Sorry, there were no hair-pulling or chair throwing, if that's what you were expecting.
Papa Knight wouldn't have allowed it, equally I'd bet none of them were brave enough to show their asses in front him.
"Yes, brother." Morana sat up straighter. "Do tell, why have you called this gathering?"
"I hope this is not about taking on another protégé, nephew." Crow's beady eyes flicked toward Bash and then to me. "We have a quota to meet, let's not forget, and no time to entertain another of your pet projects."
"And yet, you would if it so pleased me." Papa Knight's quietly spoken words dropped like a boulder.
Friend, I swear the fuckers jerked upright, locked in place under the icy sweep of his gaze.
Silence.
"This is Hollis." He raised a hand toward me. "My daughter."
Silence.
Then came Calista's whinny voice. "Mother?"
"Hakon, what is the meaning of this?" Camile demanded to know.
"It is as I say wife," Hakon, Hollis, Papa Knight, whatever the fuck his name was, answered in that typical unbothered voice. "Hollis is my daughter, and she will be treated with the same deference as any Knight in this room."
"How could you?" Camile demanded, shaking with fury. "Do you really expect me to embrace your bastard, as my own. I will not," she assured loudly.
"Mother," the male seated to Calista's left reached across her lap to take their mother's hand. His firm grip was enough to calm her. "Father, the girl, she's…"
I didn't know what he was going to say, but "Mundane" was far from what I expected.
"Aldis is right," Crow said pinning me with his beady black eyes, glinting with that odd shine. "She's off."
The man sniffed the air. Bitch, I swear to God, he tilted his pointy nose and dragged air in like a dog on the hunt.
"She's protected," Papa Knight said, giving no further explanation.
Protected?
Friend, you have questions, and so did I; because I had no earthly clue as to what they were going on about.
To be perfectly frank, I didn't care. Their family dynamics was none of my business. Nor was I about to sit there and listen to them talk about me like I was addled.
"My mum said you were dead." Uncrossing my legs I turned to face Papa fully, as this conversation was between us, fuck everyone else. "Did you lead her to believe that, or was it some fucked up excuse a heartbroken woman told her child to hide the truth?"
"Rene did what she had to, what she said was not far from the truth."
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean? You're Hollis Knight, everyone and their grandma know who you are."
"Do they?"
The longer our conversation went on, the angrier I was getting. "There's a tall ass building on Front Street with your name on it, and let's not forget the beachside hotels and cassinos your brand is known for."
"Yes. Now tell me, until today, did you know the man, the face behind the name? Ask anyone outside of this room who Hollis Knight is and they'll each give you a different answer. None of them would be right." He ducked his head and had the nerve to look contrite. "In that regard, Rene was no different."
Sounds complicated?
Yeah, complicated didn't begin to describe my family, such as it was. I got to my feet, needing something to do before I fall back into my old ways and lash out.
"Hollis, I didn't know of your existence." I whipped around, needing to see his eyes, judge for myself whether he was telling the truth or just full of crap. "Rene and I…" He exhaled. "Our time together was brief. You weren't supposed to happen."
"Look motherfucker, I get that I wasn't a part of your plan–"
"No." He objected with a shake of his head. "You're a miracle, something I was led to believe was an impossibility. Had I known Rene was pregnant, that I had an heir…" his voice trailed, gaze turning inward to whatever thoughts running through his head. When he looked up to meet my eyes, the primal connection between us hit hard. "So much would have been different." He rose to his feet and took my hand. "You're not a mistake, Hollis Knight. You're my daughter, and you're welcome here."
I threw a passing glance over my shoulder at three angry looking people burning holes in my back. "I'm not so sure. Step-monster and her spawns might have something to say about it."
Papa Knight's lips quirked up into a smile. "My daughter, you have a way with words. Come, let me introduce to your family."
I still had a hell of a lot more questions. For the moment I decided it could wait, considering it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. He didn't know of me, nor did it seem mum know enough about her baby daddy to seek him out.
Nodding my head in acquiescence I put on my best smile as he worked his way through the group, introducing everyone.
Morana, and Olida the teenager, were his younger sisters. Ashon was his half-brother. They shared the same mother, though Ash was a decade older. You'd never know it by looking at them. Hell, both could pass for men in their early thirties. I wanted whatever it was they were drinking, to keep them ageless. Aldis, the one sitting with Camilie and Calista, wasn't his only son. Turns out there was another, Lars, Calista's twin. Nothing more was said about him, and I didn't ask.
"And what about pretty boy?" I asked, eye-fucking Bash. "Are we related?"
"Sebastian is my protégé, he's very much family." Papa Knight stated.
"And way out of your league," Calista scoffed getting to her feet.
I watched the bitch strut across the room, perch on his thighs, drape an arm around his neck and lean in to kiss him.
Ha! Bash and I never broke eye contact while she tried, and failed, to steal his attention. Nothing but fun times ahead. I winked at the man who would soon learn to spell my name with his tongue.
Saying nothing I turned my back on Calista's pathetic show of ownership. As long as there were no rings, he was fair fucking game.
