Page 86 of Bound By Stars
When I burst into the living room, my mother stands next to the fireplace, staring into the holoflame.
“Why the hell would you do that?” The words burst out of me before I can find better ones.
She calmly turns to face me as the door slides open behind me again.
My dad pats my back as he passes. “Jupiter, there you are. Did Gianna hunt you down?” He says it like he wasn’t just at the bottom of the ship checking in on their stock of bots.
I stand opposite the fireplace, gaze flicking between my parents. “How could the two of y—”
“You’ve had your fling, Jupiter. It’s time to get serious now.” My mother puts down the empty glass in her hand and squares her shoulders.
I frown. What is she… The announcement. It feels like so long ago after the escape pod bay, the cargo hold, and Weslie shutting the door in my face.
“The girl needs to know the reality of the situation.” Her tone stays infuriatingly even and matter of fact, like she’s reminding me about a tutoring lesson.
“It didn’t have to be like that. You had me lead her into a trap.”
My father pauses between us.
I point at each of them. “And worse, you two sto—”
“You are my heir. Even Earthers understand what that means.”
“You didn’t have to hit them with the announcement without warning like that, Sabine.” Dad raises his eyebrows.“Besides, even if Jupiter never married, the company wou—”
“Be serious, Jason, it’s time to get him back on track. This little crush has been a distraction for long enough.” She purses her lips, staring into the flickering holoflame.
“It’s not just about a crush, Mom.” I take a deep breath. This is it. I opened the box and now I have to lay it all out.I don’t want your life. I don’t want the company.Lies. Theft. Ripping off Earthers. No wonder they want us to stay on our own planet. I don’t want to be a part of what they’re doing.
“The moment you return to your normal life, it’ll become clear that she has no place in it.” She glares at me. “You are too important.”
Important? The company would keep going without me. With anyone else at the helm. No, I’m not too important. I’m toovaluable. Something for her to offer up to create another alliance for the Dalloway corporation. Currency in a game of power.
Something twists and burns inside of me. I swallow it back. “You don’t know what I’m feeling. You’ve never even asked.”
She laughs, picking up the glass from the mantel and swirling the remnants of dark red liquid in the bottom. “I know better than you think.”
“You’re forcing all of this on me, the company, the engagemen—”
“I’m not forcing anything on you. This is your life. Youarethe heir now.” She stares into the glass in her hand, her voice going quiet. “There is no one else.”
“Hale is…” The thought slips out of my mind and past my lips before I can stop it. It’s not the right time. This is all wrong.
She lets out a laugh. “Hale is too immature.”
No turning back now. “He has a decade of training before he’ll have any real responsibility anyway. He wants this. I don’t. Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“He has a point, Sabine,” my dad says, still holding the back of the couch.
She slams the glass down on the marble mantel. “I will not cede the entire company to my sister because our son wants to draw trees and waste his life with some poor Earther girl!”
I narrow my eyes. “That’s what it’s really about, isn’t it? You’re not concerned about my future. It’s your legacy you need to protect. If Hale is the Dalloway heir, you won’t be in full control anymore. Of the company. Of all of us.”
“I won’t listen to this.” She turns back to the holoflame, gripping the mantel.
“Andi lost her life and you’re taking mine. She was the one built for this, not me.”
“That is enough.”
