Drinks With Helen

"I can see your car outside, why don't you come inside?" I asked my mom. Mr. Azure had given me her personal phone number before leaving earlier and I made the decision to call her first.

"Isn't it right to be a gentleman and walk your mother in?" she asked. "Why the call?"

"How many thugs did you call for me this time?" I asked.

"What? Why would I call—"

"Don't make things difficult and let's have a face-to-face conversation," I demanded. "You haven't learned your lesson? You can't touch me! Do you think things will change if you stand behind a wall of thugs or something?"

"Are you fucking hearing how you're speaking to me?" she raged.

"Yeah! And you better be bringing me a present!" I snapped before hanging up.

It took another seven minutes, but Helen eventually walked into Lombardi's with two of her own bodyguards, one of them being the guy who I let run earlier. They were immediately hassled and patted down by Travis's people before my mother was allowed to step to our table.

"What the hell was that call all that about?" she scowled.

"You should know. Where's my gift?" I asked.

"Where's the one with the busted head?" Helen asked her bodyguard.

"He's not here," he said back.

"I wonder if the men Travis has are better than the thugs you called in earlier," I said.

"Want to find out?" she scowled. I couldn't get a good read on her to tell if she really sent those guys or not. Sure one of the guys was here with her, but he could just as easily be one of Emily's people.

"Can we attempt being civil first?" I rolled my eyes. "Why the hell did you want to talk to me again? Shouldn't you be planning your eldest son's funeral?"

"What can I do about his decision? He already made it," she scoffed.

"Were you the one helping them behind the scenes?" I asked.

Helen's face changed for a second, so quickly that if I blinked I might miss it. How could someone who can't hide her emotions completely do so well in operating a business? She should be facing charges as well.

"I only tend to business matters in the office; whatever my children do isn't my business," Helen said.

"You have no heir," I pointed out. "One's dead by his own hand and the other one just had the plastic surgery beaten out of her."

"That's not your business," she said.

"Why are you here?" I sighed.

"I came to reminisce about Anthony," she said. "Get me a drink."

One of Travis's guards returned with a bottle of red wine and two glasses. I poured us both a glass and started my cup. After watching me drink, Helen picked up her glass.

"Why so suspicious? I've never done anything to you to warrant caution."

Helen grimaced. "I trusted Anthony more than I ever trusted you."

"Ouch! Let me go cry about that," I said sarcastically.

"He was such a good kid," she sighed. "He used to hang off my pants and beg me not to go to work. I still feel bad I wasn't able to give him any comfort."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Was she just here to rub things in or something? "Is that so?"

"Yes. No one knows what Anthony means to me. And no one except a parent that lost a child knows that the most painful thing in the world besides love, being in love, or any other love there is, is unconditional love. Unconditional love is what hurts you the most in the end. It's what kills you. It's what puts the grease or butter on your hands when you go to try and grip reality again. It's what destroys your soul."

Wow. "That's deep."

"I used to play with him under the kitchen table. During dinner, he would sit in a fort he made instead of around the table. When I walked into the kitchen, he would follow and lie on the floor and trip me up every time, without fail. When I first brought him home, he was so small that I could put him in a purse and carry him around. And he'd also sleep on my belly like a cat. He was my baby, and he was taken away from me."

I looked at her skeptically. Never had I seen her exhibit this much emotion over us…. Well me at least. Actually, she was always very protective of Anthony and Emily. "Fascinating."

Helen looked at me. "How do you remember your brother?"

"I've had nightmares where I've shot myself because of the things he did to me. When we were younger, I genuinely thought he would kill me with one of his pranks. I've tried to be forgiving, but it's hard to be when you're almost drowned, or watching him verbally abuse Grandpa, who had MS," I said. "He never cared about me; he proved he could cut me off anytime. He treated me and everyone like shit, and I don't give a fuck about him at all anymore. He was dead to me a long time ago."

Helen found this amusing. "He hated you for some reason, but I understood. You were always so different. You weren't like us! You had only the barest amounts of sympathy and empathy, and just chose not to use them at all."

