Chapter Sixty-five — Trinity #2
Turning on the three of them, he sounded like a volcano ready to blow. “How could you do this?”
“We—”
“We’re a pack,” he said. “I trusted you to care for my daughter, my daughter, while I traveled, and you did this?”
Val stopped hiding. She threw up her hands like this was an inconvenience and not the source of every fear I had.
“What the fuck did you expect, Cecil? Some one-night stand drops off a baby, and we’re just supposed to be happy about it?
Suddenly, all our lives changed and none of us asked for it.
You think I wanted to take care of a child who wasn’t mine while you were galavanting across the world on your next adventure?
“Especially when she wouldn’t shut the fuck up? I didn’t want this. It’s not like you wanted her either. You ran away from her every chance you could.”
Those words knocked the breath out of me like a physical blow. My father, too, took a step backward like he’d been struck. He fumbled for his words. “That’s not true. And regardless of anything else, this was your answer? Abuse?”
Matt rolled his eyes. “She’s fine.”
A second later Logan had him up against the wall, throat pinned with his forearm.
“Say that one more time and I will end you.” His voice was lethal, and not even Liz stepped toward her son.
“Trinity got shut in a closet at home by accident and I will never forget her scent afterward. She’s fine?
I should lock you in that fucking closet until you stop breathing. ”
Dad still looked on the precipice between grief and rage, bewildered. Everything he thought was true was being upended. It was long overdue, but I still didn’t like that he was hurting.
Matt struggled against Logan’s hold and got nowhere. Val tried to pull him off. “Let him go. You think you can come into my house and assault us? Get out.” Her voice rose until it was a shriek.
Logan shoved away, but made sure to slam Matt into the wall one more time for good measure.
“Your house?” Dad said. “I think you mean my house.”
Val went white. Not pale, white.
Wait, what?
He still shook his head. “I don’t understand how you could do this. To my daughter. She’s part of your pack, our—”
“The child of someone you knocked up while drunk on an island, or a safari, or on the top of a fucking mountain isn’t pack, Cecil.
And she sure as fuck isn’t our kid. She should be grateful I even let her stay in this house while you weren’t here.
The closet is more than she deserves. Doing nothing.
Taking up space. Being loud. Acting as if she belongs here. ”
“SHE DOES BELONG HERE.” The words exploded out of Dad like bullets. His hands curled into fists, shaking. “Get out. Get out of this fucking house and don’t come back. If you’re here in half an hour, I won’t just call the police, I will beat the fuck out of you myself.”
“You can’t kick us out,” Paige said quietly. “We have an agreement.”
“A verbal agreement,” Dad said. “Which ended about five minutes ago. This is my house. Get out.”
My mouth dropped open. “What do you mean?” Dad looked at me, and Theo wrapped his arms around me, hands soothing the shaking in my limbs. “What do you mean it’s your house?”
Dad frowned. “I bought this house after my first big show. When our pack bond snapped into place, they moved in. And since we weren’t romantically involved, and I traveled a lot, it made sense to split the house into wings.”
Something broke inside me. The tears flooded my vision, knees buckling. Only Theo kept me upright as the truth came crashing into me. None of it was real. Every reason I’d never told him and all the fear I’d carried trying to keep us both safe wasn’t even fucking real.
“Trinity—”
“She told me the house was hers,” I sobbed. “She told me that if I said anything, she’d kick both of us out, we’d have nowhere to go, and you’d hate me for it.”
I knew the last bit wasn’t true. I’d always known. But there was something deep and raw in that fear that had kept it alive all this time, flames fanned by the three monsters in front of me.
Aiden slid his hands into his pockets, jaw ticking. It was clear he was trying to keep himself still. Deadly rage pulsed in my chest on his behalf. “You now have fifteen minutes if you want to take anything with you. In sixteen minutes we’re having a burn pile on the front steps. Get moving.”
Val straightened. “You can’t just—”
“GET OUT,” Dad roared. He looked at Liz. “Call the police if they’re not out in fifteen minutes and one second.”
Bastian took Matt by the shoulders, turned him, and shoved him toward the door. “Let me help you out. Paige, Val, I’ve never put my hands on a woman, and I don’t intend to, but if you don’t move, I will carry you outside and drop you on your asses. Now move.”
Paige fled. Val still looked like she was thinking about it before Paige returned, took her hand, and pulled her out of the room. I turned into Theo’s chest, clinging to him, the tears still flowing. I couldn’t control them. It was a purging of so much, and I never wanted to see this room again.
“Theo,” Liz said, “why don’t you take Trinity down to the living room and I’ll make some tea. Cecil, Logan, make sure they leave.”
“I’ll take her to the patio,” Theo said, and whispered to me. “That way you don’t have to see them leaving.”
“Thank you.”
The air outside was mild and balmy, the early evening sky free of clouds. A beautiful day to remind me that not everything was bad. Out here it felt so much lighter. More free.
“That was a lot,” Theo said. “You did amazing.”
“Doesn’t feel like it.”
“I imagine not, no.” He sat us together in a chair underneath the umbrella. “But it was still brave, and it will get better.”
I swallowed. “I was really nervous about it, but I think… I’m glad I have that appointment. To talk to someone. Probably should have done it a long time ago.”
Nothing changed in our connection. No shock or joy, just the same love and calm. “I think that’s a good idea. Everyone can use help. Especially with stuff like this.”
“Yeah.”
Liz brought a pot of tea out and a few cups. Coffee too. Where she managed to find muffins and croissants, I wasn’t sure, but they were there too.
Theo smiled at her. “Thanks, Mama Hart.”
“Of course.” She looked down at me. “I’m so sorry, Trinity.”
“You didn’t do anything.”
“No, but it’s a horrible thing to go through and carry for so long.”
It was. Having out in the open felt better than I thought it would. No longer having to tiptoe around my own experiences would take some getting used to.
Liz smiled at me a bit sadly. “I think you and your dad still have a lot to talk about, huh?”
“Yeah. I think we do.”