Chapter 66
Ren
My head felt like it was spinning in a different universe as I walked toward my father’s office. The door was open, and he was at the window, motionless, a silhouette carved from pain that even I couldn’t comprehend.
“Dad?”
He startled, but recovered quickly, turning with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Lilya. I didn’t hear you come in.”
“You don’t have to be strong for me,” I said.
He let out a soft chuckle.
“Seeing your beautiful face always makes me smile,” he said, making me blush. He pointed to his new espresso machine. “Would you like one? I think I’ve finally got a handle on how to use this thing.”
“No, thank you. If I have any more coffee this morning, I’m going to start vibrating. I wanted to tell you that I’m going back to Wayward.”
“Oh?” He tilted his head, examining me.
“I spoke to Mum, and I need some space for a few days to think. Did she tell you what set all of this in motion? All she told me was that there was nothing she could say to excuse what she did to me.”
He sucked in a deep breath and crossed his arms, which made him look larger and more imposing than usual.
“She did.”
I took a step toward him, but he shook his head at me.
“I’m not going to tell you,” he said, gently but firmly. “It’s not my story to tell. And if she isn’t ready for you to know all the details, then that choice is hers and between the two of you.”
I hated how much that made sense.
“Was it something terrible,” I asked. “Something with Lawrence. Or Christov.”
He didn’t answer. It wasn’t necessary. His eyes were sympathetic.
“I know you want answers. You’ve always had an inquisitive mind. All I will say is that it changed her. But it’s up to you and you alone to decide if you want to have a relationship with her, whether she tells you or not.”
“What about you? Are you going to forgive her and get back together,” I asked. The child in me wanted them together. What kid didn’t want to see their parents happy? But there was so much damage done.
Dad was quiet for a long time.
“That is not a question I can answer yet,” he finally said.
He opened his arms for a hug, and I wrapped myself around him. Knowing Eddie, he was weighing more than just his own feelings. He was including mine as well. I decided to remove myself from the equation.
“Dad, don’t worry about what I’ll think if you choose to forgive her.”
Pulling back, he looked down into my eyes.
“That is a very bold statement, considering that if we got back together, she’d be around all the time. I don’t want to do anything to ruin what we are building as a family.”
I smiled.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned,” I said, looking around his office. “It’s that happiness doesn’t wait for perfect timing. Love can disappear in a blink. And if you still love her…don’t let me be the reason you walk away. I’d never forgive myself for that.”
He studied me for a long moment before cupping my cheek.
“Never let this world harden you,” he said softly. “Your heart is made of pure gold.”
His hands fell from my face, emotion making his eyes shine with unshed tears.
I cleared my throat.
“I’d better go. But I promise I’m not running away. I just need some time to process.”
He nodded.
“I understand. Do you want Marcus to take you all in the limo?”
“It’s just me, Nash, and Liam at the moment. Myles wanted to spend the day with the O’Briens and Lip, especially after last night.”
“Very well, the guards will escort you safely.”
Raising on my toes, I kissed his cheek.
“I love you, Dad.”
“I love you, too. Now get going before you make me cry. I’m the head of the Genovese Empire. I can’t be seen weeping,” he said, and his teasing tone made me smile.
“Bye,” I said, reaching the door the same time as my mother.
We both stopped, and I hated that my first instinct was to grab her and never let go. Stepping around her, I glared at Vlad and Mylo.
“One of these days, I’m going to have a discussion with the two of you as well,” I said, walking away.
“She is certainly your daughter,” one of them said, but I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or an insult right now.
Nash was pacing when I got to my room, while Liam lounged on the bed, looking at his phone.
Liam spotted me first.
“Well, you two didn’t shoot each other, so that’s a start,” Liam said.
Nash whipped around in my direction.
“How did it go,” Nash asked, stalking toward me.
I smiled, but veered toward the desk. If he hugged me, I might fall apart, and if I did, I didn’t know when I’d stop crying.
“It went.”
“That’s it? It went?” Nash poked at my answer.
Grabbing my backpack, I stuffed it with everything I wanted to take with me back to school.
“I’m not sure what else to say. She was different. Cool, distant, defensive maybe…I don’t know.” I shrugged. “She apologized and said there was no reason good enough for what she did. I mean, it’s the truth. But when she said it…it didn’t make me feel any better.”
Zipping my bag, I leaned against the desk and looked at the two of them.
“I’m still furious, and a part of me doesn’t care that she apologized. All I know is that I need to sit with what she told me for a few days, and I can’t do that here.”
“So, we’re leaving,” Liam asked.
“Yeah, we are. And before you decide to add in your two cents…” I looked between Nash and Liam.
“I’m not running. I just need time to process.
Besides, I don’t know if I’ll be able to build a relationship with her again properly if she and my father are at war.
I feel like they need space to figure themselves out as well.
” I crossed my arms. “Dammit. I feel…torn right now. I have a million things I want to yell and…ugh, see…I’m rambling. ”
Grabbing the pack, I flung it over my shoulder.
“Clearing my head and giving them some space seems best.”
“Alright,” Nash said with a casual shrug.
Just like that, they got their stuff, and we were heading out the door ten minutes later to Nash’s truck. He flipped the middle console up so the three of us could sit together in the front.
“I have an idea,” Nash said as we pulled out with two vehicles following us. “We are taking a detour.”
