Chapter 21 - Blair #2
"You... you're..." He looks from me to Gabriel, horror dawning in his eyes like a slow-motion car crash. "You're fucking my dad?"
"Fucking him?" I let out a low, dark laugh that feels entirely too comfortable in my throat. I take a step closer to Ryder, invading his space until I can smell the fear sweating off him. "Ryder, I’m doing things with him that would make you blush. I’m letting him do things to me that you couldn't even figure out how to ask for. "
Ryder flinches, his face turning a sickly shade of gray.
"You said I was boring," I remind him, my voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.
"You said I was a dead fish. But it turns out, the problem wasn't my libido.
It was your skill set." I tilt my head, looking him up and down with pity.
"Gabriel doesn't have that problem. He finds spots you couldn't find with a map.
And unlike you, he knows how to make me scream. "
"Shut up," Ryder chokes out. "Dad, tell her to shut up."
Gabriel moves.
He steps up behind me, a wall of heat and violence. His large hand slides around my waist, splaying flat over my stomach in a possessive claim that I’m sure everyone in the room recognizes.
"Why would I do that?" Gabriel asks, his voice a deep rumble that vibrates through my spine. "She’s telling the truth. She screams my name. Every. Night."
He leans down, pressing a kiss to the side of my neck, right over my pulse, staring his son dead in the eye while he does it.
"And I liked the sound of it so much," Gabriel continues, lifting his head to address the room, "that I decided to keep her."
"Keep her?" Ryder whispers.
"Forever." Gabriel’s hand tightens on my stomach. "I put a ring on her finger, and I put a baby in her belly."
The silence in the room is deafening. Ryder looks at Gabriel’s hand on my stomach, the math finally clicking in his brain.
"She's my wife," Gabriel says coldly. "And she is carrying the heir I’ve been waiting for after you’ve been such a disappointment."
I smile then. It’s sweet. It’s toxic. It’s the face of the woman who just kicked the foundation out from under his life and is smiling at the collapse.
"So technically, Ryder... I’m your stepmother."
I let that sink in. I watch his eyes widen, watch his knees actually buckle slightly.
"You can call me Mom if you want," I say, patting his cheek. "But I think Blair is fine."
Gasps ripple through the room.
Ryder looks like he’s going to vomit.
Gabriel looks at his son. There’s no warmth. No conflict. Just the cold, dead stare of a man looking at a bug he’s about to crush.
"She's not lying," Gabriel says. "Now get out of my sight before you embarrass yourself further."
"Embarrass myself?" Ryder screams. "You're sick! Both of you! She’s my ex!"
"And you," Gabriel says, stepping forward, his voice a low rumble of thunder, "are finished."
He turns to me, offering his arm. "Come on, little bird. It’s time."
We walk away, leaving him shaking in our wake.
Not gonna lie, it feels amazing.
The stage stands at the front of the room, glittering with decorations.
Gabriel guides me up the stairs. He takes the podium, and I stand slightly behind him, visible to everyone. I don’t cower behind him, though. I stand tall and proud of who I am.
They can fuck all the way off.
"Good evening," Gabriel booms.
The room goes silent.
"Thank you for joining us. The holidays are about legacy. About family." He pauses, his gray eyes scanning the crowd before landing on me. They soften, just for a fraction of a second. "I’ve spent my life building a name that stands for strength. Tonight, I’d like to formally introduce my wife, Blair Hollis. And announce that we’re expecting. ”
Applause breaks out, loud and frantic. It’s actually painful to keep from rolling my eyes at all the false congratulations.
Gabriel raises a hand. The room goes silent again, and this time it’s like they’re all leaning forward slightly or holding their breath, waiting for what might come next.
"However," he says, his voice sharpening into a blade. "You can’t build a future on a foundation of betrayal."
He looks directly at Ryder, who’s hovering near the exit.
"For more than two years, Ryder has stolen from the woman standing beside me. He embezzled over forty thousand dollars from her business accounts. He sabotaged her clients. He cheated on her. He treated her with a cruelty that makes me ashamed he shares my name."
Ryder shakes his head, backing up. "Dad, don't..."
"But theft I could handle," Gabriel continues, his voice vibrating with rage. "Attempted murder, I cannot."
The oxygen leaves the room.
"Two weeks ago, Ryder ran my wife’s car off the road.
He left her there, unconscious and bleeding, in a car teetering on the edge of the lake.
He didn't call for help. He drove away." Gabriel grips the podium until his knuckles turn white.
