Riven

Copyright 2013 by Dean Murray

Adriana Page
Graves Estate
Sanctuary, Utah

I had to keep
telling myself that my mom flying into town wasn't as scary as seeing
Agony nearly kill Alec. My brain knew that this wasn't going to be
nearly as bad as what I'd seen almost happen in Chicago, but my
emotions kept trying to convince the rest of me that the end of the
world was about to take place.

Alec grabbed my
hand as I started tapping a nervous beat on my leg for the fifth time
since we'd sat down. I started to apologize again for fidgeting, but
he simply smiled at me and gave my hand a reassuring squeeze.

"James and
Dominic just texted me. Your mom's plane has landed. Knowing the way
James drives, your mom will be here in less than ten minutes. Trust
me, the anticipation is the worst part. Once your mom is here we'll
have a calm discussion and then work everything out."

I gave him a brave
nod, but I wasn't convinced, not really. Alec's mom spent most of each
day lost in memories of happier times which meant that he'd more or
less been raised by Donovan. Donovan was extraordinary, and I'd never
been tempted to dismiss him as 'just one of the help,' but there was
a different dynamic there than what Alec would have had with a parent
who wasn't also the family butler. Donovan had always given Alec an
incredible amount of leeway, way more than my mom had ever given me.
It meant that Alec didn't really know what he was going to be in for
when my mom arrived.

"Okay, I'll
try to calm down. Just remember, I want to be with you no matter
what. Short of hurting my mom or something like that, we need to keep
escalating things until she agrees to let me stay here. It's
important."

Alec nodded.
"Things will be okay, I promise."

The next few
minutes seemed to drag by, but then suddenly I could hear Donovan
escorting my mom back to the sitting room where we'd been waiting for
the last half hour.

"May I
present Mrs. Nicole Paige and Mr. Russ Landsell."

As Donovan bowed
and then retreated from the room with only a trace of his normal
limp, I tried to adjust to the fact that things were already going a
different direction than I'd expected. Mom had only been dating Russ
for a few weeks, a couple of months at the max. I never would have
expected for Mom to bring him along on a mission to come collect her
wayward daughter.

Mom and Russ both
took the chairs that Alec offered them, and then sat down slowly. I
couldn't read the expression on Mom's face, but both she and Russ
seemed content to let Alec start the discussion.

"I appreciate
you coming out here, Mrs. Paige, Mr. Landsell. Under other
circumstances I would have flown out to you rather than asking you to
make the trip, but I'm afraid I'm not able to travel right now."

That was
Alec-speak for the fact that the Coun'hij could attack us at any
minute. Alec's power had finally fully manifested. That meant he
could protect us all as long as he was around, but if he were to fly
out to New York it would leave us all vulnerable.

"You didn't
exactly leave me any choice. I got a call from my daughter from a
blocked number telling me to be on your plane with a date and time."

I winced. A
cowardly part of me wanted to just hang back and let Alec take the
brunt of the attack, but that wouldn't be fair.

"That's not
Alec's fault, Mom. I was the one who insisted on not giving you any
more information than that. I didn't want to risk you causing him
problems."

Mom looked at me
for the first time, I mean really looked, and I saw just how mad she
was. "Do you have any idea how worried I've been, Adri? First
your school calls to tell me that you weren't in classes and then you
didn't answer your phone when I called."

"I'm sorry,
Mom. I didn't mean to make you worry, but I needed to be here."

"You needed
to be here? Adri, this is the place that you just left. We talked and
you agreed that Alec needed a wakeup call. You left here for a
reason."

I fought a rising
tide of anger and forced my voice to remain even. "Yes, Mom. I
left for a reason and I came back for a reason. Alec and Rachel need
me here right now, and I'm going to stay here."

It looked like my
mom was going to start yelling at me, but Russ put a hand on her arm
and spoke for the first time.

"Alec, I've
been talking to some of my contacts in the FBI. Nicole hasn't filed a
police report yet, but once she does it will be routed right to the
FBI. You've kidnapped a minor and taken her across state lines. The
repercussions are going to be pretty serious."

Alec shook his
head. "I haven't kidnapped anyone. Adri left the state of New
York without my knowledge. I have a dozen people ready to testify to
the fact that Adri came here of her own free will, up to and
including the pilot of the plane that brought her here."

"Your pilot.
That's hardly a very independent witness, Alec. Trust me, things will
go much better if you just back down and let Adri come back to New
York with us."

It was like
watching two dogs circling each other, looking for a weakness. I
almost wanted to think less of my mom for bringing Russ along, but I
understood why she had. Neither of us was versed in wealth, not like
Russ or Alec were. Mom knew just how much influence Alec had in
Sanctuary from when we'd lived here before. Mom couldn't combat that,
but there was a chance that Russ could. Besides, it would be pretty
hypocritical to look down on Mom for bringing Russ into the picture
when I was sitting here hoping that Alec could wave a magic wand and
make everything work out with my mom.

The thought served
as a goad and I waved my arm at Mom to get her attention. "I
know that you don't like it, but I'm determined to stay here and I'm
willing to go as far as I have to for that to happen. If you fight me
on this then I'll get legally emancipated."

Mom went white and
collapsed backwards into her chair like I'd hit her. It was Russ who
tried to calm both of us Paige women down.

