Crashing Hearts (Pine Valley College #2)

44. Skylar

CHAPTER 44

SKYLAR

I expected Bones to hurt the next day, but if anything, he’s determined. He seems okay, but I know that’s a lie—he’s still hurting, but he’s trying.

He comes with me to the garage, and after one look into my and Bones’s puppy eyes, Noah lets us off. I do have to clean the bathrooms as punishment, though, but there are worse things. I practice with Mackie until night falls, and then I take Bones’s hand and drive through the city, pulling up outside a huge house.

“Are you sure?” I ask him in the quiet car.

It was his idea, but I don’t want my boy hurting any more than he needs to. As he looks at me, though, I know he needs this.

He lifts our joined hands and kisses the back of mine. “Yes. Thank you for coming with me.”

“Always, angel,” I murmur as I lean over and kiss him. “He’s still your father. If you want him in your life, it’s your choice. I will support you no matter what.”

He smiles, but it drops when he turns back to the house. “I hated this place. I was always haunted when I was here. I’ve grown, but I still have the same feelings when I come back here, and he knows it. He uses it against me.”

“I’ll be right there with you. He only has as much power as you give him, angel,” I remind him.

He nods and blows out a breath before climbing from the car. I follow him, and he takes my hand as we ascend the steps. It’s an impressive house, if slightly over the top. He opens the door without knocking and strides down a corridor to a sitting room where we find his father.

A scotch sits before him, and he’s still in a suit with his laptop on the table and papers spread across his knee. He looks up, glaring when he notices us lingering in the doorway.

“It’s very rude to turn up without an appointment,” his father snaps, “and he is not welcome.”

“This is important. I’m your son. I shouldn’t have to make an appointment,” Bones snaps back. “Besides, where I go, he goes.”

His father sits back, eyeing us. “What do you want?”

Bones heads over and sits, so I do the same, sitting at his side and holding his hand. He holds mine tightly, and his father notices, but I don’t care.

“I know you paid Aro to leave me years ago.”

His father doesn’t even blink. “And?” he asks when Bones doesn’t continue. “Don’t tell me this show is all for that? If you know that, then why are you here, looking for answers?”

“Why? I want to know why,” Bones replies. “Why, Father?”

“He was holding you back. I knew about your plans to leave with him. You would have ruined your life. It was foolish. I took care of it like I always do.” He reaches out and takes a drink before leaning back.

Bones bristles at my side.

“Do you feel better? It was the right decision. Look how far you’ve come. Now you just need to get rid of . . . him.” He looks at me in disgust.

“Skylar is my boyfriend,” Bones snaps.

His dad curls his lip in a sneer. “No one in our field will ever accept that. You will be humiliated. Everything I do is to help your career. I can find you a nice gir?—”

“All of this because I fell in love with a man,” Bones whispers, realizing it at the same time I do.

This isn’t about controlling Bones—okay, it is—but it’s also about who he chose over his father.

“You will find a nice woman and settle down, and she will help you continue to grow. This is just a phase,” his father remarks. “In time, you’ll understand and thank me.”

My stomach rolls at his implication. He’s telling Bones about his own sexuality and trying to dismiss it, as if he can choose whom he loves.

My poor boy. No wonder he got as far away from here as he could. If this is the way he grew up . . . Fuck, I’ll make sure he never wants for love and acceptance ever again.

“No, I won’t,” Bones whispers as he stares at his dad. “I’m gay, Father. I always have been. I can’t help the way I was born. I like men?—”

“Enough,” his father interrupts, and Bones startles at the sharp edge of anger in his tone, but then I see his own ire rise to meet his father’s.

“No, it isn’t enough. Why is my love less deserving? Why is my love less because it’s for a boy rather than a girl? What makes yours so much fucking better than mine? Does it make it less? Make it not real? I love him with everything in me, and if you can’t understand that, then I feel bad for you because you’ve clearly never felt that deep kind of love and never will.” Bones gets to his feet, staring down at his father.

