Page 139 of Heartless Heathens

“As if there was ever a doubt who the fuck you were.” Sonny sounded angry like I had a choice in any of this.

I placed my arm back in the terrarium and she arched her head up to a hanging branch, uncoiling herself off of me and onto the tree. I closed the glass door on the enclosure and before I could fully turn around Felix was standing there, in my space and far too close to me.

“Are you crazy?” He lifted my chin up to look at me as if to examine whether I was alright or insane.

“I didn’t know she was dangerous. Why would any reasonable person have a venomous snake in their home, in an unlocked enclosure?” I asked and he opened his mouth to argue but hesitated.

“You think Arlan Black was a reasonable person?” he asked. “Medusa is one angry bitch, she practically spits venom. I don’t know how the fuck you did that.”

“I didn’t do anything.” I laughed. “And her name isnotMedusa.”

“Well, she’s yours now, along with the rest of this place.”

“Why would he give all of this to me? He didn’t know me. I don’t get it.” I asked, rubbing my arms anxiously at the idea of all of this being mine.

“Because you were his family,” Felix said.

“Because of guilt,” Sonny added.

“Because he knows the three of us have enough and you have nothing. It was always meant to be yours,” Corvin finished.

I knew all three were pieces of the truth. Would Arlan Black have been a doting, loving grandfather? Would I have grown up to be a different person had I grown under his wing? Would I be hard and distant the way he’d made Sonny?

“So what does this mean?” I asked them.

“It means you’re one of us. It means you belong with us, and not Frollo. You never have. You should have grown up alongside us. Hell, you’d probably be with one of us by now,” Felix said.

“Just one of you?” I asked and Corvin chuckled.

“I guess we’ll never know now,” he answered, soothing a fraction of the worry that crept up at the idea that there was a reality somewhere that I didn’t have all three of them.

And then I looked over to Sonny realizing that I was living that reality.

“I don’t want it,” I told them and Felix shook his head at me.

“It’s already yours, he left it all to you.” He pulled out the piece of paper from his pocket with the words the lawyer kept repeating.

None of it made any sense.

I leave everything to my granddaughter and heir, Romina Black.

My eyes filled up with tears and they blurred my vision before dropping heavily onto the paper. I made out a few words but what stuck out was my name, written multiple times throughout. Romina Black.

Romina Black.

Romina Black.

I had always been Romina, but now my name had a weight to it, an anchor to hold me steady as I fronted the world face first.

“You scared of living now that you finally get the chance to be free?” Sonny was baiting me, and I clenched my jaw to keep myself from answering in a way that I’d regret.

Corvin noticed the way my nostrils flared.

He noticed everything.

“What’s the deal with you two? Why are you making each other miserable?” he asked and Sonny crossed his arms over his chest and huffed. “Have you not noticed?” he said to his brother.

“I mean everyone’s weird around Sonny.” He shrugged but Corvin didn’t let up and I shrunk back with embarrassment.