"He left his pregnant stepmother to die because his ego couldn't handle that she was happy. "
"Liar!" Ryder screams, his voice cracking.
"I have the police report. I have the evidence." Gabriel straightens. "You’re no longer my son. From this moment on, you are a stranger to me. I’m taking back my money and my name. You leave this room tonight with absolutely nothing but the consequences of your own actions."
I watch Ryder crumble, and I feel the satisfaction settle deep in my chest.
But it’s not over.
Movement near the doors draws my eye.
James Thornton stumbles into the room.
He looks ruined. His tie is undone, his face flushed with drink and desperation. He looks like a man who knows the game is over and has decided he’s going to take as many people down with him as possible.
"You think he's the fraud? You’re the one who’s been living a lie, you arrogant prick!"
The crowd turns.
"James," Gabriel warns. "Go home."
"Nah, I don’t think I will." James laughs, a manic, unhinged sound. "You want to air dirty laundry? Let’s do it. Let’s tell them everything."
He points a shaking finger at Ryder, then at Gabriel.
"Look at him, Gabriel!" James demands, pointing a shaking finger at Ryder. "Actually look at him for once in your miserable life. Do you see yourself? Do you see any of you in him?"
"All I see is a disappointment," Gabriel says.
"You see me!" James screams. "You see me because I’m his father!" The scream echoes off the vaulted ceiling.
Gabriel freezes.
I freeze.
Ryder stops trying to flee, turning back to look at James with wide, terrified eyes.
"What the fuck did you just say?" Gabriel’s voice is barely a whisper, but the mic catches it.
"He’s not yours," James sneers, staggering forward. "He’s mine. Caroline and I... we were together for years. Right under your nose. While you were building your business, I was in your bed."
He laughs again, pointing at Ryder.
"Did you really think he came from you? Look at him! He never fit in your world. He’s been drowning in your shadow his whole life because he was meant to stand in mine!"
Nobody says a damn thing.
I look at my husband.
I expect devastation. I expect a man broken by the realization that his life was a lie.
But as I watch, his face changes.
The shock flickers and dies. The confusion clears.
And in its place... relief.
His shoulders drop. The tension that’s lived in his frame for as long as I’ve known him evaporates. He looks at Ryder—really looks at him—and sees the truth.
Then he looks at James.
"You're right," Gabriel says. His voice is calm. Conversational. "I spent decades trying to figure out why I couldn't teach him integrity or even just basic fucking decency. Now I know."
He steps back from the podium, taking my hand.
"And now he’s exactly where he belongs," Gabriel says, a cold, satisfied smile curving his lips. "Standing in the wreckage of the Thornton name with his real father. He’s your problem now."
The words hit James like a bullet. His smile falters. He realizes, too late, that he didn't destroy Gabriel.
He freed him.
"Come on, Blair," Gabriel says, turning his back on them. "We're done here."
We take one step toward the stairs, and then the vibe in the room shifts. It’s a subtle change in pressure, a vibration of intent that makes the hair on my arms stand up.
"You son of a bitch!"
I turn back just in time to see James Thornton lunge.
He’s grabbed a steak knife from a nearby table, the silver glinting under the chandeliers as he rushes the stage. He’s clumsy, drunk, and slow, but the intent to kill is etched into every line of his face.
Someone in the front row screams.
Gabriel moves to step in front of me, his arm shooting out to shield me, but he doesn't get the chance to do more before someone else steps in.
A blur of black motion intercepts James before he gets within five feet of us.
Xander.
The priest moves with a speed that defies physics. One hand clamps onto James’s wrist, twisting it with a sickening snap that I can hear over the screams from the crowd. The knife clatters to the floor.
James howls, his knees buckling, but Xander holds him up by the broken wrist, a terrifying, unhinged smile on his face.
"Now, now," Xander tsks, his mismatched eyes lighting up like he just opened the best present under the tree. “If you wanted to die, you could have just asked nicely."
Cole Callahan is there a second later. He looks bored as he grabs James by the back of the neck, forcing his face down toward the floorboards.
"Let him go, Xander," Cole says, sounding like a tired parent dealing with a toddler. "We aren't doing this here."
"Why not?" Xander narrows his eyes. He tightens his grip on James’s broken wrist, eliciting another shriek from the man. "Red is a Christmas color. What’s more festive than a little arterial spray?"
Gabriel moves. He steps directly in front of me, his broad back blocking my view of the violence, effectively shielding me from any potential spray. He looks down at the priest from the edge of the stage, his expression cold and unimpressed.