I rode the elevator down all the way to the first floor and stepped swiftly into the car I’d pre-arranged. The driver already knew the destination.
Meeting at Jude’s used to mean clustering into his cold, generic luxury apartment. It now meant having a cozy evening at a family home.
He’d swapped his penthouse apartment for a cozy little – I say little, but you must remember we’re billionaires – suburban house in the Heights, easily commutable to his and his wife’s respective companies.
It was nice, but I was too much in a business mindset today to feel particularly relaxed in the way one should be ahead of visiting a cute young family’s home. I did bring a gift for Olivia though. I intended to be the favorite uncle, and I knew Sylvester had already begun digging his claws into her. Metaphorically.
By the time my car pulled up at Jude’s there were already two cars outside that didn’t belong to the house. I’d been beaten here, then. I climbed the stairs, hoping to say hi to Elsie and Olivia, but the meeting had already begun. Presumably Elsie had escaped with the baby of her own free will to avoid being drawn into our schemes. A shame, because she was quite sharp-minded herself.
Jude, looking stately in his armchair, folded his arms together. “What’s this grand scheme Sylvester hinted at, then?”
I realized he was looking at me. “Ah. Hello. Yes.”
Some greeting. It was time to admit that my efforts had come up with nothing. And to ask for the help of my brothers, in the hope one of them had more of an inkling of what to do about Apollo than I.
I glared briefly at Sylvester. “Rumors of my grand scheme may have been over exaggerated. I did have a scheme. Several schemes in fact. Unfortunately, since I gave an indication to Sylvester that I was crafting them, they have all turned up nought.”
Winston looked surprised. It was rare for anything to surprise him, so this cut my pride particularly deep. “Nought?”
I nodded, my mouth a grim line.
Sylvester was exaggeratedly shocked. “But I thought you had aces up your sleeves! You’re our genius child!”
I was getting a bit agitated. “Well, has any other genius managed to turn anything up we can use?”
“We appreciate all your efforts, Forest. Always.” Jude was straight-faced and serious as usual.
Sylvester even had the grace to pale slightly. “Yeah, sorry, Forest.”
Somehow, Sylvester’s rare apology stung even more. It wasn’t that I felt slighted by my brothers. I knew they appreciated me enough to rely upon me being able to find us a way out of situations nine out of ten times, and that any jesting was just that: in jest.
But I was disappointed in myself. And the fact that they could see that was... humiliating.
I was grateful when Winston broke the uncomfortable silence. “I didn’t get anywhere either.”
The others mumbled similarly. It didn’t make me feel any better. I’d rather one of us had something to use as collateral against Apollo than for us to have collectively... nothing.
It seemed Apollo hadn’t started a war unprepared. He’d sealed all lines of communication to his workers, whether with bribery or threats we did not know. He must have paid a small (or large) fortune to make every part of his businesses unbreakably secure, and to have every inscrutable happening covered-up. Because each time one of us had gotten a hint, a clue, or gotten close to discovering something, we’d all found ourselves at a dead end.
The conversation progressed. I faded out of it, uninterested in mulling over what-to-dos if we had no concrete ideas.
I texted my driver.
Forest:From Jude’s to office, please. 5 mins.
“I need an early night, actually, everyone. Got a big networking event in the office tomorrow. Need my sleep.”
I said my goodbyes, got into the car, and made my way back to work.
I wasn’t quite sure why I’d lied to my family. Possibly I felt disappointed in myself for not having a better solution to our problem. They relied on me to know what to do on occasions like this. And on my skills, which were usually helpful in solving issues.
It would also have rung alarm bells regarding my mental health if I were to let them know I was headed back to the office, and I didn’t like to worry anyone. There was no need.
The only issue, really, was that I was finding it increasingly difficult to sleep. The thought of my half-brother out there, succeeding despite his unethical workplace tactics and generally unpleasant personality, tended to boil my blood.
And unless I was tired enough to crash into a desperate, dreamless sleep, it was usual that Apollo’s stupid face or voice would swim into my head just before I was about to drift off, and jolt me awake into a furious sweat.
Out of all my brothers, I think I was the one who hated Apollo the most, and I wasn’t sure anyone quite knew why.