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dads & brothers

—

I WAS UPSET to be on the mainland again. Not only was I basically an indentured servant and working my butt off for this family again, but I was no longer living in the lap of luxury that I was in aboard the S.S. Justice. Merely half an hour ago, I was on a humongous yacht and enjoying myself — for the most part. Now, I had picked up Sadie and Jacob in the car and we were headed back to their house so they could go to dinner with their father. It definitely was not an ideal turn of events, especially when every second spent with this family was a second towards the time spent trying to prove them innocent or guilty of embezzlement of funds.

"I bet they had wicked sex," Jacob said after we had went a whole ten minutes without talking. "I mean like creaking bed, pissed off neighbors, and someone twisting a hip. They're both too old for that."

"Come on," the three other unwilling passengers in this car groaned in disgust.

"Jacob, what do you know about sex like that," Sadie asked. "You tried to have sex with Katie Callahan at Michael Forrester's beach house party and she said you accidentally dropped the condom into the sand when you were fumbling around with it like an idiot. Some junior came around seconds later and had to take the edge off of her."

"If my hands weren't supposed to be on the wheel," I said, "then I'd cover my ears right now. People your age aren't supposed to have sex. You're too young. If I had any idea who these people you're talking about were, I'd be calling their parents right now."

"How old were you when you lost your virginity?" It was Jacob who asked, his eyes lighting up in a rather perverted curiosity, so I knew I didn't have to dignify it with a response. And to think that this was what I had to look forward to if I wanted children.

"Eighteen," I said. Yeah, I definitely didn't have to tell them, but I also felt the matronly desire to be an example for them. Or at least for Jack if Jacob wasn't a virgin after all. As far as Sadie went? With those good looks she must've inherited from her mother — because George Gates just didn't do it for me — that was out of the question for sure. "And I feel like it was too early, actually. There's nothing wrong with waiting, kids. It's different for everyone and you shouldn't let anyone else but yourself tell you when you should do it."

"So that means you'd be totally fine with me having sex on my sixteenth birthday," Jacob asked and I honestly had no idea how the conversation had even gotten here or if I were on authority to answer questions like these. "Despite what Sadie loves to lie about, I've got options lined up down the block."

"Yeah, right," Sadie said. "You're such a dweeb, Jakey. If you can get a girl to have sex with you then I'll get you a car for your seventeenth birthday."

"How about we all accept ourselves and not feel pressured by a need to lose our virginity," I threw out there as a suggestion although I was ignored by the two of them who were now going back and forth about it.

"What's virginity?" That question, of course, was from Jack and I felt myself flood with relief. After what had happened on the beach, I was scared that he had picked up some other adult lexicon from his siblings.

As much as I loved Jack and as much as I believed in proper sex education, he was five years old, and there was definitely a time where it was too early for people to learn. So I just ignored his question as well as the two squabbling teenagers, speeding along into the dark.

—

WHEN I GOT to the Gates' mansion, I let the kids go out ahead of me so I could check my phone outside in total privacy. They didn't need for me to be in there anyway, I had basically clocked out for the day at this time of night. After pulling the car into the back where it was usually parked, I got out and stretched my legs. I felt a strange giddiness about this because I rarely ever got to just stroll the grounds by myself.

George Gates' private groundskeeper was some kind of genius. Their property was built on an expansive plot of land where there was plenty of room for things like a small playground built for the kids but hardly used anymore, tall hedge sculptures, a vast garden that even more people were hired by Selena to attend to, and more. Maybe it was just the spirit of American ingenuity that brought on their success, but it definitely made the idea of them being criminals a lot more believable.

My favorite place to go to on the grounds in a rare occasion that I had a proper amount of time to myself was the swing sets. They reminded me so much of the ones I had back home in Boston, and it was so easy to get swept up in the nostalgia.

As I sat down on the swing, pushing myself back and forth a bit with my feet, I withdrew my phone from my pocket, finally. I had felt it buzzing against my leg for quite a few times during the car ride from Sadie and Jacob's school to here.

When the display flickered to life, I was suddenly met with a horde of text messages, all coming in at the same time like a flood. I even yelped a bit, jumping backwards and almost falling from out of the swing had I not stopped myself in time.

TEDDY: hey, I'm sorry about how I was acting today.

TEDDY: I was just in a really sour mood about some stuff

TEDDY: please forgive me

TEDDY: I want you to be my friend, so I shouldn't have done that

UNKNOWN: hey it's Theo, welcome to the group chat!

