Chapter 24

I don't know whether nice people tend to grow roses or growing roses makes people nice. - Roland A. Browne Marcus Thorpe was never one to give up. No, not that easily. Had he been that kind of a person, he would never have made it to where he was right now. So what if his grandson's mother was a Domina? His influence would bring him results. Hadn't he worked his way out of the streets to become the sole heir of his father's household? There was nothing that a little coercing could not do. After all, if that woman wanted to protect her public image, then she would have no choice but to agree to his demands. He thought with a smile as he imagined the look of surprise or anger when the woman realized that she had just been cornered. "Damn that Lenita for refusing to help me with my plans. That ungrateful wench. When I have gone to all the trouble to arrange a favourable marriage for her! Now she thinks that she is too high and mighty even for her old man?" In time he would have to teach her lesson as well. That is, after he was done with dealing with his wayward son, he thought as he brought a cigar to his mouth and lit it up. That Maracheli would have to respect him now. After all, he was going to be known as the grandfather of a prince. He would make sure that the world knew that whether she paid him or not and he would use that to gain even more clout. Marcus was so busy reminiscing his plans that he did not notice that the garden door to his home had drifted wide open. One by one, the men that he had posted all over the compound began to drop down like flies on his security monitors even as two figures clad in black advanced in the dead of night. They stopped to bicker by his back door before one figure threw up its hands and opened the door to the house in haste. Suddenly the alarm went off. Marcus jumped back in surprise and yelled for his right-hand man, but no one came. As the alarm ceased and the house went back to being quiet, he reached out for a letter opener and backed up to a corner, wary of the door that was sure to open at any time. The second ticked by and just as he had expected, the sound of footsteps was head approaching his door. How did they even know the layout of his house? he looked around in a panic wishing that he had installed that panic room. Now, there was nowhere else to hide except beneath his desk but he refused to stoop that low even if it meant his end. After all, they would still find him. Why didn't I think to alert the police? He kicked himself for being so stupid, but then again, what if they found... His thoughts trailed off as his office door was kicked wide open and two figures emerged out from the darkness. "You won't get away with it! " he said from his place at the furthest corner, the letter opener held out to protect him nor that it would have done anything had they carried guns. "We won't?" a feminine voice said even as a black ski mask came off to reveal a round face with green eyes and brown hair. "What are you doing?" The man that was beside panicked but the woman appeared unconcerned. "Damn! This things are uncomfortable." "Why did I agree to take you along with me? Your sister is going to kill me" the other voice groaned and she turned to smile back at him sweetly. "Because I threatened-" "I know I know you don't have to repeat it! You devil woman!" "Why thank you." she grinned back even as her victims looked on with a look of terror in their eyes. "Whatever for?" the man questioned her warily. "For viewing me as a woman. " And not the twenty-year-old that I am. He could almost hear her think. She had just turned twenty just a few days ago and that was the other thing that she had used to snare him. True she was mischievous, sometimes childish and it terrified him to be anywhere near her, but that same zeal and danger were what was appealing to him. Maybe he was cursed for even thinking that Mishpa Kenton was a very attractive woman. "Anyway, It is impolite to converse with my nephew's so called grandfather with anything but an uncovered face." she added as she took a seat on one of the sofas that were present I'm the room. "Who are you people? " the man in the corner whimpered and she all but rolled her eyes. "Put that thing away. It makes feel like you want to impale me." "Like you want to impale - oh for heaven's sake don't act like you are not after my life? " "Why would I do that to a relative?" she said that with a mock surprised look, before taking out an envelope before placing it on Marcus's desk. "I believe you sent this. " Marcus stilled as he stared at his handwriting and the letter that he had gone to so much trouble just to compose. Why was it here? It should be on its way to her. He had made certain it would reach her, but how certain washed method? In his confidence, Marcus had overlooked a lot of things. A Phaedra was not anything like their leader and had he been truly from gentry or accustomed to following the proper procedures, then he would have understood that things did not work the same way in Veterum