Page 92 of A Dead Man's B-Side
Rain didn’t shy away from the question or speak in riddles. She seemed almost proud of the answer. “My grandfather chose not to nominate a candidate that time around. He chose to wait for the… perfect representative of the House of Jett.”
“What about your father?” Ajax placed his cheek against his fist on the table.
“My grandfather was very particular about who he wanted to succeed him.”
And then, she continued. “That’s Valerius Letum, in the full black suit.”
He was the only one outside of uniform, and he stood right in the middle. Almost as if everyone else in the photo was beckoning towards him.
Paris tilted her head. “That’s our eighth’s father, I’m assuming?”
How young did they start conceiving?
Rain nodded before she furrowed her brows. “But even I don’t know what’s happening on that front. The Letums are… exceptionally ignoble.”
If Rain, after what I’d seen from her mother, was saying that, it meant something.
“What is so elusive about them?” I asked.
Rain ran her finger over the photo, a conflicting look falling over her eyes. “My grandmother met Valerius at his son’s christening. Silas Letum. He’s our age, but I don’t think he’ll be attending Castle Hill, let alone joining the Founder’s Society. He’ll simply assume his father’s seat when he passes or steps down.”
“Can he do that? Sit on the board without the whole… archaic process?”
Rain spoke to us all, almost as if she was warning us, “He can’t. But… I don’t know what’s being discussed behind closed doors. You heard Thaddeus. Things are changing.”
I understood the logic, but Thaddeus also spoke of unity, trusting each other.
Paris shared my sentiment. “Why would Thaddeus emphasize teamwork and whatnot if Silas Letum would only worry about himself? How would the board even hold with a weak link?”
Rain didn’t get to answer because the door into the room opened, and Marigold was quick enough to close the book and slide it under the couch, surprising us all. Even Wolf was pulled out of the depressing trance he was in.
Thaddeus’ figure appeared at the entrance, and he paused there, watching us with a suspicious look. “What were you all doing?”
For some reason, we’d all assumed August’s mouth would be the first to open, as we all glanced at him, and we were proven correct. “Sir, are you feeling okay?”
August looked genuinely worried, and I’d never seen this version of him, conniving.
“Quite right, actually. Now answer my question.”
“That would be unproductive, sir.”
“And why is that?”
“We answered your question. Three times…” Because August had pulled us in already, there was no backpedalling out of this now.
I heard Wolf’s resigned sigh and Rain’s low click of her tongue.
She quickly slipped on a mask of indifference with a slight furrow of concern in her brows, all of us along with her. “Sir, is everything alright?”
Thaddeus blinked, maybe too astonished by August’s audacity to blatantly lie. And maybe that was why he took a moment to think.
I knew what was running through his mind. If August could lie so unabashedly to his face, perhaps there was a thread of truth? Was Thaddeus really going crazy?
“I am doing just fine.” A muscle in his jaw ticked.
The fact that someone with as much brain power as Thaddeus Saltford-Windsor was even considering playing in circles in August’s game was laughable.
Paris lowered her head into her hands, her warm palm leaving mine, feigning distress, but I could feel her shoulders shaking with laughter.
