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My steps falter when Addie appears in front of me, blocking the entrance with her tiny frame. Prepared to just pick her up and deposit her somewhere else, I reach for her middle only to have her punch me clean in the stomach. For a ten-year-old, she has a hard enough swing to wind me. Noah must have taught her some things.
“What the fuck?” I cough, stumbling back, clutching my stomach.
“Why are you acting like a caveman? And don’t yell at Dad. Look at how sad Mom is now,” she scolds me.
I grit my teeth, not needing the reminder. “Not right now, Addie. Get out of my way.”
“No. Not until you go apologize.”
“I’m not asking.”
“I don’t care.” She juts her chin out and crosses her arms.
“Addie, sweetheart, go inside. We need to talk to your brother alone,” Dad asks softly.
One look over my shoulder and I know that he’s behind me. He’s stopped far enough back not to spook me but close enough I won’t be able to run again.
My sister looks unsure but, after a few seconds, shuffles aside. I walk inside, and Mom and Dad follow. The house smells like freshly baked cookies, and my stomach growls.
“Go sit on the couch, Maddox,” Dad says.
Gritting my jaw, I do as he says. Moving through the house, past the first of two offices that us kids use for schoolwork and beneath the exposed wooden beams in the living and dining room. There is an array of beads and string all over the coffee table in the living room, andLegally Blondeis playing on the big screen, the sound muted. The LED lights beneath the TV flash with pink—Addie’s favourite colour.
I sit on the couch and fold my hands in my lap. My swallow is audible in the quiet room.
Mom sits beside me and places her hand over mine, but it’s so small it hardly covers my one hand.
“You should have come to us. To your dad. You didn’t have to do this alone,” she murmurs.
I search the room for Dad and find him standing a few feet away, his arms crossed and hurt tugging at his features. It makes me feel nauseous.
“I’m going to do what I can to fix this for you, but there’s only so much I can do,” he says.
“Tell me you wouldn’t have done it for Mom. Tell me that you wouldn’t have done anything you could to not have to leave her,” I croak. “I would have been too far away. From you guys, from Braxton.”
Dad looks at the ceiling, blinking. “I understand why you did it, Maddox. I do. But that doesn’t change the reason why it was even brought up in the first place. You were manipulated and lied to. I should have been there with you. Roy should never have even had access to your future in the first place.”
“Florida doesn’t even need me. And you have told me yourself how bad their coaching staff is. I thought I was making the right decision. He said Vancouver would—”
Dad’s cold laugh cuts me off. “Oh, I know what he said Vancouver would do. And he was dreaming. Roy Heights has no clue how things work in the NHL. No fucking clue. I should never have let you convince me to let that man be your agent. I knew this would happen. Dougie would never have let this happen.”
“What if I didn’t want to have to use your agent? What if for the first time in my entire life, I wanted to be Maddox Hutton and not Oakley Hutton’s son?” I shout, pushing off the couch, fists curled at my sides. “Roy might have fucked me over, but at least this mistake is my own, and I don’t have to hear about how it affected my dad.”
Dad flinches, his green eyes wounded. I immediately wish I could take my words back, but I don’t backtrack.
“Baby,” Mom whispers, and I don’t know if she’s talking to me or Dad before she closes a warm palm over one of my fists.
“You’ve always been Maddox Hutton to us,” Dad says on a breath.
I shake my head. “You have no idea what it’s like to be your son and to feel the pressure to live up to you. I know I messed up. But I don’t need you to fix it for me. I need to own it and figure out what to do next. On my own.”
“I can’t do that. Whether you want to be my son or not, that’s what you are. And I’m not going to let you lose everything you’ve worked for because of this. You can hate me for it if you want, but it’s my job as your father. I love you, and I won’t let this ruin you.”
With that, he wipes a hand down his face, blows out a wavering breath, and leaves the room. Mom is as stiff as a statue behind me, but she doesn’t speak. I don’t think she knows what to say any better than I do.
I made a terrible mistake, and it might have cost me more than just my career.
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