Collateral

The principal welcomes Rose to her office.

“Hello, Miss Griffith,” she says. “Meet Mr and Mrs Griffith.”

Rose looks at the two people already seated in the office.

“Hello, Tom, Diana.”

Tom shakes his head “Hello little sister.”

“How is Father?” Rose asks.

“He died a year ago.”

“I am sorry to hear that.”

An awkward silence hangs in the air. Then Tom speaks up. “No, you are not.”

“What do you mean?”

“You are not sorry. You hated Dad’s guts.”

Diana holds Tom’s shoulder. “Darling, please. Calm down.”

Tom shakes his head. “No, I am not calming down. Rose ruined the family name and dragged it through the mud. And then she has the guts to send her devil-spawn child to the same school as our son?”

Rose rolls her eyes. “The family name. Are you listening to yourself?”

Tom sighs. “You always messed up. Constantly. And Dad had to clean up your messes.”

Rose rolls her eyes again. “Dad didn’t care about me, he only cared about the family name.”

“That is the same thing.”

“No, it is not.”

“Yes, it is, the good name of the family provides us money and status.”

“Get over yourself. Not everything is about status.”

“Maybe not in the ditch, you are currently living in. But for me and my Father, it was very important. And you tried to destroy it.”

“Please tell me, Tom. How did I try to ruin your status?”

“Think about it from my perspective. Back then I was twenty-three years old. The son of major shareholders of a big company. I had just finished my law degree and was starting soon in my father’s company. My wife and I were trying for a baby, my father’s first grandchild. The media would celebrate my achievements.

“But then everything changed. My fifteen-year-old little sister got pregnant. And even worse, from a lowlife. Dad wanted to lay low for a while, so the press wouldn’t find out. Away was my spotlight. But that was ok, I just had to wait until she got an abortion, and then everything would be back to normal.

“But no. You didn’t want an abortion. You wanted to keep the child. And when Dad and I explained to you that it would have been better for the family if you just had one, you kept resisting. When Dad drove you to the ripper doc to have it removed anyway, you even stabbed the doc, jumped out of the window, and stole Dad’s car. And then you disappeared from the radar. No way we could talk to the press anymore.

“When Finn was born, was I interviewed by the press about the birth of Father’s first grandson, the person inheriting the company? Where are pictures of me and my family on the front page of the newspapers? Was I interviewed on a talk show about the birth? Of course not. Dad wanted to lay low. Because of you. And when the ban was lifted, the media didn’t care. I never got a chance to be in the centre of the spotlight. You stole it from me.”

Rose looks at her brother, dumbfounded.

“So you are blaming Ellie? For preventing Dad from paying a bunch of reporters to stroke your Ego?”

“What do you mean? Paying reporters?”

“You know that all the journalists who ever interviewed you were paid by Dad, right? Or did it in exchange for favours? Who is interested in a rich kid that has everything handed to him by his dear daddy? Who’s biggest achievements are finishing a degree and starting a family?”

“I worked very hard for what I achieved.”

“Please, you never worked hard in your life. You got everything handed to you. I busted my ass off, risked my health, safety and life to raise and provide for Ellie, and what did you do. A right, you got a fancy degree and then Dad gave you a cushy job.”

The principal interrupts. “Okay, I hear there is a lot of animosity between you, but we are here to talk about Finn breaking Ellie’s arm.”

Tom looks at the principal. “If you punish Finn for this flagrant and laughable accusation, then your school can forget about my generous donations.”

“Okay, we won’t punish him.”

Rose reaches for her gun but realises she left it in her car. “What the hell? You are just letting my brother blatantly bribe you.”

“I don’t like your tone, Miss Griffith, and let me tell you, Mr Griffith is right. This is nothing but a blatant accusation. Maybe Ellie broke her own arm, to get out of suspension, and then blamed Finn. Who knows.”

Rose storms out of the office. “This isn’t over.”

Rose paces through the hallways while she takes a couple of big breaths. So, Ellie isn’t safe here. She needs a new school. Rose is definitely gonna keep Ellie at home until she can start somewhere else.

She takes a deep breath and walks back to the office. She tries to enter but hears the muffled voices from her brother and the principal arguing, and decides against it. She decides to listen at the door instead.

“So, I paid a lot of money to increase the grades of my son, and you are telling me his failures still made it into the system.”

“I am sorry sir, but no worries, I’ll edit them again. Finn will look like a star student.”

“And when I told the teachers to look the other way when my son misbehaved, I didn’t mean doing it in such an obvious way that a nine-year-old notices.”

“I am sorry sir, I will speak with the teacher in question.”

“Thank you.”

Rose shakes her head and walks away from the door. No way that moving her kid to a new school is enough. Her brother is going to suffer.