Page 84 of The Fallen Man

“It’s times like this that I remember you’re Aiden’s sister,” said Evan.

“What did we do?” asked Dominique looking at him, mystified.

“I thought it was brilliant,” said Aiden with a shrug.

“You have a very warped sense of fun,” complained Evan.

Dominique laughed whole-heartedly and Aiden grinned.

Jackson

The Restaurant

Jackson thought that all things considered the hearing had gone well and Dominique’sI hate youspeech had gone over perfectly, although Evan was still stewing about it. Jackson checked his phone for the tenth time, and pulled Katie’s fidget toy out of his pocket.

“I feel like I’m being managed,” said Evan. Dominique and Aiden were laughing about something on the other side of the table.

“No,” said Jackson. “We’re managing parts of your life for you.”

“I dislike that,” growled Evan.

“Yeah, but you don’t actually want to be in charge of managing Ralph Taggert, do you?”

“I don’t want Ralph Taggert to exist,” snapped Evan.

“Well, unfortunately for you and everyone else, he does,” said Jackson. “What we’re trying to do is make sure he doesn’t cause friction for you or Olivia and minimize his friction for Grandma.”

“I dislike that Olivia is talking to you about it instead of me.”

Jackson flipped the toy around, trying to reframe that into something that wouldn’t piss Evan off more.

“That isn’t your fault,” said Evan, tossing his napkin on the table. “That’s on me.”

“This is my job,” said Jackson. “I’m supposed to manage the Ralph Taggert’s and Olivia being Olivia accepts that at face value.”

Evan gave him a look. “And I have made it clear that I don’t want to talk about it, which means that Olivia is out in the coldif she wants to process anything to do with her family. I need to do better.”

“Olivia has never said that,” said Jackson.

“Thanks,” said Evan. “But next time let me know when you’re managing Ralph Taggert. I would like to be kept in the loop.”

“OK,” said Jackson, he was surprised enough that he stopped fidgeting with his toy and Evan took it out of his hand.

“Better than cigarettes?” he asked, a smile quirking up one side of his mouth.

“Surprisingly, yes,” said Jackson. “I had forgotten that when I was fourteen, before I started smoking, I had a butterfly knife. I used to play with it all the time.”

“And then you found nicotine?”

“Yes. But, strangely, this little doodad reminds me of the knife, but you know, way more socially acceptable than either the knife or the smokes.”

Evan chuckled and handed it back to him. “Where’d you get it?”

“Oh,” said Jackson, “uh… a friend of mine gave it to me.”

Evan’s head tilted like he knew Jackson was being evasive, but fortunately Jackson’s phone lit up with a series of pictures of Dennis Houge talking to various people.

“That’s half the ethics committee,” said Evan, looking over his shoulder. “Who’s the douchebag?”