CHAPTER 22 #2
One of my fathers, Dennis, takes my mother into his arms. He presses his face close to her, whispering in her ear.
She clenches her eyes shut tightly, nodding fast. The movement causes the tears brimming in her eyes to trail down her cheek.
Another one of my fathers, Donovan, lightly puts his hands on the back of her neck, squeezing gently, as if reassuring her that they’re here for her.
The entire time, I’m flabbergasted. I try not to let the shock show on my face, but this is like something out of The Twilight Zone. These cannot be my parents. No way. They’re all about image, and holding that image up, even in the privacy of their home and away from prying eyes.
“So … what have you done with my parents?” I ask, looking between the four of them.
My mother gives a watery laugh. “We’ve had so many years to think about the way we treated you. So many nights I spent crying because I knew you ran away because of us and what we were trying to do. I can’t go another minute without having you in my life.”
“What brought this on?” Because there’s always a reason, even if that reason is minuscule.
“You’re almost thirty,” my father, Jay, says. “We knew we could have a reason to insert ourselves back into your life right now without you being suspicious of our actions.
“I’m still suspicious.”
He nods. “Fair enough.” He steps away from my mother and walks toward me. He comes to a stop several feet away and takes me in. There’s emotion blazing in his emerald depths. “We are here because we wanted to tell you something, and we know that you won’t like it.”
My entire face shuts down. “I knew it. You’re here to try to marry me off again, aren’t you?”
“No,” he says with a smile. “The complete opposite, in fact. We’ve been watching you. We see what you do and how you have grown into taking care of yourself. We have a proposition for you.”
“A proposition?” My brows furrow in confusion.
He looks back at my mother and two fathers, and I watch as something unspoken passes between them. Jay turns back to look at me, smiling softly, almost reverently.
“We have your inheritance here with us tonight. We’d like you to read it, and if you have any questions, you can ask us.”
“That’s not cryptic at all.”
He hands over a dossier I didn’t notice until now.
I hesitantly take it. He holds his hand out, gesturing for me to take a seat and read it.
Giving him a wide berth, I do exactly that.
I sit in one of my chairs and open the dossier like it’s something fragile, something that might splinter if I breathe too hard.
The leather cover is heavier than it looks, the kind of weight that means importance.
It settles in my palms and into my chest at the same time.
I start reading.
Confusion starts to crowd into my mind.
My name is at the top of the first page—bold, centered, unmistakable. Beneath it, line after line of dense text. I start reading, and the world around me seems to quiet down, as if even the air is holding its breath.
I swallow hard as I see that I’m to take over all of their businesses on the day I turn thirty.
The words hit me like a physical blow.
“What? Why?” I stumble over my words. “What is this?”
“It’s your future,” my mother states, coming to sit closest to me on the edge of the couch.
She places her hand on my knee, and I’m too shocked to push her hand away.
“Just because we were horrible to you when you were younger, trying to mate you off, doesn’t mean we haven’t seen the error of our ways.
We have. You’re a bright woman with a terrific head on your shoulders. ”
“But mom …”
I look up to see her shake her head. “But nothing. You deserve this.”
My throat tightens. I blink hard, but the letters blur anyway. I drag my thumb across the page, grounding myself, forcing my eyes to keep moving.
Any children I have will gain a piece of the ‘empire’ upon their birth. Their share will be placed in a trust, protected, and held until they come of age.
My vision swims. Tears blanket my eyes before I can stop them. I swipe under my eye quickly when a few break away, but more gather, hot and insistent to make me look like a blubbering bitch. I keep reading, even though every sentence feels heavier than the last.
My parents will step down from operations.
I’ll be the one in charge of everything.
Absolutely everything.
A shaky breath escapes me. I didn’t expect this.
Not the timing, not the certainty, not the sheer magnitude of what they’re handing me.
My parents and I haven’t been on the best of terms for quite some time.
In fact, for eleven years, I haven’t spoken to them.
Not for the lack of trying on their part.
They tried. But they always respected my wishes and stayed away. Until now.
It feels like I’m standing on the edge of a cliff and realizing the ground beneath my feet is already shifting into wings. I feel light and free. My future doesn’t look so bleak and meaningless anymore. I have a reason besides my baby to keep me going. I have thousands of people depending on me.
I turn the past with trembling fingers.
The next addendum stops me short, and the tears come for a completely different reason.
When I mate, my mates will help me run the ‘empire’ my parents built. Don't replace me. Don't overshadow me. Stand with me through it all. Support me. Share the weight that could potentially feel crushing and strangely right at the same time.
I sit back, dossier open in my lap. Tears slip down my cheeks unchecked. I don’t bother wiping them away. There’s too much inside me—shock, fear, pride, disbelief, awe, and a sadness that leaks right into my bones. It all churns together until I can’t tell where one feeling ends and another begins.
“Why do you look sad right now, darling?” my mother asks, sliding to the edge of the couch. She takes one of my hands in both of hers.
My chin quivers. “You don’t have to worry about the mate issue.”
Her eyes drop to my stomach before meeting mine again. “But I thought …”
I shake my head. “Apparently, I was good for one night of fun but not to mate.”
My father, Tymrin, the biggest of the alphas here, growls low and threatening. “Tell us everything.”
So, I do.
I start at the beginning and tell them everything. By the time I’m finished, all of my fathers are growling and cussing up a storm. They promise retribution and the complete annihilation of my mates.
While the idea of that is wonderful, I’m simply … done.
“No, there’s no use doing that. Please, let’s just forget they ever existed.”
Tymrin reluctantly nods, grinding his teeth as he replies, “If that’s what you want.”
It’s not what I want. “It’s what I need.”
Jay comes over and hunkers down in front of me.
He reaches out; the movement startles me and makes me flinch.
A sad expression passes over his features, but he doesn’t stop my reaction from him taking the dossier out of my hand, putting it on the coffee table, and taking both my hands in his.
He kisses the back of my hands, pressing his forehead against them.
“I’m sorry we were so blind all those years. Very sorry. How can we make it up to you?”
I stare down at the dossier, allowing the words to swirl around inside my mind, letting them settle into me.
This is my future.
My responsibility.
My inheritance.
And for the first time, I feel the shape of it—vast, daunting, but entirely mine.
I grip his hands tightly. “Just be here. Not because you have to, but because you want to.”