Conference room - Vincent 1

Vincent took out his hands from the pockets, corrected his posture and met father’s gaze straight on exactly like Violet did.

“Ekhm… father, you already know everything there is to know. Let's not prolong this and just tell me what do you want from me. And didn’t you owe me a favor? You know, after you did some stuff for our lovely twin lolis, me and Viktoria should also-”

“Vince, what's the thing you don't want me to know about the most?"

Interrupted him father with a gentle voice as if he was talking to a kid.

“Don’t worry, I know the consequences of turning back to you for help and will take care of everything myself, just like Violet-”

Heh, good try that was perfectly ruined by evoking Vio’s name.

“Idiot! How many people have answered your calls or wrote back to you today?! Don’t you realize?!”

The first one who grew tired of his excuses was Viktoria. She angrily turned her head back to look at him with so much force that her long ponytail nearly whipped the nearby chair. Vincent was a very convenient outlet for the fuming rage trapped within her.

“What? Wait, there’s no way… no way… impossible…”

My brother didn’t bother with hiding his phone anymore and used it to make a call. First person, second person… he kept vainly calling different people while father began to speak:

“Are you trying to contact that funky group of your friends who were calling themselves The Cobra Sword? Don’t bother, I decided that they had a bad influence on you and cleaned them up a bit. Three of them are awaiting trial for illegal drug trafficking. Four for illegal possession of a firearm. Seven for assault and theft. The remaining five only had some very minor offenses like the destruction of public property, but…”

With each sentence the color faded from Vincent’s face. Nevertheless, he still stubbornly waited for any of his calls to connect, repeating ‘come on, come on, at least you’.

“... aren’t all of these offenses minor? At least compared to the thing that nearly every member of The Cobra Sword recently did. Until now they’ve either found willing girls during wild parties or lured them with promises of easy money and a good time, which was easy to cover, but kidnapping a teenage girl, gangbanging her for two days and forcing to overdose drugs. That's something even I can't and don't want to hide. It’s strange how fast your friends started selling each other when faced with at least twenty years in prison or even a death penalty if the judge deems this act to be a one of extraordinary cruelty. They've even snitched the person who has been providing them with funds and protected them for so long. Poor Vincent Amato, an innocent young guy with simply the same name as yours took the blame, but don’t worry, he will just spend some time in a prison and will become quite a wealthy man upon leaving it… if he won’t break after the treatment that prison life has in store for a teenage girl rapist.”

Father mercilessly continued his speech, even though Vincent already gave up in the middle and was sitting with his head down, only from time to time he slightly shook it as if still not being able to fully believe what happened. Seeing him like that, Viktoria wore a complex, hard to read expression, but in the end, without saying anything, she returned to thinking deeply with closed eyes.

“Will you be fine?”

Whispered Vio, visibly worried about me despite still remaining tears in the corners of her eyes. I gently wiped them out for her, patted a little and said:

“I don’t know.”

From the moment I had the chance to experience how Nero power worked like, I had been trying to convince myself that the thing I didn’t want father to know the most was the geas bounding me. It was a heavy secret, but one which consequences I could more or less predict. If I was right, then Viktoria’s state of concentration and father’s choice of words when he asked this question weren’t coincidental.

“Why is everyone acting as if we’re already done with Vincent? We didn’t even start yet, he still has to answer my question. Vince, what's the thing you don't want me to know about the most?”

“There’s nothing more… everything I tried to hide was connected with that group.”

“Nero, could you please remind my son of the words he has to use in his answer? Apparently, he forgot about them.”

Sitting in the back, Nero made a short pause from helping himself to some snacks brought by one of the maids. There was a whole cart placed on the side with steaming dishes and cold drinks - focused on my family affairs I didn't even notice its arrival.

"Listen well, the magical phrase is 'I don't want you to know about'."

“Father, but there’s really nothing more…”

“Vince, don’t you see that I’m trying to help you here? Wash all of your dirty secrets in public and make you start anew on the path I choose? I know that you always felt omitted in our family and acted more like an additional background detail, but don’t you want to change it? When being placed next to the confident Viki, rebellious Vic or brave Vio do you really want to remain as the rapist Vince? Especially when you never did anything like that.”

