Chapter 26
Chapter
Twenty-Six
ENFIELD
Xavi sets a plate of French toast in front of me and one in front of his seat across from me. It’s strangely quiet without Sparrow. I don’t think he was particularly loud, but he and Xavi always talked. You could tell they were childhood friends.
I watch Xavi as he brings over a bowl of sliced strawberries and sets it between us with a glass jar of pure maple syrup and a plate of butter. He meets my eyes briefly, a small smile touches his lips, and he looks down at his plate.
“Smells amazing,” I tell him.
His smile climbs a little, but his attention remains on his food. Not that he’s eating. He’s just avoiding my eyes for some reason.
He’s been a little distant since he returned from visiting Sparrow’s neighborhood yesterday afternoon. Incredibly quiet. I asked him if something was bothering him, and he told me no. I’m not entirely sure that’s the truth, but I’m not going to harass him until something is wrong.
We spent the rest of yesterday in each other’s company.
We fell asleep after a fantastic orgasm and greeted the morning sun with one even better than last night’s.
This morning, we went our separate ways to get ready for the day and came back together in the kitchen for breakfast. Xavi was already cooking and said he didn’t need any help, so I watched him.
The silence between us feels… strained, though I can’t figure out why. I don’t know what changed or why. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong when he left with Sparrow yesterday. He returned when I was on a call with my sons, so he sat across the room from me and waited.
I was sure he’d wanted to talk about something, but he just shook his head when I got off the call.
Now he’s sitting silently as he slowly eats.
I swear, his shoulders are hunched. This feels strangely reminiscent of the first few days I was here when Xavi was avoiding saying or doing anything that might cause me to be a dick.
Which was admittedly anything at all. Including simply breathing or existing in my space.
I allow him his silence this morning without challenge, watching him as I eat. His eyes flicker to mine a couple times, so he knows I’m watching him. Waiting for him to share whatever is bothering him.
By the time we’re both finished with breakfast, he still hasn’t said anything. I follow him to the sink and help him clean up the dishes. As soon as he sets the towel down, I grip his hips and pull him to me, making him face me. No more hiding.
“I’m not going to push. I know how annoying it is for someone to keep asking this over and over again, but I can’t help but see the difference in you from twenty-four hours ago. So… what’s wrong, Xavi?”
He inhales deeply and holds his breath, his eyes remaining locked on mine. It’s right there. He wants to talk. I can see it in his eyes, in the way he’s holding his breath. I’m pretty sure he’s about to say something when the doorbell rings.
We both wince. I think my mother has scarred us both with the sound of the damn doorbell. Xavi and I look toward the kitchen door and then meet each other’s eyes again.
“Do you think that’s your mother?” he asks.
“Oh, I hope so. I’d love to have her arrested again,” I say, probably a little too giddily. Taking Xavi’s hand in mine, I lead him from the kitchen and toward the entry.
I pull the front door open just as the doorbell rings a second time. Certainly not my mother. It would have already been rung at least eight times by now. That showed patience between rings.
Nash and Avory are standing outside, and we’re greeted with smiles.
“You’re early,” I say and look at my watch. I catch Xavi looking at his phone to check the time too.
“Nine thirty,” Nash says. “Right on time.”
I look at Xavi. His eyebrows are knitted together. “We had eleven,” I say, laughing.
“Nine thirty and eleven sound nothing alike,” Nash says, amused.
“We can come back,” Avory offers.
“No,” Xavi says and opens the door further to let them inside. “You’re already here. Would you like something to drink?”
“No, thank you,” Nash and Avory say over each other.
We bring them to the same small dining room that we’d used previously when they visited. I absently wonder whether there’s one slightly bigger for the meeting we’ll have with our parents and their lawyers.
“Let’s begin with your mother,” Nash says. “Have you heard from her since the restraining order?”
“She hasn’t been back, but whether she’s called, I don’t know. Her numbers are still blocked, as are my father’s and any other number they attempted to call from.”
