📎A/N. This chapter is dedicated to @annamr5 for a the herculean effort of proofreading Masked for me within such a short period of time...

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"You know you can't get out of it don't you?"

Sydney scrunched her face and poked her tongue out at Stephen. She was less than thrilled with his constant prodding. She knew she needed to take the short trip to her Aunt and Uncles, but Vineyard Haven was the last place she wanted to be right now. It had filled her with dread since the moment she had woken this morning. She had in fact lingered longer in bed than she would normally have. Whether it was in the hope she could sleep through the day, or at least attempt to ignore it was an unknown. All she knew was that they were expecting her, and she felt like she was headed to the gallows.

"Can't I just say that I'm still hungover from yesterday?" she said with a groan.

Stephen rolled his eyes and continued tapping his foot impatiently as he towered over her with his hands on his hips. The silence dragged on as her friend, and agent kept shouting at her without speaking.

Sydney felt his scrutiny and finally broke under the pressure. "Fine," she hissed as she stood up in a huff, "I'm going. But you're coming as well."

Stephen began to laugh. "Sorry hon, this is a family thing. And you seem to forget, I've already had the distinct displeasure."

Sydney stomped inside to grab her keys and bag, before trudging out past Stephen, who had settled himself on a lounge chair in the late afternoon sun.

She heard his 'have fun' before she backed down the driveway and headed north. To prolong the inevitable Sydney took the long route. It would only add an extra five minutes to her short travel, but it was sufficient to give her the illusion she was in control.

It was bad enough that her mother had foisted herself on her aunt and uncle for the next few days. But the arrival of her brother, Jackson, to the Vineyard, was another matter entirely.

Her only saving grace was that Ethan and Pauline were returning to New York and she would not be on tenterhooks with the possibility of them running into each other. Just the thought of him in the same room as her mother sent shivers down her spine.

As it was, it had taken them the better part of yesterday to foster the courage to converse.

The Demetriou's Fourth of July garden party had been as grand and popular as ever. Sydney was confident that half the island had turned up at one point or another during the day. She had been unsure of how to react when Mason, Ethan and Pauline had arrived. Her previous encounter with Ethan had not ended so well. And his email had been the only communication they had had since.

It was obvious they were both uncomfortable and Sydney was thankful for Stephen's presence. His larger than life personality made sure that the stilted moments were few and far between. By the time, the evening had arrived she had managed to avoid being alone with him for the greater portion of the day. This, however, didn't stop them having to communicate with each other in a group setting.

After she had gotten over the initial awkwardness, she began to relax more in his presence. She would like to have put it down to her maturity, but in the end she had to admit that throwing back a few glasses of wine had probably helped.

In fact, they had even managed to share a joke at one point. And from his relaxed expression, she suspected that the Bourbons that he seemed to be nursing might have assisted him there.

What had disturbed her the most was the realisation that as much as she wanted to avoid him, she at any given moment of the day knew exactly where he was. Sydney wanted to hate him. She had every right after how he had treated her. But she found that as much as she wanted to, she couldn't. Beyond the harsh façade that he presented to the world, she understood that he came from a place of pain. One that she could empathise with. One that she understood.

Sydney pulled her old, beat up Honda Civic into the driveway and sat staring at the house.

"Jesus Christ!" she scoffed as she banged her head on the steering wheel. "Get a grip Sydney, you're an adult. Act like one." She sat back up again and took a deep breath as she unbuckled her seat belt.

Before she had a chance to get out of the car, Grace was rushing out the front door, a look of relief overcame her as she spotted Sydney. "You were sitting there so long I started to worry," Grace said as she drew closer.

Sydney threw what she hoped was an apologetic smile at her cousin, "Have you seen them yet?"

Grace shook her head, "No, I've only just gotten here myself," she said, "I stayed over at Mason's last night."

They walked, arm-in-arm into the house discussing the previous day. Sydney had left soon after the fireworks and they hadn't yet had a chance to catch up. As they entered the main lounge that opened out to the patio beyond, she could hear her Aunt call out to her. "Sydney dear, is that you?"

Sydney glanced at Grace, who gave her a reassuring smile as they headed through to the patio area.

"There you are dear," Ivy said as Sydney gave both her Aunt and Uncle a hug.

"Sorry, I'm late. I lost track of time working," she lied.

Her eyes darted questioningly around the area as she took a seat. The two extra faces she was expecting to see were conspicuous by their absence.