Wait… wait! What?

“He didn’t?”

The one who asked this question in a surprised tone was Violet and I wholeheartedly agreed with her astonishment. We had all seen tens of cases when Vincent came back to the mansion with different girls and heard or sometimes even saw the sex marathons they cultivated.

“No Vio, he’s innocent… well, some drugs and other minor kinky stuff might have been involved, but Vincent never touched a girl against her will. Although, that didn’t change the fact that he tried to use Amato family power to cover the cruel thing that the people from his gang did. The best part is that when I’ve promised them a smaller sentence in exchange for blaming Vincent, they did it without batting an eye. Now, do you see Vince? They never cared for you and simply thought that you're a useful tool. I know a much better environment for a precious ticket craftsman like you.”

“You even did that just to prove your point...”

VIncent's voice was becoming more and more dejected, he slumped into the chair, leaned hard against it and started watching the ceiling. Viktoria stood up from her chair and brought him a glass of juice which he chugged down without thinking. After that, she sat next to Vincent.

One important part of what father said didn’t fully register in my brain yet and Vio was simply lost at this point, turning her blonde head all around and trying to fish for hints of understanding from everyone’s expression.

… huh? That’s strange, it’s true that his loins were active from a young age and the girls always looked exhausted and wasted when he finished with them, but now that I think about it they were always his age or older and the most of all - willing. I kind of automatically accepted that it wouldn’t be strange if he started abducting and raping them soon, especially when he began his pseudo-gangster life as it fully supported this theory.

Did I really ignore him to the point of completely misjudging him?

The monochrome twin looked as if everything that father said was an old news to her, but the smoldering anger didn’t allow her to remain silent for too long:

“Of course he didn’t! He’s our brother after all and I, as the oldest, made sure that he would never cross this line. He’s good looking and can get any girl he wants without resorting to such disgusting things like rape. Vincent! You’re starting to get on my nerves, will you tell our father already about that or do you want me to do it?!”

… only by a minute, but seriously, what the hell is going on. Was Viktoria giving him advice on how to pick up girls? They’re sharing a secret? And what the fuck does she mean by saying she wouldn’t allow it when she herself nearly suffocated me?!

An additional verbal push and a physical pat on the back from his dear sister finally helped Vincent to break through the wall of stubbornness and made him say the long-awaited line:

“I don't want you to know about...”

Since it was Sunday, I decided to hit the gym with guys first thing in the morning and find myself a nice girl to keep me company for the rest of the day. But when I came back home with a shapely brunette, Viki was already waiting behind the front door and instantly changed the usual day I was expecting into something entirely different. She said ‘take me to a pub, secretly, I want to try out how it feels like to be drunk’. I didn’t bother with asking about anything as the sudden requests of this type had happened more than a few times already and she rarely wanted to share the reasoning behind them. Without a delay, I ditched the brunette and started planning our outing.

The place I usually visited with the cobras was way too unfitting for my sister, but I knew one guy who owed me a favor and after a single call, I reserved the entire ‘Blue Cave’ for us.

Viki probably doesn’t care for other people anyway, she just wants to avoid showing father the curious and drunk side of herself… and I’m happy that it will be just the two of us, there weren’t many occasions for that recently.

“Remember! Not a word to anyone.”

Said my lovely sister, when we got off the taxi. It was funny that for a simple visit to a pub she decided to put on a long elegant dress as if she was going to a high-class restaurant. Additionally, I was certain that no other girl would ever decide to pick something that was partially white - partially black triangle, it looked as if someone wanted to check how many small black triangle stamps can be placed on the white dress without them touching each other.

“I know, you’ve said it a lot of times already.”

And you've made me wait an hour before the maids completed this double-twintails hairstyle.

I led her down the stairs to the cellar of the nearby big building where Blue Cave was located. The pub consisted of three main rooms, the central one with many tables and the counter behind which a wide variety of colorful bottles were standing, there was even a jukebox in the corner. On the left of it was the game room where all kinds of entertainment such as a billiard table, darts, party games, karaoke and board games were located. On the right was the dancing room with a parquet and high-quality sound system.

