Page 60 of Little Pieces of Light

The kitchen was on the opposite side of the foyer from the study, and the study door was closed.

I could hear voices on the other side. The clink of cocktail glasses.

I wondered what my father had told the Harringtons about my whereabouts but decided it didn’t matter.

Nothing he thought would matter ever again.

What I did not count on was for Colin to be posted at the front door.

I’d started up the stairs when I heard his deep voice behind me. “Miss Emery.”

I froze and turned. I had never really considered Colin, who was Dad’s bodyguard as much as his driver, a threat until now. He was in his mid-forties and stood over six feet tall. His steel blue eyes bored into mine.

“I’m just grabbing something that belongs to me.”

“I’ll just have to check with your father.” Colin didn’t take his gaze off me. “ Mr. Wallace ,” he called in a deep, commanding tone.

My father emerged from the study. He saw me and quickly closed the door behind him. “Have you come to your senses, then?”

“I’m just getting something that belongs to me, and then you’ll never see me again.”

“That is not how this works. You’re either here or you’re not.” Dad gave a nod. “Colin.”

Colin strode toward me, and for a second, I was torn between running up the stairs or running back the way I’d come. My hesitation gave Colin an opening. He clamped a hand on my arm, his grip like a vise.

“Let go of me!” I shouted. “Let…go!”

Suddenly, Xander was there, prying Colin’s fingers off my arm and giving him a rough shove backward, making him stumble. Then Xander moved to stand between us and spoke in a low, dangerous tone that I’d never heard before. “Touch my wife again and I’ll break your fingers.”

My wife…

Xander crossed his arms, his feet planted firmly in place at the bottom of the stairs, like a sentry standing guard. Without looking at me, he said, “Go get your dress.”

“Don’t move, Emery, or I’ll have him arrested,” Grayson said. “I’ll have Calloway sue you for defamation. For trying to blame his son for your degenerate friend’s drug overdose.”

Xander tensed but said nothing.

“Do you hear me, boy? Get out of my house. Colin?”

Colin lunged forward, gripping Xander by the jacket with both hands.

“No! Stop it!” I tried to push between them. “Don’t touch him!”

The study door opened. “Grayson? What on earth…?”

My mother and the Harringtons poured out of the study. Upon seeing them, Xander froze. He broke away from Colin with a hard jolt and stared, the blood draining from his face.

Mrs. Harrington stared back, white as a sheet. The entire room stilled as the very air seemed to tense and crackle.

Xander took a shaking breath. “Mom?”

I gasped. Shar Harrington was wearing the exact same expression on her face as Xander. Her son. I could see the resemblance now—most notably in her rich brown eyes that matched Xander’s left.

“Mom?” Xander said again, his brows furrowed as if he were trying to work out the solution to a problem that had plagued him his entire life.

Charles looked between them, studying the resemblance. “Shar?”

She stared a moment more, then shook her head. “I-I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

“What is going on here?” Grayson demanded.

“N-nothing,” Mrs. Harrington stammered. “There’s been a mistake.”

“A mistake,” Xander repeated, his jaw working.

Colton narrowed his eyes. “Why is this guy saying you’re his mother?”

“Because she is,” Xander said. “Shar, now? It was Sharon. Sharon Ford.”

Mrs. Harrington scoffed. “I don’t know what this is about, but I will not stand for it another minute.” She gave Xander a final, lingering glance and then strode out the door.

Charles Harrington turned on my father. “I don’t know what kind of madhouse you’re running here, Grayson, but this is unacceptable. Come on, Colton.”

Colton gave us a parting sneer, and then they were gone.

Xander stared after her—his mother, after all this time—and my heart broke.

“Go to her,” I whispered to him from the step behind. “Talk to her and…and get some answers.”

Xander inhaled and let it out slowly. “No. I’m not leaving you.” He glanced from my dad to Colin. “I’m not leaving you with them ever again.”

“But, Xander…”

“Emery.” He turned, his expression a mix of heartbreak and love. “Go get your dress. I’ll be right here.”

Tears flooded my eyes for the hundredth time that night. I ran up the stairs to my room and grabbed my dress that was still on the bed on its hanger. Then I ran to Grant’s room and plucked A Prayer for Owen Meany from his bookshelf and hugged it to my chest.

“Come on, Grant,” I whispered. “We’re getting out of here.”

Leaving his door wide open, I ran back down the stairs.

No one had moved. Colin seemed to be waiting for orders. Grayson gaped at the open front door. My mother smiled at me, and I hugged her as best I could with my dress tucked under my arm.

“It’s not too late,” I whispered. “It’s never too late.”

“Maybe. Someday,” she said. “Go.”

Then I took Xander’s hand, and we walked past my father out the front door.