Persephone
Hades loved Persephone.
I am an idiot. And a masochist to be considering making a deal like this with that man.
My drive home is a blur. I take in the Montgomery house as I turn into our driveway. I remember when it was beautiful. Since the fire, it’s almost as though the earth around it has come to life. Like it’s determined to take back what it believes belongs to it.
The Montgomery and the Abbot families share a cul-de-sac. Two massive mansions bound together but seemingly set apart from the rest of the world.
I push the button and the gates slide open. I see my stepmother, Irina’s, car parked at the front door. My father’s nurse, Celia, is here too. Her older model Honda looks out of place in this neighborhood.
I pull into my usual spot and climb out, hugging my coat to myself. I take a moment to look at the darkening sky. They’re predicting snow. Several feet of it.
Movement catches my eye at the Montgomery ruin but when I turn to look, I see nothing. No one.
Maybe it’s Nora or her grandfather.
They died within days of each other. He in the fire that destroyed the house, she in the chapel by her own hand.
I shake off the chill that accompanies the thought. They’ve been dead for five years and there’s no such thing as ghosts.
It’s what I tell myself every time I think I see something.
I wonder where Hayden is staying. Maybe at his club?
Hayden’s grandfather had left him the building when he’d passed away. That was one of the things that had turned father against son in an already tenuous relationship. Hayden’s father, Jeremiah, had believed it his right to inherit the dilapidated building along with the rest of the Montgomery fortune, which was built on real estate, much like the Abbot fortune. My father was the third of the Abbots to add politics to his résumé.
Hayden was Jeremiah’s first-born. Jeremiah was a senior in high school, his sweetheart a sophomore. She’d gotten pregnant and given birth to Hayden and his twin brother, Ares, just before she turned seventeen, and then she’d disappeared. Word was that she and her parents were paid off by Hayden’s grandfather to leave town without the boys and it made sense because Hayden’s grandfather took them in.
Jeremiah met and married Carry, Jonas’s mother, when he was closer to thirty. He formally adopted Jonas, who was only a year younger than Hayden, giving him the Montgomery name. They adopted Nora soon after that.
The Montgomery house belonged to Hayden’s grandfather and he lived in the house with Jeremiah and his new wife and family. I remember how intimidating the older Mr. Montgomery was. How scary I always thought him, especially given the stories Nora told me.
I was sixteen when Hayden’s grandfather passed away in the fire that Halloween night, two days before my father found Nora at the chapel. I remember my parents discussing it at the dinner table weeks later. Remember the rumors my stepmother never tired of recycling about my dead best friend.
Strange how similar mine and Hayden’s stories are. We both have our wicked stepmothers. But my father never turned against me. And I love my half-sister.
Jonas and Hayden hate each other with a passion. Ares, the few times I’ve had contact with him, seemed better able to handle his father than Hayden ever did.
The front door of the house opens, and I watch Celia step outside. Irina is behind her, cigarette in her hand. She’s still in a robe and looks a little worse for wear after the party. She watches me from the front door. I want to talk to Celia before she leaves.
“Celia,” I say, walking quickly toward her. The temperature seems to have dropped since earlier this morning and a cool wind has picked up.
She smiles to me. “Percy, I’m glad I didn’t miss you.”
“How is he?”
She gives me that usual sort of sad look that says I’m denying the truth. “He’s the same.”
“Well, that’s good, right?”
“Sure. Listen,” she glances back at the house. “The cigarettes…she shouldn’t smoke inside and certainly not in his room.”
“She’s smoking in his bedroom?” God. What is wrong with her?
Celia unlocks the car door. “I tried to tell her.”
“I’m sure she was very receptive. I’ll talk to her.”
She puts her hand on my arm. “Don’t, Percy. It’ll just upset you. And it doesn’t matter. It's good you decided to move him. You’re making the right decision.”
“Move him?” I’m confused.
“Yes. That’s what I was told at least. We’ll be back later this afternoon.” She looks up at the sky. “Before the blizzard, I hope.”
“I’m sorry, what? Who told you we’re moving him?”
She looks at me strangely.
“I haven’t decided yet,” I continue. “And I want to be close. Besides, I can’t afford—” I stop.
Hayden.
My breathing becomes harder as my hands fist.
“Listen, I’ll be honest with you. It’s better for your father to be in a facility. It’s better for everyone.”
I can’t hear her right now, though. How dare he?
She checks her watch. “I need to go. I’m late for my next patient. I’ll see you later today. I’m coming back to help.”
I nod because I can’t speak.
“It’ll be okay. You’ll see.” She gives me a hug and I realize how much I miss the warmth of another person.
When she’s gone, I turn to climb the stairs to the front door which Irina closes before I get there.
I enter the big house and unbutton my coat. It’s cool inside, although warmer than out there.
“Irina,” I call out, following the waft of cigarette smoke up the stairs to her room.
I knock when I get to her door and open it when she doesn’t reply. I find two open suitcases on the bed and a maid folding clothes into them.
Irina walks out of the closet carrying a smaller Louis Vuitton case.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
She hands the case off to the maid and turns to me, taking a drag on her cigarette.
“I’m going on a trip. Should make you happy.”
“Trip where?”
“Florida.”
“Florida? Why?” She only goes to Florida to visit her plastic surgeon.
“Because I hate snow.” The cigarette is down to a stub and she puts it out in the already full ashtray on the nightstand beside the bed.
All her furniture is still here. She refused to give anything up. I wonder how my father could stand her. She’s the most selfish woman I know. But maybe he couldn’t. They haven’t shared a bedroom in years, and I did the math. She was pregnant with Lizzie when they got married.
“We can’t afford any procedures. You do realize that?”
“It’s not coming out of your tight wallet, Percy.”
“Then whose?”
She grins. “Hayden Montgomery.” She gives me a once over and I read the hate in her eyes. “I wonder what you did for him to have been so generous with me.”
I open my mouth to tell her off but stop. If Hayden wants to pay to send her away, fine. I’m not going to argue that. That’s between them. And she can think whatever she wants about me.