Page 31 of Romancing His Heart

“Why am I an idiot?” Loki’s words have me pressing my ear to the door.

“How old were you when your father changed his last name to match you and your mother’s?”

His stepdad changed his name? What did he do? Take Loki’s mother’s name?

“I was five. He wanted to do it before I started school but had some pushback from his family.”

“Not just pushback, Loki. His family disowned him.”

“I never understood why he did it,” Loki mumbles so quietly I almost don’t hear him.

“You never understood?” Sylvie screeches, so unlike her customarily composed self. “Loki, he did it because the only thing that mattered was that the three of you were a family. He never wanted you to have to explain why you had a different name than your parents. He never wanted you to feel forced to discuss Black-hole until you were ready. He did it because he loved you and your mother more than anything else in this world.”

“He gave up his family name, his family money, everything he worked for.”

“Mostly,” Sylvie agrees. “But, Loki, did you grow up poor?”

“What? No, you know that. I had a great life.”

“Your father gave up a lot, but he left with his trust fund intact. He chose to use that to support you guys while he built his own empire, and I know for a fact, he would have done it a hundred times over. You, Loki, and your mom were all that mattered to that man.”

“I know he loved me, Sylvie. That was never the issue. He didn’t trust me to run his company. He was so sure I would cave to Antonio Black that he sold his company before either of us could get our hands on it. That was my legacy. He told me it was. We were supposed to run it together,” Loki roars.

“Do you know that your father hated his family company? He hated working there. He hated what the company stood for and how his family ran it. He worked there because it was what they expected of him.”

Loki is silent, so Sylvie continues.

“I remember the day your parents went to change the terms of their will because they went back and forth about it for months, wanting to do the right thing. They came to our house first and dropped you off to play with the boys. You were about eleven at the time, and they were still wondering if they were making the right choice. Do you remember what you were doing when you were eleven, Loki?”

“Probably getting into trouble with Preston or one of the other boys,” Loki grumbles.

“Sometimes, yes.” Sylvie laughs. “But when you were eleven, you decided you were going to be a surgeon. Do you remember that? You would spend hours in my library with Ashton. You read every medical journal I could get into your hands while Ash plugged away building computers out of random pieces.”

Picturing Loki, as a pre-teen tucked away in a library, makes my chest warm.

I bet he was a cute nerd.

“We spent hours in there,” Ashton whispers, scaring the shit out of me again. “What did I miss?”

“Shh,” I hiss.Great, he made me miss Loki’s response.

“You told your parents that you were going to be a doctor. By the time you were thirteen, you had read more medical journals than most students during their residencies. John believed in you, Loki. He didn’t want anything to keep you from your dreams, not even him. They didn’t sell their company because they didn’t trust you … they sold their company because they had trustinyou. They believed in you so much that if something happened to them, they wanted you to be free to choose your own path.”

“They wouldn’t have approved of the path I chose,” Loki says so quietly I barely make it out through the door.

“Oh, Loki. I can’t say what they would or wouldn’t have approved of. But your mother was my best friend, and she knew you would face tough choices because of her actions. She never once regretted having you. You were the love of her life, but she did regret the life she brought you into. I believe she and John would have understood. I also know they would be proud of you. But I have to ask, Loki, what now? How long can you live like this?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“I think now is the time for you to make some hard choices, and when you do, for once, put yourself first.”

“I don’t think this is over, Sylvie. I can’t shake the feeling that someone is coming for me, or for something, but I don’t know what. I’ve survived on instinct because my instincts have never been wrong. I don’t know where I’ll be after this is over, but that’s the thing. It’s not over. It’s my job to protect you all because it’s my fault you were ever in danger.”

“Bullshit,” Sylvie spits.

Ashton gasps beside me. “I’m not sure I’ve ever heard my mother swear before,” he says in awe.

“It’s true,” Loki screams. “If it weren’t for me, Trevor could have had a normal childhood. Black would never have met his father if he hadn’t been coming here for me. My parents would still be alive if I hadn’t begged to come home early that summer, and none of the Westbrooks would be living with security that rivals the president if it weren’t for me.”