Smoke And Mirrors ***completed***

Epilogue.

Injustice and churlish petulance plodded up the stairs with Richard. For the life of him he didn't know what he had done wrong. How was he wrong? Hadn't he tried to be a voice of reason. Tried to calm his wife but she had rounded on him as if he was on the wrong. The Bitch.

"You have gotten your pound of flesh. Are you happy now that you have ruined your brother's wedding like you managed to ruin your marriage. What kind of monster are you?"
She had shouted at Rich who had had the grace not to meet her eyes.

"I smelled a rat-"
Cora had began.

"Shut up!"
Barbara had shouted.

"Sweetheart... Please and it isn't all his fault."
He had said and regretted the minute the words left his mouth.

"It's all his fault and it just figures you coming to your favourite son's rescue after all you never really accepted Jason. Now he is gone and if anything happens to him I will never forgive the both of you."
She had said and stormed off a tensed silence following in her wake.

She had appointed herself accuser, prosecutor and judge and passed her sentence.
Richard had lived with her for so long that he knew, after all experience being the best teacher told him it was wise if not the only option to do as she commanded. Her word was law. Talk about dictatorship. There must be a word for it in marriages.
After a week of being given the cold shoulder and having words spat in his general direction and then the you are dead to me silence he had been left with no option. Rich wasn't far behind after receiving the brunt of her anger which was equally as effective.
At times like this he wondered where his common sense had been when he was choosing a wife. Weren't there any young stupid docile damsel he could have bagged for himself?
But if someone was called Richard St. Trenton I he deserved everything he got and Barbara which was more the pity. But he could have done worse but then again if there were fates worse than death he knew that first hand.
Now that he was here he was conflicted of his course of action and doubtful of his ability. Rich a coward if there was ever one had asked him to be the biblical John and prepare the way for him before his coming just to make sure Jason wasn't murderous or with any objet that could do bodily harm in handy.

"She put you up to this?"
Jason asked the minute he opened the door the question coming as a statement.

"Despite contrary opinion I am my own man who does what he wants."
Richard said the words sounding hollow even to him after all he had never done what he wanted ever since he married. He tried to sound tough but the effort was so transparent untrue that it didn't fool Jason.

"Are you planning to drink that?"
He added his eyes on the bottle of unopened  whisky In Jason hand.

"I was just planning to soak in it and let my body absorb it."

"Being sarcastic doesn't become you."

"I haven't fallen off the wagon you can now rest easy. If you have to  report that there is a payphone around the corner."
Jason joked the smile foreign in his gloomy face.

"That's a relief."
Rich actually breathed a sigh of relief glad his ass was out the line.

"She really has you over the barrel."
Jason observed grinning for the first time in days.

"You have no idea but is it true I have always played favorites with Rich?"
Richard asked already uneasy with the new shaky ground.

"I know I am not your biological son so I have never harbored delusions of being equal to Rich."
He spat the name which left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"Just because you aren't my biological son doesn't make you any less my son and I am ashamed you felt that way. I have failed -"

"You aren't very open but you have been the best dad I could ever ask for so you haven't failed."