Scorpion in the room

Glasses clink unnaturally loud this afternoon. My father's face emanates an uncharacteristic gleam. One I haven't seen in a long while. And one which compels me to consider if I have ever witnessed anything apart from creases and regrets. "Chocolate peanutsss... " The voice of my little sister, Pennly, stirs the quiet room. She bounds down in a hurry, missing a couple of stairs but nothing that is inordinary to both daddy and me and the fatigued planks that jerk, indefinitely under the weight of her exuberance. Such a light she is. Or, was. And the whole charade of normalcy, finally feels choking and uncalled for. He is laughing with the people who killed my sister. Not them but they belong to the same world that stole her from me. The same world, whose stink is lingering in every edge of this room. And on me. Because I have to pretend, I am happy to host the devil's trifecta into our estate. Edward Suiz, Blaze Marley and Dorothy Whatever court. I don't know her last name but it's something like that. "She's the eldest and only remaining." Maybe, one day I'll understand the reason behind all this but I'll forever remain indignant at his rotted lexical literacy. "Why don't you join your father?" "And tolerate his consortium of clowns?" My stepmother Sally hurls all sorts of glare through the front two slits. "There's no need to be all that bitter. Okay? Your father has an inescapable responsibility as the chief of Penta Chord. He can't run away unlike you and me. Not this time." I never intended the oh s**t giggle to leave my mouth and pulse so wildly in the space to cause a few heads turn, including that sharp, glassy obsidian eyed Blaze. His parents must have had one glance at the 'freshly delivered' him to automatically jump on the only name that might have wriggled it's way into their heads after all these months of waiting and enduring. Sally knows that my father had once flee to evade from this facet of his life. Long before the two officially met. Grousing that he doesn't want to run the sinking company any more. That he is done with handling everything all by himself. That everyone of us is a cheat and useless assemblage parasitizing off his hard grind. To be discovered the very next day, flopped in front of the screen with a huge dump of files laid across the vast mahogany and varnish. "Fine." I squeeze a taut smile, one that looks forced but unintentional. As I was walking towards the group of three strangers, I took a mental note of not asking why all of them had similar clothes on. "Ms. Penrose." Youngest one of them does a differential nod. A very sutble but perceivable smile pirouetting across his pierced lip, couldn't escape my gaze. I wonder his spright ever conflicts with his line of work? Or you can be both cruel and casual, with the slightest of give a f**k energy. "You know my name?" Dorothy seemed perplexed that I know all about my father's associates. I know more about Dorothy than I would like her to know but I'm equally confident, they know me as well. Especially, the Blaze guy staring at me for the past few minutes like he's interested in bartering my soul in exchange for a dime or a dying horse. "The biacco's are trying to annex the far south of the port Golio. Few of your men are involved in selling information to Richie. Plus, the discrepancies within your inner circle might fragment the company into two factions and that means your contract with the Marleys might not be in our best of interests to sustain, Mr. Penrose." Blaze talks like a we move smart guy. My father Anderson becomes visibly grim afterwards and throw a heated glance at Blaze but he seems so non chalant about it, just like his brother. Fair to say, it's in the genes. "What are you doing this weekend, Ability?" My eyes nearly turns orbicular. Blaze was talking to me and not some entity materializing behind me. "I'm not free this weekend." "Next wee-" "Next too." The corners of his lips curls up in a sheepish smile. "You must visit the property once if you are going to own it." Own it? "I-I don't get it !!" "Your father's planning an early retirement and he wants you to look after the Manhattan project." Blaze breaks the news, unceremoniously. I stare at my father and he seems to agree. Why? Why the hell is a stranger telling me something my father, Sally or Benjamin, our butler should disclose? I cannot even differentiate my dad from these motherfucking criminals, anymore. "Dad, can we have a word?" I try to grab his jacket to literally pull him away from the triad because I know precisely what his next words are going to be. Yeah, go ahead! "Yeah, go ahead." Fuck...!! "Not here dad. Somewhere private." I turn to Blaze to thrown him a side glance but he already has his shades, back on. And he seem quite in hurry to leave. Good. "Um Mr. Penrose, we're leaving. The wedding is on wednesday at our manhattan farmhouse. You also tag along Ms. Penrose. You're very fun." He smiles, again, this time flaunting his dimples a little extra. Or, I might've missed the first time since I was busy focusing on others parts of his body. It's not my fault that the motherfucker here has a greek physique. They depart eventually and I finally get to ask but instead I ask something else. "Whose wedding was he talking about?" "His own." And here, I was thinking how'd he look naked. God, why do all hot men marry so soon? I'm asking god as if I want to be his bride. Never in f*****g million eons.