23. Theo
THEO
We move.
We all get dressed and then head downstairs, stopping in the foyer.
Our father pounds one more time. I unlock the door, and he steps inside.
My father is in the entryway wearing a suit. His face is flushed red. It could be from the cold, but most likely, it’s from anger.
His eyes find Bianca.
I shift to her front-right. Gideon takes the front-left without looking at me. Ander squares his shoulders behind her and brings both hands to her hips, walking her a half step behind us.
She’s standing inside a wall of three bodies, and my father cannot reach her without going through us.
“Move out of my way,” he seethes through gritted teeth.
“No.”
He takes one step toward us. “Theodore, if you know what’s good for you, step aside.”
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll back the fuck up.” It’s the most direct I’ve ever been with my father, and the anomaly isn’t lost on him.
His eyes widen with shock. But to his credit, he takes a step back. The signet ring taps once against the doorframe.
But that sound doesn’t have the same effect it’s had my whole life. I’m not letting him control me. Not anymore.
“How did you even know where to find us?” I ask.
“Flight logs. This real estate purchase.” My father points at me, then at Bianca.
“None of that matters. This ends today.” His tone tells me he believes he’s already won and is informing me of the result.
“All three of you have humiliated this family in a manner I did not believe possible, and yet, here we are.” His eyes cut to Bianca through the gap between Gideon’s shoulder and mine.
“I am taking the company. I am taking the foundation. I am taking every chair, every seat, every fucking acre of this family’s holdings, and I will work until the day I die to ensure that none of you inherit one single cent. ”
He lets the words sink in. This is where he expects us to cower.
But neither I nor my brothers respond.
His eyes dart around, not knowing what to do with our reaction. Or lack of reaction.
When I speak, it’s at my normal speaking volume, in the same voice I use in board meetings. “Fine.”
His head turns a fraction, and his eyes widen.
“You can have all of it.” I reach behind Gideon’s elbow and find Bianca’s hand, lace our fingers, and hold. “Except for the foundation. You have no say in that. That was our mother’s foundation.”
His hands ball into fists, and he releases several loud exhales through his nose. “Theodore Sawyer, did you hear what I said. I’m taking all the money.”
My father has always been the hardest on me, so my brothers are letting me have this moment.
“I said you can have all of it.” I squeeze Bianca’s hands.
“I was nine at my mother’s funeral when you took me into the side room and told me I was now responsible for this family and my brothers.
I’ve organized my entire adult life around the assumption that if I stopped following your orders, I’d lose every person I loved the same as we lost her. ”
“Where is this coming from, Theodore?” my father asks. “Did she put those thoughts in your head?”
“Oh, no, Charles. This is a long time coming.” He no longer gets the respect of being called father.
“Hear me say this, so I don’t have to say it twice.
I’m not nine anymore. I’m done letting you control me.
Maybe I’ll fail. Maybe I won’t. But the people who love me, the people that matter, are going to love me, anyway.
And that’s what love is. It’s too bad that you can’t recognize that. ”
He doesn’t respond. He can’t. He has never in my life been spoken to this way by anyone in his bloodline. Or anyone else, for that matter.
Gideon picks up where I left off.
He doesn’t look at our father. He looks at the floor between them, and what comes out of him is shorter than what I gave and somehow more brutal.
“You told me how important family loyalty is throughout my entire life.” His hands go to his sweatpants pockets.
“Some of the things you made me do were unethical, even illegal. You said family always comes first. And that’s what I believed.
That is not loyalty. Loyalty is chosen. You ruled us with fear and called it love.
I am done being afraid of you.” His eyes lift.
“I’m not loyal to you anymore. I’m loyal to my brothers. To Bianca.”
Ander hasn’t spoken yet. I turn my head a fraction to look at him over Bianca’s hair.
Quiet. Not the grin. Not the version of him that’s all punchlines and provocation.
“I waited at the window for months after she died,” Ander says.
Our father’s jaw locks.
“Months. She wasn’t coming back. I knew that. And I needed you.”
My father scoffs. “You were practically a man.”
“A man?” My brother questions. “I was nine fucking years old. But it doesn’t matter; nobody should have to process grief alone. Bianca taught me that.”
My gut clenches. I don’t remember any of this, but Ander has been holding onto this for decades.