What the hell? "I was only like that because I had to survive. I was all on my own after all, as you and Tony took out anyone who tried to help me."

"Were things really that bad for you?"

"Let me paint a picture. When I was nine, I overheard Dad talking with his friends. They were talking about me. He referred to me as a piece of shit; he said he was sure I was gay because I had never shown interest in women. He said I had always been weird, and he knew that other boys hit me but he never did anything, so I could learn to defend myself. No one was looking out for me," I said.

"Because you knew how to look after yourself," she injected. "You didn't need any help."

"When I was 15, I was very sick, and I didn't hear the end of it for years. How you stayed with me overnight in the hospital and missed work over it. Yeah, thank you for not just letting me die, that was so considerate of you," I rolled my eyes. "I won't even go into all the ways you tried to destroy me as a person."

"You still can't get over us leaving you to do your own thing?" Helen rolled her eyes. "I really do fucking hate you. You look just like me as well, but you complain too much."

"No one cared about me in this family ever, so why should I care that your eldest committed suicide so he didn't have to pay for his crimes?" I asked. "I was never a part of what you guys had, so I'd never understand why you care so much."

"Are you telling me Tony deserved to die?" Helen looked a bit angry.

"No, but we can't exactly rule out karma, can we?" I smirked.

She looked at me, appalled, and poured herself another glass of wine. "I acknowledge what I did. Why can't you get over it?"

"Because I'm not a forgiving person."

"What about closure?"

"Overrated. I hate you too much."

"Why hate me?" she scoffed.

"You hung up the phone when I was kidnapped," I said.

"I didn't want involvement in that kidnapping!" she defended herself.

"You sabotage me any chance you get," I pointed out. "You had some thugs try to kill me!"

"I didn't send any thugs your way!" she insisted. "I don't have any of those for little matters like you."

I was tired of her constantly looking down on me! "I'm going to fund the Jameson project, you know. With this, I'll be able to find your dead son's secret fund as well. I'm pretty sure there's at least $700 million in there since that's how much could never be accounted for. I also know you teamed up with Jared Jameson's family to make sure he fails."

Helen went silent, all traces of sadness dropping from her face and outright fury taking over. So that was her real goal. "But you're his precious mother, I'm sure you know where it is already. So I don't know why you still have to mess with me."

God, how could she sit across from me and tell me with a straight face that mushy lie? What fantasy world was she living in? I almost went crazy believing her! "You—"

"Relax, I only want half of it," I smiled.

"You want me to give you half of his money that even I haven't been able to find?" She looked visibly ticked, giving away her true intentions. She didn't care that her eldest was dead at all and she just wanted to try to interfere with any business I had going on.

"Relax, I know you're busy buying up stock," I teased. "That's why I'm offering to just take his stocks."

"What did you just say?"

"If you give me Tony's stock, I'll consider it a deposit and make sure you have lots of funds to work with in the future." I smiled.

"You already know where it is, don't you?" she hissed.

Yeah, and your precious son told me the location of it himself. All the details to find it were safely locked away with Grandpa's will. Your favorite son's account paid for the entire property I lived on! "Maybe I do, maybe I don't."

"If you tell me, I can make your in-laws like you," she said. "I didn't think that low-class bitch would really fall for anything I said, but she ate it all up."

"I'm already over that, so no need. Look, I listened to your rant about how much better Tony was and the real reason you're here. I don't know anything about Tony's accounts, and I wouldn't care about leftovers from the Todd family," I rolled my eyes. "I also don't really care that your son died, so stop using me to vent."

"Will you at least show up at the funeral?" Helen asked.

"I don't have a reason to be there," I told her.

"You're the worst," she said.

"Not much coming from you."

"Do you have to be a smartass until the end?"

"It's my trademark," I toasted her and downed my cup. "That's one bottle. Let your bodyguards take you home."

"We'll continue fighting in due time. I'd really like it if you showed up for the funeral," she said. "Let's at least give him a proper sendoff as his blood."

"I'll think about it."

"It's in two days; I'll send your team the details," she smiled, signaling for her bodyguard to help her up.

"After the funeral, we'll go back to normal?" I said.

"Agreed."