His father’s eyes narrow on him as he carefully sets his drink down and stands, buttoning his jacket, but his jerky movements betray his anger. “You feel sorry for me? Look around at my life, boy.”

“Yes, and you know why? This house, this money, and this stuff is all you will ever have, and it’s empty and hollow just like you. So yes, I feel sorry for you, sitting in your big house all alone. I’ll be living my life, and fuck anyone who can’t accept who I am!” He grasps my hand. “Come on, Skylar. We’re leaving and never coming back.”

“You will not leave this house!” his father bellows as we head to the door.

Bones turns, his eyes flashing in anger. “I am more than a name! I am a person. I am not an extension of you, and I never will be.”

His father’s eyes narrow as he steps toward us. “The world will never accept you.”

“Then fuck the world,” Bones spits, lifting our hands. “I have everything I need right here.” I smile at my boy, my heart so full it hurts. He’s choosing me over everything. I wish it didn’t have to go like this, but some things can’t be fixed.

Some people will never change, and although I know it hurts Bones, it also heals him to let go of everything regarding his father and say everything he’s always wanted.

Declan Townsend will always be his blood, but we will be his family.

“You know what I realized tonight, Father?” He kisses my hand before he looks back at his dad. “I’ll never be enough for you. I guess I always knew it, but listening to you now, I’m sure. Nothing I ever do will be enough. I have tried so hard to be someone you would be proud of, but I can’t change who I am, not even for you, nor would I want to. I’m not ashamed of who I am. This is who I am. I love a man, and if that’s the worst thing you can find out about me, then I’m glad. Let them come for me. I don’t care.”

His father stares at him like he’s a stranger. “You need me?—”

Bones almost looks sad as he interrupts his father. “That’s where you’re wrong. I never needed you. I wanted you. I wanted my dad to be proud. I wanted my dad to love me, but I’ve realized I don’t need you to. I’m surrounded by family and enough love for two lifetimes with or without you, and that’s kind of fucking freeing. I’m sorry that you can’t see past your own hatred, bias, and issues to the son who was waiting for you to love and accept him. I’m sorry that you will never understand the pure love we have or how happy we are. I’m sorry for you, Father, because you will always be alone, even when you’re surrounded by people. I’m sorry that I will never call you Father again, because you don’t deserve the title. You may have created me, but this is my life now, and you don’t belong in it. Goodbye, Mr. Townsend.”

Bones looks at me. “Let’s go home, baby. We won’t be coming here again.” I glance at his father to see his shocked expression. He genuinely never thought Bones would fight back. He assumed he would cave and give into him.

He should have known better. He brought one hell of a man into the world.

I am so fucking proud of Bones.

Clutching his hand, I let him lead me outside, and when we reach the car, I spin us.

“Are you okay, angel?” I ask him as I cup his face.

He smiles, but it’s a sad one. “I really am. I guess I always knew he didn’t love me, but seeing it . . . I’m free, Sky. I’m finally free of him. No more trying to get his attention and doing everything to make him proud. This is my life, and I choose you. I choose me. Fuck him. Let him rot alone in his mansion surrounded by money. You’re my family, and you’re all I need.”

“And Evan, Alek, Noah, Mackie, Lally, and Alice. You are so loved, baby. You do not need him. You have us, and we will make sure no one hurts you. When you’re sad, we will cheer you up, and when you get a win, we’ll celebrate. We will always be with you.”

“I just want to be yours,” he says. “That’s all for now. Let him live in his glass house. In the end, he will only poison himself.” He kisses me right in front of the house that scarred him. “Now take me home and show me just how much I am yours.”

“Gladly.” I grin as I open the door and help him in, my hand skating down to his ass. “And the day after that, and the day after that . . .” I fasten his belt and steal a kiss. “I’ll remind you for the rest of our lives, beautiful.”

As I get in the car and drive away, I see my boy look back, but he doesn’t seem upset.

He seems almost . . . glad.