AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ronan! I can’t stay with some man I’ve never met in another country! This is insane!”
“No. What’s insane is that man has been putting his hands on you for years. What’s insane is that he’s been intentionally trying to sabotage his own children. What’s insane is he’s planning on using the woman we love ‘' he outstretches his hand and points down the hall, “as a living breathing bargaining chip! FOR WHAT?! For some false sense of fucking power. After everything he’s done. To you, to me, to him…” His finger now points at me, “He has to be stopped, Mum. I will stop him. We will stop him.”
“I’m so so sorry, Ronan.”
“Do not apologize for him. Just promise me you’ll do as I say and don’t say a word to him besides what I’ve told you to.”
She’s hysterically sobbing now. I wish I could reach through the phone and hold her while she sits in the back of that car and falls apart. What I can do is keep her safe. I can protect her from him now.
“Mum…” I whisper. Her sad eyes meet mine. “Promise?”
“I–I promise.” She sniffles as she pulls a handkerchief out of her Berkin.
“It will all be okay,” He reassures her. “I have to call Pascal and tell him you’re coming. He will take good care of you and keep you safe. I love you, Mum.”
“I love you, sweet boy.” Ronan hands the phone to me and grabs mine off the counter before quickly heading to his office to call Pascal. Knowing he’ll be there to keep her safe, hidden away from our father’s reach, feels like a small weight lifted from my shoulders, but in its place is the knowledge that our mother has been suffering all these years, and we did nothing to help her.
“I’m so sorry we didn’t protect you. We should have known.” I shake my head, willing tears not to fall, but it’s a useless battle. She watches as they begin to drop down my cheeks. Damn me and my fucking feelings.
“Hush now. This is not your fault. It’s not your brother’s, and it’s not Finn’s. You were just boys.”
“We’re not boys anymore. We’re men. Men that should have known better. Men that should have been keeping you safe.”
“He only let you see what he wanted to, sweetie, and I was too afraid to say or do anything about it. This is not on you. Do not punish yourself for this too.”
Do not punish yourself for this too.
I’ve never voiced my struggles to her, but like any amazing mother, she just knows. She knows of the demons I fight because of the man he turned me into. I don’t fight it anymore as I let an unexpected sob tear through me. I allow myself to feel everything. Mum sits on the other end of the phone, not moving from her car as she watches me fall apart. I don’t know how much time has gone by. Seconds. Minutes. Hours. But once I feel like I can’t cry anymore, I will myself to look back at the screen. “You, my son, are more than what he has made you to be. You are sweet, caring, and kind. You are the kind of man who feels with the intensity of a thousand suns, and it makes you who you are. And who you are is a person I am so incredibly proud of. Don’t let your father or anyone else make you feel like who you are isn’t enough. And don’t you allow yourself to feel shame for protecting what’s yours. Use what he’s taught you to keep the ones you love safe. Be a force to be reckoned with. Do you understand me?”
This woman.
Here we are, turning her world upside down after everything she’s already been through, and she’s sitting here comforting me. Not unlike the woman down the hall. How did we get lucky enough to have not one but two of them in our lives? “I love you,” Is all I can say to her.
She gives me a soft smile that doesn’t quite reach her ears, “I love you too, Sweetheart.” Her smile grows a little wider, “I’m glad to see you boys have found a woman to love.”
I don’t admit it to her but I don’t deny it either. “You don’t think it’s strange? All of us and her?”
“It’s not unheard of in our world. I know several women who love more than one man. But even if I didn’t, does she make you all happy, Sweetheart?”
“Yeah, Mum. She does.”
“Then that’s all that matters. Keep them all safe for me, alright?”
All of them.
“I will, Mum.”
“You boys will keep me updated every step of the way.” It’s not a question but a demand.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“That’s my boy.”
She and I say our goodbyes, and I hang up the phone. I sit at the counter with my head in my hands until Ronan returns to the kitchen. I feel his hand grip my shoulder. “You okay?”
“Yeah, man. I’m alright. I’ll be better when we figure out what the fuck we’re gonna do.”
“After I got off the phone with Pascal, who’s ecstatic to have the company of a beautiful woman, by the way.” he rolls his eyes in annoyance, and I laugh, “I sent out a message to my contact saying we need to talk to him asap. We should hear from him by the end of the day.”