"Jackson is inside on a call, and your mother is in her room resting," Ivy said.

Ivy poured Sydney and Grace an Iced Tea. "You never told me that Mac McMasters knows that you are a Hutton," Ivy remarked as she handed Sydney the chilled beverage.

"I just assumed you knew."

"I didn't," her Aunt said as she leaned forward and lowered her voice, "I had such a fright yesterday morning I really was at a loss for words."

They could hear a barely repressed snort coming from behind the financial times.

"Victor," cautioned Ivy.

"What was that dear?" Victor said as he poked his head around his newspaper.

"Why? What happened?" asked Grace once her father had returned his focus to reading.

Ivy glanced around to make sure they could not be overheard. "Well, Mason and Mac arrived earlier to help with the preparations. I had Mac pull out the cutlery for me from the buffet dresser in the formal dining room. I wasn't careful with how I had stacked some of the stuff in the cupboard and one of the photo albums spilled as he opened the door. Some of the photos fell out and I found the poor boy trying to pick up the scattered pages and photos."

Sydney was confused. "What's that got to do with him knowing I'm a Hutton?"

"One of the photos he was studying when I walked in was the one you and Grace with the Myers cat. You remember the one," Ivy said.

Sydney nodded, she had loved that cat with a passion and had spent the entire summer teaching DB to walk on a leash and to jump through a hoop on command. She was devastated when she had to go home and leave the cat behind. Much to her dismay, the Myers were quite fond of the animal themselves and didn't want to part with it.

"You can imagine my shock when he asked me about the photo. And then commented on how difficult it must have been to start calling you Sydney after spending so many years knowing you as Victoria," Ivy continued in a hushed tone.

Before Sydney could get any more information from her Aunt, Ivy had straightened up and a neutral expression replaced her previous concerned one.

Her Aunt's sudden change in demeanour was explained in full when Sydney heard her brother's voice from behind her. "He-ya Sis, when did you get here?"

She stiffened and then forced herself to relax. "Just now. How was the trip up? I wasn't expecting you."

Jackson, Sydney's older brother, shrugged. "You know how it is. The city can be a bit much. So I thought I'd come up with mom. It has been years since I've been up here."

"That's funny," snapped Sydney. "I remember that you hated it up here."

In fact, she was sure the only reason he was here now was because he was trying to hide from someone he owed money to. Her brother, while managing to have a reasonably successful real-estate career had a bad habit - check that - a number of bad habits. Racking up gambling debts being one of them.

"We all change overtime," Jackson said dismissively.

Sydney wisely chose not to call him on it, preferring instead to keep the peace in her aunt and uncles home.

"So how have things been with you?" Jackson asked as he popped a grape in his mouth. "Work keeping you busy?"

To Sydney's surprise, the next hour passed relatively painlessly. Jackson was on his best behavior and not once passed a snide remark or attempted his usual habit of trying to be one up on everyone else. She wasn't sure how or when this radical change occurred, but she wasn't holding her breath on him staying that way. Too many years of her brother's erratic behavior was lesson enough. However, for now, it was nice to have an actual conversation with him. She realized that she couldn't remember the last time they had spoken for more than five minutes. Her avoidance policy ensured that she had seen very little of him over the years.

Maybe he's mellowed with time?

"So when did you grow a beard?" she asked. Curiosity had finally gotten to her. Of the two of them, Jackson had been the one to be conscious of his appearance. He had always been fastidious about it. Whiskers just did not seem to fit his idea of perfect grooming.

Jackson's sardonic smile indicated that it was not by choice. "Since I got mistaken for our father by a potential client."

This was the last thing she had expected the answer to be and nearly choked on the iced tea that she had just swallowed. "You're kidding me?"

Jackson's straight face spoke volumes. "Yep, it seems the older I get, the more I look like pops used to."

Unfortunately, Sydney had to agree.

"Victoria, why didn't someone let me know you had arrived?"

All eyes turned to the new arrival whose shrill, demanding, cultured voice cut through the air.

Sydney cringed as she turned to look at her mother. No one would ever guess that the elegant woman gliding across the patio was fifty-seven. From her perfectly made up face to her careful choice of clothing, she was the epitome of style and grace. Penelope Hutton looked as though she had just stepped out of a beauty salon. Not a hair was out of place and her skin was flawless.

"Mother," was all that Sydney could bring herself to reply.

"Penelope dear," Ivy cut in, "Sydney is only newly arrived, and I felt that you were too tired from your journey to be disturbed."

