Chapter 30 #2
“Hello, Evangeline,” he says, nodding his head at me as if he’s greeting an acquaintance instead of a daughter. Then he sticks his hand out to Cooper. “Ed Rhodes.”
Cooper takes his hand, shaking it. “Cooper Wyles.”
My dad’s eyes sharpen. “Are you related to Jordan Wyles?”
“I am,” Cooper says cooly. “He’s my oldest brother.”
“Well, what a surprise! Jordan has been such an asset to the hospital’s pediatric surgical program over the last year or so. I’ve been trying to get him to meet with some potential donors, but he hasn’t gotten back to me. I know he’ll be here tonight, so maybe you could put in a good word.”
Cooper makes a noncommittal sound, and everything about his body language is saying not fucking likely, but my mom saves him from having to respond.
“Ed,” she hisses. “Did you perhaps miss the fact that Evangeline is pregnant?”
My dad’s gaze arrows straight to my stomach, and when he looks back up at me, I see the exact thing in his eyes that I’ve been dreading. The reason I put off telling them for so long. Disappointment. Directed straight at me. My heart sinks as I wait for the fallout.
“Pregnant?” my dad says, shaking his head. “Well, that’s just ridiculous. Did you not consider what being pregnant at this stage of your life could do to your career?”
“And what people will say?” my mom chimes in, holding a hand to her heart so dramatically that I would laugh if my entire body wasn’t vibrating with a mix of fury and anxiety that makes me want to jump out of my skin.
“I mean, honestly, parading around unmarried and pregnant, bringing your boyfriend to our most important event of the year. Did you not even consider how this would look for us?”
“What about making partner next year? You can’t very well do that with a baby in tow.” My dad shakes his head like even the idea of making partner and also having a baby is the most ridiculous thing he has ever heard.
Each of their verbal barbs hits the mark, carving out another piece of me I wasn’t prepared to give.
Even after all these years, I’m never prepared.
My parents’ casual cruelty never stops being a surprise.
I open my mouth to say…I’m not sure what exactly, but I don’t get the chance before my mom goes in for the kill shot.
“We are so disappointed in you, Evangeline. For you show up here pregnant and embarrass us on the most important night of our year? I just can’t possibly even imagine what you were thinking.
But then, I guess we shouldn’t have expected any different from you.
You have always done what you want, never thinking about anyone but yourself. This selfish display of…”
“No,” Cooper interjects, moving his arm from my waist to splay his hand over my back.
Shame and embarrassment curdle in my stomach, and my eyes burn with the effort of holding back the tears that desperately want to escape.
I’m not sure how Cooper knew that this was the exact moment I was done handling this myself, but I shouldn’t be surprised.
When I look up at him, he’s already looking down at me with fury in his gaze for the situation, and a tenderness behind it that I know is all mine.
Then he fixes his attention on my parents.
“You don’t get to talk to her like that. ”
“Young man, this is a family matter,” my mom practically sneers. “We’ll let you know when your opinion is necessary.”
When Cooper speaks, his voice is quiet, but every muscle in his body is coiled tight in a sort of protectiveness that has me taking my first deep breath in what feels like hours.
“My opinion is necessary right now because Evan is my family. She is the most important person in my life, and I won’t let you, or anyone else, speak to her that way. ”
My dad stands to his full height that is still inches shorter than Cooper. “Evangeline is my daughter, and I’ll speak to her in any way I choose.”
Cooper’s hand flexes on my back, like he’s trying to restrain himself from throwing a punch.
“With absolutely no respect at all, no, you won’t.
She may be your daughter, but she is her own person.
She is brilliant and accomplished and the most amazing woman I have ever known.
Now that I’ve met you both, I understand that she’s actually even more incredible than I even knew because she became this woman despite the fact that she was raised by two people who wouldn’t know good parenting if it walked up and introduced itself. ”
My dad’s face turns crimson. He opens his mouth to speak, but Cooper holds up a hand, effectively cutting him off.
“I protect what’s mine, Mr. Rhodes. I would die before I ever let anything or anyone hurt Evan, and from where I’m standing, it’s you and your wife doing the hurting.
It’s you she needs protecting from. So, no, you won’t talk to Evan this way.
If it were up to me, you wouldn’t talk to her in any way at all, but that’s a choice she gets to make.
Evan has a family. She has people who love her and care for her and support her always and no matter what.
I would hope her own parents could be part of that family, but not if this is the way you’re going to treat her.
She deserves better than that.” Cooper turns to look at me, his eyes blazing with an emotion that has my throat tightening. “She deserves everything.”