Last, and certainly least in my book, was Crow. The beady-eyed bastard was Papa Knight's uncle; his mother's youngest and only living brother. I barely acknowledge the man. I didn't know if he was trying to intimidate me with his dead stare, but I fear no man.
"The Council will hear of this," Camile threatened.
"And what makes you think I've not apprised them of my good news?" Papa Knight spared his wife a withering glance.
Camile shot to her feet, every line of her frame stiff with anger. "I speak of the High Council," she hissed.
"My dear wife, enough with your empty threats. You hate me far too much to grant me the answer to a prayer I've had since the day we met."
Oh, damn.
"Let's get you settled," he suggested, steering me out of the room.
I nodded, stepping in strides with him. "Mum loved you," I told him, needing him to know.
While she may have been a passing fling for him, he'd been the world to her.
"Rene was a special woman. I adored her. Don't think for one second I regret meeting your mother. I was a fool to think we had time."
I got the sense there was more to what he said. Maybe, the little girl in me hoped, he did love her too and would have stayed with us, had he known of me.
"How long were you together?"
"Three weeks." His words were a near whisper.
My mind drifted back in time as we headed toward the front of the house. Someone how I thought it was longer, months. My mother had romanticized their relationship, and as a girl I'd ate it up, like it was a modern-day fairytale. Through the eyes of an adult, my heart ached for her. Three weeks of wild passion, and then, the man she knew only as Hollis disappeared. Walked smooth out of her life, like a certain someone moonwalked across that stage back in nineteen eighty-three.
Soul-crushing. I think back on the way she would stare into space when she thought I wasn't watching. She rarely spoke of him, and only if I brought the subject up. Then her face would light up, her eyes would soften, and she would dust off those memories of their time together as if they were precious heirlooms she kept locked away in her mind.
Thinking of mum, shook loose another vivid memory. I was eleven and it had been a cool summer day, and she took me to the park. We were sitting under our favourite tree when I'd asked her how come my Papa wasn't without us. Over ice-cream sundaes with all the fixings she told me the story of their love, and how my daddy had died before I was born.
She spun a tale so sweet, so romantic, I buried the hurt of my loss and spent my childhood worshiping her image of him, wishing on every star that I too might one day find a love like theirs.
Who wouldn't want that? A love so great, not even death could douse their passion. Then I grew up, and I saw the pain, the longing and wished on those same old stars that that type of love never find me.
Shit, call me shellshocked. I didn't want to be consumed by love. A man so much as look at me with too much adoration in his eyes, and I go running for the hills.
"Where did you go? Why did she think it was better to make me believe you were dead? I mean she loved you, so much. It doesn't make sense, she gave up. Why not look for you and tell you the truth?" I stopped dead in my tracks after firing off all those questions, as a more pressing question dawned on me. "How did you find out about me?"
"I reached out to Rene on the day I returned. It was then I learned of her illness and of you."
"Wait, you've been gone all this time? You never came back?"
"No. I wanted to meet you. Rene asked that I give her time to prepare you, undo what she'd done. I agreed."
I sucked in a breath, so damned tired of crying. "Time ran out."
"Time ran out."
"It was you, the money for the funeral. The limo I saw it parked on the road at the cemetery." At the time I thought it was there for someone else's funeral. "That was you too." He hummed in answer. "I don't want to be angry at her or you." I admitted. "I'm just so damn sad. She died with a broken heart. She deserved better."
"You both did," Papa Knight corrected. "Give me the chance to make things right, now that I have the power to do so."
As I'm standing there, I had no one and nothing to lose. Serious as a heart attack I stepped toward him. The sound of soft footsteps approaching echoed through the immense hall.
"Don't give me hope only to disappoint me." I told him. "I'm not the forgiving sort. To be frank I'm petty as fuck and nothing excites me more than a challenge."
The grin that spread across Papa Knight's face was like the clouds parting and the sun coming out to shine.
Reaching a hand out he settled it gently at the back of my head and pulled me closer. "Duly noted, my daughter." A soft chuckle followed his words as he dropped a peck on my forehead. "Duly noted."
"Master Knight."
We parted and turned to face the newcomer, a girl, roughly my age, with bright blue eyes.
"Alana," Papa Knight stretched an arm out to her, "This is my daughter Hollis. Is everything ready?"
"Yes, Master. Mistress," Alana dipped a knee.
"Whoa." I stopped her right there. "It's Hollis. Just Hollis."
Her cheeks bloomed a pretty shade of red, eyes downcast refusing to look at me.
"I want you to think of Alana as your companion. Anything you need, ask and she'll see to it for you. Show her to her room, and see that she's comfortable," he said the last to my new 'companion', nudging me forward in the handoff.
"Where are you going?" I asked, my steps hesitant.
"I have business to attend, I will see you as soon as I return."
Well, alright then. I pulled my old phone out to check the time and noted it was minutes to nine. Odd time for business, but what did I know and more to the point who was I to question him about it.
"What if I want to reach you before then?"
"Alana will give you my personal number. See that my daughter has everything she needs, Alana." Another peck on the forehead and he was off.
A beat later, I turned to the girl, eager to explore the big-ass mansion, and see where I'd be lying my head for the foreseeable future.