I stare at her. “Mom. This is— it’s not normal. It’s not?—”
“Parker.” She reaches across the table, taking my hands. “Do you remember what I told you when you asked why I stayed with your father for so long? When you were seventeen and furious with me for not leaving sooner?”
I remember. I’d been so angry with her, couldn’t understand why she didn’t just take us and go.
“I told you that sometimes we make choices that don’t make sense to anyone else,” she continues. “That sometimes we stay in situations that hurt us because we’re protecting something moreimportant than our own happiness.” Her voice softens. “I stayed with Dominic to protect you and Charles. To keep his attention on me instead of controlling you. And when you wanted to go to California for college and he tried to stop you?—”
“You filed for divorce,” I finish quietly. “Timed it perfectly so he’d be too focused on punishing you to stop me from leaving.”
“Exactly.” She squeezes my hands. “I sacrificed years of my life to keep you safe. To give you freedom when the time came. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Because that’s what love is, Parker. It’s messy and complicated and sometimes it doesn’t look like what everyone else thinks it should. But it’s real.”
“This is different?—”
“Is it?” She holds my gaze. “You love three men. They love you. They’re the fathers of your children. They protect you and those boys with their lives. What about that is wrong?”
“Society says?—”
“Society doesn’t get a vote in your happiness.” Her voice is firm. “Parker, I’ve watched you for six years. Raising those boys alone. Building a life in California. Being strong and independent and completely miserable.”
“I wasn’t miserable?—”
“You were lonely,” she corrects. “You were doing everything right—being a good mother, providing for your children, keeping them safe—but you were lonely. And now you’re back, and for the first time in six years, I see you happy. Stressed, yes. Worried, absolutely. But happy. Because you’re with them again.”
Tears blur my vision. “What if I’m making a mistake? What if this falls apart? What if?—”
“What if it doesn’t?” she interrupts. “What if this impossible thing is actually exactly what you need? What those boys need? What those three men need?”
“How do I even do this? How do I be in a relationship with three people? How do we navigate boundaries and jealousy and?—”
“The same way any relationship works. Communication. Honesty. Trust.” She pauses. “And probably a lot of therapy.”
I laugh despite the tears. “Probably.”
“Have you talked to them? Really talked? About what you want, what they want, how this would work?”
“Not really. We were supposed to, the night before the attack. But then everything happened and—” I wipe my eyes. “I came here. And I know it was the right choice for Noah and Liam, but I feel like I’m hiding. Again.”
“You’re not hiding. You’re protecting your children while the men you love handle a threat.” Her voice is gentle. “That’s not weakness, Parker. That’s trust. You’re trusting them to do what needs to be done while you do what you need to do. That’s partnership.”
“That’s what Cal said.”
“Then Cal’s smarter than I gave him credit for.” She stands, moving around the table to pull me into a hug. “Those boys are lucky to have you as their mother. And those three men? They’re lucky to have you at all.”
I cling to her, this woman who’s weathered her own storms, who understands complicated love in ways I’m only beginning to grasp.
I open my mouth to say something, I don’t even know what, truthfully, but I’m cut off when my phone buzzes in my hand.
Not a text. A video call.
Cal’s name flashes on the screen.
My heart jumps into my throat. I answer immediately, bringing the phone up so fast I almost drop it.
“Cal—”
His face fills the screen, and relief floods through me so intense I almost sob. He looks exhausted—dark circles under his amber eyes, his hair disheveled, stress written across his features. But he’s alive. He’s okay.
“Hey,” he says, his voice rough. “Sorry it’s been radio silent. Things got...complicated.”
