Oscar has never tried to fit in and has never wanted to, but when his party friend, Max, is revealed to be mafia prince, Marcus Gallagher, suddenly being a 'lone wolf' is no longer an option; not if Oscar wants to woo his prince and get out alive!
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Flabbergasted. It wasn't a word that came to Max's mind often. It was too goofy and old-timey sounding for him to ever use in a conversation, and just really never fit any occasion. Nothing tended to surprise him in his life so completely that the word ever materialized.
Yet here he was; sitting at the table in the formal dining room with his family, and that eyeliner-wearing, smooth-talking, little weasel was chatting with his ruthless mother like a snake-charmer with a pungi, rather than a punk with a salad fork. Max was fucking flabbergasted.
"So, tell me about your family, Mr. Bradley. How did they feel about your enthusiasm for engineering? Were they supportive?" Gloria asked.
Max glanced at his father.
"Eh, well..." Oscar cleared his throat. "I'd like to know the same. Pops died when I was a kid and mom split when I was in high school."
Gloria paused, lowering her fork and knife, and even Angela and Elise were now looking at Oscar. Max could almost hear the sympathetic "aww's" that their expressions suggested. "You've been fending for yourself, then?" his mother asked, before glancing at her husband, as if wanting to make sure James was listening.
Oscar's gaze flicked across the table to Max's father. If he hadn't been there Oscar would have lied, like he'd never lied before, but now he had to be careful. His entire criminal record was still out there for the world to see as well as schooling and credit history, his entire life was recorded somewhere so he needed his story to line up. "Well, sort of, I was a dumb kid who ended up where most troubled kids end up, behind bars. That's where I learned that I loved making things just as much as taking them apart."
Angela was quick to hide her mouth with her cloth napkin, but Max caught her bewildered amusement, and smirked himself.
"You...went to jail?" Gloria's surprise was evident in her face.
"Well, that's a first," Angela couldn't help but say through her beaming smile. "Our mother, dining with a convict!"
Elise lost her composure then, giggling before quickly picking up her wine glass.
"Now, there's no need to be rude, girls," Gloria scolded. "There are many people who've been dealt a much harsher hand in this world, and they have to make the best of it somehow."
"Right, my love," James said, with a hint of a smile himself.
Max shook his head, chuckling as he glanced down at his own food. It wasn't that the women were entirely ignorant of what the family business was, but rather...he, and his father, and the rest of the men, kept the majority of it from them. His mother and sisters believed they did things that were a little shady, from time to time, but they very likely didn't expect it was anything that any other wealthy family didn't do... A little money laundering... A bit of tax evasion... A little lobbying...
They didn't know about what really made them their money. They were kept in the dark. Innocent beneficiaries...and for good reason.
"It wasn't prison," Oscar defended in a coy tone. "It was a juvenile detention center," he said mockingly. "Completely different."
