the beautiful people }{ open

[cynthia]

Over the years Cynthia had come to rely on Christian a lot, but one thing she knew he would never agree with was questioning their mother on anything. She loved Danna just as much as he did, but she could see her mother's mistakes when they were made. Very few of her siblings had seen the biggest of all, not many distrusting Jesse Mercer the way that she did. All of her Vulcan siblings did, but Charlotte was too laid back to worry about much of anything while Cathryn was too wary to face verbally questioning her mother's judgment. Only Cameron was really on her side with things. His father, Paul, was the best thing that had ever happened to Danna. Jesse was only a distraction from the pain of losing him, her soul mate if such things existed. That left it up to them to try to fix things, to get those Mercers out of the manor and out of their lives.

Because the Mercer children, despite their Deville blood, were no good, either. In fact, since the twins, Danna hadn't born any decent children. In reality, Cynthia had always taken a while to warm up to her siblings. For the longest time she thought Chelsea, Cheyenne, and Caliban were totally useless. But now she saw the truth of it. She saw what useless and lack of talent really looked like. The twins and every child after them were getting worse and worse. And it was all Jesse's fault. He had to have done something to her mother and he would pay for it.

The golden child that he was, Christian was occupying most of Danna's time, which was a definite plus. She would have to convince him to postpone their move to Tokyo for a while, convince Danna they would be of more use to her nearby. Even Cameron planned on moving to Edinburgh, to be close by if he was needed without being too close for anything to seem suspicious. Now he was speaking with the others, trying to convince them to help while Cynthia walked through the gardens, plotting.

It wasn't easy. Cynthia used to fight with Danna all the time over Jesse. This time she would need a more subtle approach. Danna didn't like being told she was wrong, so she would have to be shown. They would have to ensure Danna didn't lose face if she changed her mind. After Amsterdam they had parted, so perhaps all of these years apart had lost him some of the trust, whatever bond had been between them.

There was nothing she could get from Jesse and his children that she couldn't get from her real children, the true Devilles.

With a heavy sigh, Cynthia sat on a stone bench, flipping her blond hair out of her face. Green eyes like her mother's surveyed the plants around her, cringing as a Kissing Tulip stretched over to lick her cheek. She batted it away as it continued to prod at her, sitting tall and crossing her legs as it slumped away from her. Good as she was at games like this, she was drawing up a blank at the moment. Then again, changing the minds of most people was easy, but she was dealing with the ever proud and stubborn Danna Deville.

Let Cameron change their minds. Cynthia had a more complicated task ahead of her.