nor did just anyone have access to certain personalities. "No. You will not get away with it." he suddenly said as all the blood drained away from his face. Why had he not seen it coming? He had been so stupid! No! Reckless! "Get away with what? Assuming that you can threaten a Domina?" the woman countered quite fiercely and he felt a sudden change in her demeanor. "I... I... I didn't." "Oh you did. Now you are lucky that this didn't reach a certain some one's attention or otherwise... " What would he do now that he had found himself in this situation? He had to think fast otherwise, who knew what she would do to him. "You mean to tell me that the ruling families of Veterum are just a conglomeration of thugs?" he finally thought to say. They couldn't assassinate him. He would point it out in the hope that at least one of them had a conscience. "Why you! You dare threaten my sister and think that you can get away with it?" "Mishpa! Thats not why we are here." Mishpa, not Malisha. He managed a sigh of relief. "It is not?" "No. It's not. We are here to pass on a message." the man said as he walked over to Marcus and skillfully relieved him of his weapon. "Do not presume that you have any control over the Domina." he said as moved away from him. "Because of your position as his son's grandfather, he has overlooked your intentions, but he is still aware of all your mechanations. It is only the leniency that he feels towards his son's kin that has saved you this day." "My mechanations?" "Yes and all your illegal practices. Going on forward. Your conduct will determine how we will go on ahead with this. As for what your local authorities chose to do with you, that is all up to them." "Local authorities?" Marcus panicked. "That is rich coming from you who would kill just to gain passage to pass on a message. " "Oh you mean your goons who are blissfully slumbering off in your yard. I would never soil my hands with such despicable blood." "Mishpa! For a woman you are quite foul mouthed." "Forgive me your majesty. " she grinned and the young man started lamenting. "I don't know why I agreed to bring you along! " "Because..." She sweetly offered but he shut up as he began to pull her up to her feet. "Marcus Thorpe! Consider yourself warned!" with that he dragged out the woman leaving behind a shaken Marcus Thorpe and a fully sedated house in their wake. "Did you hear what happened to your father? " Mirena said as she lounged with her son and daughter-in-law for afternoon tea. "His properties have all been seized and I am afraid that it may affect your inheritance as well." Ryan's mother told him. "I do not need that man's blood money." "It's not all blood money you know. Some of it was my dowry, but I guess, that too must have been tainted by his shrewd way of doing business." "Mother... Will you be you okay? " Katrina reached out a hand to comfort her mother-in-law. "I will be fine. I talked to Lenita. She wants me to go over. " "You two ironed out that matter?" Ryan questioned thinking back to their last encounter and the things she had said to him. Back then, it had opened his eyes to a lot of things. Issues that he had been blind to when he had thought that the whole world was against him. "Not yet, but I am hopeful. I cannot imagine how much wrong I have done to you my children and yet, you remain so forgiving especially you two. Anyway, how is my grandchild doing? " she asked as she gazed at Katrina's belly meaningfully. "It's a girl. Ryan wants to name her Mandy but I am going with Sierra." "Why? Mandy is a perfectly good name." Ryan protested with a grin. Passing on the message that he saw through his wife's ruse and her underhanded way of using his mother to her advantage. "Yes... But I already agreed to your suggestion of using Dawn for a middle name, so this one will have to be my choice." "mum... " he turned the tables on her. "I am afraid Ryan. I cannot be of nay help you here. " she said with a laugh clearing enjoying their friendly bickering that had forever been absent from her marriage. Imagining Marcus behaving in this same manner made her laugh as it was simply asking for the impossible. Everything to him was a calculated move. Every smile, every emotion had all been meant to propel him to even greater heights in his quest for status and recognition. "How did you go about it, choosing the names for Ryan and Lenita? " "Both Marcus and I had M names. So, I did consider it. But I did love the name Lenita and had sworn to give it to my daughter. I guess after that, it was the similarities in the r's and l's that led me to choose his name." "Marcus did not factor in, in any of that?" "Hardly. He could have cared less what his children's names were. After all, he was too busy to even visit them. For him, I guess, they were just bargaining chips and a way to solidify my dowry as his own. "I don't get it." Katrina said with a frown and her mother-in-law smiled as she went into details. "My grandparents invested a great deal in my dowry, but there was a clause that my husband could only access it after furnishing them with several grandchildren and never divorced me. In a way it was meant to secure my future but unfortunately it attracted the hyenas as well. " "Mother... " "It's true." she said as she took a sip from her cup of tea. "Fortunately for both of us, Ryan here is nothing like that. You heard him. 