19. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS #3
“Callum, I-I’m calling to let you know…your father died,” she rushed out, the words tumbling over each other. “Ewan passed away last night from a heart attack.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, a choked sound escaping my throat.
“So what?” I finally spat, my voice a venomous snarl that made Silas flinch beside me. “Why the fuck are you calling me? You want money? Is that it? You need my money to bury the sorry bastard?”
“Callum, I don’t want your money. I just… I thought you had a right to know.”
“I don’t give a fuck about anything involving that man!” I roared, tears streaming freely down my face. They dripped off my jaw, landing on my bare chest. “You can also go fuck yourself, Fiona! As far as I’m concerned, Ewan can burn in hell, and I hope to God it’s your fate eventually, too.”
I ripped the phone away from my ear and threw it with every ounce of strength I had. The device flew across the hotel room, smashing violently against the far wall and dropping to the carpet.
Silas was on me instantly. He heard everything, and his arms wrapped around my shoulders to pull my shaking body against his chest.
I buried my face in his neck, my fingers digging into his bare back, and I sobbed. I sobbed for the boy inside who was never loved by the people who were supposed to protect him.
“I’ve got you,” Silas murmured, his voice thick with unshed tears. He rocked me back and forth, kissing the side of my head, my shoulder, my temple, blanketing me in his warmth and strength.
“Talk to me, Cal. Tell me what you need. Whatever you want to do, we’ll do it. If you want to go to the funeral and spit on his grave, I’ll fly us there right now. If you want to pretend this phone call never happened, we’ll walk out that door and never look back.”
“I don’t want to see him,” I cried, my voice muffled against his skin. “He hated me, Si. Hated me. Even if…even if we had somehow saved our relationship, it would have ended the second you and I signed the papers at the courthouse. He was a monster, and would never have accepted me marrying a man.”
“Then he didn’t deserve you.” Silas pulled back enough to frame my face in his hands, his thumbs wiping away the moisture. “He didn’t deserve a single second of your light, baby. He was an abusive prick, and the world is a better, safer place without him in it.”
I let out a ragged breath, leaning my forehead against his, trying to sync my erratic breathing with his steady rhythm.
From across the room, my phone pinged. A single notification that cut through the heavy air.
I flinched as my eyes darted toward the device, and I buried my head back in Si’s chest.
Silas gently disentangled himself from me, sliding off the edge of the bed and walking across the room.
He picked up the phone, which I could now see was cracked, but the screen was still functioning.
I watched in anticipation as he stared at it for what felt like an eternity, before letting off a heavy sigh.
“What is it?” I asked, my voice trembling.
Silas hesitated, walking back over to the bed to sit down next to me. “It’s a text… From her,” he admitted softly.
“Saying?” TAnxiety was twisted my stomach into knots.
Silas swallowed hard. “She said as far as she knew, your dad had updated his will and his estate. He put everything in your name.”
The words hit me like a physical blow to the sternum. “What?”
“It means you’re the only person who can legally handle his affairs. It falls to you,” Silas explained gently. His hand reached out to squeeze my knee.
It felt like a trap had snapped shut around my ankle. Even in death, that man was forcing me to deal with his mess, dragging me back into the nightmare I fought so hard to escape. Tears spilled over my cheeks again, and I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes, groaning in frustration.
My head snapped up as I wiped my eyes. “I need to call my real dad. He handles estate law all the time and can help us figure this shit out. He’ll know how to keep me away from it.”
I reached for the cracked phone in Silas’s hand, but he pulled it back, shaking his head.
“I got it,” he said firmly, his eyes full of a tight protectiveness.
Dialing my dad’s number, he put the phone on speaker, resting it on the mattress between us. It rang exactly twice before the deep, warm voice of my actual father filled the room.
“Callum, my boy! Good morning! To what do I owe the pleasure of a call this early? You and Silas alright?”
Hearing the love in David’s voice compared to the coldness in Fiona’s broke my heart in the most beautiful way possible.
“Hey, David. It’s Silas.”
David instantly clocked the somber tone, his voice dropping into a focused register. “Silas? What’s wrong, son? You sound tense.”
Silas quickly explained everything that had just happened. When he finished, there was a heavy silence on the other end of the line. We stared at each other, eyes full of concern, and leaned closer to the phone, waiting.
“Callum, I love you. I am so incredibly sorry she called you, and I am so sorry that any of this is happening to you today.”
I let out a shaky sob, reaching out to grip Silas’s hand. “I don’t want to deal with this, Dad.”
“You don’t have to. Not alone. I am your legal counsel, but more importantly, I’m your father.
I will stand between you and this mess. The best thing we can do right now is to have you and Silas come home to Philly.
We’ll sit down in my office and figure out exactly what paperwork we need to file to get this disposed of as quickly and painlessly as possible. ”
Silas squeezed my hand, a silent show of support.
“Okay.” I took in the first real breath since my phone rang. “We’ll come to Philly. I’ll, uhh… I’ll call Tate and see if the office will give me any kind of bereavement leave.” A fraction of weight lifted off my chest knowing David was taking the wheel.
“Alright. Call me the minute you land. I love you both. And Silas?”
“Yeah?”
“Text me the number Fiona called from,” David ordered, his tone turning to cold steel. “I’ll inform her not to reach out to you again. If there’s anything else she feels she needs to discuss, she can speak directly to me. She lost the right to speak to my son a long time ago.”
I closed my eyes, the tears falling silently now, overwhelmed with gratitude for the family that had chosen me.