Authors: Christina Bell
“How much money is it?” Titania asked. Theo didn’t mind her asking. His brief training in the ways of the absurdly wealthy had taught him that it was tack
y to discuss sums of money. If Titania jumped in and asked, it meant he didn’t have to.
Miles didn’t hesitate before answering. “A life-altering amount. Enough that she would need to understand how to exist in the midst of great wealth in order to make sure that she didn’t succumb to foolishness. Now that I’ve spent some time with her, I know she’ll be fine. But, I’m sure you can understand my concerns regarding a teenage girl suddenly becoming rich.”
Theo did understand. The news was full of rich teenagers who had become rich and famous, but not smart enough not to end up in rehab or jail or both. Grace was far too sensible for this, but Miles had no way to know that until he got to know her much. “How much of this does Grace know?” he asked.
“Everything except the part about the trust fund. I thought that, as her father, you should know about that first,” Miles answered. “There’s one more thing.”
Theo almost laughed. His boss was his brother-in-law and his daughter was about to inherit a fortune. What else could there possibly be?
Gianni stepped forward and put her hand on Theo’s arm. “I’m sorry to throw all of this at you at once, but we decided it was time to tell you what happened. We’re getting married this weekend, and I don’t want any secrets.”
Now Theo was confused. “What does this have to do with you?” This was all becoming ludicrous.
“I’m kind of a poor relation of Miles and Emma, a cousin. When my mother married my father, she moved away from the Oberons, just like Emma. Maybe that’s why Miles took it so hard when Emma did the same thing.” She looked genuinely contrite. “I should have told you, but the longer I waited, the harder it became. Plus, if I told you part of the story, I would have to tell you everything, including Miles’ relationship to Emma and Grace. He really didn’t want to share any of this until Grace turned eighteen. I wanted to tell you before the wedding. It just turned into a mess.”
Theo saw Titania’s face turning pink and imagined that she was flushing with anger at hearing that yet another lie had been told. “If you’re angry on my behalf,” he said to her, “don’t be. I’m not as shocked as you might suppose.”
“It’s not that,” she said. “It’s just that I thought we were getting back to normal before yet another crop of lies popped up.”
Miles slipped an arm around her waist. “Listen to me,” he said. “I’m not hearing any lies this morning, only the dispensation of lies. How can that be bad?”
Titania looked at Miles. “You’re doing that thing you do where you make everything sound more noble than it is. I’ll let it go for now, for Theo’s sake, but no more lies. I won’t tolerate any more.”
Miles stood kissed her cheek quickly and laughed
. “Okay, I think it’s time to wake the children. Not that all this confession isn’t warming my heart, but we’ve got a lifetime to reflect on it all, considering that we’re now family.”
Theo looked at his boss, who was suddenly his brother-in-law, and felt only relief at having this conversation over. There was a lot to process, granted, but when it came down to it, he wasn’t going to change anything based on all of this new information. He just hoped there wasn’t anything else.
“Come with me,” Miles instructed. “Let’s have some fun messing with teenagers. They’re young. They’ll recover.”
Due to a bad combination of stress and physical discomfort, Grace didn’t sleep well. She tried to embrace the romantic elements of cuddling up with the boy of her dreams, but clinging to the edge of an overcrowded sofa wasn’t as heavenly as she imagined. Her uneasy sleep lifted moments before Miles, Titania, Theo, and Gianni walked into the room. She stood up quickly and stepped away from the sofa upon seeing her father. It was an unnecessary gesture. Theo hadn’t censured her behavior in years, but the childlike need to please her father wasn’t so easily left behind.
To her astonishment, it was Miles who addressed her.
“What is going on here, young lady?” he asked. Grace stared at him in shock for a moment, unable to process why he was questioning her. This entire situation was by his design. She began to stutter out an answer, but before she could form a single word, all four adults broke out in laughter.
“Oh, thank God,” she sighed and sank into an empty chair. Just as she thought she was off the hook, a rustling from the far end of the room reminded her that she had a lot of explaining to do to a lot of people and no way to predict how it would all go.
Ryder was the first to awaken. He looked around the room with a befuddled expression, his gaze almost instantly falling upon Chloe, who was only a couple feet away. Likewise, as the beautiful girl opened her eyes, the first person in her line of vision was Ryder.
“Good morning,” Chloe greeted Ryder quietly. She sat up and was rubbing the sleep from her eyes when Cameron, who was nearer to Grace, sat up with a start.
So, there they all were, the principal players. Some were lost, others, found, and some none the wiser. Grace hadn’t anticipated this scenario. Rather, she pictured private conversations with those who were truly of consequence to her. Each person needed a slightly different version of the bigger picture. Trying to debrief a mob could only lead to trouble. As she considered the depth of the hole she currently found herself in, she could feel all eyes on her, as if she alone held the answer.
To make matters worse, before she could utter a word, Puck slipped through the door behind the adults and, with a bit too much drama, exclaimed, “What the hell is all this?”
Grace shot him the most vicious look she could muster.
You son of a bitch
, she thought.
Don’t play stupid. You’re responsible for at least half of this madness.
Even though she had only met him briefly at dinner the prior evening, the account Miles gave of Puck’s contributions to what was easily the most bizarre evening of her life made her want to inflict pain on him. Yes, this might have all come about on its own, but according to Miles, it was Puck’s inability to follow directions that made it all come crashing down in one night.
Grace fixed her gaze on a small painting that hung high on the wall, one of many arranged in a patchwork of different-sized pieces. This one was right above Puck’s head, and Grace focused her attention on it until she could feel a burning in the space between her eyes, as if someone were rubbing two sticks together in that spot. The painting swiftly lifted itself from its hook and crashed on Puck’s head. His hand flew to his injured noggin and he scanned the room with a confused expression. Grace knew she was smiling too much by the way his expression changed in response to hers. Even if he didn’t realize that she was guilty, her clear delight at his suffering was enough to provoke him. In an instant, a large coffee table book jumped off the table and landed, corner down, on her foot.
