Chapter 7

She knew that she couldn't escape answering the question that he asked at the entrance of the church. At least not for long. She kept her gaze out the window of the car as she enjoyed her moment of peace, knowing that she was eventually going  to answer at a latter time— anytime soon. 

"What did you mean back at the church?" He asked her after staring at her for a very long time. She was worth looking at. Thanks to her strucking beauty that defied old age. 

She already knew what he was talking about. Acting like she was unware would only prolong the conversation which would still end with her giving him an answer. 

"Nothing important," she replied, waving it away, though she knew Luther wasn't at the verge of dropping the topic. 

"It can't be nothing when you thought about it immediately after your daughter was placed in such a situation," he said the words between high and low intonations. "There is something you aren't telling me, isn't it?"

"Of course there is not, Luther." She raised her voice a little. 

"Of course there is," he stated with a similar pitch. "You have never kept something from me before, Harriet. Please, don't prove me wrong." 

She looked at him, pouting. He was so sure about that. She could see it in his eyes. It broke her down to know that there was this thing she had been keeping from him for a long time. She didn't think it was going to resurface after all those years. 

"Luther," he voice soften. She caressed his face. "We all have things in our pasts that we don't want to interrupt the present."

He held her hand on his face, and slowly brought it down. "Let me be the judge of that," he said, disappointed, and looked out the window. 

"Of all the things that happened today, why are you obsessed with only this one? Don't you care to find out why that woman is blackmailing your son-in-law, huh?" She said, stressing her words, also trying to change topics. She didn't know why she was getting angry, though. 

"Everyone has their own businesses, woman!" he yelled back at her. 

"Then stay the hell out of my business!" She didn't mean to say that. He was pushing her hard against the wall. She automatically regretted the moment she said those words. "I don't go about putting my nose into your past because I DON'T want to dig up dirts. You should do the same!" She moved her head as she spoke, making sure he was getting the point, though he wasn't looking at her.

"So there is actually something dirty in your past?" He asked her in a low tone, reading the guilt that was written all over her face. She was blushing. 

"You should be the judge of that," she answered. "It is quite a rough day, Luther. If I'm to choose between pampering my daughter who is broken right now, and an obsessed grown man, I choose pampering my daughter." She looked at him with parted lips for a moment then looked out the window. 

Luther stared at her, speechless. It wasn't worth fighting with her when he knew that she wasn't going to succumb. 

He did a background investigation before they could get marry, over thirty years ago. He did find few nasty things, but they didn't matter. However, this could have been surreptitious, because she was holding onto it tightly. 

"Can you please stay with me before Charles comes?" Rachael pleaded with Thomas when she was tucked in bed, still wearing her wedding dress. "Maybe there is traffic on the road." 

He couldn't say no, though there were many servants that could tend to her in the house. He had to be there with her because she needed him. Of all his three siblings, she had been the one who showed him more love and accepted him. 

"OK...I will be right in the living room with Jacob. Call me when you need me, OK?" he said, straightening the sheets over her. He kissed her forehead and walked out of the grand master bedroom that had a brown-themed decor. 

He closed the door slowly and walked out of the room. Thomas found Jacob sitting in one of the gigantic black sofa in the living room, his head stuck in his phone. Jacob looked up when he hear Thomas shoes knocking against the tile as Thomas approached him. 

"Is she asleep?" Jacob asked him. 

He slumped onto the couch, adjacent Jacob, and sighed. "No. But she will surely cry herself to sleep." He giggled. Jacob sensed the grief under the sarcasm. 

"I really feel sorry for her," Jacob said honestly, showing pity. "She put her all into the wedding for it to be ruined." He run his finger through his red hair that complemented his brown eyes and freckles and lips. "What could it be that that woman has against, Charles?" He was curious like everyone else. 

"I don't know. I thought at first that he had an affair with her like Steve said, but he sweared it wasn't." Thomas shrugged, twisting his sealed lips. 

Jacob drew into a closer proximity. "Could it be Charles is...you know, like us?" he asked with a devilish smirk. 

"Charles looks very straight," Thomas retorted. 

"Just like you?" Jacob asked teasingly, holding in front the trouser of Thomas' blue suit. "He could be like you, Thomas. Some guys who appear straight have the gay in them. You for example." He joined his lips with Thomas'. 

"How'd you know all that?" Thomas asked, holding onto Jacob's bottom lip and sucked it. He put one hand behind Jacob's head and carried the other down to his arse, and squeezed it lightly, earning a loud moan from Jacob. They fought for dominance for a long while, enjoying the heat of their body against each other, even though they weren't naked. The sensation was indescribable. 

The sound of someone clearing their throat startled them, parted them from the heated lip sync battle that Thomas was about to win. 

"Your sister wishes to have a word with you, Sir," the butler, Gibson, said to Thomas after he settled himself neatly. 

"OK..." Thomas nodded, sending Gibson away. He gave them one last, expressionless, look before walking back quietly into the hallway he had come from.