Arrogant Brit

Snapping to attention, I glanced over at the bedroom door. Dad was standing there, his eyes confused and his mouth agape. Worse still was that Sarah was standing behind him, holding her trembling hand over her lips.

“Guys, what the hell are you doing… here…?”

A terrifying realization dawned on me.

Clara is still here.

My eyes followed their gaze to her awakening form. Clara sleepily lifted her face from the pillow, looking over at our unexpected guests. A few seconds of groggy recollection later, it was as if a pail of freezing water had been thrown in her face.

“Dad? MOM?”

The two pairs of us were staring in horror at each other, processing what had just happened.

Holy shit, they found us in bed together.

My dear step-mum was the first to speak, mustering up just enough strength for a few damning syllables. “Clara… what the fuck?”

Clara realized that her chest was exposed, and ripped up the blanket to cover herself… and in the process, briefly revealing my own naked form.

“Good God!” Our parents cried out, exposed to the sight of my flaccid – but still intimidating – royal package. Without a moment’s thought, they slammed the door shut – putting a condemning barrier between themselves and us.

The damage was done, and I wasn’t going to cower away from this like some frightened animal. Instead of covering myself, I jumped out of bed and quickly tossed on a pair of boxers.

“Dalton… DALTON,” Clara whimpered, gazing up at me from beneath the covers.

“I’ll handle this,” I whispered.

She looked away, shrinking with horror as I pulled on a pair of jeans and a tee. I stepped out of the bedroom just in time to see the front door close. It didn’t escape my notice that my other guest, Pete, was wide-eyed in the kitchen.

“I’m sorry, dude, I recognized your Dad. He called and woke me up, saying that it was some kind of an emergency–”

“Not. Another. Goddamn. Word.” I hissed at him. “You have no idea what the fuck you’ve just done.” His mouth snapped shut as I darted out the door after my parents.

“Wait!” I called out after them.

Dad was holding the door open for Sarah, who was covering her face and ducking into the passenger seat. “I don’t know what the hell we just saw in there, son, but we’re leaving.”

“What the hell are you even doing here?” I demanded to know. “You just barge in and walk straight into my goddamn bedroom?”

“Maybe if you’d pick up your fucking phone,” Dad growled, holding his own up, “we could have avoided whatever the fuck is going on in there. I’ve been calling and texting you off-and-on for almost an hour!”

“Pete said you told him there was an emergency. What the hell is going on?”

Overlooking the present disaster, this wasn’t like my father. He looked like a bundle of nerves, and I suspected that started before he even pulled up to my place.

Dad pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s your grandparents,” he explained, leaning backwards against the hood of his car. “In their infinite wisdom, they’ve decided to come back into town. No warning, just a missed call and a voicemail in the middle of the night. They’re already here. We’re on our way to pick them up at the airport now.”

“Did they explain what they wanted?”

“How the fuck would I know? You remember what they were like during the wedding, they’re probably just here to lord over all of us again…”

I felt really bad all of a sudden.

Dad was clearly a wreck, especially after just witnessing what he probably considered incest between his only son and his single stepchild… and then heading straight into the lair of a pair of vicious dragons.

“I’ll grab my keys, I can be there in–”

“Stop,” he immediately commanded me, his voice booming. The look on his face was a mixture of crushing disappointment, absolute revulsion, and boiling anger. “Sarah and I are going to drive to the airport, without either of you, and we’re going to figure out what the fuck is going on. You two are going to stay away right now.”

“For how long?” I demanded.

“Until they’re gone. However long that takes,” he snarled. “The last thing I need right now is for them to get involved in… this.”

“I didn’t know she was Sarah’s!” I yelled. “I met her first, and I already fancied her. I couldn’t help falling for her, you don’t–”

“Falling – falling for her?” Dad laughed, trying to keep the hysteria out of his voice. “You stupid git, you were always fucking impulsive, weren’t you? Couldn’t just snog your sister, you had to shag her? We’re not talking about this right now. I am laughably ill-equipped for this bollocks,” he snarled, sliding around to the driver’s door.

“Dad, you’ve gotta listen to me –”

My father slammed another door between us, twisting the keys in the ignition. As I rounded to his side of the car, I realized that Sarah was crying into a tissue.

“Dad–”

The tires squealed as he wrenched the car backwards in an arc, flying down the road and around a corner. After a few seconds, he was out of sight and rumbling from what must have been one horrendous nightmare to another.

There was no point in trying to follow him, so I dejectedly stepped back inside and locked the door behind myself.

Clara was dressed in her clothes from last night, sitting at the dining table and staring blankly into space. The window was nearby, so she likely saw and heard every last syllable of that.

At a complete loss, I shrugged at her.

“So, that could have gone better.”

She glanced at me, all emotion stripped from her eyes. “Dalton, what the fuck are we going to do?”

Prepared to console her and offer some bulletproof plan to resolve everything, I parted my lips to speak. When nothing came, I realized that we were truly, honestly fucked.

Chapter 21

I was still reeling from the events of the morning when Mom called us, several hours later… putting into motion the events that would dictate the rest of our lives.

“Raleigh and Riana are here, and they wish to see the two of you,” Mom curtly told me over the phone. “You’d better get over here, quick.”

I informed Dalton of this, and we reluctantly walked to his motorcycle. We drove the hour-plus back to our parent’s house with hearts full of a violent concoction of anxiety, dread, and fear for the future.

When we arrived, William let us in at the door. Without a word, he led us past the kitchen, down the corridor, and to the large dining room table from the day we’d learned that our parents were dating.

Mom was seated on one side, and across from her were Dalton’s grandparents, the fierce Raleigh and Riana Carlyle.

“Greetings, Dalton,” Raleigh nodded slowly towards his grandson as we entered the room together.

He turned back to William, who was taking his seat next to Mom. Dalton and I took the two chairs in the center, leaving the empty chairs across from us.

“I see that we are all here now…” Raleigh continued. “Shall we dispense with the pleasantries and get straight to business?”

William half-scoffed, but didn’t say a word.

“Excellent. Well then, we are gathered here today because, as you may or may not know, my health has begun to suffer. This means that we must discuss the coming inheritance.”

He began to prattle on about some inane bullshit concerning rules, stipulations, and the dangers of family disgrace in the eyes of English high society. After a while of this, Mom and William – particularly Mom, though – were visibly uncomfortable… and even borderline aggravated.

“I’m sorry, is there a problem?” Raleigh finally asked, cutting a glance over at his son and

daughter-in-law. “Is something I’m saying disturbing or bothering you? This is rather important to the ongoing wealth, so if either of you find yourselves with some form of a problem…”

Mom pursed her lips furiously, but cast us a knowing, disgusted glance. William, on the other hand, simply sighed and remained quiet. It seemed that neither of them were willing to say a word about what they’d seen.

That’s why I was surprised when…