THERE WILL BE A MARTINIERE MULTIVERSE CHRISTMAS STORY POSTED ON CHRISTMAS DAY, UNLESS WEATHER INTERFERES.

MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS BELOW.

With this segment of Chapter Seventeen of Repairing the Legacy, we continue the serialization of Repairing the Legacy. This is a rough draft work in progress and may not reflect the final form. Time period: set after the ending of The Martiniere Legacy main trilogy. I’m breaking longer chapters into sections for readability. This is the fifth part of Chapter Seventeen. There will be five parts to this chapter.

New to the series? Chapter order:

Chapter One, Section One

Return of the Prodigal Son (2 parts)

Conversations and a Dinner (2 parts)

Dancing into Change (2 parts)

Sisterly Compromises (3 parts)

Conspiracies at the Rodeo (3 parts)

Passing the Baton (4 parts)

Research Complications (3 parts)

Chasing After Shadows (3 parts)

Fifth Anniversary Present (3 parts)

Mariah (5 parts)

Shadows, Redux (3 parts)

Accidents Happen (4 parts)

Maternal Memories (4 parts)

A Voice…Weeping for their Children (6 parts)

Winding Down the Years (4 parts)

The Gathering of Shadows (6 parts)

February, 2074

RUBY

Ruby exhaled and leaned on the railing of the cliff house’s deck, cold in spite of the heavy coat and thermals that would normally be enough to keep her warm in subzero temperatures at the Double R. Much colder on the coast, due to the humidity.

She and Justine had just gotten here after Donald’s funeral—somehow, between her and Brandon, she had been able to negotiate that much of an accommodation for Justine with the Knowles and Atwood families. Her sister-in-law had gone into her bedroom and closed the door firmly upon their arrival—probably to be private to regain self-control.

This is the most emotion I’ve ever seen from Justine.

Her sister-in-law was usually the steady one. The pillar.

Ruby thought—she hoped—that a few days at the cliff house might be good for Justine. And—she hadn’t been back here herself, not since Gabe’s birthday last year. She needed to figure out what to do with the place.

Oh God, was it only last year that we had that lovely birthday celebration?

She buried her head in her hands, allowing the weight of her own grief to settle. So many intimate memories here. And she still wasn’t certain what to do about this house. Neither Brandon nor Mike wanted to spend time here. Ruby wasn’t sure she wanted to, either. The cliff house was so locked up with Gabe in her thoughts that she hadn’t had the courage to come here until now. The cliff house wasn’t so fraught with history for Justine—she and Donald had come here a couple of times, but nothing at all like the Double R or Moondance. The cliff house was a good place for Justine to get through the next few days, just the two of them together.

And drink one hell of a lot of alcohol.

The cliff house. What was she going to do with it?

Gabe’s fifth anniversary present to her. To them, really.

Ruby rubbed her face. She should go inside. Low-hanging clouds on the horizon, plus the rising wind, suggested that a storm was coming. Maybe it would be a good, hard one that would reflect their shared grief. She could stand to hear driving rain against the windows.

Donald’s last attempts to crack Gabe’s codes before he became too feeble to attempt any further work had revealed Gabe’s worry about Mike, Lily, and Ronnie. A fear that he was losing his second family to Philip—somehow—just as he had lost Saul, Angelica, and Louisa when he was twelve, and been plunged into the living hell of being under Philip’s custody for the next six years.

Perhaps that fear had driven him into the—whatever it was—about Gabrielle Marguerite. Fantasies? Delusions? Wishful thinking, fueled by the guilt that Gabe never completely got over about Ruby’s second pregnancy?

Reality?

Sometimes Ruby wondered. Sometimes she woke from a dream that Gabrielle Marguerite was speaking to her, except that Ruby never remembered anything more than a vague impression.

The snick of the slider door opening distracted Ruby. She half-turned. Justine carried a bottle of whisky. She set it on the deck railing, between them.

“It’s time to drink,” Justine said, her voice rough and harsh. “I can’t handle any more tears.”

“Lots of shadows here for me.” Ruby uncapped the bottle and took a swig.

Smooth.

Justine took the bottle. “I imagine. You and Gabie spent a lot of time here.” She drank from the bottle. “Oh God, Gabie used to tease me about doing this.” Her voice choked.

“He was a fine one to talk. The number of times I caught him drinking from the bottle—” Ruby shook her head, but a faint smile twitched her lips. She took a sip, smaller than her first drink. “Granted, he did that a lot less our second time around. But when we were young and rodeoing, he could drink a lot of people under the table and still stay upright. Though afterwards, the number of times I had to half-drag him back to where we were staying—it was like a switch got flicked and Gabe suddenly realized how drunk he was.”