He moves from behind Bianca and comes face-to-face with my father.
“I was devastated. And never once did you come and sit with me by that window. Not once. You decided I was too loud. You decided Theo was the useful one, and Gideon was the smart one. I was the one you didn’t have to bother with.
And I have spent the rest of my life being so much that nobody could ignore me, because I was so sure everyone I loved was gonna leave me, eventually. ”
My father is speechless. Probably for the first time in his life.
Ander returns to Bianca and rubs a thumb over her hipbone. “She’s not leaving. My brothers aren’t leaving. And that’s what matters. So, you can take every fucking cent. Because that’s all you have left. You have nobody.”
The ring stops tapping. I have been waiting for that sound to stop my entire life.
My father takes one step forward through the gap toward Bianca. He’s run out of moves with us, and he’s going to try the one move he has left.
“Young lady,” he addresses Bianca, his full charm in place. A predator behind a polished smile. “I don’t know what you imagine has happened here,” he says. “But these are my sons. And you are a temporary?—”
“I’m not temporary, Charles,” she starts.
My father stops. I do too.
She steps out from behind Ander. She doesn’t let go of my hand. Gideon’s arm comes across her front the second she clears his shoulder, and she rests her palm on his forearm to tell him she’s all right, and Gideon lets her through.
She faces my father at arm’s length. She’s the bravest person I have ever met in my life.
“Theo isn’t ruthless. But you only love the ruthless version, so that’s all you see.
Gideon wants to laugh and rest, but he’s never been given the chance.
And Ander has the most serious heart of any man I’ve met, yet you wrote him off as a child.
You raised them, and you don’t know any of that.
You don’t know them at all. But I do. So, no matter what you want to believe.
I know the truth.” She pauses. “So, I’ll say it again.
I’m not temporary. I love them, and I’m here to stay. ”
“You will regret this.” My father’s mouth goes white at the corners. “All of you. Will regret this.”
“No,” Gideon says. “We won’t.”
My father turns. He walks out the door he came through. He doesn’t slam it. Charles Sawyer does not slam doors.
The latch clicks.
Bianca turns to look at the three of us, and her expression has gone careful, and I don’t want it to.
“Are you guys okay?” She says it small. “I am so sorry. This is my fault. The fallout from this is going to be?—”
“Baby.” Ander steps in. “Stop.”
“He’s going to take everything,” she says.
“Let him.” I close my hand around hers tighter. “We should have stood up to him years ago.”
Gideon cups her jaw. “You didn’t cause this. You gave us the courage to do it.”
“I love you,” I tell her, and her eyes go damp immediately. I keep talking. “I love you. I love my brothers. I love whatever it is the four of us are.”
Ander smirks. “Me, too, baby. This is exactly where I want to be. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Gideon says. “We chose you. And we will keep choosing you, no matter what.”
“I love you,” she tells us. “All three of you. I am going to love you for the rest of my life, and I am going to make you so many cinnamon rolls that you’ll beg me to stop.”
Ander throws his head back and laughs. “Well, we might need to learn to bake ourselves. We’re broke. Is your bakery hiring?”
“You’d eat the inventory,” she says.
“Yeah, okay. I’d eat the inventory. I’d be a liability. Forget the bakery. I’ll be your house husband. I can fold a fitted sheet.”
“No, you can’t.”
“You’re right. I’m lying.” His hand goes flat over his heart. “I can’t fold a fitted sheet. But to be fair, nobody can.”
And that gets a laugh from all of us.
I pull her into me. Gideon comes up behind her. Ander wraps his arms around all three of us.
“For the record, we’re not even a little bit broke,” Gideon tells all of us. “I diversified out from under him eight years ago. He doesn’t know.”
“Of course you did,” Ander says. “And thank fuck.”
“So today is the first day of the rest of our lives,” I say to all of them. “What now?”
Bianca thinks about it. “Now,” she says, “we figure out how fast we can get that bigger bed.”
Ander laughs so hard he has to step out of the hug.
“And coffee,” she adds. “And then we figure out the rest of our lives. Together.”
I pull her closer. Gideon’s arm tightens around her from behind. Ander’s forehead drops to the top of her head.
Together. One word. And that’s all we need.