I narrowed my eyes at Max. "She's lying, isn't she?"

He didn't reply.

My eyes widened.

Annie murmured to me, "We can discuss this elsewhere, but not right now."

Miss Hanako waved her hand dismissively. "Yes, please digest this news somewhere else. Thankfully, you're from that man whore's side of the family, not mine."

Annie gasped. "Mother!"

I stammered, "I-I have an uncle?"

Miss Hanako replied, "Had an uncle. Unfortunately, karma got the best of him."

Annie exclaimed, "Karma in the form of his 'loving' wife, who had him assassinated!"

After taking a short sip of her wine, Miss Hanako replied, "Well, you can say that karma used me as its instrument."

Annie's nose crinkled. "How can you talk so coldly about this issue? It's because of you that Max and I were fatherless at the age of thirteen!"

"Oh please, like your father was ever there for you before then! I seem to recall that he always seemed to be much too busy sleeping around with other women to care about his family!"

Pairs of eyes glanced at us following Miss Hanako's outburst.

Shortly after, Miss Hanako fixed a stoic look onto her face. "I once hoped that you would have grown up to understand my reasons behind my actions. After all, your brother does. But clearly, you're far from doing that. It seems you're just a teenager in a grown woman's body. Now, leave me. I have more important things to attend to than your whining."

Annie's mouth dropped open, but no words came out of it.

Max said, "Mother-"

Miss Hanako turned her sharp gaze to him. "Maximillian, don't even bother trying to defend her."

Max fell silent.

Miss Hanako turned her attention back to her wine.

After a few moments of silence, Max placed his hand on Annie's shoulder, steering her away. "Come on, Ann. We have other people to attend to."

Looking back, Annie glared at Miss Hanako. "You might ignore me, but even you can't ignore the fact that you're a terrible woman!"

Without looking her way, Miss Hanako replied, "That's nice, dear. I don't expect you to have the maturity to appreciate everything I've done for you."

. . .

Much to my surprise, Annie didn't say anything. As I walked behind her and Max then, I felt like a stranger in their lives.

When we had gotten a fair distance from Miss Hanako, Max said, "Do you need some time to compose yourself?"

Blinking back tears, Annie nodded. "I'm going to the bathroom. Please watch Angelo closely."

"Will do."

Annie left, leaving Max and me alone.

Seeing an opportunity before me, I took it. "Hold on. Before we go back to Aimee, I have a few questions I want to ask you."

Sighing, Max stopped walking. "Oh well, I guess this was inevitable. I suppose you do have the right to blow up, considering we hid the fact that you have other relatives from you."

"I'm not planning to do- well, I was at first, but the thing between Annie and my...aunt has killed the mood. But who are you related to by blood, my mum or dad?"

Noticing the way I cringed as I referred to Miss Hanako, Max chuckled. "You know, you don't have to call her 'aunt'. To answer your question, your dad."

"Oh, alright. So, why aren't you bothered by your witch of a mother?"

Max winced. "It's not that I'm unbothered, but...there's nothing I can do to help. My mother always seems to find something to complain about Annie. Their relationship has never been ideal, but it got a lot more strained after...you know.."

"After she had your dad killed?"

"Mm."

"Aren't you bothered about that, though?"

Max frowned. "Well...I don't know exactly. I don't care. He was never much of a father, so when mother told Annie and me that she'd had our father killed, I was just like 'oh, cool.' I never wanted to leave her or anything."

"Ah. Wait," My eyes widened, "-that's why you and Annie came to stay with us?"

Max nodded. "Uncle, your dad, felt we weren't safe with mother after other Society members found out what she'd done. They felt she was a potential danger to us."

"Wow."

A moment of silence passed, then Max sighed. "Look, don't judge Annie as being weak because of her feelings about my father's death. I've never told her this, but I don't think she loved my dad. My mother's faction of the world is Asia, and we grew up in Tokyo. Our dad spent a lot of his time in North America because of his business. I think Annie is more in love with the idea of a perfect family than she is with the reality of her direct family."

He continued, "I loved your parents, but I don't think my feelings could even come close to what Annie felt. Moving in with you, it was like suddenly she had the family she'd always wanted. You didn't notice then, and I'm not blaming you, but Annie cried a lot for months after your parents' deaths. I think the only times she held herself together was during her college classes, or when you were around."

"Oh."

Is it that part of the reason why she had me sent away? Because she couldn't deal with her grief as well as mine?

Max nudged me. "Ah, sorry for being such a downer. You should be enjoying yourself!"

I forced a smile. "You're right. Hopefully, this night improves, because so far it has been terrible."

"That's the spirit! Now, come-"

"Oh, and Max."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for messing up my hair." I frowned. "After all, it only took fifteen minutes to do."

Max grinned. "What's fifteen minutes compared to a show of affection?"

. . .

The first thing I noticed when Max and I met up with Aimee was that she was not alone.

I cleared my throat. "Aimee."

Her gaze flew from the person's face onto mine. "Romeo, you're back! There's someone you'll be glad to meet."

As soon as said someone turned around, I realized I didn't like him one bit. Machiavelli.

His deep brown eyes lingered briefly on my face before they trailed over to Max's. In a smooth, deep voice, he said, "Mr. Hanako, it's good to see you again."

"As it is to see you, Mr. Machivelli."

Years of familiarity had taught me to catch the slight edge that marred Max's tone any time he got on guard. I understood why. Much like Miss Hanako, Machiavelli emanated a predatory vibe.

Machiavelli had on a crisp white suit which his body filled out. A full dark beard outlined his oval face, connecting to his sideburns. His skin tone was olive, a bit darker than Aimee's.

His eyes lingered on Max's face for a while before going back to mine. "You must be Mr. Smith. It's nice to meet you."

I bristled. "Same. I've heard a lot about you."

"Of course. I'd be rather surprised if Mr. Hanako hasn't mentioned me."

Max let out a strained laugh. "Ah, guilty. Have to prepare him for the future, right?"

"Mm." Machiavelli turned his attention to Max. "Well, I should be going. Please extend my good wishes to your sister. Once again, Mr. Smith, it was nice meeting you."

Before leaving, he glanced at Aimee. "It was a pleasure meeting you also, Miss Jacques."

Aimee beamed. "Same, sir. Thank you for taking some time out to speak to me."

Nodding, Machiavelli turned away and left.

I let out a breath, then barked at Aimee, "You! What were you doing with him?"

She crossed her arms. "What's wrong with me wanting to meet such a successful entrepreneur?"

"Please, don't pretend like you wanted to meet him for his business skills!" I paused to take a breath, then smirked. "I see, are you on the lookout for potential sugar daddies?"

"Ew, no!"

Max said, "You both might want to lower your voices. You're beginning to get some evil looks."

True to his words, some people were shooting blatant glares our way. I glared back at them.

Max stepped in front of me, cutting off my view. "Avoid making enemies here. My mother wouldn't retaliate to you, but it's not a good idea to rile up other people."

"Fine," I grumbled, "I'll behave."

Max smiled at me, then looked at Aimee. "By the way, where's Aiden?"

"In the bathroom, because his stomach didn't agree with the scones here."

I shrugged. "Oh well. Whatever keeps-"

Annie, who was approaching us, cut me off. "Max, look who I stumbled upon!"