"Do you also plan on joining us?"
The question shouldn't have been a surprise and yet I'm totally unprepared for it. Strawberry had already indicated she was hiring both of us whether we wanted it or not. Given my interest in learning from the mysterious elf that somehow had built all this, I had barely paid attention to her words. To Nagisa, however, it was a challenge.
Neither Nagisa nor I had chosen to work for the Finnegans. Nagisa was born into it, although both her parents are now dead. Both died violently in the service of the Family. I was, of course, 'acquired' through a deceit my parents must certainly have realized was such. Mother's sanity and father's career were dependent on getting me out of the picture and the Finnigans provided the fiction that there was a place for me where I could be 'normal' and 'happy'. Mom visited just enough to support the veneer of maternal caring and then turned her back on me forever.
Do either of us really owe the Finnigans anything?
I'd always taken the answer to that question for granted. Of course I did. The Finnigans fed and housed me, rather comfortably my clients notwithstanding. They did teach me a trade and gave me the opportunity to ply it. But when my gifts manifested, instead of teaching me to use them they did everything they could to mask and bury them. They saw me as a whore and would not change their views until Tony forced Dame Valentina to see me otherwise.
And now Tony is locked away and Dame Valentina is hiding for her life.
And may well have set Athos and I up to be killed.
Do I owe anything to the Finnigans? Haven't I paid my debt with every client I serviced? They've made a fortune off me and all they had to give me was a place to live and my keep.
Honestly, no, I don't owe them a damn thing!
Athos however, I owe everything. If not for him, I wouldn't have lived to see this day. If not for him, Tony may never have been able to leverage me out of the sheets last month. If not for him, I would never have met Strawberry.
"I...think maybe I might," I answer the man after long moments thinking. My gaze remains off into space, staring blankly at the cup of coffee as I speak. "But only once I help clear Athos' name. I owe that troll my life several times over. I can't decide what happens to me next until I make sure he's going to be okay."