Knowing Nash, it was probably something sexual, and I was tempted to question him, but I just leaned my head on Liam’s shoulder and nodded.
My mum’s words played over in my head, but so did Nash’s from our conversation last night.
Dad said that what happened changed her.
The woman I knew for my whole life was warm, caring, protective, and had always put me first. At her weakest, when the chemo made her so sick, she’d still found ways to make me feel like I was the light of her life.
What could be so horrible that it broke something inside her? And if it was that bad…did I even want to know? God, life didn’t get any easier. Some people longed to go back to being a kid, but my childhood was just as big a mess. Only at the time, I didn’t understand what was happening around me.
As the truck slowed, I blinked and looked around the industrial area.
“Um…where are we?”
“You’ll see,” Nash said, as we pulled up to a building with a faded sign that said ‘Gun Range’. We parked out front beside the only other car in the lot. “Come on, let’s go.”
Skeptical, I slid out and stared up at the rundown establishment.
“I don’t think this is what I need,” I said.
“How would you know? Weren’t you the one who wanted me to take you shooting? And what better way to release the anger than putting some holes in shit,” Nash asked, as the guards got out. I spotted Massimo among them and pointed to the sign.
“Hey, Mo, you think it is a good idea to give me a gun right now? And don’t say it’s not up to me. What do you honestly think?”
Mo smirked and stepped closer as he pulled a cigarette out of his inside pocket.
“I think there is no better time,” he said, and lit up. “Family drama is the leading cause of deaths in our world. Maybe there would be less if more families took their anger out on targets instead of each other.”
“Well that was disturbing and sad, but I like your honesty. Tell me something else.”
He inhaled and looked at Nash and Liam, who just shrugged.
“If a gunman jumped out from behind the tree over there, what would you do?”
His face hardened as he glanced at the tree and then the truck.
“I’d grab you and push you down in front of the truck, protecting the three of you at all costs. But you are my number one priority.”
“And what if you were shot?”
“Then hopefully, it is not my day to die, but if it is…then there would be no greater honor than dying to protect you,” he said, and I believed him.
“I’m going to ask my father if you can be my personal guard whenever I leave Wayward and then continue once I’ve graduated. I’m tired of my guys rearranging their lives around my schedule. Are you okay with that?”
“Ren, you don’t have to do this,” Nash said.
“I know, but it’s time. So, what do you say, Mo?”
Mo looked completely shocked but straightened his shoulders. He dropped the cig, crushed it out, and kneeled in front of me, like a knight looking to be blessed.
“My life is yours,” Mo said. “Not because I was ordered to give it, but because I chose it.” He lifted his gaze to mine, unflinching. “Where you go, I stand. Whatever comes for you, comes through me first. Now and always, this I pledge to you.”
“Excellent. Then let’s go do some shooting so I don’t become another statistic.”
It felt like the first real choice I’d made as a leader. And maybe it was a small one, but it was solely mine.
Walking inside, the air was dry and cool. The entrance opened into a store with fake targets, camo clothing, and other items that I couldn’t name. It felt very claustrophobic with all of us in here, crowding every possible corner.
“I’ll get us signed in,” Nash said, ringing the bell when we reached the counter.
There was a sharpshooter’s board behind some glass, off to the left.
I wandered over to check out the paper targets marked with the distance and the person’s signature.
I marveled at the skill and was about to walk away when a pair up in the corner caught my attention.
The shots had been so accurate that there was no bullseye circle left on either target.
But it wasn’t the faded paper or the accuracy that rendered me speechless.
A heart had been drawn, half on each sheet, and inside was a pair of initials.
E.G. & A.M.
It couldn’t be a coincidence.
Liam stepped up beside me and followed my gaze.
“Well, would you look at that. I’ve never noticed those before.”
“Do you think it’s them? My parents? I mean, all these years later, and it’s still up there. What are the chances?”
“Let’s go find out,” Liam said and walked away.
I chased after him to the counter, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the targets in the corner.
Love didn’t always announce itself loudly. Sometimes it lived in things that survived being forgotten. Paper yellowed with age. Ink that refused to fade. Two people who had stood side by side long before the world split them apart, leaving proof behind without knowing who might someday need it.
My parents’ love hadn’t been soft or easy, but it had endured time, distance, betrayal, and pain. Even broken, it was the kind of love people desired. The kind that didn’t vanish just because it was tested.
My eyes traced their initials scribbled on the targets. When my mother had been my age, she’d stood in this very place with my father and made choices she couldn’t take back.
I wondered if she’d felt the same mix of uncertainty and fear curling through me now, if she’d known what it would cost her, or if love had made her brave enough not to ask.
The thought hurt in a way I couldn’t explain, like touching something sacred and realizing that love created me.
I stood here on my own two feet because of their strength and their willingness to hope and carry on when others would’ve given up.
Liam touched my arm and pointed at the lined pages in an old binder. He tapped the sign-in sheet once and stepped back, giving me space.
My parents’ names were there in ink, written decades ago.
The air left my lungs all at once. Tears burned, clogging my throat as I stared at the proof that before everything shattered, before secrets and sacrifices rewrote our lives, they had been here together—young, in love, and believing they were doing the right thing.
I swallowed hard and looked at Liam.
“I want them,” I said, and wiped away the tear that had slipped free.
Some legacies weren’t just inherited.
They were repeated.