“She’s incredibly not happy,” Nash says, unable to contain his smile. “I’m sorry you haven’t borne witness to her tantrums via her lawyer as she attempts to force you via me to drop the charges.”
“What about my charges?” Xavi asks.
Avory nods. “Same thing. How have your parents taken it?”
Xavi shrugs. “I don’t know. I can’t imagine Enfield’s parents haven’t made a circus about this, but all my mother said is that Mrs. Undergrove has called her repeatedly to demand I drop the charges.
I think my mother might have made a comment along the lines of, if she didn’t want to be charged with harassment, perhaps she shouldn’t have harassed us. ”
Nash laughs. “Beautiful.”
“Curiously, I haven’t heard from my siblings or anyone else in my family,” I muse, the thought just now occurring to me. “Of all the gossip and shit she shares, I’m surprised this one hasn’t spread.”
“This one paints her in a bad light,” Avory says. “I may not know your mother, but I know the kind. It’s different when she can talk about something scandalous and judge someone else for it. This has all the signs that she’s not a great mother, which I’m guessing she wants everyone to believe.”
I think about the last decade and wonder what it is she tells people about why I’m such a chaotic disaster in the news. Why I refuse the contracts. What does she say about me? I’m going to need to remember to ask my cousins. Maybe my aunt and uncle.
“Huh.”
“I’ve already gotten the paperwork for defamation begun,” Nash says. “I don’t think it’ll come to that. It’s a lot of negative attention on her, especially as the truth comes out from every source around her in contradiction, but just in case.”
“It’s so weird to think that’s your mother,” Xavi says quietly. I meet his eye, and he looks sad. “I’m not going to pretend my mom is perfect, but she’d never do even a quarter of the things yours is doing or has done.”
“Didn’t your mother refuse to remove things from the contract that you don’t want?” I ask.
He tilts his head and then nods. “Yeah. I guess so. But I think if I truly said I didn’t want a contract, she’d have accepted that.”
“You think so?” I find it hard to believe.
“I have six older brothers. They’re all married. They all have families. So yeah, I think they would have accepted that I didn’t want the same. But I do want the same. Well… mostly.”
“So the deal was, you don’t have to have a contract at all, or you have one, but some items you don’t want will remain if you choose to go that route?” Avory asks.
Xavi nods and shrugs at the same time. “I don’t know for sure because I always wanted a husband.
I wanted that happily ever after and a happy life.
I didn’t want kids, and I made that very clear to everyone—I’d be hiring nannies, and I would have nothing to do with them.
If that’s the life they wanted for kids forced on me, then fine. That’s on them.”
“And that line hasn’t been removed,” Nash says.
“It can’t be removed,” Avory counters. “I’ve read the language in the Adair Family Trust, and children are a hard and fast rule. Unless the contract is broken by one of the parental parties in such a way as it has. That’s the only thing that removes that stipulation.”
“It’s put into their bylaws?” Nash asks.
Avory nods. “Yes.”
“Mine isn’t the same?” I ask.
Nash shakes his head. “It’s not for every child. Just two minimum in any family that meets the criteria to be awarded funds.”
“Interesting,” Avory says as he studies Nash. “Wonder why the difference?”
Nash shakes his head. “It’s interesting enough that I’d like to study some other family trust bylaws, just to see what the usual might be. Perhaps they’re all different.”
“I think you can probably have at least six other trusts to look at,” Xavi says. “I think all my brothers’ spouses wouldn’t mind a case study if you make some kind of NDA and assurance that it’s strictly for curiosity’s sake.”
Nash nods, giving him a smile. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.”
“Let’s get to business,” Avory says. He opens his tablet and taps around for half a minute before turning it toward us.
“Nothing changes between the two of you except some names and details that are only applicable to one or the other—such as trusts, company shares, and the like. The purpose of this meeting is to make sure we have all our ducks in a row before we officially file for the dissolution of the contract and what that means for all parties involved.”
Since Avory pushed his tablet toward Xavi, he nods and leans in close. His hands are clasped in his lap as he stares at the tablet. He looks… pale. Maybe he’s not feeling well?
