when we were teenagers. Devina and I got together when she was a freshman in college. Sherri was my high school girlfriend.

"Devina invited the entire family. Yes, my daughter included. Zeke, she's already married to someone else, you don't have to worry about her objecting at your wedding." Howard said. "What's wrong?"

"I have to have dinner with her family." I said and slumped my shoulders.

"The family from hell? Why?"

"The in-laws sent by Lucifer himself came back to New York per request of the son of a bitch who leaves his own son." I said and Howard let out a sigh. "It was actually my idea to go to the dinner."

"Why in the hell would you suggest something so stupid?" Howard asked.

"Devina has all these emotions stuck inside of her that she has been holding for eleven years. I think it's time for the people who caused her pain to hear her." I said and Howard nodded in agreement. "On the plus side, I'm having lunch with my family. Devina is always in a good mood when we leave my parent's house."

"Well, the Parker Estate is something that can brighten anyone's mood. The company is even better." Howard said and I smiled. Our families are really close. It is a gift really because I love how Howard and his wife Mary can bring light to any situation. They don't come from money, but that's what I love about my parents, they don't judge. They are the parents Devina and I model ourselves after, even with a little bit of Lorelei and a smidge of max pre-accident.

"Come on dad!" Lucas yelled and I nodded.

"Alright, I have enough time for one ride, and then I have to get to work." I said and I looked at Howard. "Howard thanks for always being there." I said and he nodded. I gave him a quick hug and went off to the guys. I took the keys to car number seven, because that's the one Devina always uses. I took off my jacket and my tie. I took out my phone and called Arthur to tell him to pick me up in twenty minutes. I started to walk to the cart when I saw that I got a text from Bradley.

Bradley Kane: Can't make today's meeting. Melissa has a parent-teacher conference. Can we do the meeting tomorrow at 10?

Zeke Pendrad: Absolutely. Works out better for me. Not coming into the office today either. See you tomorrow.

I look up from my phone and everyone is looking at me. Probably praying that I would walk faster than the old Asian pace I was going now. "Hold on, I don't have to go into the office today. I just have to text Noelle." I said which brought joy to Lucas' face. I texted Noelle that I wasn't coming in and that she could leave at her leisure. I put down my phone and walked to the car.

"So, I don't have to go to the meeting today, so I'm free for the day." I say and I put on my helmet. Howard stepped to the side of the track and looked at all of us.

"Alright, is everyone ready?" Howard asked and I started the car. I nodded as I put my helmet on. I look at Lucas and his smile is so big when he looks at me. I nod at him and I move my cart to the starting line. We all line up and Howard waves the green flag and we all start racing.

Hi guys! Thanks for reading this story. Don't forget to Review, Follow and favorite. You're all amazing and I hope your lives aren't as messed up as Devina's.