I frown a little at Kent, blinking. What?
He folds his hands and waits patiently.
“What,” I say, hesitating. “What do you want to know?”
“Everything,” he says, raising his eyebrows. “I want you to tell me everything he said to you, and everything you said in response.”
I frown at him further. “Are my conversations with my father not private?
Kent leans forward a little, the corners of his mouth pulling up. “If you want to have private conversations with your father,” he says slowly, “you can have them off my property. But in this house? I’m entitled to know everything. Including the words exchanged between my ward,” he looks pointedly at me, “and my potential enemy.”
I cock my head to the side. “I thought you and my father were allies,” I say, crossing my arms.
“Do allies leave each other to be shot at parties they threw? Do they conveniently leave the room moments before an attack?” Kent shakes his head slightly. “Our alliance is on shaky grounds, Fay, before this wedding happens. Right now, Alden and I are tenuous at best.”
He stares at me then, silent. Waiting patiently for me to talk.
I clear my throat, looking away and trying to think. What did we just say to one another?
“I’m waiting,” he reminds me.
“I know,” I say, a little sharply. “I just…I’m trying to remember precisely.”
I throw my mind back, thinking hard. I don’t usually catalog my conversations so precisely. But I guess, in a Mafia household, you have different instincts when it comes to these sorts of things.
“He asked me if I was okay, after the party,” I say, closing my eyes so I can concentrate. “And I told him I was fine, that you got us out.”
Kent stays silent, allowing me to continue.
“Then, he asked if I’m happy here.”
“And your answer?” Kent says quietly.
I look at him then. “That I am. Happy here, I mean. But he told me that if I wanted to come home and live with him instead, that I’d be welcome to do that. I told him I’d rather stay here, though. With Daniel, because he’s my fiancé.”
“And thennnn,” Kent says, moving his hand slowly throw the air, inviting me to proceed. I can tell he’s growing impatient by my hesitations.
“And then,” I said, putting a hand on my hip, “he asked me if I’m happy with Daniel. And if I love him. And whether or not we’ve been…intimate.”
Kent raises an eyebrow at this, smiling a little. “And what, Fay,” he says slowly. “Was your answer to that.”
I narrow my eyes at him and move on. “I told him that I’m very happy with Daniel, and that of course we’re in love. To which he replied that I’m still very young, and that if I wanted him to introduce me to some new options, that he’d be happy to do that.”
Kent nods slowly at this, still watching my face carefully, clearly processing the implications.
“I told him no,” I say, turning towards the door. “That was it.”
“Was that all, Fay?” he asks me, and I turn back to him.
“What?” I ask, confused.
“Are you sure? Take a moment. Try to remember if there was anything else.”
I swallow then and realize – shit.
I had left something out. Not intentionally, not really – none of my conversation with my father was important enough to warrant keeping a secret from Kent. Instead, I’d rather be open. But somehow, I did forget the most suspicious bit.
I hurry my next words out, eager to have this finished. “He asked me if I had anything to give to him.”
“What did he mean by that?” Kent asks, frowning.
I shrug. “I have no idea. I told him I didn’t. I don’t. Then he left.”
Kent nods, waving a hand at me in a dismissal, so I walk out of the office and head towards the back garden.
I’m slightly shaken by the experience, to be honest – first talking to my father, and then reporting the conversation to Kent. I know that I’m a pawn in their game, but I hadn’t realized that I’d be expected to report, on either side, what the other had said.
How do I manage this? I hadn’t lied to Kent – had told him everything. But was that, really, my best choice? Where did my allegiances lie?
I sigh, pushing through the kitchen door and then heading out to the back garden. I need some fresh air.
When I pass through the back door, I’m pleased to see Daniel there, buttering a scone at the little table, reading.
“Oh hey, Fay,” he says, smiling at me. “Do you want some tea?”
“Sure,” I say, sitting down and feeling better already. “Actually, tea sounds great.”
Kent waits for the door to his office to click shut before reaching towards the top drawer, which he unlocks with a key from his pocket. Then he pulls it open and removes the tape recorder that’s sitting inside, still running.
Deftly, he presses the stop button and then the rewind, waiting a few moments before pressing stop again. Then he presses play and listens, carefully, to the entire conversation between Alden and Fay.
Kent smiles a little as the conversation passes, as he realizes that Fay told him precisely what was said in precisely the same order. Not only does she have a good memory, but she didn’t leave anything out. Good. This means his trust in her can remain, at least from now.
Kent smile deepens a bit as she hesitates when Alden asks if she and Daniel have been intimate. Alden was pleased by her silence, suggesting a negation, and Kent can’t help feeling the same.
The smug happiness inside him is checked, though, by the sudden wonder of why Daniel and Fay haven’t been intimate. Of course, selfishly, because he knows he wants her, Kent doesn’t want Daniel to touch her.
But they’re young people who claim to be in love, their bedrooms basically next door to each other. If Kent had been in Daniel’s place in his early 20s, he’d be sneaking over to his girlfriend’s room every night.
So why wasn’t Daniel?
Kent sighs, putting the consideration away for another day, and moves to press stop on the tape recorder just as the conversation is ending. He pauses, though, when he hears Fay hesitate.
“Um no. I don’t have anything to give you.” Fay had said, but her voice is oddly strained here. Kent takes his hand off the stop button, listening closely. “Not…right now. At least.”
Kent frowns deeply at this, listening with only half an ear as the tape continues to roll, turning mostly to footsteps and silence.
Not right now? What the hell did that mean? Did Fay expect to have something to give Alden in the near future?
Narrowing his eyes, Kent gets to his feet.
Perhaps little Fay was starting to play the game. And not on his side.
Without hesitation, Kent steps out of his room, snapping his fingers at the guard who is standing there. “Get two more guys,” he says. “We’re going upstairs.”
The guard nods, heading off to collect who he can, and Kent heads up the stairs.
He opens the door to Fay’s room, looking around carefully. She keeps her space neat, but not obsessively so. The bed is nicely made, but there are books and writing tools placed casually around the room as if she left them there unthinkingly, distracted.
When his guys pull up behind him, Kent gives his command without looking at them.
“Toss it,” he says. “The whole place. Anything strange, I want to see it. I don’t want a single corner untouched.”
The guys nod, moving into the room and starting to tear it apart.