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He made me promise to name my firstborn son after him before he agreed to bring Gigi today. I know that this is going to be a fucked-up day. But, there’s no hiding from it anymore.
And whatever Gigi suffers today will be tempered by seeing Lucas again.
I walk to stand in front of Gigi, her smile has gone from hesitant to nonexistent in the space of a moment.
“Who’s here, Remington?” Her voice is cool and even, but her eyes are wide with trepidation.
“My family is in the sitting room.”
She turns to look at Hayes. He turns his unsettled gaze on me.
“Remi, maybe we should rethink this.”
“Maybe you should help me keep things moving exactly as we planned,” I say in a stony, unforgiving voice. There’s no turning back.
“She’s terrified.” Hayes walks over to Gigi.
“There’s nothing to be terrified of, Gigi,” I promise her. “Tonight is going to be a difficult one, but I think you’re the person who it will be least difficult for. I know there is no love lost between you and my mother.”
“That’s an understatement if there ever was one. And it’s not just your mother. It’s your grandfather, too.”
“Yes. I know. Well, my grandfather is dead. So, it’s just her you’re going to see. Well, Regan and Tyson are here, too. They’re expecting you. My mother is not. She wouldn’t have come or stayed if she knew she had to see you,” I say with blunt honesty.
“What in the world is going on?” She raises her voice and takes one stiff, deliberate step back from me.
“Hayes is the only person I’ve fully briefed on everything.”
“What is everything?” she cries loudly, panicked. She looks to Hayes, her expression alarmed. “What is g
oing on here? What have you been keeping from me?”
“Come to the sitting room. I’ll tell all of you together.” I don’t wait for her to agree, I just continue walking and know that Hayes will bring her along.
As soon as I open the wide, wooden double doors that lead to my formal sitting room, my mother jumps out of her seat and strides toward me. “What is going on? Who was at the door and why in the world—”
Her words die in her throat at the same time the sounds of their footsteps tell me that the Riverses are in the room now, too.
“What are they doing here? What is this?” She turns those dark, enraged onyx eyes on me and if looks could kill, I would be halfway to dead just from that first glance.
My heart pounds in my chest. A hard drumming that steadies me as adrenaline rushes in and keeps me from running out of the room. I’ve never been more afraid of anything in my life as I am of the conversation we’re about to have.
I inhale sharply through my nostrils and tell her. I’m not drawing things out tonight. Time is of the essence.
“They’re here because—”
“It doesn’t matter why they are here,” she shrieks and spins on her heel and walks back toward her seat. “I am leaving. I will not breathe the same air as this vile woman.” She snatches up her purse and walks back toward me.
I step into her path. “You are not going anywhere,” I say sternly.
I look over my shoulder at the Riverses. Gigi’s eyes are glassy and she’s clutching Hayes’ arm like her life depends on it. I gotta hurry this up.
I look back to my mother and say sternly, “No one’s leaving until we’re all done.”
She eyes me like I’m an offending stain on her pristine white blouse. Her nostrils flare as if a malodorous wind just blew through.
“This had better be good,” she says and then stalks back to her seat.
“Will you please have a seat?” I say to the Riverses.
