Page 98 of Her Royal Treatment


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Aiden

“You have what we need yet?” I paced my room as I spoke to the man on the phone. “Chuck, what am I paying you for if you can’t get me what I’m asking? I don’t care how–”

There was a knock on my door. My mom’s soft voice called from the other side. “Aiden?”

“One second,” I called back before lowering my voice and finishing my call.

“Just get it for me, Chuck. Or I will find someone who will.”

I hung up the phone and opened the door to find my mother standing in the hallway.

“Everything okay?” Mom was usually in the library with a book at this time of night so her visit concerned me.

“I just wanted to check on you, after what happened downstairs. Mind if I come in?”

“No, of course not. Come inside, Mom,” I said.

“I know Jackson can be a bit… well, hard-headed sometimes.”

“That’s a nice way of putting it.” I laughed to try and make it into a joke, but it wasn’t funny to me. Jackson had always been a bit of an asshole. A cocky, arrogant asshole who was becoming more and more like our father every year.

Mom pursed her lips but didn’t argue with me. She walked over to the window and took a seat in one of the chairs there, patting the chair next to her.

I sat beside her in silence for a long time, staring out at the snowy landscape.

“I believe you, Aiden. I know it feels like no one is on your side, but I am. I’ll always be on your side, I’m your mother.”

For most of my life, though warm and loving, our mother kept to herself. She let our father do most of the parenting, seeming to be a background character more than a main one, even in her own story. She always took care of us, but we were never a family that had heart-to-hearts or expressed outward affection for one another. That is, until Dad was out of the picture.

Mom had changed a lot since she left Dad. She came out of her shell. It took her some time, but she took over as matriarch of the family, handling most of the family affairs until Nathan stepped in to help her once he finished college. She blossomed, and I loved to see it.

Didn’t mean it made me any less uncomfortable to talk about my feelings.

Twenty-something years of being told to suck it up and to keep it all inside took its toll on you after a while.

“I think I’m going to take a walk.”

“This late?” Mom asked.

I glanced out the window. Although night had fallen, the moon shone brightly and illuminated the snow, allowing for a mildly dark appearance.

“I’ve walked in worse conditions in the Army, Mom,” I reminded her.

“That was before your–” she cut herself off, but her gaze fell on my legs.

My jaw clenched as I was reminded that my injury would always make others see me as damaged or changed, even though it barely affected my mobility at all.

“I’m sorry, I’m your mom, Aiden, it’s my job to worry about you.”

“I know, but I’ll be fine,” I reassured her. “I won’t go far; I just need to get some air.”

“Alright,” she said after a long pause and a sigh. “But please be careful.”

She left the room as I changed into warmer attire and headed down the stairs toward the door. Nathan’s voice popped up from the living room.

“Heading out?”

I paused just long enough to answer him. “Yeah, going for a walk.”

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