All he could feel was his body starting to come apart.
“Get in the goddamn car!” Henry threw him into the front seat and shut the door after him, jogging around and sliding quickly into the driver’s side, locking the doors before peeling out of the gravel drive in front of the picture-perfect red-and-white manor.
It was all a lie.
Theo bent forward and put his head between his knees in an attempt to not pass out. He couldn’t breathe anymore, and the interior of the Thunderbird fizzled at the edges of his vision, despite the huge, gasping breaths he gulped down like water.
He was going to be sick.
He fumbled for the window crank and rolled it down as fast as he could before plunging his head outside and hurling the contents of his stomach into the dark.
They left it behind in an instant.
His mother lived on the outskirts of Albany, and they rocketed down dark back roads at high speed, his father driving like a bat out of hell back south, in the direction of the city. As soon as Theo rolled up the window and let his head fall back against the headrest, Henry glared at him angrily out of the corner of his eye.
“What thefuck, Teddy!” he yelled, gripping the steering wheel so hard, his knuckles turned white. “Were you trying to kill your uncle?”
“I don’t know,” Theo gasped. “Maybe.” He hated him. That feeling hadn’t dissipated. “He’s an asshole.”
But then he looked down at his lap. His hands were shaking. Why were they shaking? They wouldn’t stop. They wouldn’t stop, he couldn’t stop them, and when he turned them over, he flinched and recoiled at the sight of dried, rust-red blood caked onto his knuckles. It was still there, crimson and brown, mixing red with the fresh dark bruises sprouting underneath. His stomach churned again, and he gripped the window crank with trembling, scrabbling fingers, finally latching onto it and holding on for dear life in case he vomited again.
It was disgusting.
Hewas disgusting.
He was a monster.
And his father wasfurious.
“What happened?” Henry bellowed. “You know he’s not going to let this lie—he’s a lawyer, for god’s sake! One of the best in the country, no less, the dean of Cornell’s stupid fucking law school, and you justassaulted him!” He slammed his foot on the gas and they raced through the countryside as fast as they could, putting as much distance between Theo and what he’d just done as possible.
They sat in silence while the landscape whizzed by.
It was a long time before either of them spoke again.
“Did you know Mom’s going to retire?” Theo still felt sick even asking the question.
“Yes. She told me a few weeks ago that she wants to step down.”
The sound of the road purred under the tires of the Thunderbird while Theo turned those words over in his mind.
He was the last to know.
No one had told him, and he was the last to know.
“You—youknew?”
“Of course I did, kid,” Henry grunted. “You think we don’t still talk?” He lifted a hand and wiped the sweat away from his brow. “We may not be married anymore, but we’re still friends.”
“You fought like crazy when I was little. You could hardly stand to look at each other.”
“Yeah, well…turns out distance and separate bedrooms do actually make the heart grow fonder. Eventually.”
Theo quieted again.
“You knew what they were going to tell me this weekend?”
“Yes.”
