All These Things I've Done (Birthright #1)(59)

‘You know, you can’t go out with Gable Arsley,’ I said as we rode through the park to the East Side.

Natty was with us, and she wrinkled her nose and asked, ‘Why would Scarlet ever go out with him?’ Gable had never enjoyed much popularity in my family.

‘I wouldn’t,’ Scarlet said. ‘I just felt bad for him today.’ Scarlet described to Natty what had happened at lunch.

‘Oh,’ Natty said, ‘I would have felt awful for him, too.’

‘That’s because you and Scarlet are a couple of softies. Just because he’s hurt doesn’t mean he’s not the same old horrible person inside.’

‘You either have no faith in me or you think I’m dumb,’ Scarlet said. ‘I remember what he did to you. And I’m not so desperate that I’d drop all my principles for your one-handed, one-legged, badly disfigured ex-boyfriend!’ Scarlet giggled. ‘Oh, that’s awful! I shouldn’t be laughing.’ She covered her mouth.

Natty and I laughed, too.

‘You have to admit. It is sort of ridiculous what happened to Gable,’ Scarlet added.

‘It is ridiculous,’ I replied. My whole life was ridiculous.

‘But, for argument’s sake,’ Scarlet said, as the bus reached her stop, ‘don’t you think having such a medical trauma would change a person?’

‘No!’ Natty and I yelled.

‘I’m kidding, darlings.’ Scarlet shook her head. ‘How can you be so gullible, Annie?’ She kissed me on the cheek. ‘See you tomorrow,’ she called as she got off the bus.

Once Natty and I were home, Imogen told me that Nana needed me, so I went into her room.

Nana had actually seemed somewhat better in the last couple of weeks. At least, she hadn’t mistaken me for my mother.

I bent down to kiss Nana’s cheek. There were yellow roses in a turquoise vase on the windowsill. Someone had been by to see her.

‘Pretty,’ I commented.

‘Yes, they’re not bad. My stepson brought them by today,’ Nana said. ‘Take them to your room if you like, Annie. They’re wasted on me. They make me think of my funeral, which . . .’

I waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. ‘Imogen said you wanted to see me,’ I said finally.

‘Yes,’ Nana said. ‘You must do something for me. Yuri’s son Mickey is getting married next month. You, Leo and Natty need to go to the wedding on my behalf.’

Family weddings were not my favourite. And Mickey was getting married? It might have been my imagination but I was reasonably certain he had been flirting with me the last time we’d met. ‘Where is this wedding?’

‘At the Balanchine compound in Westchester.’

Even though it was just a bunch of houses and stables and a mostly dried-up lake, I hated that place. Natty and I had lived there in the weeks after my father had been killed and it only had bad associations for me.

‘Do we have to go?’ I whined.

‘Is it such a hardship? I wish I could go, but I don’t have legs to take me there. Besides, you can bring your little boyfriend . . .’ she said mischievously.

‘How do you know about him?’ I asked.

‘I still have ears. Your sister told me. She thinks you’re going to marry him, but I said that my Anya is far too young and far too practical for marriage, no matter how head over heels she is.’

‘Natty is absurd.’

‘So you will go to the wedding?’

‘If I must,’ I said.

‘Good. Bring your boyfriend to meet me some day, too. Maybe the day you go to the wedding? Yes, it’s settled.’ Nana nodded, then reached for my hand. ‘I feel clearer lately,’ she said.

‘That’s good.’

‘But I’m not sure how long it will last. And I want to set this house in order,’ she continued. ‘You are sixteen years old now?’

I nodded.

‘Which means if I died tomorrow, your brother would become your guardian.’

‘But you won’t die,’ I reminded her. ‘The machines will keep you alive until I’m old enough.’

‘Machines fail, Anyaschka. And sometimes—’

I cut her off. ‘I don’t want to discuss this!’

‘You must listen, Anya. You are the strongest one, and you need to hear. I need to know that we have discussed these matters. Though Leo will technically be the guardian, it has been arranged with Mr Kipling and his new associate – I am forgetting his name – that you will be the only one with access to the money. This will make it so that Leo cannot make any decisions alone. Do you understand?’

I nodded impatiently. ‘Yes, of course.’

‘Your brother may be angry when he finds out, and I am sorry for that. He is damaged, but he is not without pride. Still, it is the only thing to be done. The real estate will be placed in a trust that stipulates that it cannot be sold until you are eighteen, too. And when you turn eighteen, guardianship of Natty will transfer from Leo to you as well.’

‘Fine, fine. But the doctors say the machines will keep you alive until I’m eighteen, if not longer. I don’t know why we have to discuss this now.’

‘Because life can be unexpected, Anya. Because lately I have noticed increasingly long periods where I am not myself. You cannot say that you don’t notice these, too.’