"Dad." I had not entirely moved out of his way before he marched through the door. I followed close behind him as he strode into the kitchen, where everyone was gathering.

"Reed, you had a straightforward task this summer. Do the community service and keep your head down; that was all. Yet somehow, you managed to mess that up; it is astounding your capacity to disappoint this family." My father marched up to the island in the kitchen and slammed a file folder onto it. His eyes caught Jeremy's and narrowed. "And you, you are encouraging this inappropriate behavior."

"Dad..." I tried, but my father was on a roll.

"Son, if the next words out of your mouth are not 'I am sorry for the embarrassment I have brought to the family,' I don't want to hear it." My father then saw Ames moving in the background. "Miss Amelia, you look as wonderful as always. I apologize for the early hour of my visit, but I was wondering if you and your young guest could let my family and me alone."

"Of course, Mr. Redfield." Ames nodded and grabbed Sage's hand as they left. You may think my father was respectful to Ames or pleasant, but he likes to keep his dismissal of Ames wrapped in nice words. Father called her Miss Amelia since father doesn't respect that Jeremy married a human. Dad said he needs to talk to his family, meaning he doesn't count her in that family. It was apparent to me, but that may be because I knew it was there.

"Now, son, you need to explain why I still hear your name through the gossip circles of polite company," My father demanded.

"Dad, I don't know what they are saying in the gossip, but I haven't done anything that breaks to rules of my probation, community service, or witch law." I know he has higher standards that he is holding me to, but I figured I'd start small.

"Reed, don't lie to me. Christine Willowwhite saw you at the house during Ruby's party. Then you tried to get Ruby to lie for you, but I know you were there." Jeremy's head snapped to me, and he closed his eyes. He knew he didn't need to reprimand me because I was already going to get it.

"Dad, I..."

"Oh, and how I hear that my son, heir to the Redfield name, is taken with a warlock. I thought Jeremy had fallen with his choice, but this, Reed, is something. I ask you, do you do these things to get a rise out of me, or is it simply because you don't care about the business, the family name, or your sister's reputation."

"Uncle..." Jeremy was not happy listening to the attack on Ames; I was neither. She was kind and open-minded, tried to understand people, and didn't deserve that.

"And you, Jeremy, I entrusted you with him under the impression that you could protect him and stop him from this inappropriate behavior. A warlock, why not just throw your lot in with common gutter rats? That might be better than a warlock. Reed, can't you see how this looks to our business partners? It looks like you are sympathetic to the enemy; you are gullible with her convincing you that she is trying to change. It looks like you are a fool for not reporting her first. But as always, as your father, I am here to clean up your messes since it is obvious from our conversations you will not do what is necessary. First, I got your sentence reduced for community service. Congratulations, you are done with that. You will move home and live at home for the next school year. Finally, you will cut ties with this warlock; we will deny ever meeting her; any associations never happened."

I was dumbfounded. I had no words—everything he said was wrong.

"Uncle Ray, I don't like how you are talking about Amelia, alright? You have told me your opinion; frankly, I don't care. She is amazing, beautiful, and the mother of my child, so as long as you are in this house, uncle, you need to treat her with the respect she deserves. When it comes to Sage, I think Reed has it right, and the rest of polite society has it wrong. She has already met with a mind walker. Even the mind walker and the interviewer were surprised that an Arden could be that good at heart."

"So, it is true. Reed, you have taken up with an Arden. This is worse than I thought family is full of manipulators and liars. No, Reed, we are leaving immediately. I will not stand by and allow you to ruin the credibility of this family."

"Is that all you care about? The credibility of the Redfield name? Father—"

"Reed, this isn't—"

"No, this time, you are going to listen to me. Yes, I made mistakes in the past, but knowing Sage, helping her is not one of them. She is better than me in more ways than I will ever know, and she is stronger than me to go through all the things she has and still be so good inside and out. She deserves the world; if I can give her a piece, I will move mountains to do it. I will not run away because some busybodies and business people are gossiping. That is what they do." I took a deep breath and lowered my voice. "The goddess told us to protect those that need it. To help those in need, and that is what I intend to do, and if those people look down on me, then I feel sorry for them, to be so lost from the goddess' vision of what a witch should be."

