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“Your mother is still with Eian, sir.”
“Why are you calling me sir?” We’ve known each other almost since he was born, what the hell?
He clears his throat and looks down.
“Sorry, Harry. I want to say, now that they all went in.” he gestures to the front door, and I realize they must’ve walked in and I just stayed here, next to the car. “If your mother hears of this, Harry, she’ll kill Mary.”
He’s right, I mean,Iwant to kill Mary. I won’t, though I wish I had the spine, but my mother wouldn’t have such limitations.
If there’s one person who can calm her down from going on a killing spree, it’s Eian. Right. I have to deal with this now. I have to be the father Theo deservesnow.And I can only do that if I’m not in jail or calling the best defense attorney in the country to defend Ma.
I nod repeatedly and Connor shuffles in his feet which never happens so it instantly puts me on alert. “I knew,” he whispers.
“What?” I croak out.
“When we went to see Mike’s family in March, we ran into her, and I heard—” he clears his throat, not looking at me. “I heard the way she talked to him, what she said. He defended himself, Harry,” now he does look up at me, “he told her off. And then he had an anxiety attack. Mike took care of him, and then Theo asked me to never tell you.” The last part sounds like a plea.
I stay silent. What can I say? It’s not like I think Connor’s loyalty to Theo is a bad thing. The opposite actually. The problem here is I wasn’t the person Theo trusted. For whatever reason—I have a few theories—he didn’t come to me when he was being hurt.
I only nod at him. I can’t think about this anymore, because if I contemplate how far Theo has gone to keep this from me, I’ll break down and that’d be counterproductive. Dealing with Ma and making sure she doesn’t take the next flight out to Maine is what I should focus on.
“I’ll go get Tony and Oscar,” he murmurs referring to Mike and Theo’s dogs. They will comfort Theo, that’s a good idea. Connor goes back around the car and climbs into the driver’s seat.
I take out my phone, then decide I need to do one thing before I make the call. I find them all in the living room. Iris and Mike are hugging Theo. Tris is sitting on the same chair he did the first time he came into this house.
Tris… what did he do in the stadium? I heard him talking a lot. I’ll have to ask.
“Right, so, Theo, Mike, I’d like for you both to stay here tonight, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course.” Mike nods and gives me a slight smile. Theo only nods, tears streaming down his face. The sight is a punch to the gut because it’s exactly my weakness to those tears that made me separate myself from his upbringing enough to give Mary all the space in the world to fuck with him.
I grind my teeth and breathe deeply to calm myself down. I’ll be useless if I keep thinking about every single way I failed him.
“So, if you could go to the living room upstairs, please. I have to make a few calls before I can speak about this and I’d think it best if I wasn’t close to you for that.”
Theo stares at me, despair clear as glass in his eyes. I try to soften my gaze so he doesn’t get the wrong impression.
They trail out of the room and Tris comes to stand next to me. “What can I do?” he asks.
“Nothing, really, but please stay. I know this isn’t what you signed up fo—” he shuts me up with a kiss.
“I’ll stay.”
I take his hand and lead him to my office. I need to feel in control, and this is the place where I find it quickest most of the time. So I sit behind the mahogany desk my great-great-grandfather used to build an empire, and I instantly feel better. My hands still shake as I trace a finger over the edge of the desk, but I think I’m better.
Tris leans on the desk, staying close. That’s good, that’s what I need.
I place a hand on his thigh and use the other to call my cousin.
“What’s up,” he answers after the first ring.
“Eian,” I croak out the name.
“What’s wrong? Where are you?”
“I’m home, there’s no emergency,” I manage to say.
“Tell me.”