'I will not have any of his blood money!'" she said as she mimicked his voice and Katrina burst out laughing. "Mother... " the man in question complained. "Am I lying? Do you have designs for your wife's properties?" "I am not sure I can even if I wanted to. The Maracheli's hereditary system is matriarchal so... " Ryan replied and Katrina nodded in agreement. "But like yours I only come into inheritance after being a mother. And after that I will pass it on to my daughter." "What happens if a boy is born?" "In the case of my father he still owns forty percent of the shares. The rest are held I'm trust until such a matriarch is found. It's a secret passed down through generations that even I did not know until just the other day. " "And as such it keeps the blood thirsty mongrels away? " "Exactly. " Katrina nodded her acquiescence. "What I don't get though is what made Marcus that way? He can't have been born that way. " "A hard life? But sometimes it is too much even though I tried to understand him. His ways are too ruthless. One cannot afford to go through life without change and in his case I mean positive change for he keeps on getting worse by the day. " "What really happened though?" It was Ryan's turn to ask as he thought about what his mother had told them. His father had a lot of influence and to think that the authorities would just up one day and seize his properties. He could not bring himself to believe that they had been investigating him and had only caught a break just then. "You won't believe this. " His mother said with a laugh. "Apparently he had a run in with ex girlfriend's sister." "Malisha is here?" Katrina panicked. "No. Her sister. I think she is twenty or something. She apparently wiped the floor with all his hired goons and knocked down everyone in the house with a sedative. Thankfully, I refused to live in that house." "Thankfully indeed." Ryan nodded his head thoughtfully. "So wait, this twenty year old did all that on her own?" A general's daughter. It made sense that she could be that good bit why send a twenty-year-old? What kind of a person was she that Malisha had no qualms sending out to deal with his father? He had to admit that it all showed how little he had known about her. He had dated her for months and still, she had managed to keep her background from him and he had not found it suspicious. "According to Marcus there was another man who delivered the message from the Phaedra. He was escorting her, but unlike her, he refused to show his face." A spy. Ryan concluded. Now that he thought about it, it reminded him of the times that he had felt like someone was watching him. Could it be that same person? What was he thinking? A monarchy like that of Veterum must have had many spies. The military as well, he thought thinking back to his encounter with a certain someone. "What did he do? " he finally thought to ask. There must be a reason why they had targeted his father. "I have no idea and he won't tell me. It terrifies me to think though what those people are capable of. " he told him and at that Katrina shuddered. "Do you think they will... " she asked worriedly. "No." Ryan reassured her. "You know better than I that Malisha is not like that. But still, her siblings are some serious angels of vengeance." "But don't you think it is strange? A twenty year old who is able to do all that?" Morena mused stirring her cup as she looked into it thoughtfully. "Do you think he fabricated it?" Ryan asked her. "He has done it before so..." Ryan nodded his head in agreement, but still, he was convinced that there was some truth in all those statements. Otherwise, how could they explain all those sedated goons? "I honestly don't know whether to be scared or relieved. I am worried though that after everything that happened with Malisha, she may decide to become vengeful. If not her, her husband will. The Phaedras of Veterum have never been known to be that forgiving." Katrina stated and Ryan shuddered thinking back to his encounter with Mishael. "I certainly hope so. Seeing what your father has suffered through, it would do no harm to remain vigilant." his mother added and as Ryan thought about it, he realized how terrified these two women must have been feeling. Was there a cause for alarm? No, he finally decided. He had peace in his heart and unlike before, he did not intend to go out looking for trouble. His son would come to him when the time was right. He had faith they would not remain separated forever. As for the Phaedra, he had had plenty of chances to deal with him, and yet, he had let him go Scot free. It was possible that, unlike the previous Phaedras, this present overlord possessed a heart and had a working conscience.