"An Arden, good god, Reed, you are standing in front of me in love with an Arden warlock." My father threw his hands in the air and paced from the kitchen to the living room a few times. I hate to admit it, but I felt my cheeks heat up at his words about loving Sage. I hadn't said that to myself, and my dad was proclaiming it to the world. "Is this why you are having my lawyers look into marriage contracts, Reed? Please tell me that you aren't thinking of marrying the girl. Eloping or some nonsense?"

"Reed?" Jeremy stared at me in horror, and I knew that his horror wasn't about who Sage was but at the thought of me marrying so young.

"No, Dad, Jeremy, that is to help Sage get out of an arranged marriage. Her mom signed her away as a baby, and Sage wants to get out of it, and I thought we have some of the best lawyers in the magical community that maybe they could find her a way out of it," I said. "Sage said that she met him and that he scares her. I want to help her start a new life free from all that warlock stuff in her past."

"Oh, goddess!" Jeremy exclaimed. "Sage has an arranged marriage."

"You didn't think the lawyers needed to know that the arrangement was in the warlock community. You do know that they have different laws. Reed, that was something they needed to know; Oh, Maiden, guide me." My father started pacing again.

"Uncle Ray." Jeremy, the negotiator, is coming out. I can hear it in his voice. "Let's think about this. The facts are that Reed's and my name are already associated with Sage, as I am her sponsor. The company will look cowardly if we pull out of her recovery now, especially if she finishes her conversion without us. But if we stick with her and she finishes the conversion think of the good that will do. Suddenly, your wayward son, who has never committed to anything, can be pronounced the savior of lost souls. That would be good for our name. Sage could be a blessing to turn Reed's reputation around."

"Well, I would like to take a look at my investment. If you think this girl could be good for the family's reputation, I'll see if I can get behind it." Listening to them talk about Sage as if she was a commodity made me sick, and Jeremy would hate it if we spoke about Ames that way.

"Of course, uncle, let's go get her." Jeremy grabbed my shoulders to guide me away.

"Oh, was she the skinny girl from earlier?" I was about ready to respond to my father in a colorful way when Jeremy squeezed my shoulders to silence me.

"Yes, uncle." Once we were in his office, where the girls took refuge, Jeremy let me go. "Reed, you need to breathe. There are only so many methods that can get through to your father, and that was one of them. He sees people as tools that he can use."

"You would never allow him to talk about Ames that way," I snapped. Sage made her way over to me; she ran her hands up my arm to soothe my rage for my father.

"You are right, Reed, but the difference is that I don't need something from him, and you need him to help Sage get out of that arranged marriage. So, will you pick a fight, or will you make him listen to you and help Sage?" Jeremy asked.

"Reed," Sage whispered. "It is better for me to be a tool in his tool belt than a nail."

"What?"

"People take care of tools because you never know when you need them, but if a nail falls, you just leave it to throw away." She pulled my hands into hers and nodded to the door. "Let's show Mr. Redfield how useful I can be."

"Sage, whatever mean or degrading thing he might say, just ignore him, ok I don't believe a word of it, and I don't think that you should either." I had my forehead resting on hers now. Looking around, I noticed that Jeremy and Ames were gone.

"Kiss me, you idiot." I did. I released her hands in favor of holding her waist close to me. It wasn't a long kiss, and it did not leave us gasping for breath, but it said what it needed to say. "I am a big girl, and I can take anything your father has to throw at me because you believe in me." Her hand held my cheek; I couldn't help but turn into it.

"Let's get this over with so he can leave."

"I thought that he was taking you with him?"

"Where did you hear that?"

"I might have been listening to you all talk." She looked away from me, blushing. I don't know how but recently, she has been blushing around me when she didn't before. "By the way, I thought your little speech was amazing."

"Sage, I'm not going anywhere." I grabbed her hand, knowing on some level that Sage would probably handle a conversation with my father better than I would handle this. Sage was one step behind me as we left the room. We made our way over to Jeremy, Ames, and my father. She tried to pull her hand out of mine, but I wouldn't let her, so she was stuck with me.

"Arden, nice of you to join us. I see that you have my son and nephew convinced you are special. Now it is time to convince me that you aren't like the rest of your kind." He emphasized the 'your,' and I could already feel my blood boiling.

*****************************************************************

Hello Beautiful humans,

Welcome to the wonderful world of Ryan Redfield. He was fun to write, and I can't wait to put him against Sage. You may be surprised how that is going to go down.

So mote it be