Sydney was thankful that her parent was not the motherly type so she could dispense with any physical contact between them.

Struggling to make conversation, Sydney asked the first thing that popped into her head. "Did you sleep well?"

Penelope sunk down into one of the available chairs and glanced at the contents of the table before answering. "The bed was a little hard."

Sydney could detect the rustle of newspaper. She knew Victor disliked her mother with a vengeance, but kept his opinions to himself to maintain the peace with his wife. She threw her uncle a wink and attempted to divert the topic onto a neutral non-controversial subject.

"So mother, Jackson mentioned you've been to the ballet recently. How was it?"

Her uncle cleared his throat as he folded his newspaper. "If you'll excuse me. I have some calls I need to make," he said as he stood and headed back into the house.

Sydney wished she could have gotten away with the same thing. However, she had to sit still and listen to her mother rave on about how George Balanchine's full-length staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream was the perfect end to the spring season for the New York Ballet Company.

By the time Penelope had gotten on to the latest rumor that the ballets principal dancer, Jennie Somogyi was going to announce her retirement, Sydney's mind was elsewhere. It was only Grace's swift kick under the table that brought her attention back to the others.

"See, it's not so bad," Grace whispered, once Penelope's attention was focused on providing Ivy with her opinion on the best way to serve iced tea. It turned out that Ivy's wasn't up to her mother's exacting standards.

Sydney's heart went out to her Aunt, who had the patience of a saint. Not once did Ivy look as though she wanted to throttle her sister. Sydney knew better.

They had managed to make it halfway through dinner before the evening went south. Sydney knew she should have kept her mouth closed, but her temper being what it was, there was only so much it could hold back before it snapped.

To the world and to her family she was now Sydney Regas. She had changed it legally many years ago. Victoria Hutton was the past and that's where she was kept. Her mother, however, refused to acknowledge Sydney had moved on with her life, and was trying to live it out of her parent's shadow. Sydney was sure her mother used her birth name more times than necessary, just to rile her.

After hearing the name Victoria, three times in the past minute from her mother, was three times too many.

"Sydney!" Sydney blurted out in a loud voice.

Penelope stopped speaking. "Pardon?"

"Sydney. My name is Sydney. Not Victoria. Victoria's life was over seven years ago."

Penelope waved her hand dismissively and pouted at her daughter. "Nonsense," she huffed, "You've been silly for far too long. I've had enough of your make believe name. And I am not prepared to put up with it. It's bad enough that you work as a secretary, but to deny the name given to you by your father is just not done."

"Mother," growled Jackson, "I think that is enough."

"Put up with it?" accused Sydney, "My driver's license. My passport. Everything that indicates who I am, are all in the name of Sydney Regas. Victoria Hutton doesn't exist anymore. Father saw to it that our name was poison. And it's high time you accepted that."

"You ungrateful petulant child," burst out her mother. "Your father did nothing wrong. He was forced out of the country by the authorities who set him up."

"The authorities set him up?" chocked Sydney. Her face was feeling quite flushed by this stage and she was beyond angry at her mother's attitude. "I thought it was his board of directors? No, wait -- wasn't it the people who worked for him? Actually now that I think about it, you were also convinced it was his competition that had set him up. Which one was it, or were they all in it together?"

"Perhaps this is a discussion for another time? It's been a long day and everyone is tired," Ivy broke in trying to diffuse the quickly escalating disaster.

Jackson, who was sitting beside her, placed a gentle hand on Sydney's shoulder. "Aunt Ivy is right, how about let's just drop it."

"At least your father has one child that didn't turn his back on him," Penelope remarked. What was more frustrating to Sydney was the fact that her mother was treating this as a normal conversation. "But Jackson my dear you really need to do something about those whiskers of yours. We really don't like it."

Sydney, who had been ready to escape from the table and was half out of her chair, fell back into it at her mother's words. "Who doesn't like it?"

"Like what?"

Sydney could see that Victor and Ivy had picked up on what she had.

"Jackson's beard. Who doesn't like it?"

Penelope looked at Sydney with a confused expression. "Your father and I, of course."

The sharp intake of breath from beside her indicated her brother had finally caught up with the conversation.

"And how exactly do you know what father thinks?"

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📎A/N... whoa... what did she just say????

... and it looks like Sydney's brother is not as bad as we first thought ??

... and isn't Penelope a piece of work??

Don't forget to vote if you like this chapter. Feedback always appreciated.

Till next time. Take Care.

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