UNKNOWN: 1 Attachment

I raised a curious eyebrow, not sure if I was ready to see whatever image had been sent to me through this chat. Hell, I had trouble wrapping my head around the idea of there being a group chat between the three of us in the first place. I understood why Teddy was texting me, but Theo? That was a variable which quickly needed factoring in.

I braced myself, swiping open the notification for my phone to open into a group chat where a picture of Teddy and Theo with their arms over each others' shoulders was sent. It wasn't from today, because they both looked slightly less mature than they did now, but they both just happened to be shirtless like they were today.

Oh, brother. Literally.

I was just about to send them a message to tell them I didn't want to be apart of this chat, but the three dots that indicated someone else was typing appeared at the bottom of the screen.

TEDDY: welcome to the family, Marilyn!

TEDDY: of course, not like my actual family...

TEDDY: you know what I mean.

I frowned, not sure if I wanted to be a part of this family or what it was even for. I was about to reply, but I heard someone calling my name from the door of the house. I guess duty was calling me.

—

I HONESTLY WISHED that I had ignored said call of duty. Because the person who had called me was Sadie, telling me that George was offering a seat for me at the table. Honestly, George was a big jerk when I first was hired by his wife, so the less time I spent around him meant that we both won. Most of the errands I ran for him included me leaving the house like picking up his dry-cleaning or making coffee runs for him and his friends at the office.

And now with Teddy's project — so to speak — I was even more desperate to avoid George. Not only was I burdened with the thought of him being a white collar criminal and I was being hired to dig up dirt on him, but Teddy thought it was okay to suggest that I seduce him. The thought of that made my skin crawl, the thought of bedding with the serpent as well as facing the wrath of his scorned wife.

Of course, the two of them had to be picture perfect just to rub it in. George and Selena Gates were like the American Dream, not in the simple and suburban sense, but the more superficial one. Before she met George, Selena Hutchinson was a television actress and they had met on the red carpet at a gala event. Now they were staples of New York high society, the ideal symbol of the upper echelon.

George was, undisputedly and unwillingly, one of the most attractive men over forty that I'd ever seen. I did a few runs to the store to grab his hair dye before, so I knew his hair still wasn't naturally coarse black, but he still had regal elegance to him that was almost youthful. Aside from a few slight wrinkles around his eyes and his cheeks, his olive-toned skin was smooth, and his jaw was sharp and square — giving off the look of an aged movie star.

I was busy staring at him — and trying to deduce my plan of action when it came to securing hard evidence for Teddy, of course — when I realized his mouth was moving and I couldn't exactly hear what he was saying.

"— Criminal," I heard him say as my senses lapsed back into focus. "Isn't that right, Ms. Finley?"

My skin had riddled itself with goosebumps at the thought of him talking to me, much less the irony at the thought of him talking about something criminal. Damn you, Edward Burke, for putting all of these wild thoughts in my head.

"Sorry," I said with an apologetic smile, "I didn't catch that first part of what you just said."

George chuckled, lifting his glass to his lips for a quick sip before lowering it. "I said those new bagel shops downtown, they're absolutely criminal. Just because I'm filthy rich doesn't mean I know I'm being ripped off when these little fuckers think they can sell me a bagel for seven dollars."

I nodded, although if anyone deserved to pay seven dollars for a bagel, then it was definitely him. Of course, I was trying to keep my job for as long as it lasted if Teddy's accusations held up in court, so the Gates family's dinner table was no place for my opinions.

After that, the family descended into light conversation about George's business trip — which I was sure involved a little more pleasure than what was appropriate by Selena's standards based on the dreadful row I had seen her in earlier this morning — meaning that all of the focus was off of me.

Of course, not all of it, because I could feel Petra's eyes narrow on me, making me terribly uncomfortable. But that was merely an afterthought in the grand scheme of things, what was more important was the details of the trip. I had optimistically assumed that something I would overhear at the dinner table hopefully had some kind of weight that would help me turn the tides of the investigation. However, I had no such luck so far. The kids were too busy trying to figure out what gifts he had brought home for them for the conversation to give anything away.

Although it wasn't all that bad just to watch them without any ulterior motives. Because despite all of the deep down issues hidden beneath the surface, they looked amazing together. A happily married couple with three children of their own. Just like they were ripped from a television show.

The sight of them together made me think about my Dad and the rest of the family back in Boston and how things with them were in no way like what the Gates had here. So I sat back, ignoring all of the flashing red signs I was looking so hard for or even the ones I'd already been unfortunate enough to be witness to, and allowed myself to get swept up in the fantasy.

Even if for but a moment.