Page 78 of A Matter of Fact

“No.” He shook his head. “I’ve done as you’ve asked for my whole life. I’m doing this one thing now, for me.”

“One thing,” his father mocked. “Is it another woman, Rhys? Come on. You know how that’s going to end for you. The same way it always does and always has. So break it off and pack your bags.”

“A man.”

“Excuse me?”

“A man,” he said again. “I’ve met a man, and I’m in love with him.”

His father laughed, cruel and callous. “Another dalliance, then.”

“No,” he interrupted, the denial sounding strong and sure as it left his mouth. “He’s not a distraction. He’s not a passing phase.”

“You know how I feel about that sort of thing.”

“I know. And…” Rhys’s let out a breath, his shoulders softening. “I don’t care anymore. I can’t.”

“You can’t,” his father mocked, stepping closer. He gave Rhys a shove against his chest, and Rhys stumbled backward. “Get in the car, Rhys. I’ll deal with your belongings another time.”

“I said no,” he repeated, steadying himself on his feet.

In that moment, those syllables, Rhys’s life flashed before his eyes. Everything. From what life had been like before Sebastian was born, to adjusting to having a new screaming baby brother around the house, to the doting and adorable way Sebastian used to follow him around. Sebastian had always looked up to him, always idolized him, even if he’d never been deserving of it. Sebastian had been unafraid of nearly everything and everyone. Rhys ached for a mere sliver of that bravery.

He thought about the way Sebastian had yelled at him across the table just minutes before. He thought about the way his brother was so sure in the things he was saying. So tempestuous and willing to chase after what he wanted. And Rhys thought about Beckett upstairs, the way Beckett had reached for him and not just physically. Beckett, who had been so against everything Rhys thought he stood for, but so willing to try. How he’d met Rhys in the middle. And as it often did, his mind went back to Callahan. The greatest wrong of his life. The first time his father had gone too far. Rhys had let him get away with it, he’d let it go on, and two decades later, enough had to be enough.

“Get in the car,” his father said, an edge of warning in his tone.

Rhys glanced back over his shoulder at a black town car idling at the curb.

“He’s not a distraction,” Rhys said again. “He’s my boyfriend, and he’s a far better man than I’ll ever deserve. I love him, and by some stretch of the imagination, he loves me, too.”

His father chuckled and shrugged. “I think we both know how well that worked out for you last time.”

“Callahan did not deserve what you made me do to him.”

“What I made you do? I didn’tmakeyou do anything, Rhys.”

“Youdid,” he argued, squaring himself and finding the strength to give voice to things he’d been holding inside for his entire adult life. “I could have Callahan McMillian or I could be a St. George. I remember the conversation like we had it yesterday.”

“Do refresh my memory because it seems youhaveforgotten.”

“No son of mine is going to marry another man,” Rhys repeated his father’s malicious words. “I don’t care that he’s a McMillian; I won’t ever allow it.”

“And you said you loved him.”

“I did!” Rhys threw his hands up into the air. “I loved him more than anything in the world and you took him away from me.”

“It’s evident there was one thing you loved more than him, Rhys. I won’t let you put this blame on me.”

“Family,” he spat. “Above all else I was raised that family came first. The name, the expectations, the school, the money, the empire. All of it was family and it all came first. It was all I had and you threatened to take it away from me.”

“Don’t forget your brother,” his father sneered.

Rhys’s pulse rattled in his ears. “Like I said, family came first. Familycomesfirst. And since that day, Sebastian has been my only family. Do you hear me? Not you. Him. Just him. Everything I’ve done and everything you think you’ve gotten out of me over the course of my life, it was all been done for him so he can have a better life than the one you’ve allowed me.”

“Rhys.”

He closed his eyes, his brother’s voice soft and tender from somewhere behind him.