Page 6 of Shattered Crown
"I've already spoken with her." My mother's fingers drummed against the armrest. A tell. I'd learned to read her tells years ago. She was working up to something. "Have you spoken with your sister recently?"
"Isabelle? Not this week." I didn’t ask any further questions. She’ll get to what she came here to say eventually.
"She's in Milan for fashion week. She seems happy. Or at least busy. With Isabelle, it's hard to tell the difference."
I finally dropped the pen and looked up at her. This wasn't why she was here.
"It’s Xavier," she said finally.
There it was. "What did he do now?"
"Nothing catastrophic. There was just a disagreement at a card game.” She shrugged. “There's mention of an outstanding debt."
"How much?"
She paused. "Eighty thousand."
I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose.
Eighty thousand dollars. That was nothing to our family. Pocket change, really. But it wasn't about the money. It was never about the money. It was about the pattern. Monaco six months ago. The yacht situation before that. The investment scheme last spring.
Xavier was always in some sort of scandal. My mother was too much of a saint to look the other way. She was forgiving, a trait I didn’t have.
Well, I guess that was one of the reasons Father had adored her. She’d forgiven all of his indiscretions, including the one that had produced a child.
"I'll handle it."
"I knew you would." She smiled sweetly. "You always do."
Of course. That’s what I was good for. Lurking behind with a broom, waiting for everyone else to mess up so I could clean it up. How inspiring.
"He's promised it won't happen again," my mother added. "I've spoken with him. I made sure I was firm."
"You said the same thing last time. And the time before that."
"He's young, Sebastian."
"He's twenty-eight. Not that young."
She went silent. I knew what she was thinking. We’d had this conversation a thousand times before.
“You’re being too hard on him, Sebastian. You have no idea how he grew up. This is a new life for him. We need to help him get used to it,” she’d say.
But I had helped him, given him multiple opportunities. But Xavier was Xavier. He had no eye for business. His only goal was to go through life as if it were a party. I didn’t have that luxury. I had people counting on me, responsibilities to handle. My life was pretty much a board meeting that never stopped.
"Not everyone matures at the same pace," she said finally. She leaned forward, her hand reaching toward mine across thedesk. But she didn’t touch me. My mother had never been comfortable with physical affection. None of us had. "I'm not asking you to fix him. Just help him. The way you always have."
The way I always have. Yes. That's what I do. I fix things. I hold everything together so the Dubois name remains unsullied and my grandmother doesn't have to clutch her pearls at the dinner table.
"I'll wire the money today."
"Thank you." She withdrew her hand and sat back. Transaction complete. "Now. How is my granddaughter?"
I didn’t react. My mother could read me like a book. One look and she’d know that I was still struggling. It wasn’t exactly a secret. Put me and my daughter in a room together, and even a total stranger could figure it out. "She's fine."
"You always say that, too."
"Because it's always true." Yes, Evie was fine. Our relationship? It was a work in progress. And I would fix that eventually. I never gave up on anything.
