Page 216 of Boyfriend of the Hour

“Did you hear something?” Carrick wondered.

Lillian remained quiet, though I could hear the sipping of some kind of drink. A white wine spritzer, I was guessing. She’d had it the last two nights.

“Come on, Mom. Haven’t you ever heard the saying if you love something, set it free? Nathan just might come back on his own.”

“We did that once with a pair of imported swans. The trainers told us that they were smart enough that they would come backevery year and replace the other two. But they didn’t. They found a pond on the other side of the county they liked better. It didn’t matter that we provided them with everything they’d ever want. They never came back.”

“Nathan is not a fucking bird, Mother.” Carrick’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “He’ll come home if you give him a good reason to. One that maybe trades genuine affection for blackmail.”

There was the sound of footsteps pacing around the soft carpet inside the library, Lillian taking a few more sips of her drink, and the tinkling of her fingernails on the glass.

“No, I don’t think so,” she said at last. “Your brother has always been too independent for his own good. The only way to keep him safe is to bring him to heel.”

“Nathan’s not a dumb twenty-one-year-old kid anymore. And for what it’s worth, I don’t think Joni is anywhere near the same as Lindsay. I’ve asked around, and she’s actually pretty damn talented. Once her knee’s healed up, I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up dancing with a legitimate company again. You want Nathan back in DC? Get his girl a spot on the Washington Ballet.”

I tilted my head in surprise. It was the nicest thing Carrick could have said about me. I honestly thought he hated me.

“And in that…video?” Lillian asked. “Was she demonstrating her talent there too?”

My cheeks burned. But honestly, I was just mad. Mad that I’d made such a stupid error, but also that it was apparently going to be held against me forever. It wasn’t fair.

“Look, we’ve all made mistakes. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to know half the stuff I did at that age,” Carrick joked. “She’s a good egg. More importantly, she loves Nathan. I think he deserves to be happy, don’t you?”

There was another long silence while Lillian seemed to consider each point. I, for one, was just confused. How could someone who had gone out of his way to sabotage my relationship with his brother suddenly be on the other side of it? Carrick made no sense. What were his motives?

But then Lillian spoke, and I decided I didn’t have the time to figure that out. Her next statement was too fucking damning.

“He doesn’t know what happiness really is,” she said at last. “It’s not dating a pretty girl. It’s not indulging yourself with only your own interests. And it’s not caring for a child who isn’t even of your own blood. If we don’t guide him now, he’s going to wake up one day and realize he’s wasted his entire life with trivialities.”

I scowled. Our relationship aside, saying Nathan’s job or Isla was trivial was beyond insulting. I didn’t need to know anything else to know that Lillian Hunt didn’t know her son at all. Nor did she really want to.

“It’s done,” Lillian went on. “Our lawyers are already drawing up the case to present to the judge next week. And it’s Edward Carver, so you know it’s just a formality.”

“You’re really going to do it?” Carrick asked. “Force the girl into a conservatorship so she has no say in who cares for her? Nathan says she’s pretty smart. Enough to make her own decisions that way, or at least weigh in on them.”

“Please. Anyone who’s been living in a glorified loony bin for most of her life is in no state to be making decisions on her own behalf.”

I felt sick. Had Lillian even met Isla? She was different, to be sure, but hardly incapable. At the very least, she deserved to choose her own guardians. Have a say in the terms of her life.

“We’ve already been dealing with a caseworker,” Lillian went on. “I’ve been making monthly trips out to the center just to prove my dedication.”

“Have you actually seen the girl?”

“Bless your heart. The point is to demonstrate my dedication. Why would I need to see the little urchin for that?”

I listened to Lillian detail the other aspects of her case for guardianship. The bills she had accrued, paying without first talking to Nathan. The backhanded communication she’d established with Isla’s school without Nathan’s knowledge. Quickly, it became obvious that this wasn’t just a last-ditch effort to bring her son back into the family fold. Like a spider, Lillian Hunt had been spinning this web for years with the express purpose of trapping Nathan like a fly, all at the expense of Isla. At the expense of his entire life.

“Now, if we can just figure out how to get rid of his little tramp, everything will be as it should,” Lillian said. “Cheers, darling.”

I backed away from the door on my tiptoes, feeling sick but not wanting to alert them to my presence. My mind was spinning. What could I do?

Help. I needed help. And not just from Nathan. From someone who had been in a situation like this. Someone who had extricated himself from a devious family. Who knew how to beat them at their own game.

That’s when I knew who to call.

And as I turned to go back to my room, I had the inklings of a plan to free the love of my life for good. If only I could play things right.

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