Too easy

Father’s study was, simply put, his private command center. Six rows of ten big LCD monitors each were entirely covering one of the walls in that windowless room. Each of the screens in the upper three rows was displaying a different news channel from all around the globe, while the lower ones were dedicated to detailed tracking of the changes in the world’s main stock exchanges.

They were currently all muted.

Placed opposite to it was a long brown leather sofa, there was also a minibar, microwave, and fridge situated next to it.

The room contained two tables, one smaller right in front of the sofa with a high-spec laptop on it and one bigger in the middle of the room on which many differently colored smartphones were lying. A single call or a click from this place could move around an enormous amount of money.

A middle-aged man in his forties was relaxing on the sofa - Gregory Amato. He was the source of mine and Viktoria’s lush raven black hair and emerald eyes, while Violet and Vincent’s blond color was inherited from our mother’s side - Natalie Amato.

Gregory's business-like appearance was nowhere to be seen as all that was left of his suit was a disheveled white shirt, loosely fit black waistcoat and a pair of black suit pants. The suit’s jacket and matching it necktie were lying next to him, crumpled into a ball. His rakish look was further strengthened by a can of his favorite cheap beer in hand.

“Would you like one as well?”

He asked pointing the can in my direction and urged me to sit down next to him.

“Yes please.”

I answered on reflex and was about to chide myself for doing that, but surprisingly my father’s reaction was a really positive one as if he was looking forward to drinking a beer with his own son. He quickly took out a few cans from the fridge and placed them on the small table.

“I’ve lost the bet, but strangely it doesn't make me feel bad. It’s good to see you back home.”

“What bet?”

My answer was accompanied by the sound of an opening can.

“With Violet, she was on the side who claimed that you will come back by the end of this week and here you are.”

“I’m not planning on coming back to the family if that’s what you want to hear.”

“Visiting from time to time and willing to take Violet under your wing is already good enough for me, the rest will come with time.”

He took a small sip of the beer. I noticed that every few seconds he scanned over all monitors in the room, never letting an important change pass by unobserved.

“How is she? Viktoria did something to her, right?”

“Yes, the screams were heard in every corner of this house. She was a mess of tears when Michael brought her to my study. Even I got angry when I saw my cute daughter in such state.”

“What happened?”

The tinge of worry in my voice was quickly caught by Gregory and an entertained expression had appeared on his face.

“I think it will be better if she tells you about this herself, it was quite traumatizing after all. Since I’ve lost the bet you may take her away on your way back to the flat. Of course, only if you still want to.”

Just what the hell Viktoria did to her?

“A promise is a promise, but what about Viktoria? Will she agree to that? I must say that your timely intervention has saved my skin.”

“Don’t worry about it, I will take care of the rest. Viktoria was starting to act too recklessly, that was a good chance to tell her a word or two, I also had enough of cleaning after Vincent’s mess. Those two won’t suddenly attack you again, at least not without obtaining my permission first.”

After drinking another mouthful of beer, father pointed to the can in my hand, implying that it was strangely full. It was too bitter for my taste.

“That’s good to know, after entering the mansion I was prepared for an ambush from their side.”

The entertained expression of Gregory's had shifted gears and went into a pure enjoyment mode.

“You should really go back to school Viktor, the place where Viktoria and Vincent are right now. It’s the middle of the week you know?”

There was probably quite a stupefied look on my face as father nearly spat out the beer after seeing it.

I totally forgot about that.

To hide my embarrassment I emptied half of the can in one go. Gregory watched me with a smile and continued:

“Oh right! You’re the only one left I have to play that game with.”

“What game?”

Father clicked few times on his laptop, turned it my way and passed the mouse to me.

On its screen - twelve boxes with ‘?’ were displayed. Under each of them was a price. Four costed 500$, four 2,500$ and four 5,000$. In the corner was a balance window with +10,000$ and a ‘withdraw’ button.

“It’s simple, ten boxes are empty, while the remaining two have a prize hidden inside. You’ve got 10,000$ to spend, but you can’t check what you’ve bought unless you either run out of starting money, won’t be able to buy anymore or press ‘withdraw’. So how do you resolve that?”

This seemed like a purely luck based game.

Getting my hands on as many chances as possible should be a proper solution.

“Is there any difference between the cheap and the expensive ones?”

“None, the price of a box is irrelevant to the chances of it containing a reward.”

Just as I was to start clicking without any further thought, I noticed something that stopped me from doing it. Father was watching me carefully, without taking short glances at the monitors, as if he was waiting for me to meet his expectations.

Is there something more to this simple game?

“Those rewards you’ve mentioned, are they only virtual?”

“No, if you get any I will give it to you in real. Both of them are worth more than your starting funds.”

So that’s how it is, now I get why it’s ‘withdraw’.

I clicked on the button in the corner and confirmed that I want to withdraw 10,000$.

“Without buying anything, I’m taking all my starting money. There should be no problems with that?”

Gregory was slightly surprised and disappointed. He took a new can of beer, opened it and slumped back into the sofa. His attention was once again shared between me and the screens.

“Four children and not even one of them gave me the answer I wanted.”

“What do you mean?”

Did I miss something after all?

