“Mabel, could you bring the children to the kitchen and get them a snack?”
The nanny nods, looking relieved. “Of course.”
After they leave the room, my sister looks away and takes a sip of her whiskey. “Roger and I are getting a divorce.”
“Oh…what prompted?—”
“A bastard. A bastard prompted it.”
People of our status are expected to cheat, and I’m sure my sister has had several of her own boy toys over the years, but it stops being fun with the humiliation of an illegitimate child. You become the butt of every joke, and inheritances get…messy.
Which is why my sister, no matter how slighted she feels, cannot divorce her husband.
“Maria, I understand you’re hurt, but you know what’s on the line.”
“Pride and inheritances.” She shrugs. “But who knows, maybe I can work something out if I can keep it from getting too volatile.”
“You know how Granddad feels about family.”
“A bastard crosses the line,” she says thickly.
“I understand, but Isabella’s line could get everything, and our line would diminish. Granddad won’t be around for much longer. Can’t you just wait it out?”
“As if you should be lecturing me about inheritance when you can’t even bring yourself to fuck your wife.”
“I fuck my wife just fine, thank you very much.”
“Really? Because Mom sent over the sluttiest lingerie I’ve ever seen to help your wife entice you.”
“I needed to make sure Ivy knew her place, so I kept away.”
“When are you going to move back to the family tower?”
“When Ivy is pregnant.”
“Don’t you think Grandad would be more generous if he saw you trying?”
“Should I send him a homemade porno?”
“Gross!”
“You asked for it,” I tease.
Maria licks her lips nervously, diverting her gaze from mine.
“Don’t divorce Roger,” I tell her. “Granddad doesn’t have long left, and it would be silly of you to believe he would be generous in his last days if you blow up your marriage.”
She snickers. “You really are clueless, aren’t you?”
“How so?”
“Do you really think Granddad is going anywhere?”
“He had a heart attack, Maria. They found cancer?—”
“Granddad is fine.”
“I visited him in the hospital.”
