An Unexpected Debt – Chapter 18

I leave the hotel room in the morning before Marcelo can come and grill me about my evening with Saif. I don’t know what to tell Marcelo. Saif left me here at the door to my hotel room with a kiss on the cheek. I wouldn’t blame him one bit if he returned to his place, slept on everything that happened, and decided I was too much work. No matter how long he had dreamed about dating me. Dreams are often not reality, and my problems are way too real for most men.

Instead of spending the money on an autocab, I grab a coffee and take the bus across town to the spaceport where the Amagi is docked. I sit and stare out the window; I’m one of the few that do. Everyone else is reading from a datapad or staring straight ahead at whatever they see on their ocular implant. I’m afraid to access my home screen or inbox. I’m sure the gossip sites have dirt on me today — stories about Saif and me, rumors about Takemo and me at odds. Most of them will be correct, and I should face them head-on, but I don’t want to. Vivian used to put her head in the sand when it came to the things people said about her on the duonet, and I didn’t agree with that. I should live up to my own standards.

I glance at the arrival board, and we won’t be at the spaceport for another ten minutes, so I finish my coffee and call up my inbox. A vidmessage sits at the top of my queue from Dominic Batista. The only good thing my mother ever did was not marry Dominic or Juan. She was done with the legal rigamarole by that time and decided marriage was no longer worth it. They signed ten-year contracts and renewed them instead.

The subject reads, “Your mother.” My breathing deepens as I imagine what he has to say to me. He knows with a subject like that, I’ll read it. Because despite everything, I don’t want anything bad to happen to my mom. He also knows I have always looked up to her. Yes, she’s hauling trash, and I’m sad about it. But she’ll live. And maybe this will make her think twice before she passes me over again.

I want to trash this vidmessage. I should trash it.

I hit play instead.

“Skylar.” There’s no warmth in his voice as he stares into the camera and straight into my soul. “I saw all the news vids about your date last night.” He laughs. “You really want to drag your mother’s name through the mud? And mine as well?” His smile disappears. “What you fail to realize is that everything you do reflects on your mom and her network. Everything reflects on me. And when you make me look like a fool, you make us all look like fools. This is not the way you were raised.”

This statement heats my blood to intolerable levels. I start to sweat and wish I wasn’t on public transportation.

“Look, I’m only going to tell you this once more. Shape up. Start showing respect for your mother and the rest of us who raised you, gave you food and a roof over your head, and allowed you to get an education. If we’d had it my way, you never would have seen the outside of the ship. A woman’s place is in the home. Your mother is the last of her generation to rule over men. This ends with you. Understood? Don’t screw up again, or that will be the end of you.”

I suck in a quick breath, and my eyes flit to the arrival board. We’ll be at the spaceport in two minutes.

What do I do with this?

Well, obviously, Dominic has fallen in with the Reformers. Their lot are some of the worst of society, a faction of men (and some women who hate themselves, no doubt) who believe women are to blame for the predicament we’re all in. But it’s a long and sordid history.

When we colonized the Duo Systems, the military from Earth that led the charge realized men made better, hardier workers than women, so they edited the genes of men to produce only other men. That’s how the Vir gene was born. And for a few generations, confined to just the military troops, it was fine. Until it wasn’t. All it took was a few men leaving ranks and having babies with women settlers to realize this was a problem. Suddenly, within only two or three generations, women were scarce. It got to the point where women were only eighteen percent of the population and in danger of slavery from the more aggressive men in the systems. That was when several women organized a military coup, took over, and formed a government to make women a priority in these systems. Only women own land on five of the seven worlds, and the relationship network system was born to give more men the chance to be with women and father children without the Vir gene.

But there’s a segment of the population, the Reformers, who want to see what we’ve built die a fiery death. They want to put women in bondage and just use us to make babies.

Weak men like Dominic and my deceased cousin love the Reformers. The Reformers give men a reason to be assholes, to swing their dicks around. They’d be happy to breed themselves to extinction because they’re too stupid to know any better.

And you know what? I’ve had it with their stupidity. I’ve had it with their belief that they know better than everyone else.

Dominic can go fuck himself if he thinks he’s going to continue pushing me around. I’m twenty-eight years old. I’m not a child without rights. I’m a woman with my own ship, my own life, and he will not frighten me into believing I have to live by his rules anymore.