“Ouch,” she yelped, her hands flying to massage her injured foot.
Damn you, Puck, that hurt
, she thought. There was no way a little painting hurt as much as the corner of a heavy book.
“Yeah,” Puck offered. “That’s gonna hurt for a minute.”
Clearly oblivious to the telepathic one-upsmanship that had just occurred, Ryder asked, “Grace? What’s going on?”
Grace grimaced and continued to hold her foot. “Give me a minute,” she muttered.
Before she could respond, Miles said, “Well, it seems like you’ve got things well in hand, Grace. I’m going to get on with my day.” He held his arm out to Titania. “Shall we?”
Titania grinned and took his arm. Before they could leave the room, Grace called after them, “Don’t you want to see how it turns out?”
Miles looked back. “I told you before. I’m finished with teenaged problems.” With that, he escorted his lovely wife from the room and abandoned Grace with a room full of confused people.
She looked around. Theo needed to hear about their family link to the Oberons. Ryder and Cam both needed a debrief, but she didn’t know how to approach it until she found out what they did and did not remember about last night. That only left Chloe, but deep down, Grace felt zero obligation toward the Upper East Side’s resident mean girl. “Theo,” she said. “I think I should explain some things to you.”
“It’s okay.” Theo stepped forward and pulled his daughter by the hand so that she stood before him, looking up into his gentle face. “Miles and Gia explained it all.”
Grace was suspicious. How much did Miles deem to be the whole thing at this juncture? “What did they tell you?”
“They explained that Emma was Miles’s sister and that Gianni is her cousin,” he answered. “He also told me that you’re going to come into some money, but we can talk about that later. Tend to your friends right now. Everyone seems a little tense.”
He took Gianni’s hand and they turned to leave, but before he got far, Gianni slipped her hand from his grasp and doubled back. “Maybe we can sit down and talk about some things soon?”
“Only if that means you’re going to stop being awful to me,” Grace answered.
To her surprise, Gianni seemed unaffected by the jab. “Let’s talk, but before we do, think about the last couple of years. Seriously look at how both of us behaved. I think you’ll find there’s room right smack in the middle for us to get along. There always was.” With that, Gianni joined Theo in exiting the room.
Until her father and Gianni walked past Puck, Grace had almost forgotten that he was in the room. She rushed over to him, grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him to the far side of the room. Glancing back, she saw that Chloe and Ryder were now on the same sofa. Chloe scooted herself an inch closer to Ryder, who tried to discretely scoot away from her. Cam hadn’t budged, but was now rubbing his temples as if to soothe a headache.
“What am I supposed to say to them? What do they remember?” she hissed at Puck.
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” he answered. “I haven’t even seen you since dinner last night.”
“Bullshit. Miles told me you’re the one who screwed up the plan. Now fix this.” She punched his arm for emphasis.
“One thing you need to know about me if you’re going to continue to hang around here. I don’t solve problems.”
“Well, I’m your cousin, so yeah, I’m going to be around.” Grace was thrilled by Puck’s response to this. As he processed the information, his proud smirk faded. As quickly as he appeared, he was gone from the room. Grace could hear him head down the hall, calling for Miles. Yes, she’d chased off the only person who could help her, but it was completely worth it.
She would have to start with Ryder. After so many years of friendship, she owed him that. “Cam, could you take Chloe out for a minute?” Chloe had nudged Ryder all the way to the far end of the sofa, trapping him against the arm. “I’ll talk to you next, but I really need a minute with Ryder.”
Cam just nodded and walked over to Chloe. “Let’s go get some coffee,” he said to her. “You can wait for Ryder in the kitchen while I go talk to my father.”
Chloe shook her head like an impudent toddler. “I’m not leaving Ryder,” she insisted. “I want to stay with him!”
At least she remembers his name
, Grace thought. She watched Cam practically drag Chloe from the room as she thrashed her arms and tried to dig her heels into the carpet. Frustrated, Cam grabbed her by the waist and hoisted her over her shoulder. Chloe continued to struggle, and Grace was relieved to have her gone.
I hope I didn’t make a mistake
.
Grace joined Ryder on the couch. His face showed sheer confusion, and she knew this was going to be a rough conversation, Nonetheless, it felt good to sit next to him. He was her oldest friend and hopefully would still be part of her life after this morning. “What do you remember about last night?” she asked.
“Not much,” he answered. “I know that we were in the park, but I’m not sure why.”
Grace nodded. “Yes, we were there.”
Ryder seemed nervous when he spoke again. “And in this strange way, I feel like I saw something I’ve been missing out on.” He paused a moment and smiled at Grace, his eyes bright. “It was amazing.”
Now Grace was the one who felt anxious. Where was he going with this? She knew what she needed to say, but instinct told her that he was about to mess that up.
As she sat there, listening, Ryder continued. “The problem is that it wasn’t you who I was in love with.”
“Who was it?”
“I’m not sure. I hope I remember soon.”
“Where does this leave us?”
“I think it leaves us exactly where you’ve been trying for weeks to tell me we already were. We don’t want to lose each other, but we both know there’s a lot to experience. We can’t do that if we settle for a romance that should have been a friendship.”
Grace thought she would fall over. He had given her, almost verbatim, the speech she had planned for him. It wasn’t entirely ludicrous since they spent so much time together that they often fell into the same speech patterns. Nonetheless, it was a sentiment that would have been odious to him yesterday, but that he seemed to have embraced this morning. Somehow, her decision to free him from all magic and take her chances with reality had paid off.