Shenanigans: Quarantine Edition

“I don’t see why you haven’t visited them.”  JR leaned back against Jane’s couch and picked at something beneath one of her fingernails.  “Lu is his sister for crying out loud.  And it’s not like he has any other family.”

“He has us,” Jane replied, tucking one leg neatly beneath the other the way she’d been advised to do on her book tours.  “Lu’s not the greatest person, and Rose…she’s horrible, Jane.  You’ve never met her.  You wouldn’t know.”

JR gives Petra a look and then turns back to Jane.  “I know she kidnapped Mateo once ten years ago—”

“Eight,” Jane corrected.

“Eight.  And I know she killed Rafael’s father, but any time he talks about Emilio, he makes it sound like they hated each other.”  JR flicked whatever she’d found the way one might flick a bug away from them.

“They didn’t hate each other,” Jane corrected, again.  “It was complicated.”

Petra rolled her eyes.  “They certainly didn’t like each other.  You weren’t there, Jane.  You really don’t know.  Emilio might have loved Raf, but he certainly didn’t like him.  He at least liked Luisa.”

“And she seems to have gotten over Rose killing her father just fine.”  JR turned to Petra, who covered her hand with one of her own.  “Luisa didn’t have the same complications with him, right?”

“Right.”

Jane shook her head.  “Luisa has other reasons to get over Rose killing her dad.  Obviously.  And Rose didn’t kidnap her son—”

“No,” JR interrupted, “she kidnapped her.  As did Rafael’s mother.”

“Who Rose also killed—”

“Yeah, but it’s not like Rafael liked her either.  And she was a crime lord and she killed a lot of people and probably would have been just fine with kidnapping Mateo, too, so the fact that you’re more upset about her death than you are about—”

“She didn’t actually kidnap Mateo.”  Jane shook her head.  “You don’t know, Jane.  I’ve been around Rose.  She’s horrible.”

Petra sighed and shook her head.  “You have been around Rose exactly twice, talked to her exactly once, and when you did, she stepped in and saved you from a shitty customer.  You don’t know her either, Jane.”

“I know enough to know that I don’t want to associate with someone like her.”  Jane uncrossed her legs and crossed them again, rubbing her temples with one hand.  “She’s evil.”

“Evil people can be rehabilitated,” JR said, and she patted Petra’s hand once.

Jane shook her head.  “Not this one.  You’re wrong.  Someone like her is evil and is always going to be evil.”

JR looked over at Petra, who shook her head once in an attempt to keep her from pushing the conversation, but she had no intent to listen to her.  Not right now.  “Jane, have you ever had a dog?”

Jane’s eyes narrowed.  “Of course not.  We didn’t have the money for a dog.  I always wanted one and Mom would never let me have one.  She said we wouldn’t be able to train it properly, and it would bite Abuela.  I told her I would take care of it, and she never listened to me.  So no, Jane, I did not have a dog.”

JR nodded.  “We had a dog once.  Just one.  Bartholomew, but we always called him Bart or Barty.  He was a Rottweiler, and when we first met him, he was the meanest, most vicious animal you had ever seen.  But my father fell in love with him immediately.  My mom, like yours, said absolutely not, and we thought that was that.  But Dad adopted him anyway.  He kept him in a kennel away from us, but he spent days with Barty, playing with him, loving on him.  At first, this didn’t do any good.  Barty hated everyone and everything and was just as likely to bark at or try to bite my dad as to let him pet him.”

“Excuse me,” Jane interrupted, “but what does this have to do with Rose?”

“We didn’t find until later,” JR continued as though Jane hadn’t said anything at all, “that Dad had first seen Barty while he was on a walk and had learned that Barty’s previous owner hadn’t treated him very well.  Dad had wanted us to see him, had wanted us to know how much he loved him, how much he wanted him, even if he seemed mean.  Even if he could be mean.”  JR sighed and leaned back.  “Now, eventually, Barty fell in love with Dad.  He learned to trust him, to know that Dad cared about him.  He didn’t always like us much, but he knew that Dad liked us and so he liked us as much as he could.  A little bit at a time.  Never as much as he loved Dad, but enough.”

Jane sighed.  “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

JR looked up and met her eyes.  “Think of Rose as a dog.  I’m sure you already do, so that can’t be too hard for you.”

Petra snorted.  Then she wiped one finger along her nose and leaned back against the couch, crossing one leg over the other.  “Sorry.”  Her gaze moved to meet JR’s, and she gestured with one hand.  “Go on.  I’m listening.”

“But, Jane, Rose might be a bitch, but she’s not a dog.  Dogs can be trained.  Rose can’t.  People can’t.”  Jane met JR’s eyes and stared at her.  “You’re not going to change my mind.”

“Look, Jane, every single one of us in this family is a little bit fucked up.  I tried to get Petra thrown in jail for murdering her sister.”

Jane’s face went blank. “Petra did murder her sister.”

“And gaslit me the entire time we were together until I realized that was true.”  JR raised her eyebrows and gently squeezed Petra’s hand.  “Not to mention that she lied to Rafael about who she was throughout their entire marriage.”

“She was being blackmailed,” Jane said, her voice growing tight.  “You were being blackmailed, too.”

Petra glanced up and sighed.  “I was not being blackmailed into gaslighting JR, and I was definitely not being blackmailed into killing Anezka.”

“But Anezka was threatening the girls.  You had to do something!”

Petra shrugged.  “I didn’t have to push her off the balcony.”  Her eyes narrowed quickly.  “A lot of people we know keep getting pushed off of very tall things.  Maybe we should avoid those in the future.”

