Indian food?”
My belly growled, but Beck shook his head. “Not for me, I’ve been called in for a Delta meeting.” He looked as happy about that as I imagined.
Just then, my phone buzzed with a message, and I swiped the screen to check it.
Richard: Riley, would you be able to stop by the house this evening? Catherine is away in New York. I promise you won’t see her.
“Apparently I’m popping by the Delta compound for dinner with Richard,” I told everyone.
“I’ll drop you over,” Evan offered, “I need to go check on my mom anyway.”
We all split up into our respective vehicles and headed out of the academy parking lot. I wasn’t super chatty with Evan, but there was a lot weighing on my mind. What Delta was calling Beck in for, and even stronger, what Richard wanted to discuss that couldn’t be done with Catherine home. Whatever it was, surely couldn’t be good or he would have just called.
25
Walking back into the Deboise mansion felt ... weird. I’d only had my apartment for a week and a half and it was already a million times homier than this soulless estate.
“Hello?” I called out, hesitating in the foyer. I was still a stranger in this house, blood ties or not. “Richard? It’s Riley.”
I didn’t know why I announced myself like that. As if any other teen girl would be wandering into the Deboise manor uninvited.
My biological father—who I honestly knew about as well as Stewart, the butler—came through from another room and smiled broadly when he saw me.
“Riley,” he greeted me, “It’s so good to see you. I heard about the unpleasantness last week. Are you doing okay?”
His casual mention of my gang rape attempt had me taken back, and I stumbled over some kind of neutral response without really hearing what I was saying. But what the fuck? Richard knew about that and never reached out to me? Obviously he was my father by DNA only but still...
Then again, just because Catherine held his seat by proxy now, didn’t mean Richard wasn’t the true Delta member. Maybe I’d been giving him too much credit as a nice person.
“Are you hungry?” he asked, leading me through to the dining room, “Of course you are, you’re a teenager. I remember what Oscar was like at eighteen, he never seemed to be full.” He started to smile at the fond memory, then his face crumpled with grief.
Awkwardly, I sat down at the seat he indicated and cleared my throat. “I, um, went to see him the other day,” I said softly, not wanting to upset him any further. “I hope that’s okay. I just wanted to...” I shrugged “... I don’t really know. It just felt right to visit.”
Richard nodded. “He would have liked that. He would have liked you. I’m so sorry you never got the chance to know him.”
His words got me a bit choked up, and I needed to swallow the lump in my throat before I could respond. “Me too,” I whispered.
As if by unspoken agreement, we both rushed to change the subject to more neutral topics.
Throughout dinner, which Stew served, we remained on safe conversation. School assignments, sports teams, movies. It wasn’t until Stew had cleared our dessert bowls that Richard got to the point of why he’d asked me over.
“Riley, I know I’m not currently an acting member on Delta’s council,” Richard began, handing me a crystal cut glass of whiskey as we relocated to the sitting room. “But that’s by my own choice. After Oscar’s death, I didn’t feel like I was of a sound enough mind to handle the decisions and votes which are required of a Delta sitting council member.”
I snorted quietly with contempt. “But Catherine is?”
Richard’s lips tightened. “Catherine ...” He sighed heavily. “Catherine is a very smart, very calculating woman. When she sets her mind to something...” he trailed off again, then shook his head like he was saying too much. “Anyway, what I was saying, is that although I’ve allowed Catherine to proxy my position, I am still aware of everything going on. I was kept well informed of your mission with the other successors on the weekend, and given a full report on your success. I wanted to tell you how proud I was of you.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “For ... breaking into a senator’s office and stealing his illegal sex tape? Strange thing to be proud of your daughter for, but whatever.” That was mostly muttered