“Oh.” Her face fell. “Right. Of course. You wouldn’t.” She patted his arm and sat heavily in her rolling chair, resting her head in her hand. “You know where your mom’s office is. Go on in.”
“Thank you.” Theo’s eyes crinkled at her, and he held out his hand to Audrey. Together, they walked down the hallway opposite from where Diego stood guard, passing walls lined with offices. Some doors were open, revealing people tapping away at computers in shared spaces. Some were private, and a few very lawyerly looking professionals in suits or skirts did double takes. One even stood up sharply and stared open-mouthed as they passed.
Theo ignored them all and headed straight for the office at the very end of the hall. A single, imposing door was cracked, and he rested a hand on the handle, holding it steady as they peered cautiously inside.
From what little Audrey could see, the corner office was huge and flooded with light, the early afternoon sunshine pouring inside through floor-to-ceiling windows. Eleanor leaned against the front of a massive, solid oak desk, somehow looking even tinier than she had yesterday, despite both the height of her heels and her flawless wardrobe. Her gray hair was perfectly coiffed with not a strand out of place. Her makeup was impeccable, her nails pristine. Not a wrinkle in sight on her dark gray pantsuit, and yet…
And yet she looked sick.
She was pale, and her cheeks were tinged with green. She was talking to a much taller woman about her age who was just as chic, but much edgier, her silver hair styled in a severe, asymmetrical bob.
Their voices filtered through the crack in the door.
“I don’t know what to do, Nance.”
“You can’t do anything else. He’s said no. You need to respect that.”
“He’s my only son.”
“He’s grieving.” Nancy took Eleanor’s hands. “His whole life changed. I’m sure he just needs time.”
“What if I’ve lost him forever?” Eleanor held a trembling hand to her mouth, closing her eyes as if she were trying to stave off tears.“I deserve to lose him. I understand completely why he hates me so much. I’m a terrible mother. I—”
When Theo pushed the door open and stepped inside, both women’s heads snapped over to him.
Eleanor’s eyes grew wide.
She looked like she might crumple into a heap on the floor.
The taller woman, Nancy, glanced between Eleanor and her son and blanched, her light brown eyes wide with worry. She put a hand on Eleanor’s shoulder and gently squeezed.
“Text if you need me. I’ll leave you to it.” She hurried out of the room while Theo ushered Audrey inside, keeping her head down as she shut the door quietly behind her.
With Nancy gone, the tension in the room thickened.
Theo stood still and silent as he studied his mother, the very mirror of their encounter yesterday. Only this time, his face didn’t flush red. It was inscrutable beneath the mask.
After a long moment, it was Eleanor who finally broke the silence.
“Theo,” she finally whispered, as if she still couldn’t quite believe that he stood before her now. She stepped forward and fumbled for a nearby armchair before sinking heavily into the plush, leather cushion. As soon as she did, she buried her face in her hands and began to sob.
“I’m so sorry, Theo,” she finally gasped, tears streaming down her face. “I’m so sorry. I’msosorry.”
He met Audrey’s gaze, and when she nodded at him, he reached up and tugged the mask away from his mouth before shoving it into his coat pocket and stepping over to his mother. He dragged over another chair and sat next to her, hands clasped and elbows resting on his knees while he waited patiently for her to catch her breath.
When she finally calmed down enough to look at him, he rolled his lips together and began to speak.
“You sent me into a tailspin yesterday. It was ugly. I wasn’t ready to see you yet. I wasn’t ready to talk to you yet, and you still pushed it. I’ve only ever been more upset once in my life.” He glanced over his shoulder at Audrey and smiled softly. “But I’m okay now.” When Eleanor opened her mouth to speak, hope lighting up her face, Theo held up a hand to stop her. “That doesn’t mean thatweare okay, though.”
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his wallet, freeing the little card Audrey saw him writing on earlier from one of the slots. “I decided to come today because Dad would have wanted me to. I’m here because he can’t be. He loved you. He was proud of you. And I know that what you do here, you see as your service, your purpose. The way you give back to the community and do pro bono work, the way you try to make things better for so many people within the legal system—I get that.” He sighed and flicked the card between his fingers absently, anxiously. “In some ways, we’re not so different. Because for you, this is your art, isn’t it?
“Rejecting your legacy is about as fair as you asking me to give up mine. I know you didn’t understand it that way at the time, and if I’d had the wherewithal and the mindset to explain it to you like that then, I would’ve. But I didn’t. And now we’re here. Frankly, in that respect, I don’t think that part is a bad thing, even though it’s caused me a great deal of pain.” He huffed sardonically. “A great deal.”
Theo stared Eleanor straight in the eyes, unyielding and unblinking and intense. “You weren’t there for me when I was growing up. I know you get that intellectually now, even if you didn’t then. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to do the same thing to you that you did to me. As I see it, there’s only one way to break patterns, and it’s by doing things differently—by not repeating them. So here’s me, actively choosing not to repeat a cycle of abandonment.” He nodded. “I’m here. I’m going to do better andbebetter than you were forme by modeling what I want fromyou. And that’s support. And acceptance.”
He leaned forward and finally handed her the card. “That doesn’t mean this is a carte blanche to start over.” He tapped the thick, creamy cardstock. “It’s literally not a blank card.” He shook his head. “Thank you for the invitation, but Audrey and I won’t be coming home for Thanksgiving this year. Or Christmas. Or any other holiday. Maybe not even next year, or possiblynever, I don’t know yet. That depends on what you do from here on out. And you and I still aren’t on speaking terms—let me be exceedingly clear.” His full lips pressed into one thin, tense line, so hard they almost disappeared completely. “Today is a onetime deal. A goodwill gift. An exception. And unless things change, I will not be doing it again.
“Even if thingsdochange, I want my privacy respected, and I want it respected religiously. It’s a hard line. In either case, I will not be going back to law school. I will not be taking over the firm. If you want to talk to me, if you want to start making things better, you have to start here.” He pointed at the card. “Joint therapy sessions with Dr.Harper, and independent ones on your own. I’ll make time for the joint ones if you will.” His face softened and he inhaled sharply. “I don’t want to lose anyone else. There aren’t—we don’t have a lot of us to lose, and I don’t want to have any more regrets. But we also can’t keep going on as we have been. You agree, right, Mom? And—a-and you said you’d do anything to make it right. Did you mean it?”