“We’re breaking the contract on several counts, primarily toward your parents, Enfield,” Nash says.
“You’re free to read the legal terms and such, but the bullet points are as follows—Undergrove custodian intentionally withheld important life events from the Adair party; namely, three children sired by Enfield Undergrove.
All the necessary proof of paternity is included. ”
“Newly added to that section was that the Adair custodian withheld the fact that Xavi had been contracted in the past,” Avory asks.
“Does that matter?” Xavi asks.
“Not truly,” Avory says. “However, if we’re going to talk about information that was left out, the fact that you had been secured in a contract prior to this one shouldn’t be left off.
There’s a specific spot for that.” Nash pulls up our contract on his tablet and moves it beside Avory’s to the section that Avory mentions as he explains.
“Both parties found it necessary to include this section about prior contracts, and both left it N/A.”
“How did their attorneys agree to these?” I muse.
“As we’ve been going through each section line-by-line, we’ve come to the conclusion that most of this language is passed down between generations and no one has bothered to update it in many, many years,” Avory says.
“What should have happened is that if this section isn’t important, then it should be removed.
The fact that it’s included means it is now adding to our evidence of broken points in the contract.
If nothing else, this will be a lesson for them and their lawyers while we tear apart the contract that hasn’t seen changes in eons. ”
I shake my head.
“Obviously, the two biggest sections are regarding your privacy. Both parents are in breach of that. Your mother being charged with harassment is probably enough all on its own to break this contract,” Nash says.
“However, equally prominent is the fact that your mother has taken over your wedding details—entirely against all the verbiage in the contract—and is illegally drawing on your funds to do so. That’s another lawsuit if you choose. ”
“I choose,” I say. “I want whatever she spent and…. Whatever else you can do. Damages? Are there damages involved?”
Nash gives me a half smile. “We’ll save that for after the contract, but I think we’ll at least mention it during the meeting.”
“Or not,” Avory says. “Giving her lawyers time to think about it isn’t ever a wise idea. I don’t think that’ll matter. Illegal is illegal, but… nevertheless.”
“This is why you’re still my mentor, all these years later,” Nash says.
Avory inclines his head, smiling.
“The last point is a little touch-and-go, and we’re going on the premise that this was intentional trickery,” Nash tells me.
“The language Xavi’s parents brought to the table was that his partner needed to be male with male genitalia.
There’s a lot of ugliness with this distinction because gender is binary, but that’s a point for another day and not entirely relevant for this case. ”
“I didn’t mean anything by that,” Xavi says. “I don’t think I even used those terms. I just said I’m gay, and I want a husband, not a wife.”
“I know,” Nash says, nodding. “As I said, I don’t actually think this was malicious, though it’s still problematic.
Not a conversation for today, though, since it’s not a point that plays in here.
Sexuality was brought into the contract in this line, which means it needed to be taken into account by the Undergroves, which it wasn’t. ”
“They’re going to argue about my supposed affair with the Duke,” I say.
“Which has been proven to be fake,” Avory says.
“We have all the information there as necessary,” Nash says, “but the opening section where Xavi’s sexuality is expressed means that yours should have been expressed as well. Which it wasn’t.”
“I didn’t read the contract,” I remind them.
“They changed the contract from its original form, which you had read, without telling you. They changed the gender of your spouse without informing you. Regardless of whether you read it or not, your parents made major changes and intentionally kept them from you, as was determined when they watched you sign it and didn’t say anything,” Nash says.
“I think that’s a little gray, but I agree with it either way.”
“Good. Is there anything we’ve left out?” Avory asks.
I shake my head. Xavi does as well, though his eyes are once more downcast. He looks sad. It’s interesting that I hate that look on him. I hate that he’s sitting here beside me, and he’s sad.
After looking at him for a minute and him not raising his eyes to mine, I look at Nash and Avory. “Can we have a minute before we conclude the meeting?” I ask.
My question makes Xavi look up.
“Of course,” Avory says, and both men get to their feet.
I watch them leave the room and turn to Xavi. “All right. Tell me what’s wrong.”