“Look, it doesn’t matter.  You’re not a crime lord.”  Jane turned to JR.  “Neither of you are.  You might have done some really bad things, but you aren’t bad people.  Rose is a bad person.”

Petra took a deep breath.  “And how great was Rafael before we got married?” she asked.  “I know you looked him up.  You know all of the things he was involved in.  Or you know what he’ll tell you.”  She met Jane’s eyes.  “You also saw how he acted after Luisa took his money—”

“Correction: You saw how Rafael reacted after Luisa took her money.”  JR turned to Petra, spreading her arms along the back of the couch.  “I may not be a lawyer anymore, but I was a very good one, and Rafael could go to jail for not being honest with Luisa.  He knew for at least three years, maybe even longer, that Luisa was supposed to be the sole heir of Emilio’s fortune, and he didn’t say anything about it.  And from what I’ve heard from you, he drove the Marbella into the ground – anything that it is now, any success it’s had, is because of you – which means he not only kept Luisa’s inheritance, but he wasted it.”  She turned back to Jane and tapped a finger towards her.  “Which is another point in his column.  A lot of points.”

“That’s different,” Jane stammered.  “That’s Raf.  He really did change.”

“And Rose can’t?”

“Raf wasn’t a crime lord.”

“Oh, and he knew about his father being an art thief and didn’t tell the police,” Petra continued.  “I didn’t tell you about that, did I?”

JR’s eyes narrowed.  “If I didn’t know Rafael, I would kind of hate him.”  She reached over and touched Jane’s hand.  “I don’t hate him.  But that’s the point.  Raf changed.  People change.  Even former crime lords.  I changed.  Petra changed.  Rose has changed, too.”

“Look,” Jane said, and her teeth gritted together just so.  “I have never done anything like that.  I’ve been very good.  So it’s not everyone who does stuff like that.  Just all of you.”

JR leaned back and turned to Petra.  “You’re right.  She is judgy.”

“Told you.”

“Hey!”

“So it’s a sliding scale,” JR replied.

Jane nodded.  “And Rose is at the very, very far end.”

“I don’t know,” JR said, turning back to Petra.  “She didn’t seem so bad when we saw her.”

“You what?”  Jane’s voice was suddenly very soft and very low.  She stared at both of them – glared at them.  “You saw her?”

“Of course, we saw her, Jane.”  Petra didn’t quail under Jane’s glare – neither did JR, who thought that Jane might have had a point if Rose was still…Rose.  She didn’t move; if anything, Petra returned the glare with an ice cold stare of her own.  “The girls deserved to see their aunt.”  She blinked.  “Aunts.”

“Lu and Raf aren’t even related.”

“But they grew up together.  Just because they aren’t biologically related doesn’t mean they aren’t family.  And you’re cutting a part of that family out.”  Petra held up a hand before Jane could interrupt her. “Which is your decision.  Completely up to you.  But I’m not going to keep Anna and Ellie away from Lu.  She’s calmed down some.  And I never hated Rose.  The crime lord thing was a little bit out of the blue, but out of everyone in that family, she felt like the only sane one.  That doesn’t go away just because she’s—”

“She kidnapped Mateo, and you’re letting her spend time with Anna and Ellie?”

“She’s not in the kidnapping business anymore.”  Petra sighed.  “Besides, it isn’t like she actually hurt Mateo.  He’s just fine.  She gave him back when she said she would give him back.  He wasn’t even gone a full day.”

“Petra—”

“Look,” JR put up her hands, palms out.  “I get that you don’t like this conversation and you don’t intend on agreeing with us.  Fine.  You’re just keeping yourself, and your family, from the rest of your family.”

Petra nodded once.  “Whatever you think she is, and whatever she’s done to you, she’s changed, Jane.  She’s not out to kill anybody.  She’s settled down.  Hate her all you want, but the only person you’re really hurting here is yourself.  We’re not going to stop seeing them just because you don’t like them.  If you’re ever interested, you can come with us.”  She uncrossed her legs and placed her hands in her lap.  “Now.  I believe we were promised food?”

“Yeah,” JR said.  “I’m getting hungry.”  She leaned her head back.  “And something smells good.”

“Oh, yeah, right.”  Jane got up.  “It should be done now.  I’ll just—”  She left the room.

Petra turned to JR.  “Do you actually think that helped?”

JR shrugged.  “No.  I don’t.  Your Jane doesn’t seem like the sort of person to listen to anyone else’s opinions but her own, and she’s written so much of her story one way that she can’t wrap her head around possibly being wrong.”

Petra nodded and then met JR’s eyes.  “I would feel the same way if she’d kidnapped the twins.”

“No, you wouldn’t.”  JR held Petra’s gaze.  “You would have found her and killed her if she ever so much as threatened the twins.  Probably thrown her off a balcony, too.  I think you’ve proven yourself very capable of taking care of the twins.”

“Mmmm, that’s right.”  Petra smiled, smug.  “I just didn’t want to be the one to say it.”  She nodded at JR.  “And you would have helped me get off, right?”

JR laughed.  “Babe, I’ll help you get off any time.”

Petra’s eyes widened, and she flushed a bright scarlet.  But before they could continue that line of thought, Jane was back and gesturing them to the kitchen.  The food was done, and it was time to eat.  They could worry about all of the others some time later, if it ever came up again.

It probably wouldn’t.  They’d said their piece already, and Jane wouldn’t be the kind of person to bring it up.  That’s just how it was.