Southern Lights

“You’re not going anywhere,” her father said firmly and gave her a hug. “I’m sorry. Luisa has a terrible temper. She’ll calm down.” He glanced down at Daisy then, who looked crestfallen.

“Are you going?” Daisy asked Sava

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I think I should. I don’t want to upset your mom.”

“She’s being mean,” Daisy said, looking angry. “I like having you here. I want a sister. Don’t go,” she said pleadingly, and put her arms around Sava

Tom led them both up the stairs, with an arm around each of them. He liked having Sava

He told Daisy to go and do her homework, and left Sava

“She is such a bitch,” Alexa said in an exasperated tone.

“I don’t know what to do, Mom. I think I should go. She’s scarier than the guy writing me letters. She looked like she wanted to kill me a minute ago.”

“She probably did want to kill you, but she won’t. The ‘guy writing you letters’ might. I don’t want you back here. I hate to do this to you, but you have to try and stick it out. Just stay away from her as much as you can. Did your father say anything to her to shut her up?”

“He tried. She ran right over him and told him off.”

“She always did, and so does his mother. The two of them together are a force to be reckoned with, and he’s no match for either of them. I don’t mean to be ungrateful for what he’s doing now, having you there, but he has no balls. Luisa cut them off ten years ago.” Sava

Sava

“I’ll try” was all Sava

“I’m sorry, baby. I can’t come down this weekend, but I’ll be down the following one. I promise. Just keep your head down and ignore her.”

“Yeah, right,” Sava

“Yeah, I guess so,” Sava

“I know. She can be pretty mean. She’s like that to my dad a lot.”

“That must be hard for you,” Sava

“My dad is always nice to me, and my brothers.” She smiled at Sava

“We’ll see how it goes,” Sava

As the two girls sat talking in Sava

“What the hell are you thinking?” he raged at her. “Saying those things, in front of Daisy, and Sava

“I don’t want her here!” Luisa shouted back at him. “She’s the result of a mistake you made, and I don’t want her in my face, or my home.” She looked righteous about it, and he stared at her in astonishment.

“Are you crazy? You can’t rewrite history with me, Luisa. I was there. You walked out on me and our boys, you dumped me, divorced me, abandoned them, and married someone else who had more money than I did. I married Alexa while you were married to him, happily spending his money in Dallas, and you didn’t give a flying fuck about us, me, or your boys. You didn’t give a damn about me until he died, and you decided you wanted your old life back, God knows why. Lonely maybe, because you sure didn’t need the money. And then you co

“If you’re so sorry about it, go back to her,” Luisa said coldly.

“That isn’t the point. I may have been honorable to you, but I was anything but to her. We all know that, and so do you, so lay off, and be civil to Sava

He went back to his study and called their older son, and invited him and his fiancée, Scarlette, to di