Page 18 of Fragile

I dashed a hand across my jaw as the others waited, holding their breath for my reply. The fucker was right at the end of the day, I wasn’t fully qualified yet.

“No comment.” My reply was bland.

“No comment, the pussy’s way out.”

“I’ll take that under advisement,” I replied with a lopsided smile.

“You’ll take my fist up your arse first,” Max volleyed back.

Winking, I batted, “Whatever turns you on princess.”

There was a whoop from the guys and again, another wave of popcorn went in the air.

The next hour was spent talking shop. When they eventually left, the living room was like a pigsty. I decided to leave it. Let the lovely Leonie see what carnage men could create.

I cleared a couple of bottles away, not wanting to look like a complete slob. I thought about Max’s ribbing, I had just over another week until my exams and I was bricking it. I hadn’t done hardly enough work.

Having achieved a 2:1 in my Law degree at Queen Mary’s, I was now in the fourth year studying for my master’s; having chosen to specialise in Criminal Law and Justice.

My father expected me to join his firm and depending on the outcome of my exams would offer me an apprenticeship at his practice. I’d turn him down on principle. I made my own way in life and yes, I had every intention of rising from the ashes, just not the ones that my father had created.

I needed no handouts and had contacted several other law firms in the city. Once I achieved my LLM they would bite my fucking hand off, irrespective of the fact that I was a Knight. Dear old Dad wouldn’t like it, but I would tell him to go fuck himself; something I had done several times in the past. Garrett and I butted heads regularly, it’s just what we did.

Garrett was a Senior Partner at Slaughter and Knight based in Mayfair. He was a criminal defence attorney.

Garrett had defended some big hitters in the past and his record of case wins was almost triple figures. He was high profile throughout the legal system and his peers feared the name Knight. Our father was a force to be reckoned with; he said jump and his associates did exactly that. If you didn’t toe the line, you were toast in the sector. Fact. Even some of the criminals he defended were wary of him. Pussies.

To give him credit, my father was a successful man and extremely well-known in his profession. The jury was out (sorry no pun intended) as to whether he was well respected though. How could you admire someone responsible for putting criminals back on the streets? We’re not talking druggies, thugs, and small-time petty theft; my father only involved himself with the high rollers; white collar crimes mainly whose wrongdoings involve fraud, embezzlement, and contract killings; that type of shit.

Garrett did have some standards; he would never associate himself with rapists; trafficking, abusers of women or kiddie fiddlers; his wife would have his balls for earrings if he’d ever involved himself in anything like that. And that also meant anyone connected to those types of atrocities. That side of him I was on board with.

I suppose I should have been relieved that he had some moral code buried in that soulless shell of his but I wasn’t. I didn’t love my father, never had; I tolerated him. As the story goes, you can’t choose your family. Something my mother had once said when I’d walked out at seventeen.

Athena Knight was Garrett's wife and mother to Asher and me. You couldn’t exactly call her loving, but she had her moments. Half British, half Greek, she was an ex-supermodel turned socialite and she thoroughly enjoyed playing the role of her husband's trophy. She involved herself in a variety of charities to pass the time, but this was mainly to take the heat off her husband; to make it look like they were doing something good with their power and influence.

Athena had been a half-decent mother, in a fashion. Growing up, we had wanted for nothing, money-wise. Affection? Well, that was an entirely different story and grotesquely overrated in my opinion.

I loved only three people; myself (first), my brother and Max. In respect of my other friends, I would label my feelings as fond.

What could I say, I was a heartless bastard, my main focus in life was my future career and I had every intention of becoming more successful than Garrett.

And yes, that was something I wanted for myself, but my ulterior motive was to fuck with my father; knock him off his perch and prove to him that as far as I was concerned, he would always be second best.

Did that mean I had Daddy’s issues? Fuck yeah.

Leonie

I had thoroughly enjoyed hanging out in Asher’s room.

After dumping my stuff and familiarising myself with that section of the house, we’d chilled out on his bed and I’d felt so relaxed. That horrible thought of Simon coming into my room in the middle of the night was now gone. Thankfully, he’d never taken it that far, but it had always been at the back of my mind. I’d had nightmares, ones that involved me being pinned to the bed and not being able to push him off me.

In Ash’s room, we spent most of the time listening to music whilst he introduced me to all the pictures of boys he’d matched with on Tinder. He showed me an image of Mark who he’d already spent the night with. He was a tall, handsome black guy but looked a good bit older in my opinion. I kept this to myself as I was shown more and more pictures of Mark. Smitten I would say.

After saying goodnight, I went back to my own room on tiptoes for some odd reason. I wasn’t sure why I was trying to hide the fact I’d been in Asher’s room as his brother now knew his secret.

I thought back to Gabriel’s unenthusiastic expression as I arrived. He looked like he regretted agreeing to me living there. His friends seemed nice enough though. Yes, they had all given me the come on but that was just guys being guys. They had puffed up their chests but at the end of the day, they didn’t know anything about me; they were just being flirty.

My bags were still dumped at the bottom of the bed and I hadn’t put the bedspread on yet. It was so obvious that I had packed in haste, considering everything was just shoved inside my cases.

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