I grab my bag and exit the bus at the spaceport, but I have to take care of this before I arrive at the ship because Nisrine will be waiting for me there.

Zig-zagging through the crowds, I find a vacant public comm booth and scan my wristlet to let me inside. The door closes behind me, and the booth seals up tight. I don’t hear a sound from the outside. I rearrange my hair and take a few quick, calming breaths before navigating through my home screen to my vidmessages.

“Record for queued sending,” I say, and the system beeps and blinks a three-second countdown.

“Hey, Mom. I know you’re busy handling your new job, so I’m going to make this quick. You’ll find a vidmessage attached to this one that you should watch. I just received it from Dominic.” I drop my head and consider leaving the message the way it is. Nope. “Here’s something I’ve never told you, and I hate having to tell you now. But if you ask Miguel or Dad or Juan, they’ll back me up. So please ask them. Dominic is bad for you. He has rained terror on Ana and me for years, decades now. He has psychologically abused us, even Jukia, and there was nothing we could do about it. None of the dads wanted to help because Dominic would cause such a problem. I tried telling you…”

My voice catches, and I have to stop and clear my throat to continue.

“I tried to tell you so many times. You kept saying things like, ‘You don’t understand him,’ or ‘He’s such a kind and loving man under the surface. Just give him another chance.’ Remember? Do you remember saying those things? You were too busy to do anything about it anyway, but we tried to tell you. Mom, it’s time to sever his contract. I won’t deal with him ever again, especially with the vidmessages he’s sending me. Here’s the ultimatum, and I’m sorry it’s come to this. It’s either him or me. I’m here, and I love you. I’m willing to go to the moons and back to get your ships back for you. What’s Dominic going to do for you? Huh? Watch the attached vidmessage and find out for yourself. I love you. Let’s go forward together. Call me when you’ve made a decision.”

I stop recording, attach the vidmessage from Dom, and then I stop.

What are you doing, Skylar? This is madness. Delivering an ultimatum to Mom is complete and utter insanity. She’s been under the spell of her network for decades, longer than I’ve been alive. They’ve allowed her to concentrate on her business and be the head of the family like she was meant to be. In her eyes, they’ve done the work they were supposed to do, kept the children alive, and kept her flying. What more could she want?

And with Dom controlling all of her communications, she’ll never see this, anyway. No matter what I title this message to try to slip it through. He has an iron grip on everything she sees.

I chew at my lip for a moment and consider this. If she could even receive this message, would she believe any of it? Would it make a difference?

I groan and turn around to pace the tiny booth, around and around. I wish I had someone to ask for advice. I have no relationship network of my own. Maybe Saif, but I don’t think we’re there yet, and he may still give up on me. This is not something you take to a second date if we have one. Marcelo just learned of this, but I’m not sure he’s ready to see Dom at his worst. I can’t ask Ana. This could send her into a relapse, and she looked so good the last time I saw her. Jukia is a kind person at heart, but she’s hands-off about everything because Dom is her father. She can’t choose sides. She knows he’ll lose his temper on her next if she does. Carlos and Lia are friends, but they’re employees.

No one. I have no one except Vivian. But I have kept the truth of my life from her, and it’s going to be a problem now. I never told her. I was strong, and I kept this to myself because Dom threatened to take my life away if I said anything.

Why didn’t I tell Vivian?

That’s looking like one of the stupidest mistakes I’ve ever made.

“Save vidmessage,” I say, and the file zips away to my Saved folder.

I squat down in the booth, press my back to the wall, and close my eyes.

I’m going to have to confess to Vivian. I think it’s my only option. It’ll go as well as when I confessed to Marcelo, I’m sure. And she may not even believe me because I have lied to her for years to keep this secret, this horrible secret that my mom’s network was broken. If other people knew this shame, I would never have a network of my own. I already fear Marcelo will dump me. He may be done with me after he sees the stories from last night.

Marcelo, Marcelo. What I need to do is end our business relationship before he gets in too deep. I’ll confess to him and hope he doesn’t disown me as a friend. It’s the best I can do here.

I sniff up. I didn’t even realize I was crying.

My life is over. This will get out, and it will be the end of everything. No one will trust me again after they realize I’ve been lying for decades. If they even believe me now.

Damn, Skylar, for someone so smart, you really are fucking stupid.