Chapter Nineteen #4
When Theo pushed the door open and stepped inside, both women’s heads snapped over to him.
Eleanor’s eyes grew wide.
She looked like she might crumple into a heap on the floor.
The taller woman, Nancy, glanced between Eleanor and her son and blanched, her light brown eyes wide with worry. She put a hand on Eleanor’s shoulder and gently squeezed.
“Text if you need me. I’ll leave you to it.” She hurried out of the room while Theo ushered Audrey inside, keeping her head down as she shut the door quietly behind her.
With Nancy gone, the tension in the room thickened.
Theo stood still and silent as he studied his mother, the very mirror of their encounter yesterday. Only this time, his face didn’t flush red. It was inscrutable beneath the mask.
After a long moment, it was Eleanor who finally broke the silence.
“Theo,” she finally whispered, as if she still couldn’t quite believe that he stood before her now. She stepped forward and fumbled for a nearby armchair before sinking heavily into the plush, leather cushion. As soon as she did, she buried her face in her hands and began to sob.
“I’m so sorry, Theo,” she finally gasped, tears streaming down her face. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
He met Audrey’s gaze, and when she nodded at him, he reached up and tugged the mask away from his mouth before shoving it into his coat pocket and stepping over to his mother.
He dragged over another chair and sat next to her, hands clasped and elbows resting on his knees while he waited patiently for her to catch her breath.
When she finally calmed down enough to look at him, he rolled his lips together and began to speak.
“You sent me into a tailspin yesterday. It was ugly. I wasn’t ready to see you yet.
I wasn’t ready to talk to you yet, and you still pushed it.
I’ve only ever been more upset once in my life.
” He glanced over his shoulder at Audrey and smiled softly.
“But I’m okay now.” When Eleanor opened her mouth to speak, hope lighting up her face, Theo held up a hand to stop her.
“That doesn’t mean that we are okay, though. ”
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his wallet, freeing the little card Audrey saw him writing on earlier from one of the slots.
“I decided to come today because Dad would have wanted me to. I’m here because he can’t be.
He loved you. He was proud of you. And I know that what you do here, you see as your service, your purpose.
The way you give back to the community and do pro bono work, the way you try to make things better for so many people within the legal system—I get that.
” He sighed and flicked the card between his fingers absently, anxiously.
“In some ways, we’re not so different. Because for you, this is your art, isn’t it?
“Rejecting your legacy is about as fair as you asking me to give up mine. I know you didn’t understand it that way at the time, and if I’d had the wherewithal and the mindset to explain it to you like that then, I would’ve.
But I didn’t. And now we’re here. Frankly, in that respect, I don’t think that part is a bad thing, even though it’s caused me a great deal of pain.
” He huffed sardonically. “A great deal.”
Theo stared Eleanor straight in the eyes, unyielding and unblinking and intense.
“You weren’t there for me when I was growing up.
I know you get that intellectually now, even if you didn’t then.
But that doesn’t mean I’m going to do the same thing to you that you did to me.
As I see it, there’s only one way to break patterns, and it’s by doing things differently—by not repeating them.
So here’s me, actively choosing not to repeat a cycle of abandonment.
” He nodded. “I’m here. I’m going to do better and be better than you were for me by modeling what I want from you. And that’s support. And acceptance.”
He leaned forward and finally handed her the card.
“That doesn’t mean this is a carte blanche to start over.
” He tapped the thick, creamy cardstock.
“It’s literally not a blank card.” He shook his head.
“Thank you for the invitation, but Audrey and I won’t be coming home for Thanksgiving this year.
Or Christmas. Or any other holiday. Maybe not even next year, or possibly never, I don’t know yet.
That depends on what you do from here on out.
And you and I still aren’t on speaking terms—let me be exceedingly clear.
” His full lips pressed into one thin, tense line, so hard they almost disappeared completely.
“Today is a onetime deal. A goodwill gift.
An exception. And unless things change, I will not be doing it again.
“Even if things do change, I want my privacy respected, and I want it respected religiously. It’s a hard line.
In either case, I will not be going back to law school.
I will not be taking over the firm. If you want to talk to me, if you want to start making things better, you have to start here.
” He pointed at the card. “Joint therapy sessions with Dr. Harper, and independent ones on your own. I’ll make time for the joint ones if you will.
” His face softened and he inhaled sharply.
“I don’t want to lose anyone else. There aren’t—we don’t have a lot of us to lose, and I don’t want to have any more regrets.
But we also can’t keep going on as we have been.
You agree, right, Mom? And—a-and you said you’d do anything to make it right. Did you mean it?”
He couldn’t hide the hope in his eyes.
They were begging—pleading for his mother to see it.
Despite everything, Theo Sullivan still had hope after all.
Eleanor drew in a deep breath, still struggling to stem the tide of tears streaming down her cheeks, and nodded.
“Yes. I did say that. And I meant it. I mean it.” She wiped some of the tears away from her face.
“You were right: I wasn’t around. I never prioritized you enough.
I didn’t protect you. And above all else, I didn’t understand you—and I didn’t try to.
I’m so sorry you felt so alone. I want to fix it.
