“I’m here to see my parents,” I said to Rosetta, who hummed a suspicious note, and opened the door wider.
“Your father is in the library and your mother, I believe, is in their bedroom. The shock of the past twenty-four hours has been hard on her.”
I felt a twinge of guilt at that. I hadn’t intended for this to go the way it did. But I wasn’t going to back down. I would have my inheritance and I would lead this family when Kaleb stepped down.
“Would you please get my mother? Tell her we’ll be in the library.” I grabbed Nikolai’s hand and led him through the house to the library. As I’d expected Kaleb was seated behind the desk, tapping away on his computer.
He looked up to see both of us entering the room. We hadn’t even shut the door by the time he was standing and opening his mouth, “Anastasia? Nikolai King, what is he doing back here?”
“We’re heading home.”
“Anastasia, you are home. What are you talking about?” As Kaleb spoke I caught my mother entering from the corner of my eye. She crossed the room and took a seat on the couch.
“No, we’re going back to Boston. I’m done here, I’m done playing your games. I’ll come back when you decide to retire.”
“Like hell do you think that you’ll still be taking over after all this!” Rachel burst out. Her perfectly polite demeanor was long gone, in its place was the head of the Varela family.
“Cassio’s dead, Marco’s as good as under my thumb, your son tried to kill me for money. Sorry guys, but I don’t think you have much choice.” I tried not to laugh but it was a truly sticky situation that they found themselves in.
“What do you mean Cassio’s dead?” Kaleb asked as Rachel tilted her head with piqued interest.
They were both sitting on the couch then, his tone was softer - less demanding. I knew that they would be close to relenting. They had no other options and like they’d said before I was ‘good business’.
I had them on the ropes, more or less.
“We killed him.” I looked back at Nikolai then, just for a split-second as I took notice of his presence in the room for the first time since the conversation began. He’d stayed suspiciously quiet, that wasn’t like Nikolai at all. Then again, he’d not known the true purpose of this visit.
I swung back around to face the Varelas, “he won’t be causing trouble for anyone ever again.”
They sat like gaping fish for a few seconds, I’d quite obviously shocked them. But their next response hadn’t been what I’d expected.
“And Ambrose? After all this, why would we choose you over him? He’s just as capable-”
“Bullshit. But you know what, go ahead. I’ll be there to pick up the pieces when he fucks it all up. And I’ll get to say I told you so.” I spread my hands, palms facing them, open to anything they had to say. When they said nothing, I took that as my cue to leave. “I also came by to say goodbye, you are my parents after all but it’s clear my efforts have been wasted. We’ll be on our way now, you have my number.”
There was a heavy silence between Nik and I as we exited the house and trekked down the driveway. It was broken by Rachel calling out and her rapid footsteps as she chased after us. We stopped and turned, I wanted to know what she wanted. She stopped in front of us, Kaleb stood on the porch, a stern expression on his face.
Well, fuck. This wasn’t gonna be good.
“We’re sorry,” Rachel huffed.
Hmm. Good, but maybe just not in the way that I had expected.
“You’re right, Anastasia. You’re right about it all, and we want to make it up to you.” There was an edge of panic, of pleading to her question.
“How about we start fresh?” I smiled because she was my mother and at the end of the day I wanted my parents in my life.
Rachel’s arms flung around me and held onto me tightly. I pulled away to see her eyes tearing up, “I’ll call you.”
As we walked away from the Varela house, I had a good feeling about this. I’d gotten what I’d wanted but maybe a little extra. I knew they’d have seen it my way eventually, but I was glad that it was now, and I was happy that I hadn’t been banished from their lives forever.
After all, they were my birth parents, I’d spent time getting to know them and while they were self-serving snobs, I had liked them.
It was nice to know that as we left, it wouldn’t be my last time here or my last time seeing them. I wanted the relationship that we’d been working so hard to build.
I kept my mouth shut as Anastasia hopped into the truck. I didn’t want to jinx it a second time by saying the words out loud, but they were all my mind could think. My body hummed with excitement at finally getting to go home, to bring my Ana back home with me.
“Let’s go home.” Anastasia flashed me a smirk before making herself comfortable. It wasn’t too bad a drive but sitting in the passenger seat was a whole other story. The hours tended to drag ridiculously when you had nothing to do.
My hands clutched the wheel and I started the engine. I was happy, I finally had Anastasia back in my grasp.
She fiddles with the radio, eventually settling on an old rock station. After settling back into her seat, she used my hoodie as a blanket and closed her eyes. I knew that it wouldn’t have taken her long to drift
