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“Do you believe the same thing?” I asked Paxon.
Paxon’s eyes were wide as he looked between the three of us, trying to read the room. There was a clear division of opinions. I felt bad for tossing him into the middle of that. Conflict wavered in his eyes as he tried to voice his thoughts.
“Of course Paxon does,” Bryan practically snarled out. “He, out of everyone here, knows that toxic parents shouldn’t be in our lives.”
Paxon took in a sharp breath the same moment I felt like a hot poker was being jabbed between my ribs.
“Stop it, Bryan,” Seth said. “Everyone has a right to their own opinions. Stop making others feel like shit because their thoughts don’t align with yours.”
“Who the hell am I making feel like shit?” Bryan asked, his voice rising. “I’m not wrong.”
“You aren’t right either,” I finally said in a soft voice.
Bryan snapped his gaze to me, and I could see the moment when he realized he had fucked up. “Cadence—”
“Don’t.” I shook my head. “Just don’t. You already shoved your foot in your mouth. Don’t make it worse.” I got up and went over to the counter, deciding that having some coffee would help me. My brain already felt slow and foggy, and Bryan’s reaction wasn’t helping.
“If my mom was going to be in hospice care, I think I would go see her. At least once. I’d need it,” Paxon said. “It’s closure. Not something you should take away from anyone.”
Bryan’s chair scraped the ground as he stood up. Without looking at either of us, he stormed out of the room, bumping into Toby.
“Hey! Good morning to you too,” Toby said, glaring at Bryan.
Bryan still didn’t say anything as he went upstairs.
Toby’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “What did I miss? Did you dump mouthwash in his cereal or something?”
“That’s disgusting,” Seth said.
Toby shrugged as he took Bryan’s spot. “You’re doing crafts without me? What the heck?” He commandeered Bryan’s materials and deconstructed the porcupine before working on something of his own.
“That witch hat looks sick,” he said.
“Thanks.” I came back over with my mug and sat down.
Paxon gave us a smile. “I’ll be right back.” He gave me a small nod before heading upstairs too, probably to talk to Bryan.
“I so missed something, didn’t I?”
“Just the usual.” Seth tossed a candy at Toby. “Now show us what you got.”
“Oh, be prepared to be amazed,” Toby said. “I’m going to build a hobbit house.”
Seth snorted. “Sure.”
Toby’s eyes narrowed as his competitiveness came out. “Game on.”
“Good luck,” I said, forcing a smile and pushing the conversation to the side as I went back to finishing my witch’s hat.
Chapter Five
~Bryan’s POV~
I flopped onto the guest bed and glared at the ceiling, trying to calm my anger. As soon as Justin had told us he was going to visit his dad once he was transferred to the hospital, I’d been fighting the urge to shake some sense into him. Who in their right mind would visit a murderer? Why? It didn’t make sense and now everyone was making me out to be the crazy person when it was them who were all crazy.
My phone buzzed, and I groaned, already knowing it was my dad. He was on my case about college and attending events and a million other things. I ignored it, but then my phone buzzed again.
“Yes?” I finally answered.