I want to fix it now before it’s too late, if I have even half a chance.
” Her hands shook as she tried to suppress another sob.
“I’ll make the time. I’ll do whatever it takes. I swear it.”
A weak, tentative smile tugged at the corners of Theo’s mouth. “Okay. Good. I’ll see if you follow through—and I hope you do.” He motioned again toward the card. “Turn that over.”
When Eleanor did, her eyes grew wide, and she glanced at Audrey.
But it was only a split second before her gaze was back on Theo’s face.
When she nodded, he turned in the chair and motioned over to Audrey, who walked up next to him.
He stood and wrapped his arm around her waist so he could tuck her firmly into his side.
“Mom, this is my girlfriend, Audrey Adams.” He beamed down at her, true light dancing in his dark eyes.
“She’s an electrical engineering student at NYU about to graduate in a few weeks, and she’s working on sustainability, so I hope I see you prosecuting more companies who break environmental law in the future.
” His smile widened. “Audrey’s incredibly smart, incredibly kind, really funny, makes a mean ristretto, and I thought I knew what love was until I met her.
Turns out I was wrong.” The crinkles around his eyes deepened. “But I know now.”
Audrey smiled back up at him, and pride warmed her chest as her gaze met his. But it was only for a moment. She took a step forward and held out her hand to Eleanor, who stood as well. She was so short, she only came up to just under Audrey’s nose.
“It’s really nice to meet you, Ms. Redmond.”
Eleanor wrapped Audrey’s hand in both of hers, holding it tight.
“Oh, my dear. It’s so wonderful to meet you too.
But please—just call me Eleanor.” Her mouth bloomed into a wide, relieved smile as she looked between them.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket and tapped the screen.
“Would you like to stay for a bit and have coffee? I’ll ask Maureen to bring us some. ”
Audrey looked up at Theo.
He smiled.
And nodded.
She turned back to Eleanor. “We’d love to stay.”
“Thank you.” Her face relaxed, and she typed out a quick message before pocketing the phone again.
Theo let Audrey take his chair so she could chat with his mother while he grabbed a third from the seating area and pulled it nearer to the coffee table, close enough for him to hold her hand.
Once he was settled, Eleanor turned back to Audrey and clasped her hands in her lap.
“Now: how long have you two been tog—”
“DON’T YOU DARE GO IN THERE, YOU PRETENTIOUS PRICK.”
“GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!”
“FUCK YOU, MOTHERFUCKER!”
There was another shout and a sudden commotion out in the hallway, the sound of a short scuffle followed by a dull thud. The floors and walls of the office shook, rattling Eleanor’s framed diplomas against the drywall, but before any of them could react, the door burst open.
A short man with graying, burnished gold hair and light blue eyes stood in the doorway, his suit rumpled and askew, swaying as he struggled to shove away a spitting-mad and swearing Diego.
They both froze as soon as their eyes landed on Theo.
Theo sucked in a breath and gripped Audrey’s hand so hard, she half wondered if he might break it. There was no mistaking his expression as he stared at the man. It could only mean one thing.
This was his uncle Lloyd.
Audrey knew immediately. While he shared few traits with his older sister aside from some resemblance in bone structure and stature, the man’s nose was slightly crooked, with a telltale bump at the bridge—and several new, thin pink scars slashed across his skin, still healing a few months after being broken open and stitched back together.
All the blood drained from Lloyd’s face, and his mouth dropped open.
But before he had half a chance to say a single word, Eleanor had already launched herself out of her chair, lunging toward her brother with her teeth bared. He startled as she pressed one perfectly manicured finger deep into his chest.
“Get the fuck out of here, Lloyd,” she growled, a deadly look in her eyes. “I don’t want you near my son. You take one wrong look at him, and I’ll castrate you myself. And I’ll do a lot worse to your balls than what he did to your face. You understand?”
When Lloyd’s gaze darted back over to his nephew, Audrey rose from her chair and stood in front of Theo, meeting his uncle’s look with a dark one of her own.
It didn’t matter what Eleanor threatened.
If that man so much as breathed in the direction of hers, he’d have hell to pay.
“Sorry,” Lloyd muttered, looking down at the floor. “My mistake. I thought you weren’t busy.”
“You thought wrong.”
Without another word, he slunk away from the door. Diego grabbed him and shoved him roughly back into the hallway before Eleanor slammed the door after him so hard, it rattled in the doorframe.
She turned back to them and rolled her lips together.
“As I was saying—how long have you two been dating?” She made her way back to her chair and perched on the edge, crossing her legs primly, one right over the other. “I want to hear all about it. Please tell me as much as you’re willing to.”
“It hasn’t been long—we met this summer.” Audrey smiled at Theo as she sat back down. Warmth and relief simmered molten in his amber eyes, soft and sweet and grateful. “But I’m deeply in love with your son. I’ve never met anyone like him before.” She squeezed his hand. “He’s extraordinary.”
Eleanor’s expression softened. “That he is.”
Maureen brought in a pot of fresh coffee, setting the tray and mugs down between them and wiping her eyes with her sleeve as she hurried back to her desk.
They spent the rest of the morning talking.
It was sweeter than Audrey ever thought it might be.