Lucas snorted. “Not lovers. More like owner and property. With his talent, Sebastian should be singing at the Met. While Charles enjoys basking in Seb’s glow, he’s not about to let his pet get big enough to break away. That’s where you came in. I was hoping you’d help me save him. You weren’t supposed to use him too.”
“Wait a damned minute! I didn’t use him. Whatever he and I did was consensual, I can assure you. I’d never do anything to hurt him.” Lucas couldn’t be as surprised as Henri by the claim, or by the truth in the words. But wait! “Owner and property?” The frantic cleaning, the too-tidy house, the “my patron this” and “my patron that.” Seb wasn’t trying to impress the man or show respect, and his cleanliness wasn’t a nervous habit. He’d been terrified.
If only Henri had noticed when he’d had the chance to do something. Even now, as the knee-jerk hurt at Seb simmered for being with another man, first and foremost Henri wanted to ensure Seb’s safety.
“Annette died before Seb turned seventeen. I filed a custody suit and got laughed out of court for my efforts. No one would give a teenager to me when I had a record of being in and out of rehab and a few minor arrests for drunk and disorderly.”
Some of the web came unwoven. “Why did you want custody when you hadn’t even seen him in years?” Ice water poured through Henri’s veins. Oh shit. He’d seen the similarities and hadn’t put two and two together. Until now.
“Why wouldn’t a father want to care for his son?”
* * *
A conversationof this magnitude required coffee, privacy, and doughnuts—in that order. Henri started the coffeepot and rummaged through his cabinets for junk food. Not fresh doughnuts, but a pack of nearly expired chocolate sandwich cookies might offer enough comfort to get through an enlightening talk.
Only when they’d settled down to the kitchen table did Henri say more than “Sugar? Cream?”
“Okay, now back to business. How can you be Seb’s father? What about…?”
Lucas stared into his coffee cup. “Tell me, Henri, what would you do if you were a rising starlet, fighting tooth and nail to start a career, and discovered you were pregnant… and unmarried.”
“Couldn’t she have married the father?”
Lucas raised watery eyes. “And ruin her career by tying herself to a man with no money? No. As much as I loved the woman, I’m the first to admit her drama extended past the stage. A certain tenor of some renown had escorted her out a time or two.” Lucas gave a humorless smile. “He enjoyed having pretty young women on his arm. He also loved racing. When he crashed in France he made headlines. Leaving behind a bereft and pregnantfiancée”—Lucas added air quotes—“earned Annette pity, not scorn, and catapulted her into the public’s eye.
“That’s why we had our falling out. We’d met at an after party. I was only there because a business partner gave me tickets. I pitched a musical idea and she was all ears. We started seeing each other, quietly, of course. To be honest, I was thrilled when she told me she was pregnant, and even pawned a few things to get her a ring.” Lucas examined his cup as though the answers to his problems lay at the bottom. “She said Sebastian wasn’t mine. I suspected differently, but when he began to draw notice as a tenor, the opera world touted him as a chip off the old block. Not that I could have given him much in the way of the life.”
“What would Sebastian Senior’s family do if they found out?”
“He didn’t have much family, and Annette didn’t inherit. She took the man’s name for her son. Nothing else.”
It wasn’t right to think ill of the dead, but Henri didn’t like Sebastian’s mother much. “And she confessed all on her death bed.”
Lucas nodded. “I can’t figure out if I should praise her for raising him alone to be such a fine young man, or bring her back and kill her myself for denying me my son.”
“I’d give everything I have to be able to sit down at dinner with my parents, or call them, share my good days, get their advice,”Sebastian had said.
“Have you told him?”
“Are you mad? Do you have any idea what kind of damage coming forward now would do to his career? No, I watched from the sidelines and put my faith in others. But I pulled myself out of a bottle, stood on my own feet again, and tried to be someone he might one day look up to, if he didn’t stare too closely at the tarnish around the edges.” Lucas raised his head high enough to give Henri a sidewise glare. “Which brings us back to where we were. I have no idea where my son is, but he isn’t onstage where he belongs, and he disappeared the day after you paid a little visit. I ask you again, when was the last time you saw Sebastian, and what did you do to make him run away?”
Oh shit. “I brought him flowers. And had made dinner reservations. I’d hoped to make a night of it.”
“Charles found out.”
“Yes.”
“I’ve never liked the man, how he manipulates everyone around him, using money to buy people. There’s a special place in Hell for men like him.”
A special place in Hell. And yet Sebastian attended the church of the hologram. Was he hoping to find Heaven there? What a mess. Henri kinda preferred the tangled web to the unraveled ends. Charles had made his shit list, he wanted to smack Lucas around a time or two for being a pushover, and he definitely wanted a talk with Sebastian’s dearly departed mama. But the one he most longed to see was the innocent victim in a lot of schemes. “Call the band. Tonight’s practice is cancelled. I’m going to find Seb.”
“Henri, the debut is tomorrow. You can’t afford to miss practice today, and you have to be on a bus at 10:00 a.m.” If Lucas squeezed his cup any harder, it’d shatter. “He’s my son. I’m going.”
It might take a while for Henri to get used to this man being Seb’s father. “Now’s not the time. He needs a friend, not a…. Look, I’m the one who showed up unannounced, I’m the one—”
“—he slept with.”
“I didn’t say that.”
