Chapter Seventeen #3
Things were even tenser than normal, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on why, though his mother and his uncle were certainly up to something.
They kept glancing at each other the entire time while they ate, their looks significant and heavy.
The looks were especially apparent whenever Theo said anything about his art, or Diego, or even when he mentioned a film he’d watched recently.
Eventually, he simply stopped talking.
He fiddled with his phone in his pocket instead.
Maybe he should just…
Leave.
Uncle Jack only lived a few minutes away, so his dad could pick him up quickly, right? Or Uber was always an option in a pinch, though it might take too long for one to find him out here.
He could also just walk out.
Lloyd asked him a question, and he snapped his attention back to the table.
“What was that?” Theo idly pushed the remainder of his peas around on his plate. He’d been starving when he got there, but his appetite had gradually waned throughout the evening, only to be replaced with an odd, sick feeling in his stomach.
Meanwhile, Lloyd was going harder on the scotch than he normally did. His face was red and ruddy, and he pointed at Theo with his fork.
“What was that last piece you did about? The Radioactive Birds of Wall Street or whatever? I never did understand that one. It was weird even by your standards.”
Theo stabbed one of the peas with his fork, catching it perfectly between the tines.
Maybe the movement had been a little more aggressive than he’d meant it.
“It’s a commentary on how rampant capitalistic, corporate greed has become, and how damaging it is—that even the birds who walk near the most iconic symbol of our economy are contaminated by it now.
Not even the pigeons are safe.” That explanation was extremely reductive, but sure. Good enough.
Something even his uncle should be able to grasp.
“Huh. All right then.” Lloyd chewed thoughtfully. “Didn’t it only go for twenty thousand dollars at auction?”
“Yes,” Theo hissed through gritted teeth.
“And all of it to a charity that supports women fleeing domestic violence situations.” The proceeds from that sculpture had kept their shelter open when it was on the brink of closing due to increasing rent prices, and it had also brought awareness to their cause.
They were still operating today because of that auction.
“Twenty thousand is nothing to sneeze at.”
His father had certainly never had that much money in the bank at once.
“Bit low for you, though, don’t you think?” Lloyd put his fork down and tented his hands over his plate. “You could have simply opened up your wallet and paid that amount out to that charity yourself. Your other work has sold for much higher, hasn’t it? Orders of magnitude higher.”
“Lloyd…” Eleanor warned.
All these warnings, and nothing to show for it.
She wasn’t going to do shit.
Theo let his fork clatter onto the delicate, antique china. He definitely wouldn’t be able to finish his dinner now. “It was a little low, yes, but that doesn’t take away from its value or its meaning. And I have given to that shelter. Several times over.”
“Well, that’s all well and good. But if your work hasn’t been selling for as much as it used to, maybe it’s time you hang up your Lightm4st3r cape.”
Theo froze. “What?”
“Lloyd.” Eleanor slapped her palm on the table so hard, the silverware rattled. “What are you doing?”
He glared at his sister indignantly. “Only what you’ve been too afraid to do all night. We’ve been tiptoeing around since the boy got here this evening, and I’m tired of it. You really need to get on with it.”
Theo felt all the blood drain from his face. “Get on with what?”
His uncle downed the rest of his drink and slammed the glass on the table. “Telling you to put a pin in it. You’re floundering.”
“What?!” Theo pushed back from the table and threw his napkin onto his plate. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?” He looked at his mother. “Tell me he’s out of his goddamn mind.”
She didn’t say anything.
But Lloyd did. “It’s time for you to get a real job, Theodore.
This Lightm4st3r shit? You’re wasting your time.
You might as well be a five-year-old still playing with his Lite-Brite.
” He stood and pointed at Theo. “You stand around in that garage of yours fiddling with tubes and wires for hours on end to do what? Only produce a single piece or two a year?”
“I have a design LLC. I do work. That I am paid for.”
“Yeah, but you also do a lot of stuff for free, like that taco truck sign, wasn’t it? You just gave it to them.”
Theo pounded his fist on the table. “They were just starting their business and I wanted to help Tío out. I grew up with him! Do you know how much he’s fed me over the years? Do you know how much he means to me? Or Diego? I was glad to do it.”
“And no one knows about it—they don’t even advertise your business for you.”
“I don’t need them to!” He ran a hand through his hair.