My mom lets out a dramatic sob that makes me want to roll my eyes even as my stomach churns and my hands shake, and my dad’s eyes are bulging so wide I wouldn’t be surprised if they fell out and rolled onto the floor. “Evangeline, are you going to let him talk to us this way?”
Before I can respond, I feel a hand on my arm and turn to see Chris and Rio, mutinous expressions on their faces. “I’m so sorry, Ev,” Chris whispers, pressing a kiss to my temple. “I got waylaid and didn’t think you would run into them so soon.”
“It’s okay,” I whisper, not trusting my voice.
“It’s not,” he says, before he stands straight, facing down my parents.
“Chris!” my mom says, tears seemingly forgotten as a brilliant smile spreads over her face. “I’m so happy you’re here. I have some people I need to…”
“Save it,” Chris says tersely, cutting her off, and I would laugh at my mom’s stricken expression if this whole scene wasn’t so fucking awful. “I heard what Cooper said to you, so I assume you were your usual asshole selves to Evan.”
“Chris, you don’t have to,” I say, laying a hand on his arm, about to tell him, for the millionth time in our lives, that he doesn’t have to blow up his relationship with our parents because of me.
“No, Ev,” he says, voice hard. “This stops now.” He turns back to my parents, standing straight and staring them down.
“I’ve spent years watching and listening to you cut Evan down in a hundred different ways, each one more horrible than the last. She never wanted me to get involved, but that ends tonight.
I’m done with both of you. I don’t need to lay out for you all the ways you’ve been awful to her because neither of you is stupid, and you know exactly what you’ve done.
But I’m here to tell you that Ev and I are a package deal.
If you can’t treat her with the love and respect she deserves, then you’ll have lost me too.
Cooper isn’t the only one who protects what’s his.
Evan is mine, and I’ll be goddamned if you ever hurt her again.
If she decides she wants you in her life, I’ll be there too. But until then, I’m gone.”
“You can’t mean that,” my mom says, her face set in hard, angry lines.
“Oh, trust me, I do,” Chris seethes.
“He absolutely does,” Rio says, stepping up and taking Chris’s hand.
“I find it’s best to trust Chris when he gets his serious face on, and since the two of you have been total fucking assholes for the entire time I’ve known you, I think it’s about time you faced some consequences.
And you can save your righteous indignation and telling me to know my place. ”
Rio drops Chris’s hand and wraps an arm him, reaching all the way over to lay a hand on my shoulder, and after everything, it’s the feel of Rio’s hand that has the pressure in my chest squeezing tighter, my breathing growing shallow.
“My place is right here, and no one fucks with what’s mine either. ”
My parents stand side-by-side, drinks still in hand, gaping at the four of us.
I want to laugh at their dumbfounded expressions, but my entire body starts to shake with the force of my emotions trying to break free.
My head whips around, looking for an escape route as everything that has transpired in the last twenty minutes crashes down on me.
I need to get out.
Now.
I turn to tell Cooper exactly that, but he’s moving before I can say a word. He exchanges a glance with Chris, who lays a hand on my arm, squeezing. Then, without sparing my parents a single glance, Cooper wraps an arm around my shoulders and leads me straight out of the ballroom.
“Hey, guys!” Jo’s cheerful voice cuts through the noise in my head, and when I look up, she and Jordan are heading right for us.
Whatever she sees on my face has her expression turning serious, and she makes a beeline for me, wrapping me in a tight hug.
“I love you,” she says simply. “We’re all here if you need us. ”
How everyone in this family always knows exactly what to say and what I need I’ll never know, but as she pulls back, I can’t do anything except for nod.
Jordan looks at Cooper, and they do that wordless communication thing all four brothers are so good at before Jordan bends and kisses my cheek, heading into the ballroom with Jo.
My lungs are in a vise and my heart pounds in my ears as Cooper slides an arm around my waist. “Come on, baby,” he says, leading me to a dim, quiet corner of the empty hotel lobby.
Sitting down in a chair, he pulls me into his lap and frames my face in his hands.
“Pretty girl,” he murmurs, his thumbs ghosting over my cheeks.
“Brave girl.” He leans in and presses a kiss to my forehead, and every muscle in my body aches with the effort of holding myself together.
“My girl.” I close my eyes and take a shallow, gasping breath, feeling the first tear leak out.
Cooper wraps his arms around me and holds me tightly against him as more tears start to fall. “Let it out, Rhodes. It’s okay to let go now. I’ve got you.”
I’ve got you.
Knowing that he does, that he will, for the first time in my entire thirty years of living, I lay my head on someone else’s shoulder, and with a shuddering gasp, I break.