"Let's not do
anything hasty. Adri, I know you and your mom aren't seeing eye to
eye right now, but emancipation isn't a trivial thing to pursue.
There isn't even any guarantee that you'd win."

Alec looked at me
with a question in his eyes, but I nodded so he took a deep breath
and responded. "I have a team of lawyers who are very confident
they can win the preliminary case, and in fact we've already got
feelers out to two of the three judges we think are most likely to
try the case, and given the circumstances, they are both in agreement
that Adri would win."

Russ' smile wasn't
in the slightest bit ruffled. "You're bluffing. Adri has no way
of supporting herself. No judge in the world is going to stick their
neck out that far. The ruling would be overturned in appeals so fast
that everyone involved would get whiplash."

I felt my
expression stiffen. Alec and I hadn't gone into those kinds of
details. He'd just told me that he'd be able to handle everything and
I'd believed him. I turned to ask Alec if Russ was right, but he
smiled at me and then picked up a thick stack of papers.

"I rarely
bluff, and never about people who matter to me." Alec tossed the
folder to Russ and then he gave the other man the kind of cold smile
that he usually reserved for the Coun'hij. "The top document is
a fully-executed, irrevocable trust with Adri as the beneficiary. I
think you'll find the trust assets are more than sufficient to allow
Adri to support herself quite nicely until well after she reaches her
legal majority. The documents below that detail all of your holdings.
I think you'll find it's quite comprehensive."

Russ opened the
folder and then spent a few minutes scanning through the documents
while my mom and I both shifted nervously in our seats. When Russ
finally looked up from the stack of paper there was a new wariness to
his posture that hadn't been there when he first arrived.

"Don't you
think that ten million dollars was a little excessive, Alec? That
kind of wealth could turn her into a spoiled snob who isn't worth the
air she breathes. It could destroy her."

My heart skipped a
beat. I almost thought that I'd misheard the amount, but my mom's
expression told me that I'd heard correctly. Not only had I not known anything about the
trust, I would have opposed him putting so much money into it if I'd
been aware of what he'd been planning.

Alec waved away
Russ' point without missing a beat. "It's got all of the usual
provisions designed to guard against that kind of thing. She can't
touch the principal until she's twenty-six, and there are even caps
on the amount she can draw out in any given year until then. It's the
same kind of vehicle that Donovan set up for Rachel, but that's
beside the point. I've made the mistake of underestimating Adri's
strength too many times already. The wealth won't ruin her any more
than it ruined you."

Russ considered
the response and then flipped through the second half of the folder
again. "Should I take the presence of the rest of this to
indicate that you're threatening me?"

"No, nothing
of the kind. I merely wanted to provide you with a sense of my
capabilities. I think things will go much more smoothly if you
understand exactly what you're up against."

Russ frowned and
then looked at me. "I can tell this is as much of a surprise to
you as it was to me. With this trust you won't ever have to work a
day in your life if you don't want to. It means that there isn't any
monetary reason for you to stay with Alec."

A flash of anger
nearly made me give Russ a piece of my mind, but I stomped on my fury
and shook my head at him.

"I thought
you knew me better than that, Russ. I'm not here because of Alec's
money. I'm here because this is where I'm needed. You could say that
I've found my cause, but it's more than that. This is where I'm
happy. I'm not some stupid, love-struck teenager. I know what I'm
getting into, better actually than either of you do, and this is the
future I want."

I hadn't planned
on referencing his insight, but hopefully me telling him that Alec
was my cause, the person I wanted to enable, would give Russ pause
enough for him to actually hear what I was trying to say rather than
just assuming that I was being stupid.

"I see.
You're sure that you know what you're doing here?"

I nodded and then
waited while he looked over at my mom. "It's your call, Nicole.
We can file a report but you'll be in for a long fight one way or
another. With a little bit of luck we can make sure she's back in New
York while the lawyers bicker, but it isn't guaranteed."

I interrupted
before he could continue. "I'll run away. Even if you can keep
me away from Alec, I'll still make sure that I'm not home."

Russ winced a
little, like he'd been hoping that I wouldn't realize that was an
option, and then shrugged. "There are measures we could take,
but nothing we could do would guarantee that she'd stay there with
you. I'm willing to help you if that's what you want to do, but you
need to know what kind of fight you'd be taking on."

Mom looked old.
Somehow the stress of her professional commitments had aged her
without me realizing it, but it was more than just all of the hours
she was putting into work—my disappearing must have been even harder
on her than I'd expected. She tapped the arm of her chair for several
seconds and then frowned. "So it's going to be expensive."

Russ took her hand
in his and squeezed it. "Don't worry about that. If you want to
pursue that option I'll have my people take care of things."

Mom shook her
head. "No, it's a hopeless cause. I've been gone more than I've
been around. There isn't any way that we could win, not given how
absent I've been lately."

I was glad that
Mom had been the one to point that out. I'd been ready to go there if
I had to, but I hadn't wanted to.

Russ sighed. "It
will make things more difficult, but you shouldn't make this kind of
decision based on fear. The real question is whether or not you think
that Adri is mature enough to be on her own. If she is as much of an
adult as she thinks she is, then you should trust her when she says
that she knows what she's getting into. If not, then we should do
whatever we have to in order to get her back."