“Hello? Julia?”
“Sleeping beauty. I’ve been calling you for hours.”
I check the time. It’s almost noon. I never sleep in but last night took its toll on me in so many ways.
“It was a long night,” I say, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“I bet.”
“Not like that. I mean the whole thing.” The marriage, the marking. Jericho almost killing Carlton.
“Carlton told me he came to congratulate you, but your husband wouldn’t let him near you.”
“It wasn’t about me. He just gets very protective when it comes to his daughter,” I find myself saying. Am I defending Jericho St. James?
“You should see the bruises on Carlton’s neck! You can’t think what Jericho did was okay.”
“I don’t,” I tell her, picking a piece of lint off the bed.
“Are you okay this morning?” she asks seriously.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine.”
“I want to come see you. Matty does too.”
“I don’t know that they’ll let you past the gates. What did you tell Matty?”
“That you got married. I wouldn’t have said anything, but Carlton brought it up.”
I sigh. “Was he okay?”
“I don’t think he thought much of it honestly. He’s only four. All he knows is he misses you.”
“I miss him too.”
“Tell me about the marking. The ceremony is always such a secret since no women are allowed to witness except the one being marked.”
“You have a creepy fascination with it, Julia.”
“I have to live vicariously through you.”
“You do know it’s not that I want this,” I say when she sounds too eager.
“Tell me.”
“It’s a dragon tattoo all the way down my back.”
“Not just your neck? That’s strange. I wonder why he did that. They didn’t do it in the courtyard either, which is tradition.”
“How did you know?”
“Grapevine. News travels fast especially news of the mysterious Jericho St. James and his young bride.”
I groan.
“I wonder why Hildebrand allowed it to be so private.”
“It wasn’t exactly private, Julia.” I love my cousin but sometimes she gets in her head about things, and she has this fascination with all things IVI. If she knew the reality of it, I wonder if she still would. “There were witnesses and…” I trail off, too embarrassed to mention the pillory, grateful suddenly that I can’t see her just now. That I won’t have to show her the tattoo. His mark.
“And what? Don’t keep me in suspense.”
“Nothing.”
“You had sex with him, didn’t you?” she asks so abruptly I feel myself flush. When I don’t answer quickly enough, she sighs. “See if you can get to the compound. We can meet there. You’re the wife of Jericho St. James now. Surely you’re allowed to lunch at the compound.”
“I’m not so sure of anything, honestly. I’m especially not sure what he means to do with me.”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” She pauses and I realize she must be out somewhere because I hear the distant buzz of voices.
“Where are you?”
“Oh, just at breakfast. But on what he wants, there’s only one thing that makes sense.”
“What’s that?”
“Do you know how the Bishop inheritance works?”
“Bishop inheritance? Why would that matter?”
“Do you know?”
“You mean like a will?”
“I mean the way the rules have been written from as far back as there was a fortune to inherit.”
“Not really, no.” I’ve never thought about it. Never really thought it applied to me anyway.
“Right now, Carlton is the sole inheritor of the estate. And as the only direct descendent of the inheriting line, apart from you that is, he’ll remain so until his fortieth birthday.”
“Next year?”
“Yep.”
“What does his age have to do with anything apart from him being first-born?”
“There’s a catch.”
“What catch?” I ask, amazed at the extent of her knowledge.
“He needs an heir to keep hold of the fortune.”
“What?”
“Or it goes to you. If you were to produce an heir that is.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You and Carlton are the direct descendants of Marius Bishop. You are the sole descendants.”
“But an heir?”
“It’s the rule and a male heir is preferable as you know. They hate to give their fortune to a woman, but they’ll have no choice if Carlton doesn’t get busy.”
“But he and Monique are separated.”
“Exactly.”
“And she’s in France.”
“M-hm.”
I consider this and have a question of my own. “So, if I hadn’t come into the picture, if no one had figured out who my biological father was, and Carlton failed to produce an heir, then what?”
“Well, then the fortune changes lines.”
“To?”
“Leonardo, his younger brother.”
Something clicks into place then. “Your father.”
“M-hm,” she says again.
“Which in turn means you. You’d inherit if Carlton or I failed to produce an heir?”
“Well, you’re only nineteen. Your biological clock has barely begun ticking.”
“Is that why you mentioned birth control pills? Because you think this is what Jericho’s planning?”
“What else makes sense, cousin?”
“So, what, he’ll get me pregnant then take the Bishop fortune from Carlton?”
“From all the Bishops.”
“No, I can’t imagine that.”
“He is the Head of your Household. It all falls to him even if you’re the one with Bishop blood and you’re the one carrying the child.”
“I have my pills, though. Three months’ worth. And I’m sure he’d have taken them away if this was his plan. He is the one who had my things brought over.”
“True. Still.”
I am silent as I absorb the weight of this. Could it be true? No. No way. He’d have taken the pills for sure.
“Anyway, I have to go. Try to meet Matty and me for lunch soon. We can talk some more.”
“I’ll try.”
“And in the meantime, take your birth control pills and enjoy the sex because honestly you could have done worse! Speaking of,” she starts, lowering her voice. “I didn’t ask you about the sex. How was it?”
Bloody, I want to say but don’t. “Goodbye, Julia.”
“You’re no fun.”
“I’m hanging up.”
“Fine. Bye, Isabelle. Take care in that house.”
33
Jericho
I pull up to the entrance of the Savoy Hotel and Dex and I step out of the car. I toss the keys to the valet who stands looking at the car with his mouth agape.