Heir of Aurelian

Frank sat within the confines of a woman’s apartment. It was the morning after his sister’s wedding, and he was extremely hungover. The girl he had taken home the night before was not his date for the evening, but a young waitress who was tending tables while putting herself through community college.

Apparently, he had made a big deal the night before about his sister’s past, and how meaningless her marriage was to her husband. Of course, Frank had no recollection of it, but the incident was well recorded on the waitress’s phone, who was now getting dressed on the other side of the room.

Out of courtesy, Frank had looked the other way, more interested in reading the angry messages from his family than he was in her naked body. Which immediately caused the young woman to tease him.

“You don’t need to be shy. It’s not like you haven’t seen everything already.”

Frank merely scoffed as he looked at a text message from his mother telling him not to come home. If his mother was that upset with him, then it clearly meant the rest of the family wanted him dead. This caused the man to hang his head low and curse himself for his stupidity.

“Oh God, I should have never drunk so much. What the hell was a thinking?”

The waitress laughed when she heard this. She could tell the man was most likely having problems with his family after what he had said the previous night and decided to cheer him up. Before she could hook on her bra, she sat down behind him and wrapped her arms around his back.

“I think what you did was incredibly brave. You may have pissed off your family, but you saved that man an incredible amount of time, money, and suffering. We both know that if your sister was hiding such a scandalous past, then it was only a matter of time before the marriage failed._.

You saved that man a lot of hardship down the road. This way he can get an annulment, and won’t be faced with a brutal divorce ten years from now, where he will most likely lose everything. That man owes you a beer for saving him such heartache.”

Frank gazed over at the woman with a strange look on his face. He wasn’t expecting her to be so well versed in relationships. Especially after she was willing to sleep with him after just meeting him. When the girl saw the puzzled expression on her face, she feigned offense.

“What? You were expecting me to be some vapid bitch who hangs out at the club every night like your sister? I may not look like it, but I know a thing or two!”

Frank scoffed as he heard this, before shifting his gaze back to his phone. None of his family members had answered any of the texts he had sent, and every time he called their phones, it went directly to voicemail.

The moment he looked at his phone once more, he noticed a text message, and immediately smiled before realizing the message was sent from Don. This immediately caused his excitement to die in his heart. Frank had never exchanged numbers with the man, but evidently the guy had his ways of finding out his number.  The waitress sitting next to Frank immediately saw the concerned look on his face before asking him what had gotten him so distressed.

“What is it? Were you disowned?”

Frank shook his head, seemingly shocked at the message, before responding to the girl’s question.

“No… it’s from Don. He wants to meet up and chat. Should I be worried?”

The girl quickly grabbed hold of his phone and typed in a response for him. Before he could even react, another message appeared, giving him a time and place to meet up. The girl handed his phone back to him before giving him some advice.

“He’s probably more of a mess than you are, and is looking for someone to listen to his woes. You owe him as much after dropping such a bombshell on his wedding night. Go, have a drink with the guy, and listen to what he has to say. If you don’t help him, he might do something stupid. Besides, I need to get to class and I don’t feel like leaving you alone in my place until you recover from your funk.

Frank nodded his head and quickly got dressed. He was about to walk out the door when he realized he did not even know the girl’s name. He was about to ask when the girl smiled at him before responding.

“It’s Anna… Now go to Don and help him get through this. He needs you…”

It surprised Frank that the girl knew what he was thinking, but she didn’t give him any time to ask about it and shut the door behind him. He could not help but sigh as he climbed down the steps from the girl’s apartment. Luckily, they had taken his car, or else he would have no idea where he parked. Thus, he quickly got inside his vehicle and drove to the location that Don had texted him.

Upon arriving at the agreed location, Frank found that it was a bar, and it was seemingly closed. However, the moment he approached the door, it opened to reveal a good-looking man in his early thirties who was dressed in a t-shirt. The man had a half sleeve tattoo on his right forearm and observed Frank with an intimidating gaze. It took one look for the stranger to guess Frank’s identity, which he quickly inquired about.

“You Frank?”

Frank Immediately nodded his head in response, confused about the man’s identity. However, that was quickly answered as the man let him inside the bar and introduced himself.

“I’m Owen, a friend of Don’s. Come inside, he’s at the bar.”

Frank followed Owen inside the establishment, and found Don with a beer in one hand, and his phone in the other. He was hunched over at the bar and had clearly seen better days. Owen quickly introduced Frank, who was extremely nervous at the current situation.

“Don, the kid is here…”

After saying that, the man rounded the bar and grabbed a beer for Frank; he popped off the bottlecap and handed it to the man before assuring him it was free.

“It’s on the house. After that stunt you pulled last night, it’s my way of saying thanks.”

Frank sat down next to Don and accepted the beer, taking a sip before greeting the man.

“Heya Don, how are you holding up?”

The man smelled like booze and had clearly been up all night drinking. Despite that, he was nowhere near as fucked up as Frank was. The moment their eyes met, Don glared at Frank for a few seconds before sighing heavily and hugging the man.

“Thank you… I know it couldn’t have been easy on you, and I can only imagine how upset your family is with you at the moment. However, I can’t thank you enough for revealing who your sister really is to me. I just wish you had done it sooner so that I could’ve avoided this whole mess.”

Frank half expected the man to take a swing at him, but instead, he was thanking him. He patted Don on the back a few times before awkwardly escaping from the hug. He quickly took another swig from his beer before responding to the man.

“I should have told you sooner… Especially after you and Maria started getting serious. Every man deserves to know if his bitch is lying to him. Especially about something so important.”

Don sighed heavily when he heard this before responding to Frank’s statement.

“I feel disgusted with myself, after knowing the truth… She presented herself as a good Christian woman who would be a good wife and mother. In reality, she was lying to me the whole time, undoubtedly she was after my bank account.”

Frank scoffed when he heard this before revealing more information about his sister.

“I wouldn’t doubt it. She’s nearly thirty, she knows her time is running up to find a good man, and settle down with him, and so she played the oldest con in the book. Pretending to be a high value woman while lying about her deviant past.

I have no doubt she would have divorced you after ten years, and taken everything from you, including whatever kids you might have. I suppose I just couldn’t standby and watch a guy go through all that.”

Don nodded his head when he heard this, and patted Frank’s back. He took a sip from his beer before expressing his thanks once more.

“That’s no longer going to be an issue. As we speak, my lawyers are working on annulling the marriage. You saved me from a terrible fate, and because of that, I’ve got your back for the rest of your life. If you need anything, just give me a call, and if I can help you, I will.

I suppose after something like that, your family is royally pissed at you, so if you need a place to crash, just let me know, I own some property near the university that I can let you stay in for as long as you need.”

Frank chuckled when he heard this before finishing his beer. After doing so, Owen handed him another one, which he was happy to accept.

“I don’t think it will come to that, but if it does, you will be the first one I call.”

After that, the three men continued to drink, and talk about everything that had happened, and the full extent of Maria’s true personality, as well as her scandalous past. Marcellus awoke shortly after to find himself drooling on his desk. He had once more fallen asleep in the middle of his work, and had dreamt of his past life. Upon realizing this, he quickly got back to work. After all, the Empire wasn’t going to run itself.