The walls and a lot of other smaller details were in the shades of blue, but the main reason behind the name Blue Cave were the numerous niches that looked as if they were carved with primitive tools in which small lamps emitting blue light were standing.

Blue Cave looked entirely different to how I had remembered it when there were almost no people inside. Except us, there was only the barman behind the counter. Viki didn’t waste time and decisively sat on the bar stool, after that she started curiously scanning all the different bottles placed nearby.

“I want to try everything.”

The familiar barman shot me a quick glance and nodded to say hello.

“Hey. Give her something really, REALLY delicate at first or there will be a lot of cleaning for you to do.”

“Come on Vince, don’t spoil the fun, let’s try the green skull-shaped one.”

“Viki, that’s absinthe.”

The barman apparently didn’t take my earlier warning seriously as he already reached for the bottle from the shelf and... it spectacularly slipped out of his hand, crashing loudly on the hard floor.

“Oh, so it only looked nice, in that case, this one!”

She pointed at a white bottle of Caribbean rum.

Maybe this one will be fine.

I gestured to the barman who just finished cleaning the shards of glass to bring us the one she was pointing at. Very carefully, he took down the white bottle and poured a glass, first for me then for Viki, but when he tried to pass it to her, he slipped on the remains of the previously spilled absinthe. Another loud sound of breaking glass could be heard.

“This one wasn’t that good either, huh? I wonder if there’s anything up to my taste here.”

Before she finished picking another one at random I whispered to the baffled barman.

“Give her something weak and really tasty first, then you can slowly increase the alcohol amount, otherwise everything will break. Don’t ask any questions and don’t worry, I will pay extra.”

This extra bit of reassurance at the end allowed him to regain his professional smile.

“Miss, may I suggest for you to try Santa's Sleigh and Strawberry-Coconut Daiquiri first?”

Luckily, the names intrigued Viktoria enough to stop her from pointing at a bottle of Red Gorbatschow 60%.

From this point onward it was easier, only one in three drinks suffered from accidents. We drunk them merrily, talking about the taste and making the barman sweat as he had to use his entire bartender’s knowledge to prepare drinks which passed Viki’s test. After that, slightly tipsy Viktoria wanted to play some games but quickly grew bored with them as it wasn’t that much fun when each of the darts she threw hit a perfect score or when with a single hit of the billiard cue she finished our attempt at this game before even allowing me to try.

Just being with and watching her is fun, way more fun that when I do this with those cheap bootlickers.

“Vince! I know, maysbe… with my eyse closet! Look!”

She chugged down the glass of martini, grabbed a fistful of darts, closed her eyes and threw them all at once - in the wrong direction. There was no spectacular result, no lucky occurrences, they simply flew a little and landed safely on the floor, yet it seemed that this was the best possible outcome for my lovely sister as she started giggling, holding my arm with one hand and trying to catch her balance.

Seeing her like that, having fun with a huge smile on her face and acting like a child, filled me with a really warm and pleasant filling. The strange, yet charming, double-twintails followed her every little move and gesture, spreading alluring and captivating aura which was at the same time filled with innocence. I couldn’t stop myself anymore.

I’m the only one she shows this side of herself. In front on father she will never be anything less than a perfect daughter caring only about our family’s name, in front of our servants she’s the terror incarnate, in front of Victor she’s… I don’t want to think about this one...

I will blame it on us being drunk.

Carefully, reminding myself to not startle her and activate her defensive system, I put my hands on her slender shoulders and gently turned my way. When I tried to find suitable words to convey the feelings that were on the verge of overflowing, my heart was beating like never before. A strange sensation was swirling inside my stomach. Viktoria's emerald eyes were reflecting a shade of blue emanating from a nearby lamp, it only served to further enhance the mysterious fierceness I could never find in the eyes of other girls.

When I was about to open my mouth, she noticed the change in the atmosphere and said:

“Vincent. Stop. We’re going home.”

Her words regained their usual sharpness, it looked that she wasn’t as drunk as I thought she was, but it was too late. I had to get this off my chest or it would continue to torment me every single day and night.

“Viki, I love you…”

When I tried to follow these words with action and plant a small kiss on her seductive lips, the lightbulb of the nearby lamp exploded, stopping me.

So that’s her answer…