Whatever responsible, commitment-to-duty, and honor traits normally landed within the eldest child, they'd skipped right over Vincent and landed on Anton, leaving Vincent as nothing more than a spoiled brat. Still, maybe it was because they were brothers or like-minded or both, but Vincent didn't seem to be as harsh with Anton and Anton somehow managed to baby his older brother without giving in to his sadistic need for control. If the circumstances were any different, it wouldalmostbe sweet.
Instead, they were two halves of a whole demon.
"Once dad has stepped down from his post, if you want to quit and leave, we won't stop you, but don't be mad at us if we kill you off," Anton hissed. "In the media I mean."
"I'm perfectly fine to hightail it as far from New York City as possible. I'll take on Lemaire and live perfectly happy being disassociated with the Narzand’s," I spat back. "You just tell me when I'm supposed to leave."
"On second thought, being rid of you for good does sound appealing," Vincent tacked on. "For once, we all agree on a plan."
Anton checked his watch as the limo started up the long drive to my father's estate. "In any event, nothing is changing today. You're still Lieutenant Governor," he pointed to Vincent, "I'm still Secretary of State, and you're still the governor's campaign manager," he stabbed his finger in my direction. "Not to mention, we're all Governor Curtis Narzand's children. We have to spend the next twelve hours pretending we're a loving, happy, unified family, and since it'sclearlygoing to take you two some time to get into character, why don't we all practice the virtue of silence?" Neither Vincent nor I responded, so Anton said, "Excellent," before silence fell over the limo.
Finally, the car came to a stop at the cul-de-sac drive around in front of my father’s estate. The front doors were already open, and his staff was standing there patiently waiting for him to come out, but he wasn’t there. All three of us watched out the window, knowing our father’s penchant for running behind schedule, not to mention getting drunk before major engagements, but just as Anton was about to get out to go after him, he came striding between the doors.
One staff member closed the doors behind him while another ran forward to open the door for him to get into the limo. He actually looked like he had his wits about him for once, at least as much as a man like Curtis Narzand could have.
“Good morning,” he said, casting Anton and I each a passing glance like we were his staff and not his children. “Vincent, can you pull out your notes from the Anker meeting yesterday. I was thinking about something he said regarding the tolls downtown, and I think I may have a better solution.”
“Of course,” Vincent replied, flicking through his tablet and handing the device over to my father.
“Hey,” I started, but Anton reached out and put a hand on my leg, almost like he was comforting me, but I knew that he wasn’t.
“Don’t forget that the tolls situation falls under Mayor Countenance’s jurisdiction as well,” he said, directing attention away from the concern I was about to raise. “If you’re going to change what you discussed yesterday, you’re going to need to loop her in.”
My father nodded. “Of course. Thank you, Anton.”
I glared over at Anton, but he just shook his head at me as if to say now wasn’t the time. How nice it must be for the three of them to not have an existence hinged upon the whims of one person. I didn’t think it was so unfair for me to demand answers, but apparently, that was too much to ask, so I planned to just keep my mouth shut for the rest of the day.
At least as long as I was outside of a camera’s lens.
We arrived at the children’s hospital for the first leg of our tour a little before the designated time. Though I planned to hop right out of the limo and go check in with the coordinators of the event, Vincent shoved himself in front of me so that he could climb out first. He took his initial smiles and waves to the camera and then held a hand back for me to grab. It felt like I was reaching my hand into sludge to grab it, but I played my role, letting him “help” me out of the limo before pulling me into a big, sideways hug.
The camera people that were already posted around the hospital’s entrance started going wild, cheering as they snapped tons of photos of Vince and me like we were your regular, old, big-bro/baby-sis combo.
“Vincent!” one of the journalists yelled out. “How is it having your little sister along for the ride now?”
“Are you kidding?” Vincent said with a huge smile, then he looked down at me with a warm expression that I knew was as fake as my nails. “This woman worked her behind off getting hermaster’sdegree in just two years! She graduated top of her class and fought harder than my brother, my father, and I combined to get here. She honestly inspires me to work harder every single day, which is truly the only downside. She’s my baby sis, but she often makes me feel like I need to be doing more.”
I smiled up at Vincent, pulling into another hug as if I were truly touched by his comments, and Anton and my father were out of the limo moments later. Vincent kept a hold on me as Anton moved to my other side and my dad stood behind me, setting a hand on my head.
“What about you, Avion?” a journalist called out. “What’s it like taking your seat in the family business?”
“I would say I’m the lucky one,” I said. “Between getting to work side-by-side withthesegoofballs,” I elbowed both Anton and Vincent, “and work for my dad,” I tossed him a warm smile, “who I truly believe is the best Governor New York has ever seen, it hardly feels like I have a job.”
Vincent rigidified next to me, but I kept my smile on, this time a truthful one. Throw jabs at me and I’ll throw jabs back. I may be the only non-politician among us, but I was still a Narzand. Being cutthroat was in our blood.
“If you’ll excuse us,” my father called out, “we have got some very important people to see!”
The cameras continued to flash as we walked into the children’s hospital.
“That was cute,” Vincent hissed next to me, under his breath enough that no one would catch it.
“Thanks, Big Bro,” I responded with as much snark as I could muster, “I thought so too.”
If there were master mechanics stuck working as cashiers at auto-part stores, and culinary artists flipping burgers at fast food joints, there are Oscar-worthy actors stuck pretending their family doesn't bring them immeasurable pain. It wasn’t even the harsh insults or blatant disregard that hurt me the most, it was the fact that when we had to spend full days pretending we loved one another, I actually wished it was that way. I couldn’t imagine how nice it must be to have a father that always liked to keep a protective hold over you or older brothers who thought the world of you and just wanted you to be successful.
The most my father and brothers cared about me was the fact that I had the feminine wiles that they didn’t sway their counterparts in their direction.
That was what our day was like. Turning it on and off all across the city of New York, posturing as the happy family the citizens of the state believed us to be. Tomorrow morning, the media would all be awash with pictures and kind words and I’d be forced to relive how awful my family was the second day in a row.
