Free The Bitter End by Rue Volley Page A

asked me and I stepped back and straightened my shoulders.
    “She is here to see you, ” Miko said and I cleared my throat.
    “I came to see you and to see my brothers,” I said and Miko raised an eyebrow and laughed under her breath.
    “You a re looking more like your mother, Beth,” he said and it stabbed at my heart. I had heard him on many occasions tell my mother that she was looking tired and old and I knew he was not complimenting me at all. I decided to take the high road.
    “Thank you, ” I said to him, which is not a custom we practice here, the thanking for anything.
    He tilted his head and then I heard them crying and looked up the stairs. Miko ignored it as any “good” mother would.
    “Oh, ” I said as I walked past her quickly and she followed me as did Father as I ran up the stairs and then down the long hall until I stopped at my old room and peered in to see they had gutted it and made it into a nursery. How nice of them to do that seeing they have 100 fucking rooms here they could have done it with…but no, they erased me by gutting mine and placing the boys here. How fucking nice of them to do. I am sure it was Miko’s doing, cunt.
    I heard the crying again and my fists clinched as I stepped in and saw two nannies, each holding a bundle of evil. The thought of grabbing them both and running out the large bay window that I was read to as a child in did cross my mind. I mean if I killed all three of us now the world would be rid of the offspring, but knowing Miko she would pop out another fucking litter in a year, four this time instead of two just to collect some more pearls. I stepped up and took a breath as one of the nannies watched me closely. I looked down and saw him, one of my brothers anyway and I found my hatred seeping back into the recesses from which it came. He looked so new and absolutely perfect in every way. I then looked to the other nanny and saw my other brother and he looked just as the one before me did. I reached out and she hesitated before she handed him to me and then I turned with him in my arms feeling something I had never known before. Compassion. He opened his eyes up and I leaned in as I recognized them then I heard Miko’s annoying voice as she walked towards me and took him form me, handing him to the nanny quickly. He started to cry again. I stood there feeling awkward and totally out of place.
    “What are their names?” I asked low at first and then I asked again a bit louder and Miko looked at me and then to Father.
    “Augustus and Casius.”
    I laughed and looked at the two boys.
    “Way to ruin their worlds.”
    “What?” Miko said and I looked at her.
    “Those are really heavy names for babies.”
    “They are Roman, very strong names as they will be.”
    “Rome fell,” I whispered to Miko as I walked past her and out into the hallway. They followed me as Miko decided to be the bitch that she is known to be.
    “I th ink it is time for you to leave,” Miko said.
    “Cas and Auggi, ” I said as I looked at the room.
    “What?” Miko asked me and I looked at her.
    “Nicknames for the boys,” I said and Miko looked at Father.
    “Thomas? Ask her to leave.”
    Father looked at me and then he did what I did not expect him to do.
    “Why don’t we go to my study and talk , Bethany,” he said as he started to walk and Miko looked as if she would be sick. I smiled at her as I looked back and the babies cried in the room. She would be a horrible mother; she already was and for some reason my heart ached for my brothers already, as if I would ever have the chance of knowing them.
    I sat in his study as he lit a cigar and puffed on it. The smell of it was thick and would choke me if I had n’t become accustomed to it when I was little. He always had a cigar or pipe and I found it addictive like incense or expensive oil. I had actually purchased pipe tobacco at one point in my life and left it open in my penthouse to simulate the smell of it but the