Page 99 of Heartless Heathens
“Are you certain?” he asked, looking my way.
Despite my being clueless I knew better than to show my surprise and reveal the lack of communication between us. I nodded. Arlan scowled disapprovingly from my lack of words but the old man was too frail to scare me these days.
“You don’t seem surprised sir.” I pointed out.
“Claüde Frollo was my apprentice, before I married and long before my daughter Korina was born.”
“You didn’t think we deserved to know this before you sent us to him?” Sonny gritted out, clearly pissed but still well aware of his place in this house.
“The path wasn’t for him. He had too many doubts and after everything, I was right to take it away from him. He ran like a coward to God in the end. I just never expected he would take my daughter from me. How do you know for certain she’s a Black?” He ignored Sonny, prodding further.
“You may have tried to hide your daughter’s memory around here, but you still have a trace or two of the ghost of Korina Black haunting these halls. I saw her photos when I was young.” He pulled out his phone and shoved the picture of Romina in his face, a smile far too big that showed off her biggest weakness.
Her kindness.
The world had already eaten her alive, but she couldn’t stop going back, throwing scraps of herself over the cage as if feeding the beast was somehow more important than staying alive.
“Who else in this world had that silver and black hair like she did? Likeshedoes?” Sonny pulled the image back and it was the closest resemblance to some sort of emotion I’d ever seen on the old man’s face.
If Romina was Arlan Black’s granddaughter, what did that mean? And if Claüde Frollo had been Arlan’s apprentice, had we somehow ended up insects, stuck in a much bigger web than we could see?
“Telling, very much so. I’ll need more proof than that. Bring the girl here, If she is my granddaughter, I should like to meet her before I die.” He wheezed again, slapping on the table while he choked on his own lungs until one of the servants wheeled over his oxygen tank.
He strapped the mask to his face and turned up the output on the tank, inhaling a big draw of breath. I tapped my fingers on the table impatiently, side eyeing Sonny to find him far too calm while he sipped his tea.
He knew I was seething. Pissed as hell but far too damn proud to show Arlan that there was weakness in our bond. I’d let out my anger later, in private. Like our adoptive guardian had taught us.
“I don’t think so,” I told him, getting Sonny to pause his next sip of tea and turn his head in my direction just slightly.
He hid the faintest smile behind his teacup.
“Excuse me?” Arlan wheezed, his voice raising as he tried to remind me of who he still was.
“Here.” Sonny tossed a ziplock bag with a toothbrush inside of it, like he knew Arlan so well he could have predicted this outcome. “That has her DNA on it. You can find out if she’s really yours that way.”
“You won’t bring me my own granddaughter? Need I remind you I can andwilltake everything from you before I die?” His voice began to echo through his high ceilings.
“How can we be sure you won’t hurt her?” I asked him.
“Hurt her? How daft can you be, boy?” His fist slammed again but he winced in pain from his own weakness.
“Would you have raised her differently than us old man? She’s fragile, she’s good. You don’t deserve her, and I’ll keep her as far away from you as I can.” Sonny stood up angrily, not holding back his thoughts.
“I am making peace with the things I cannot change.” His face turned stony.
“Have you found God, Arlan?” Sonny barked out a laugh, sending a chill down my spine.
His fist slammed down on the table angrily, silverware clinking loudly against the china forcing us to bestow him with our attention and respect.
“Bring her to me and I’ll sign over your belongings to you so that you can leave that forsaken farce of a school.” He bartered, making Sonny’s eyes light up.
I didn’t give a fuck about the money anymore. Even if we lost it all, everything. I would have rather spent my days in a poorhouse as long as I spent them next to Romina. Exposing her to him didn’t feel right. I promised I’d protect her, at the end of the day Arlan Black was far more toxic than Claüde Frollo could have ever been.
Had she been granted a favor with her upbringing?
Who would she have grown up to be had she been raised as one of us?
Arlan was a grandfather to us, because he’d been a father to all of our mothers. Despite having lost his own daughter he took us in when all three of the daughters of Satan had been declared dead. But there was nothing familial or comforting about him.