His therapist would tell him to breathe.
She’d tell him to—
“It’s piss-poor management on your part. A stupid decision. It’s gotten you nowhere.”
“I don’t need the money! I don’t care!” Theo turned toward his mother. “Mom, tell him. Tell him how much money Nana left for…” He trailed off at the look on her face. “Mom?”
She hadn’t said anything, and her expression didn’t make him feel any less sick.
It was resolute.
“Teddy, your uncle’s right, even though that’s not how I would have phrased it.
” Eleanor slowly pushed her chair away from the table and stood, leaning her palms on the surface and pressing her weight against the wood.
“I wanted you to come here this weekend so we could discuss the work you’re doing as Lightm4st3r—and talk about maybe what’s next. ”
“What do you mean, ‘what’s next’?”
“I mean calling it quits.”
The world narrowed down to a single, horrific point.
Eyes, the twins of his own.
“Call it quits? On my art?” Theo breathed. “You want me to stop? Because of the money?!”
Of all the things they could have chosen for this to be about, and they’d chosen that?
They had so much of it.
Scads of it.
More than any of them could ever realistically spend.
His mother shook her head. “It’s not actually about the money, Teddy. It’s about everything else.”
“Everything else?” His hands began to shake. This was ludicrous, ridiculous, how could they think that—
“I’m concerned about you. You barely leave your house, and you’re so alone. You don’t have many friends.”
“I don’t need many friends, I have Diego, and—”
“You’re kind of a recluse, and you haven’t dated anyone since your relationship with Kendra fell through five years ago.”
“She cheated on me!” Anger surged hot into his cheeks at the mention of her name. “How dare you even bring her up after what she did! I—”
“I’m not talking about the past, Teddy, I’m talking about the present.” She rested her head in her hand and rubbed at the space between her eyes. “I think it’s time for a change. I wanted to ask you if you would consider going back to law school and finally joining me at the firm.”
“Why?” He couldn’t disguise the disgust in his voice.
“Your uncle and I are going to retire. We’ll make the announcement soon.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“We’d like to pass the family business on to you. It’s time to grow up.”
The silence in the room settled around his shoulders like a death shroud.
“You’re joking. Right?”
Theo glanced between the siblings’ faces. Surely this was a joke. She wasn’t serious, was she? Where was his dad? This was all a prank. He looked around, half expecting his Uncle Jack to pop out from somewhere and for a real party to start.
But neither of their expressions shifted. Neither of them broke and told him they were kidding.
“No, honey,” his mother finally said with a sigh.
“Wha—what is this?” he finally stammered. “What kind of twisted intervention is this?”
“No intervention.” Eleanor shook her head. “An invitation.”
“No.” Theo shook his head and took a step backward. “No. Why would you ask me to do this?” He splayed his hands out in front of him. This was stupid. They had so much money, none of them even really needed to work in the first place. It was completely unnecessary.
It was obnoxious.
Disgusting, when he thought too much about it.
His uncle groaned. “Don’t play dumb, Teddy. You’re so smart.”
“Well, sure, but that doesn’t mean I should take over the Redmond family law firm.”
“You’re the next in line to do it. Are you really going to let over a hundred years of our family’s legacy fall into someone else’s hands?”
“It’s not my fault you never had children,” Theo sneered.
His uncle’s face reddened. “You had a perfect GPA while playing lacrosse and double majoring at Columbia. You scored a one-eighty on your LSATs.”
“Do you think I give a shit about some test scores?”
“You got into Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Chicago, and for what? For what?!”
“I have no interest in law.”
“You used to! And then you squandered all that raw talent by—”
“I don’t want any part of your fucking family business.”
The walls were too close. Why was the ceiling so low?
Or the lights so dim? Why was breathing suddenly so hard?
Theo gasped and blinked and tried to calm his racing heart, but it only felt like it sped up at the thought.
It was all he could hear, the beating of his heart, the frenzy of his lungs, the way the room seemed to spin.
He couldn’t breathe.
Panic.
This was panic.
“What a waste. What an incredibly stupid waste.” His uncle’s voice cut through the noise. “This is why you need to grow the fuck up, boy. Do something worthwhile with your life.”
The symphony of panic in Theo’s brain suddenly condensed down to one, single note: a loud ringing in his ears.
And he found his voice again.
“What did you just say to me?” he rasped.