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“Are you listening to your son, Isaac?” My mother’s tone is filled with indignation at my father. They always blamed each other for everything that went wrong. I was one of the mistakes that they had to deal with. That is until my father walked out, leaving mommy dearest to look after me.
“He’s a grown man,” Dad says, his eyes on me, unwavering. “I may not have been the perfect father, and I may not have been the most present in his life, but looking at how much he’s grown and matured,” he smiles as he says this, “I’m proud of him. He’s able to stand up for what he believes in, and that’s all I ever wanted for him.”
The emotion in his voice, in his words, grips me hard, and I can’t find a response. For years, I hated him. I spent my time angry at him for walking out and leaving me. I hated the fact that he moved on and didn’t love my mother anymore, but I realize now, as he laces his fingers through Maisy’s, my father has chosen her; the same way I chose Rukaiya.
“This is ridiculous,” Hilary mutters.
“Is it, Mother? Or is it just something that doesn’t fit in with you and your elite friends down at the country club?” I challenge, waiting for her to deny it, because I’d like her to. I wish my mother would break down just once to show how much she cares, or even loves me, but the cold woman I grew up with doesn’t shatter.
“You will never enter that house again.” Her threat hangs in the air, but it’s Dad who steps forward and smiles.
“Actually, Hilary,” he starts. “The house is in my name. If you remember correctly, the moment I signed the papers, you refused to legally change your last name to Durand even though you told all your friends you’re a Durand.” Isaac’s tone is drenched in the satisfaction that’s painted all over his expression. “And since you didn’t take on the name, that makes you…. Nothing.”
“What?” We all mutter in shock as my father turns to me.
“Etienne, I may not have been there for your teenage years or your college life, but I’m here now, and these,” he pulls a set of keys from his pocket, the keyring that hangs from them is our Durand coat of arms. “are your keys to the kingdom. As a Crown of Tynewood, each of you have to keep your set of the keys safe. And one day,” he smiles, looking over at Rukaiya, “when you have your son or daughter, you hand them down.”
“I don’t understand, I mean, don’t you keep them?”
“No. I run the faction in London; it’s no longer my duty to live in Tynewood. It’s yours. I saved it, held onto it, for you until I knew you were ready. And I believe you’re ready now. It’s your land, Etienne, and now that it belongs to you, I know it’s in safe hands.”
My hand trembles as I reach for the keys. They’re heavy, four silver keys. I know one is for the house, the other for the cottage that’s located on our property, where our security lives, but there are two other keys I don’t recognize.
Looking up at my father, I hold them between my thumb and forefinger, “What are these for?”
He points at the one that holds the crest of the Gilded Sovereign. “This is for the room where you meet. If you’re there first, you’re able to unlock it for the rest of the Crowns. And this one,” he pulls the smallest silver key from my fingers. “is for the church behind the Lancaster mansion. It’s yours to use as you see fit,” he tells me, and I know what he means. We’ve been going into that church since we were kids. Tarian, Ares, and I spent our days there, planning what we would do at school the next day, how we’d get out of detention, it was our sanctuary.
“Thank you,” I manage to speak, after swallowing past the lump in my throat.
“Listen to me, Isaac,” my mother pipes up from behind Dad. “You’re not throwing me out of my own house. Do you understand me?” Her pointed finger is right in my father’s face, but he doesn’t move, he doesn’t even wince at her spat out words. “I will make sure you regret this.”
“There is nothing you can do, Hilary, it’s in my will, in all the contracts you ever signed when we got married and when we got divorced. It was always going to be Etienne’s.”
“This isn’t the end.”
“Yes, it is, Hilary. I trust you’ll be out of the kids’ way when they return to the house tomorrow.” My father’s conviction, confidence gives me the same, because, I finally realize, even in his absence, I was the one person he never truly walked away from. It was her.
