Future Dynasty

Lecture Twenty

"I heard Zane spoke to you." Mom threw the rubbished in the bin at the side of the sink carefully watching for my reaction.

"He was right." I said shrugging not bothering to deny it. "I should be learning everything I can from you and dad. Someday this world is going to be Reagan's, which means I'll be in the heart of it too."

"Reagan's?" Questioned my mom once again tilting her head as she questioned me. "There's no guarantee that your dad's world will become Reagan's"

Her words shocked me for a moment as I questioned what she meant by them. Of course this world would become Reagan's, it was what he was raised his whole life to become. Every second, every choice has lead Reagan to were is.

To become the future King.

"You don't think Reagan will become King?"

Mom waved my off as she sat beside me once more. "Reagan isn't the only one out to become King. Where there is our family, there is ten more ready to challenge us. There is no guarantee that our family will always stay on top. We could lose it all in your dad's lifetime before your brother even gets ahold of it."

"You don't truly believe that do you?" I asked slightly surprised mom was throwing around such sentences. "You don't believe dad would lose everything."

She shrugged not seeming one bit bothered by her words. "One move, right or wrong, and every single one of us can live a completely different life."

"But-"

"Before you go on that wasn't what I meant by my sentence." Mom turned to me a challenging look in her eyes that I've never seen before. "What I meant was, why Reagan? Why not you?"

Once again I didn't know what to say, the thought of it had never crossed my mind. As the middle child who always lived behind her older brother I never thought about it. My whole life I've always grown up assuming Reagan would take over our father's role.

"Reagan is a hell of a lot smarter than me for a start." I scoffed as my mind raced with reasons Reagan was the better choice. "He thinks just like you, he's able to come up with a plan to solve any problem. I on the other hand have been lucky to pass any of my classes."

Mom laughed and her shoulders moved with the action. "I don't know about that if you ask me, you're just as smart.  You just don't seem to notice it yourself."

"You're joking right?" This time I laughed. "Reagan was able pass everything in school without opening a book, while I on the other hand was barely scraping by."

"You struggled in school because you had no interest in it. Reagan had an interest because like me he needed to prove to himself and others that he is the smartest person in the room." She paused and gave me a pointed look. "I've seen your tests Layla, I know you're far from stupid. In fact I would say you're smarter than your brother."

"Don't know what you're talking about." I looked away no longer wanting to make eye contact with the woman who found out everything.

"Those tests you did in school, you did the questions at the back first. You did the hardest questions first, with the most marks. You scraped by because you only allowed yourself too. You had calculated what you needed to pass and didn't do one point over it. In fact you knew you would get the answers right, so much do you didn't do any extra questions as backup."

There was no point in trying to hide anything from her, she had probably known this since I did it on the first test.

"You know when I was a kid my dad did an IQ test on me without me knowing." She laughed like she remembered a memory. "In fact the first time I had found out about it, I was sitting in the F.B.I headquarters meeting Davis for the first time."