I need a shower, a quick meal, and to get to the Center.
“Please.”
My jaw grows tight. “Is she still pretending that Brett was the precious golden boy?”
Silence. I run my hand over my face. “I can’t do it, Nee. You know that. If I go into that house…I’m sorry.”
I can’t sit there and entertain her fucking delusions when we’re fighting to save our mate from the wreckage of Brett’s actions. “Gethimto look after her.”
“He’s not… doing well. Either of them. Please, Theo. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t need you. Not them.Me.”
Fuck. The guilt swoops. “What’s going on, Nia?”
Silence stretches out. My sister’s breath hitches. “He’s acting weird. I don’t know, really. But I haven’t seen him much. He stays in his office most of the time.”
Of course he does. God forbid my father learn any sort of fucking lesson from his actions. “I’ll drive by, but I’m not coming in. Come out and speak to me.”
***
I know before I even stop that it’s gonna be a shitshow.
Nia mouths an apology, her face tearstained. My mom weaves unsteadily down the steps, tapping on my window. I stare straight ahead, contemplating just driving off.
Sighing, I crack the window a few inches. “What is it?”
She looks… not better. But not worse, either. The smell that reaches me tells me she’s swapped to a new kind of medicine. The alcoholic kind. “You haven’t been here for months.”
Good of you to notice. “You know why I haven’t been here.”
I always thought my mom was one of the good ones. Warm, loving, and kind. But as I grew up, I realised that anyone would look good stacked up against Charles Rivers.
She hiccups. “You need to speak to your father.”
“Hard pass.” Fuckinghell. My eyes slide to Nia, my heart squeezing. She looks fucking miserable. “Nee? You can still come with me.”
It’s not the first time I’ve offered. Slowly, she shakes her head.
She has a kinder heart than I do. Or more of a tolerance for bullshit.
But my mom grips the edge of the window, stopping me from driving off. “Annie Evans told me you’re working at the construction site.”
My lips thin. “Yes. Anything else?”
“Your father is furious—,”
“He can go to fucking hell!” My temper, held in place by a single, frayed thread, snaps. “He has no place in my life. Not since he put my mate at risk and tried to hide her away in a cell so she’d diealone. That’s who he is, mom. Don’t you dare judge me for working so I can provide for my mate. That’s what you do for the ones you love. It’s the bare fuckingminimum.”
Just for a moment, pity flickers in my chest. “I’m not surprised you don’t recognise it. Not with him as an example.”
My mother looks affronted. “Brett would never speak to me—,”
“Don’t youdare,” I say quietly. But there’s a warning in my voice. “Don’t you dare say his name to me. Don’t you hold him up to me as any sort of paragon of virtue after what he did to her.”
She shrinks back, one hand splayed across her chest.
“Theo,” Nia whispers. “I’m sorry.”
I can’t look at her. “You need to get tested for the feral gene, Nee. I can help you. Don’t trust whathesays.”
