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“Hi, honey. Look at you. When did you get so tall?”

She hugs him back with less enthusiasm than I’ve seen her put into a hug with Cassandra at the diner. “I’m the tallest in my class at school,” she tells him with a shrug, but she doesn’t return Dom’s smile. Fuck. I hate this.

“Of course you are.” He turns to look at James, but he’s hovering by the couch, a step behind me. “Hi, James.”

I hold my hand out to him and he takes it, clinging to my side. “Do you want to hug your daddy, Bug?”

He flicks his gaze to Dom before looking up at me. “Do I have to?”

My heart cracks. My sweet boy, who felt comfortable around each of the Michaelsons within hours of meeting them, doesn’t want to hug his own dad. “You never have to hug anyone you don’t want to,” I assure him. I kneel down and hold out a hand toward Caitlin. She speeds away from Dom to stand beside her brother. “Why don’t you two go upstairs and color in some pictures from the coloring book Carrie brought you this morning? We can leave them out for Santa tonight to say thank you for coming to visit.”

“With you and Killian?” James asks. I can feel the weight of Dom’s eyes on us.

“We’ll come up and help in a little while, but we have some stuff to do first.”

James doesn’t look reassured by that. He looks back at Killian, frowning. “Promise?”

Killian comes over and crouches in front of James. “Promise. We have to finish our book tonight and find out what Rudolph thinks of his Christmas present, remember?” He taps James on the nose, and a smile breaks out over his little face. “Maybe you could color in a picture to leave for Rudolph, too. I think he’d like that.”

James drops my hand and takes his sister’s. “Okay!”

A sigh of relief slips from me as I stand up. I look over at Piper and nod my head toward the stairs, subtly asking her to go with them. Hopefully, the coloring will be enough to distract them, but I don’t want them on their own if they’re upset, and seeing Dom almost always upsets them.

Piper nods and calls after them, as she struggles off of the beanbag. Landon has to push her up. “Wait for me! I want to color too.”

Caitlin lets out an exaggerated sigh. “Fine, but you have to stay in the lines this time.”

“Damn, kid. It was one time!” Piper replies, following them up the stairs.

We’re all quiet until we hear their bedroom door close. Dom opens his mouth, but I hold up a hand.

“One single raised voice, and everyone’s out. This isn’t going to ruin their Christmas, okay?”

There are soft murmurs of agreement from everyone except Dom, who is standing like a deer caught in the headlights. Every eye is on him, waiting for him to say something. Finally, he swallows and rolls his shoulders. “Well. This is a surprise.”

“You think this is a surprise? Try finding out you have two half-siblings because your dad had an affair with an eighteen-year-old,” Fallon growls from a dining room chair beside her mom.

Carrie takes her daughter’s hand. Of everyone, Fallon seems the most betrayed by her dad. Killian is the angriest, but I expect that’s because he’s seen firsthand—more than his mom or his siblings—how much Dom has fucked things up for me. I can’t get a read on Ronan, who keeps his cards close to his chest, and Carrie seems more worried about her children than herself.

As for Dom … If I were in his position, I’d be on my knees in front of Carrie, begging for forgiveness. He doesn’t even apologize. “How did this”—he gestures to the room—“happen?”

It’s Ronan who answers, which is just as well, because I’m a little concerned about the tension in Killian’s spine. I know he won’t raise his voice, for the kids’ sake, but I’m sure he has a lot to say.

“When we found out Mom was sick, Killian decided to look for the person we suspected you were having an affair with. He found the paperwork for Scarlett’s house and flew out here at the end of last month to ask her to cut things off with you, so you’d stay home with Mom. Obviously, we now know that you and Scarlett haven’t been … together”—he wrinkles his nose—“for years, but Killian stayed to get to know Caitlin and James, and the rest of us flew out last week, after Mom convinced me to tell her where he was.” Aside from his momentary distaste, he does a good job of sticking to the facts and keeping his feelings out of it. Something he shouldn’t have to do, but I’m sure they know as well as I do that Dom doesn’t really make time for other people’s feelings, and he’s far more likely to listen if you’re not emotional.

I don’t know how I expect him to react to Ronan’s explanation, but I sure as hell don’t expect him to look at me accusatorially. “You’ve known about this since last month? Why didn’t you tell me?”

In what world is this remotely my fault?

“It wasn’t my place to tell you,” I say calmly. “And I was processing everything. It’s been a lot to wrap my head around.”

Dom’s eyes narrow into thin slits. It’s a look I might have cowed beneath this time last month, but not anymore. Especially not as Killian inches toward me.

“We’ve spoken so many times this month,” Dom growls. “What the fuck, Scarlett? How could you be so—”

“You don’t get to speak to her like that.”

Granted, I haven’t known him for long, but I’ve never heard Killian sound like that. Fury drips from his voice, and all I want to do is turn around and wrap my arms around him, assuring him I’m okay. I want to promise him that Dom’s words don’t sting like they used to, and that has everything to do with how hard Killian has worked to show me I deserve respect.