“Mom…” All this time, I knew my mother wasn’t living the happy life she deserved. I knew she was battling an inner war, unsure of who to side with; my father or me. I knew why she always chose him, or so I thought.
I thought she chose him over and over again because a divorce would mean she failed. In the eyes of our family,herfamily, she’d be a disgrace, she’d get shamed. I thought she chose my father because if she got shamed, Moon, Sun, and I would’ve gotten looked down on by our family as well. I thought she didn’t know how to care for us the way my father’s money allowed it.
But I didn’t think he was being physically violent with her.
“Sun didn’t come home because she had problems at school, did she?” There are tons of other questions I should ask first. Or maybe not. All I should be doing is to be there for my mother when she clearly needs me right now.
“No.”
Of course not. With the last of my parents’ children gone, my father could do anything with my mother without either of us ever finding out. I wouldn’t have come back home, my mother knew that. I would’ve made her come to me, but never in my life would I have moved back into this house, under one roof with my father.
Moon is the least reliable of us. He is almost ninety percent our father, so I don’t think he would’ve cared much.
Hence why it had to be Sun.
“Come to New York with me,” I say. I don’t know where my mom thinks she can stay now, but it sure as fuck won’t be this house anymore. She’ll always have a place with me. I have a spare bedroom, and I’m barely at home anyway. So until she found something… “We can look for apartments there, Mom. I don’t want you here with Dad, or anywhere near him.”
“I can’t. Sun is—”
“She can move, too. She’s done with college. I’ll get her an apartment somewhere close by, but until then, I bet she can stay with Emory and Miles.” I look up to see where Luan’s at, only to find him leaning against one of the walls, looking at my mom and me. When he notices me looking, he smiles a little, then winks. “I’ll get you a hotel room for tonight.”
“They can stay with us, you know? I have a spare bedroom,” Luan says, now receiving averyconfused frown from me. He laughs. “You really thought Doro, Sarah, and I didn’t have one? I lied.”
Of course he did. “Doesn’t surprise me anymore.” Luan from two years ago dideverythingto get me close to him, even lying about a spare bedroom, apparently.
“Well, would you have slept in my bed had I told you I had one?” Luan pushes himself off the wall at the same time as my mother pulls herself out of my embrace.
Mom sniffles and before she could excuse herself, Luan pulls out a tissue from his pocket and hands it to my mother with a smile.
“You are such an inspiration, Eun,” he says. “I’m telling you, if your son ever does me wrong, I will come to you so you can break up with him for me.”
My mother laughs through her tears. “If my son ever does you wrong, I will first have to find out what kind of alien he’s gotten exchanged for because Grey would never intentionally hurt anyone like that.”
Luan hums, slowly bobbing his head. “Nah, do you know what he did?” He sighs dramatically, then lays a hand over my mother’s shoulders as we back away from my father’s office. “The first time we met, Grey refused to tell me his name. I washeartbroken, let me tell you. Because there he was in all his glory, sitting by that beach, reading a porn book—”
I slap my hand to the back of his head. “It wasn’t apornbook.”
“Oh, no, no, Eun, it was. Don’t believe Grey. He was reading straight up porn. Anyway…”
Chapter 5
“we are a secret, can’t be exposed”—Uncover by Zara Larsson
September 2026
“You’re here,”Grey says with a hint of surprise in his voice. Actually, he’s all icy as ever when anyone else is around, but I can hear the surprise.
“I am,” I confirm, smiling at my boyfriend as he slowly and cautiously closes the space between us. “It’s your first game as captain, baby. I know how important this is for you. Of course I am here.” It may only be a charity game tonight, but a game is a game, right? And it’s his birthday soooo…
Grey looks around us, probably to check if it’s alright if he either hugs or kisses me now, I am praying for both. He still hasn’t made our relationship public, which I’m not sure is good or bad.
There’s a good part; privacy and Grey not getting attacked for being now the captain of the New York Rangers and queer. Apparently if some jock is anything but straight and plays for the pros, it’s a crime.
But then there’s the downside, too. Sneaking around, pretending that we’re not madly in love. He won’t even hug me in public. I can live with not holding my boyfriend’s hand when we walk down a street, but the fact that being seen with him stirs up rumors is annoying, especially when I haven’t seen Grey in weeks and all I get as a greeting is a nod from afar like at the Stanley Cup finals back in June.
I flew out to Tampa to be there for my boyfriend, but I didn’t get tospeakto him until he was in his hotel room, and Isnuckin.
He’s mainly keeping our relationship on the downlow because of his father. His parents’ divorce trial has just recently been closed. It’s bad enough the divorce went public, and although nobody technically knows Grey is their son, he didn’t want any morenegativeheadlines for his family, and didn’t want to put more eyes on them as they already had.
