his aunt played in the back of his mind the entire time telling him he had to do what she asked, and he’d done it. Now, he’d paid the price: he’d hurt her and she’d withdrawn from him. She’d come around, he hoped.
If not, he’d find a way to bring the wonder back to her eyes. That was the one thing that had hurt him the most when she’d stepped out of her car earlier. The wonder was gone. In its place was a dead stare, one that bore witness to a soul in torment. She felt like a commodity to be traded, and he couldn’t blame her for that. To protect her from his aunt, though, he had to do this.
He’d suspected his aunt was insane for a very long time, even if he’d never admit it to anyone, not even his mother. He barely admitted it to himself. This obsession with Ruby Hebert proved it. Now, her obsession had switched over to Marie and he couldn’t stand the idea of the young woman being hurt more than she already had been.
This wouldn’t get him through the day, he decided and left the office to change into a pair of slacks and a black shirt. Paired with soft, black leather loafers, he looked the part of a man with wealth and good taste, the image his aunt had taught him to always present to the world. He was a man with power, that could give and take life with a mere word, though he didn’t want to bring Marie into that part of his world. He hoped she’d never ask him about the more violent side of his life. He didn’t know how honestly he’d be able to answer her.
He wasn’t proud of all of the things he’d done in his life, but he’d had to prove himself to his aunt and to the people that served him. He’d had to be brutal on more than one occasion, and he’d do it again if he had to. That was the life that had been handed to him by Celeste.
He went out to the car, the car that Ruby hadn’t even been able to see because she was bedridden, and looked at it. It had been updated, sure, but it was still the same car that Marie’s parents had been in the day her father died. His uncle, by marriage, had died in this car and for a moment, he wondered if it was haunted.
He pushed that thought away with a shiver of disquiet. He didn’t want to think about that anymore. Instead, he started the car and drove out to the highway. A truck passed him by, and he gave the two-finger flick that seemed to be required from most drivers down in this part of the world.
Back home people avoided eye contact and giving a flick of the hand like that might be seen as a threat. You just didn’t do it. But down here, he’d caught on to the habit of returning the flicks that were a simple courtesy. It was a statement that could mean “I see you”, or “have a nice day”, he didn’t know but it was… nice.
He realized he felt different down here. Oh, he was still the same man his aunt sent to terrify a woman into paying an old debt, but he was also a tiny bit different now. He liked how relaxed people seemed, like they weren’t always on guard for threats, as if they didn’t worry about pickpockets and those that meant to do them harm.
He’d found a few things annoying, but even that annoyance was tempered by the charm of watching two women stand in the middle of an aisle discussing their children’s after-school activities. He’d learned that he might have to answer questions that would never cross the mind of people up north to ask. Like how he was. A lot of people asked him how he was doing today, and it was far more pleasant than he’d thought it would be.
He knew he’d miss that once he got back to New York, and that made him wonder how Marie would deal with it. Although, if he had his way, he’d keep her far too busy to worry about being homesick. She’d get used to living up there if he decided that’s where they would stay. And if his aunt did finally hand over the family business to him, he would keep them up there.
He drove to