His uncle groaned. “Don’t play dumb, Teddy. You’resosmart.”
“Well, sure, but that doesn’t mean I should take over the Redmond family law firm.”
“You’re the next in line to do it. Are you really going to let over a hundred years of our family’s legacy fall into someone else’s hands?”
“It’s notmyfault you never had children,” Theo sneered.
His uncle’s face reddened. “You had a perfect GPA while playing lacrosse and double majoring at Columbia. You scored a one-eighty on your LSATs.”
“Do you think I give a shit about sometest scores?”
“You got into Harvard, Yale, Stanford,andChicago, and for what?For what?!”
“I have no interest in law.”
“You used to! And then yousquanderedall that raw talent by—”
“I don’t want any part of your fuckingfamily business.”
The walls were too close. Why was the ceiling so low? Or the lights so dim? Why was breathing suddenly so hard? Theo gasped and blinked and tried to calm his racing heart, but it only felt like it sped up at the thought. It was all he could hear, the beating of his heart, the frenzy of his lungs, the way the room seemed to spin.
He couldn’t breathe.
Panic.
This was panic.
“What a waste. What an incredibly stupid waste.” His uncle’s voice cut through the noise. “This is why you need to grow the fuck up, boy. Do something worthwhile with your life.”
The symphony of panic in Theo’s brain suddenly condensed down to one, single note: a loud ringing in his ears.
And he found his voice again.
“What did you just say to me?” he rasped.
“That you need to grow. The fuck.Up.” Lloyd rolled his eyes before glaring darkly at him. “This is ridiculous. You’re spiraling because we’re trying to hand you a real purpose on a silver platter. This is the firm your mother and I inherited—the firm your great-grandfather built from nothing and your grandfather turned into a roaring empire.”
“You want me to give up my art?”
“You’re not twenty anymore,Teddy,” his uncle growled. “You need to think seriously about your future.”
“It’s the only thing that makes me feel alive.” Theo’s voice shook as he spoke. “You might as well ask me to give upbreathing.”
His uncle shook his head and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. The light danced off the silver threaded through the fading burnished gold of his hair, and he suddenly looked haggard.
“We’ve all got to make sacrifices in life. Your mother has workedso hard—and so have I. Do you know what she’s done for you? Do you know what she’s sacrificed to send you to the best schools? To make sure you got the best of everything, the best tutors, the best trainers, the best therapists, the best—”
“This is more than asacrifice. It’s—”
“Do you have any idea how damaging it could be for us, for our family, if anyone finds out what you actually do?” Lloyd roared. “You’ll make us a laughingstock! A joke! The Redmonds, reduced to whateverthisis.” He gestured at Theo’s leather jacket.
“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Theo bellowed back. “What are you getting at? Why do I have to sit here and justify—”
“You’re a lazy, entitled fuckup, Theodore. I know how much you hate your family—and how much you hate our legacy. You could have been something. You could have been someone. And instead, you’ve chosenthis.”
The ringing in Theo’s ears grew louder.
It was that word.
