Did she deserve an email from me? No. I was going to send it anyway. Would she read it? Most likely. But I knew that the five minutes it took to type it were therapeutic for me. Even if the words and their meaning would be lost on her.
I copied the email from the body of the email into a waiting email in my old account. I didn’t even hesitate; I just hit Send. It was gone, and I closed that email browser and then moved to my new one. It was beautiful. There were exactly two emails in my inbox, and they were both completely safe. One was from Henry,reminding me of my next appointment with Garin, and the other was from Maxwell. He’d sent me a funny meme.
I closed the browser and then gently shut my laptop. It would sleep, and that was good enough as it was plugged in. I smiled, feeling at peace as I stood and left the office.
I didn’t know why I thought it was a good idea to go to Bangor. I didn’t need to see her. She wasn’t going to listen to anything I had to say because it wasn’t what she wanted to hear. I didn’t need to see Father because he wasn’t going to say anything. He never did. He was just there, miserable.
When I was halfway up the stairs, I heard Maxwell cooing at Merlin. “You’re going to be gorgeous, just like your daddy. Yes you are.”
I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face. When I got to the nursery, I leaned against the doorway and just watched my mate with our son. He was such an amazing dad. He’d delivered so many babies, four since we’d been mated. I’d assisted with two, but Constantine had helped with Chase’s twins since I’d just given birth to Merlin.
I heard footsteps and turned to Lukyan walking down the hallway from the bathroom. He stood there with me and watched Maxwell, who had seen us by this point. I was sure that he’d known I was there from the beginning. He always seemed as if he knew where I was.
“You look…at peace,” Maxwell said.
My smile widened. “Yeah, I am. I have you and Merlin and your dads.” I looked over at Lukyan. “Thank you for being amazing and wonderful,” I told him.
“It’s easy to do,” Lukyan said as he pulled me into a side hug. “I cannot understand why some parents do what they do. Times are different from now and when I had Maxwell, but the love a parent has for their child shouldn’t change. What your parents offered…” Lukyan shook his head. “That wasn’t love.”
“It wasn’t. It was avoidance from my father. Indifference, even. And our mother, I can’t even…I’m not sure. She needs therapy. But I’m not sure it would help her because she truly feels like she’s done nothing wrong.”
Lukyan hugged me tighter to him and then let go. “Winston is here,” he said. “He had a meeting with Alistair about…things.” He and Maxwell shared a look. Maxwell nodded subtly, and then Lukyan left. I assumed he was going to go meet Winston at the door, but I had a feeling there was more to it and looked at my mate in question.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “I have a feeling that there’s more to Winston’s meeting than it just being ameeting. Especially since it’s Sunday.”
“Come in and sit?”
I nodded and followed Maxwell into the nursery. Merlin was making noises, sucking on his fist, and I nodded toward the baby at Maxwell. “Do you want to feed him? Will that make you calmer?”
I hesitated before taking the baby into my arms. “Why wouldn’t I be calm? What’s happening?”
“Nothing bad,” Maxwell said as he passed me our son.
Once the baby was situated, he handed me a bottle. Merlin immediately started fussing when he saw what I was holding right in front of him, and I had to pull his fist out of his hand before quickly replacing it with the nipple. “Little man, there’s no milk in that fist of yours. So yes, it will frustrate you,” I told him. Not that he understood. I watched Merlin for a moment, and once I saw he wasn’t going to choke because he was trying to drink too fast, I moved my attention to my mate. “Okay. Spill it. What’s happening?”
Maxwell took a deep breath and nodded. “Father went to talk to Alistair about your parents. They haven’t done anything criminal. Not really. Your mother did try to kidnap Caleb’s son.He stopped her before she could leave with him, but it needs to be addressed. All of you have gone low or no contact. You’ve all moved away, but what if she starts focusing on someone else? Someone not related to her?”
My eyes rounded. I looked down at Merlin, calmed myself, and then back at my mate. “I’d not thought about that. We all just deal with her. I’d like to believe she wouldn’t actually harm anyone, but I do understand what you’re saying. Are they going to, what? Make her do therapy? I don’t think it will help.”
“I’m not sure. The council has dealt with others like this before, and both of your parents will have some sort of consequences.”
Huh. I nodded absently. I didn’t know how, but I understood. “I guess that’s good to know. I wrote them an email. I addressed it to both, but really, it’s to Mother. It was my goodbye. She didn’t need it, but I did. And I sent it, and now that chapter of my life is closed. I don’t have to deal with her ever again.”
Maxwell smiled. “No, you don’t. If you don’t want to see her, you don’t have to.”
I had no doubt that Mother had read the email by this point. And she most likely tried to call my phone immediately. That number had now been disconnected, and she would get the message that it had. I meant it when I said I was going to be deleting my email account. I had a new one that those who needed it had access to it. Beyond that, I didn’t need her to be able to reach me in any way. She had given me life, but she’d made me completely miserable and dread waking up every day.
I looked over at Maxwell and felt peace. “Coming here is absolutely the best thing I ever did,” I told him. “And not just because I found you and we have Merlin now. But because it’s what I needed to get away. I needed to find myself.”
“I’m forever grateful that you applied to the position here. More so that you were accepted, but I have a feeling that Thomas and Canyon had something to do with that.”
“You know they did. This was their plan all along.” I wasn’t sure how it was that they could make something like that happen, but they did. I had no doubt at all that the fates were the reason I was picked for this position.
“Are you ready to go back to work tomorrow?” Maxwell asked, changing the subject.
I looked down at Merlin. “It’s going to be different,” I said. “Being away from him. He’s so little.”
“My love, we’re taking him with us. Papochka is going with us to sit in the office with the baby. He’ll be right there.”
