The Life - Rebirth (The Life 4)

Lyon got to his feet and headed for the door. “All of you with me, call ahead and tell them to get the plane ready we’re going to Alaska.” He walked down the hallway and back to the other side, where he’d left his parents. “Daniel, Elena, say your goodbyes. Eloise, we’ll be back; we think we may have found where Gia may be hiding. Don’t get your hopes up, I said maybe.” Colt, I gotta work on his people skills.

“Why can’t we stay here?” His mother waited for her cousin to leave the room to ask.

“I don’t know these people; you’re not staying until I do.”

“Oh, Colton, don’t be so….”

“Give it up, Elena. You know the boy would throw a fit if we don’t let him have his way.”

“And whose fault is that I ask you? Who was it that said let him make his own decisions?”

“Ma and Pa Barker, pick that shit up later; let’s go.” Well, I guess if he speaks to his parents that way, there’s no hope of him changing how he speaks to us lesser beings.

GABRIEL

I didn’t hear the news about Felice’s passing until I left the hotel and went back to the palazzo. I still couldn’t get over the fact that Pop was here, that he was no longer fighting me on this, though I think his presence is a two-edged sword. I’m sure that though he says he’s given up fighting me on this that there’s some underlying purpose going on that I can’t see clearly yet.

Sal was looking even more beleaguered than he had this morning, and the house was a whole lot fuller than it was then too. Everyone had gathered to commemorate and commiserate with each other over the dead woman. “I’m sorry niputi, that you had to be here for this. I will understand if you want to take dinner in your rooms, but it would do me a great honor if you should stay.”

“If you want me to, I will.” He clung to my side all evening, introducing me as his grandson, and the proof that he held such power over everyone else in the room was evident by the mere fact that no one asked how I came to be. They simply accepted his word that I was Alonzo’s son and his eldest grandchild.”

I’m not sure why he was going so hard to let his friends know that at this point in time, but I had the feeling it had something to do with him planning to thrust me upon his business acquaintances in some kind of bid to introduce me to his world and have them accept me. I would’ve felt sorry for Jr. and the sour puss face he wore all evening if he hadn’t been steadily turning into his father.

Natalia was no longer the staring girl of a few months ago; in fact, she looked like she too had aged. She was gaunt and withdrawn and way more skittish than she had been the last time I saw her. Something about the way she was acting made me uneasy in an odd sort of way, and for a split second, I pictured her as one of the twins, or more, like a sister that I’d grown up with and loved.

It's odd, but though I hate Alonzo, I think it was at that moment that I came to realize that his children are indeed my blood. They’re kids! Not necessarily bad, just very poor upbringings. Jr. was a screwup, yes, but he wasn’t yet past redemption. Without his father’s influence, who could he become?

As for Natalia, I promised myself to look into it more. Someone who had been so intrigued with becoming the next supermodel would not have let herself go like that in such a short space of time. At her age, her brain should still be filled with self-absorption and impossible dreams, especially when it comes to societal matters. She seemed bothered and out of sorts. It wasn’t drugs, not of the illegal kind anyway, she didn’t have the twitchiness that comes from substance withdrawal, but I couldn’t rule out her being on something.

As for Martin, I couldn’t quite get a read on him. He seemed to want to be anywhere but here. Probably had a body or some old relic to dig up in the desert that he needed to get back to. He has the look of an absentminded professor about him. No wonder Sal never considered him in the running to take over. Apart from the patriarchal system of the firstborn son inheriting everything, he was just not the right fit.

By the time we called it a night, I was ready to retire to my rooms. Sal had just told me that this could go on for a week or more, which is something I’m familiar with. I bit my tongue and approached Alonzo to offer my condolences in the room full of people who were pretending not to be watching. Sal had his proud nannu look on as he clapped me on the shoulder before I begged off, citing the long flight I’d taken only that morning.