Hallowed Halls. Malachi couldn't free his mind of the phrase as he and his mom followed an overly dapper butler. The estate that sprawled across the lush corner lot of 3 Washington Blvd. wasn't what he was expecting. He knew the Lemen were well-to-do or at most borderline rich. He assumed their status was based solely on their former Vice President patriarch and knowing the right people on the right pedestals. The Lemen also had a way with words—constructing lies and bending them to mimic the truth. It was a talent. A powerful ability that Malachi didn't suspect would also garnish wealth, not wealth like his mom's family. He underestimated them, again.

"Mr. Lemen doesn't condone being disturbed while he's working." The butler stopped in front of the closed French doors. Eggshell curtains covered the glass doors shielding the happenings inside from the eyes of whoever traveled down the marble-floored hallway. The bald man's crow's feet deepened as he narrowed his eyes and pulled his wiry eyebrows together, "His work is important."

Malachi tsked behind his mom which earned him a clipped glare from both the adults before him. He scowled at the man but gave his mom a timid shrug. "He's not a governor anymore. What important thing could he possibly be doing?" His words were under his breath but he knew his mom heard him from the way she cleared her throat.

"Like I said at the front door..." His mom squared her shoulders with a tilt of her head—her shoulder-length onyx tresses swept across her navy blazer effortlessly. "You can either disturb him now or I'll disturb him later, publicly."

"Threats do not work here, ma'am." Flints of anger sparked in the butler's eyes.

"Got us down the hallway." Malachi didn't cower under the man's gaze. "Doth protest too much. Mom, let's just go." He tugged on her arm but she didn't stir.

His mom chuckled lightly to herself then placed a hand on her chest sincerely. "I get it. Your job is to follow the directions and procedures of your employer. I understand, wholeheartedly but ignorance is not bliss and it's time for my son...our child..." She gestured from herself to the man who was hidden behind the closed doors. "Needs to know the truth. Now, step aside and I'll open the door myself." A pleasant smile spread on her lips.

The butler brushed his eyes up and down the woman with utter dislike then he scrolled his sight to Malachi. "You're that son." He humped with disdain and superiority that he wasn't entitled to and saunter back down the hallway.

"He wanted to say 'black' didn't he." Malachi watched the man retreat missing his mom twist the doorknob.

"Simone...what are you—" The male voice called Malachi's vision back in front of him. Nausea and indignation swarmed underneath his flesh, turning his stomach with a sickness he hadn't been acquainted with. "Malachi...son."

The familiar title tied to his name birth a chortle from Malachi as he entered the room joining his mom's side. It had to be a joke and jokes were meant to be laughed at.

"Nah," Malachi shook his head at the man's chocolate hair, eyes of brass, and skin of butterscotch. "You're confused. I'm not Alex or what's the other one's name..." He shrugged, it didn't matter the name of his other children—they weren't people he needed to know. "I'm not your son and you're not my dad. You just fertilized my mom's egg."

"Chi!" His mom snapped at him and he held up his hands in surrender when she turned back to the man standing behind the opulent teak desk. "Ben, I didn't come here to step on anyone's toes or cause unrest but Alex is in trouble and it's—"

"He's what?" Worry and confusion quickly took over his continence.

"Don't act as if you care." Malachi couldn't stop the words from slipping out of his mouth, they've been weighing his tongue down ever since he sent Alex to the mental hospital.

"I don't know what you think, Malachi." His eyes bore into the young man who despised him with vigor. "But I care for all my children. I do what I need to do to protect my children, no matter what they think. You don't know anything."

"Well, it's time for him to know everything." His mom spoke up with urgency. " For me to know and not that speech that you gave me years ago about it being safer to not know because it's not true. We..." She glanced at Malachi. "...can't prepare for what we don't know."

Benjamin roughly rubbed the back of his neck. "Simone," the lowness of his words would make one perceive that he was sincere but Malachi wasn't buying it.

"Don't Simone me." She stepped closer to the desk. "Speak words that aren't vague. Clear and truthful."

"He's a Lemen, mom." Malachi tsked slipping his hands in his pockets as he eased his way to the built-in bookshelf. "He doesn't know how to tell the truth."

Benjamin stretched his neck from side to side keeping Malachi in his peripheral. "Beautiful, intelligent, strong women are my weakness." He spoke like a man who had experience with vincibility. "It was finals week. We'd been studying at the library for hours and needed a break." He gripped his waist letting his gaze peer away at the closed doors. "We are about you all's age." His eyes ticked to Malachi but he kept his back turned on the man. "We went to a local pub, got some food, too much beer, and had fun." He paused holding his mouth as if his next words were going to inflict pain. "The campus was empty, everyone was busy preparing for exams so I insisted I was good."

"To what?" Simone folded her arms tightly around her body like a cold breeze circulating the study. "Drive?"

Benjamin's hand dropped from his mouth. "Yes."

 Malachi twisted around then shrugged. "So, what? What the hell does this have to do with Alex and me."

"Everything!" Benjamin's bass streamed from his mouth like a river teeming with pain and hurt. "There was no one on the road. No cars. That guy came out of nowhere." A flush of burgundy stained his cheeks as a mist filmed his eyes. "The bike had more damage. He wasn't supposed to—"

"Don't stop now," Simone gestured for him to continue. 

Malachi tsked, "Another secret."

"We had to keep her a secret." Benjamin rushed out as he came from around the desk. "We had so much at stake but she agreed. We didn't force her to say she was the driver. She was fine with the money we were going to give her to tell the cops she was driving but things changed when he..."

"What happened?" Malachi questioned. 

Benjamin nodded. "It was an accident. He had walked to the ambulance. All he had was a broken arm. She was only supposed to get community service." He cast his sight to his feet, studying the rug under his oxfords. "But then he had a brain hemorrhage the next day."

"Manslaughter," Simone stated.

"Vehicular manslaughter" He lifted his head, mist growing in his eyes. "It would've been fifteen years but our parents stepped in and got it down to two."

"You let someone go to prison for something you did?" Malachi moved away from the bookshelf ready to get to the meat of the past transgressions the man was telling.

"It was Constantine's reelection year..." Benjamin started. "All our families had something to lose...power, money, prestige...we had to—" 

"Destroy an innocent person's life," Malachi interjected.

"We didn't destroy her life." Benjamin sneered. "Our families created a trust...a hundred million. She wouldn't have to work a day in her life once she was released from prison. She could do whatever she wanted but..."

"What..." Malachi's brain strung together the things Isabeth told him and the confessions Benjamin was spilling. "Is she The Psychopath Maker?"

His mom's dazed eyes searched him, "The what? What is he talking about?" She turned back to Benjamin, "What is he talking about."

Benjamin pushed his hip away from the desk to near Malachi, "Who told you that moniker?"

"A friend." Malachi steeled trying to not cower under the might of the man. "Was that what those two years turned her?"

Simone gazed at the both of them completely perplexed.

"No, it wasn't just prison..." Benjamin held the back of his neck. "We didn't know Celeste was pregnant and by the time we learned about what our parents did with the baby...she was far too gone and now..." Tears rolled from his face. "All she wanted was her baby." 

Who do you think 'Celeste' is?

 What do you think happened with the baby?