“It was how he survived under Philip. Gabie, Serg, a number of the other Family men of that generation. Drink hard during Family Christmas so it wouldn’t be too bad if Daddy-fucking-dearest decided to blow up at them and torture them using mind control techniques.” Justine took another long pull off of the bottle, shaking her head. “God. Gabie becoming the Martiniere, then Brandon—that changed a lot of things, both within the Family and the Group. As I delve into the records that you and Donna-gran kept during your tenures as the Matriarch—I realize just how much change Gabie made happen.”

Ruby exhaled. “I think he was worried about his legacy surviving at the end. The notes I’ve found—”

“They’re weird.” Justine waved a hand. “But for Gabie to think his legacy was eroding, before he died? No. Yes, Lily has issues. However, in spite of his health problems, Mike is going to be able to do great things. His research ideas—”

“Mike wants to go to Oregon State, then Caltech for his master’s degree, once he finishes catching up with high school. Not the University of Paris, like Gabe and Philip did. I think part of it is because he worries about me.”

Justine exhaled hard. “You’re fortunate. You have Brandon and Mike. Me—” she shook her head. “Maybe Donald and I shouldn’t have divorced. Maybe we should have adopted after my hysterectomy. Maybe I shouldn’t have become First Secretary, External Affairs—” she gulped.

“And just where would the Family and the Group have been without your sacrifice? Without your work, it would have been harder for Gabe to challenge Philip.” Ruby rubbed Justine’s back. “You have us. Me. Mike. Bran. You’re part of our family. Gabe wanted it that way, even before he knew that you two were sister and brother.”

“I wouldn’t have gotten free from Daddy-damned-dearest and married Donald without Gabie’s help.” Justine shuddered. “Oh God. And now they’re both gone.”

Ruby wrapped an arm around Justine. Her sister-in-law buried her head in Ruby’s shoulder, so much like what Gabe would do.

Justine finally raised her head. “But we created Gabie’s legacy. All of us, together. You. Me. Don. Gabie. Brandon. Kris. Indenture is done, finally, and if there’s only one thing that can be laid to the vision of Gabriel Marcus Martiniere, it’s that. But he did so much more. The Group wouldn’t have survived many more years of Philip—hell, I was ready to tear it all down myself before Gabriel resurfaced. He turned that trend around. The Group is still private, stronger than ever thanks to what Gabriel did and Brandon followed up on.”

“Age and despair made him think his legacy was failing, I guess.”

“But despair over what? Mike? Lily? I can understand his sorrow about how Lily is turning out, but Mike? And then there’s little Ronnie. The rest of the Family is bouncing back as well. No,” Justine said slowly. “Gabriel’s legacy endures. And it will endure, for many more generations.”

I hope you’re right, Justine.

#

Justine’s words lingered in Ruby’s thoughts as her jet landed at the Double R’s airstrip. She paused to look outside. The Double R was prosperous now, not struggling like it had been so much of her life. Buildings in good shape, labs, staff quarters, the new barn, the airstrip—

Another part of Gabe’s legacy.

Maybe that was what she needed to focus on for the rest of her life—extending and expanding Gabe’s enduring legacy.

Which includes empowering you, she reminded herself.

With a sigh, Ruby left the plane. Though the snow wasn’t deep, she was glad to see Mike sitting in the enclosed crawler, waiting to drive her up to the house.

Mike. Philip’s clone.

Who was nothing at all like his progenitor, thanks to everything that she and Gabe had done with him. If anything, Mike was more like Gabe than Philip.

Another of Gabe’s legacies.

Ruby exhaled, her breath coming in puffy clouds as she walked to the crawler.

I’m not completely alone. And it’s going to be up to us to ensure that Gabe’s legacy endures.

A task she could handle.

She hoped.

THE END

And with that, we conclude the final part of the main Martiniere Legacy series. There will be a short story going up on Christmas Day—weather permitting. A break for New Year’s, and then The Cost of Power will start serializing. The Cost of Power (working title) is in the Martiniere Multiverse and is set in a world where the relationship between Gabe and Philip is very different. Gabe discloses who he is four years into his relationship with Ruby, and Ruby…demonstrates some very different abilities from main series Ruby. I intend to focus more on the mind control technology and its implications in this particular story.

I may also write a short essay about what I’m starting to do with the Martiniere Multiverse. Short version: I packed so many elements into the main Martiniere Legacy that needed more exposition. Subsequent stories are an attempt to unpack some of those ideas.

The ebook version of The Enduring Legacy (book version of Repairing the Legacy) is available on Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo for $2.99 through the end of December. Click on the name of your preferred ebook store to go to it.

Also—The Enduring Legacy and everything else I’ve written is part of the Smashwords 2022 End of Year Sale! Find your next favorite book this month at https://smashwords.com/shelves/promos/ and follow @smashwords for more promos like this!

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