“Viktoria counted purely on luck, bought two boxes and withdrew rest of the money. Vincent didn’t even ask me anything and was convinced that the rewards must be hidden in two of the most expensive ones and he actually got one. Violet bought all four 500$ and three 2500$ ones, she also got one prize and had some spare change left. In overall balance, with 10,000$, you placed third. I will transfer the money to your account later.”

One piece of information hidden in his explanation had overshadowed the rest.

This lucky goddess has missed both of her choices?!

“Father, if I may ask, what was the answer you wanted to hear?”

He looked at me and was going to say it when a small change on one of the monitors made him shift his focus to it. There was a live broadcast about an incoming hurricane. He went to grab a red smartphone and nimbly typed a message on it.

“Information, that was the correct answer and you had a great source of it sitting right next to you. After a bit of negotiation, I was willing to tell you that pressing both ctrl and alt would highlight the correct boxes.”

When the smartphone had fulfilled its communication role, Gregory went back to relax on the sofa.

Even when I had tried to move out of the box with my way of thinking it was still too constricted. However, now I understood that this was also father's method of telling me that if I won’t ask about the details then he was going to determine everything by himself.

I’m still happy to obtain that money, but I guess it’s time to get serious.

“Father I want a guarantee that Viktoria won’t mess with me anymore.”

“Don’t worry, as a neutral party it’s my job to oversee a quarrel between siblings.”

Another empty can of beer had appeared on the table.

If I had heard those words before obtaining free access to both sets of my memories, I would believe them. However, now when I could place all the shards of glass together to form a bigger picture, it was easy to discover who had the real power in this house.

Emotionally attaching Viktoria to himself, taking care of every Vincent’s failure and supplying him with money, keeping me and Vio within hand's reach - ready to interfere in our lives at any time.

“Please tell me father, what is the price of you acting as the peacemaker?”

He was about to open a new beer, but after hearing my question put it back on the table. The look in his eyes changed, it was time to talk business.

“There are many.”

The whole talk up to this point was nothing more than a simple bonding between father and son.

“One, for helping to mend your breach of agreement with Viktoria and to avoid future conflicts, you will have to attend a family dinner with us every Sunday.”

For some reason father was trying to rope me back into the Amato family, still, I couldn’t refuse this one if I wanted to live in peace.

“I agree.”

“Two, for letting you take Violet and for supplying with additional funds in the future, required to maintain a comfortable life, I want you to ruin Vincent’s current lifestyle.”

“What?”

“He starts to crawl dangerously close to the line where I won’t be able to cover his tracks anymore.”

“Can’t you just let him be and burn himself? Or cut him from the money pipeline.”

From what I knew, my younger brother, a devout Viktoria’s follower and her loyal lackey, had a long list of atrocities. Top three were:

- he had burned down the house of a guy he didn’t like. It was resolved with father’s money and connections.

- he frequently brought back home naive girls, gave them aphrodisiacs and fucked their brains out. Again father’s money was used and after the first case, a mandatory document for the girls to sign, stating that they had come here of their own volition, had become a part of this house maids equipment.

- he had poisoned Victor’s favorite dog. Never resolved, not enough evidence.

Father snorted shortly.

“I could, but I want to see how you will deal with this situation. Vincent has realized that I won’t allow him to cross certain lines at home, so he started organizing ‘parties’ with his gang outside the city. If I won’t have to clean after Vincent parties for at least three months I will assume that you have succeeded.”

He went and grabbed one of the spare smartphones placed on the side and tried to give it to me.

“Take it, there’s mine and Michael number on it, I’ve heard what Viktoria did to your phone. You can ask Michael about more deta-”

“I refuse.”

“Oh?”

“You’ve made a bet with Violet, right? And she has won it, so there’s no need for me to pay for that. As for the money, you already gave me some, I don’t need more. Let my brother wipe his own ass for once.”

It sucks as more money is always good to have, but it’s simply not worth it in this case. Not to mention that this is also how the old Victor would react.

“I see. So be it.”

The spare phone was put back among the others. Father didn’t look especially surprised, which only strengthened my conviction that this was the correct move. He didn’t sit down but went to take a closer look at each of the monitors.

“That’s all?”

I asked prepared to leave.

“There’s one more thing. A few days ago, there was a call from one of the companies that I’m the sponsor of. They’ve claimed that another of my children has become their new registered member and asked for my opinion about it.”

At first, I couldn’t understand what he was trying to say, but it lasted only for a second because there was only one place that he could be referring to. My head went blank.

“Y-you don’t m-mean…”

“I guess that I should apologize. It was my oversight that our lucky girl was next to me while I had answered that call.”

“TET?”

“The full name is quite funny you know? Anyway, yes I’m talking about them. If you will ever need help in this regard, let me know. There will be a suitable price to pay though. Other than that, I won’t do anything. Trying to gather more power for yourself is something I personally wholeheartedly support, so good luck Victor.”

Seriously, am I the only one that has somehow missed the subscription of ‘esper daily news’?

While I was sitting there, still absorbing this piece of information, father had offered me another beer. I absentmindedly grabbed it and gulped down in one go.

“You’ve become quite the drinker, but go on now. I’m sure Violet’s dying to see you.”

On my way out from the study, a brief desire to ask for more details had appeared, but it was quickly extinguished by the thought of a price I would have to pay in exchange.

When I was on the other side of the door, a huge grin began to spread on my face. Not only the second imminent problem was gone, but a new alternative to choose from akin to a trump card was always welcomed.