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Are you mad at me? Is there anything I can do to help? Or do you want to be left alone for now?

I give it a second, read it and think about anything else I should be asking, and decide there’s nothing for now. Doing my best not to disturb him, I slide the phone over to him and just wait until he sees it. I’ve got nowhere to be after all.

It takes him a few minutes, but when he opens his eyes, he looks down at the table right away. I watch his face closely as he breathes out more easily and his frown starts to disappear as he reads. Just a little at least.

He grabs my phone and types, then slides it back when he’s done, all without looking at me.

I’m not mad, but I’d like to go home please.

My heart feels like it shrivels up and dies while also melting.

The “please” is what breaks me and it brings back the fury from all that stupid shit the grave robber said. I might sic Wolf on that asshole.

He’d deserve it for sure.

I nod at Liam to show him I’m doing what he wants, then call the waiter over and ask him to get us our lasagnas to go as well as the check so I can pay.

It’s only ten more minutes until I have the bag of food on my forearm while I order us a car and lead Liam out the door. I hold on to his shoulder so he doesn’t even need to open his eyes if he doesn’t want to.

When the big SUV stops right in front of us, I get Liam situated in no time, then nod at the driver when I climb in as well.

I’m thankful that the address to their building was still saved on my app from when the Trents invited me over to dinner, because that means I don’t have to disturb Liam at all.

It’s half an hour of silence on the way uptown, and Liam’s face has smoothed over by the time I open the door for him and we walk into the building.

The doorman smiles softly at us, though Liam doesn’t see it, his eyes focused firmly on his feet.

There’s an elevator waiting in the lobby, and that’s when I know I’ll have to ask Liam what floor he lives on, but he presses the twenty-third floor, which is where I went to dinner...

Didn’t he tell me he lives a couple of floors below them?

“I need to tell Dad everything that just happened,” he mutters without looking at me.

He doesn’t take off his earbuds until we’re standing in front of the same door I knocked on all those days ago, and only once they’re back in their case and he lets out a big breath does he put the code into the keypad and open the door.

I walk a couple of steps behind him, unsure of what to do, what to say, if I should stay...

We find Liam’s whole family sitting around the table, clearly waiting for dinner to be done by the state of the table and the scents flowing around the room. They all turn to us, seemingly in sync, and Liam opens his mouth but... nothing comes out. He just stares.

The twitch in his left hand draws my eyes down, and I have a feeling he wants to take his earbuds out again.

But he resists, and for some reason that realization has me stepping up again and butting in, uninvited a-fucking-gain. But I don’t care about the consequences. I’m not willing to leave Liam to his own defenses, even in front of his whole family.

“There was a situation at the restaurant,” I start off, before taking a deep breath and looking directly at Ed, who sucks in a sharp breath at the same time as Sam.

Liam said he needed to talk to his dad, so that is who I’m going to tell this to.

“A man Liam called Dirk approached us and... yeah,” I finish lamely.

Then even more like a blockhead, I lift the bag with the takeout and place it on the table between London and Logan.

Sam stands slowly, her worried gaze not moving from Liam, but I see she’s holding in her anger when she speaks through gritted teeth.

“Kids, go to Liam’s apartment.” The three of them start to protest instantly, but she only snaps a quiet, “Now,” and they all stop and do as she says.

Her eyes soften when they once more collide with Liam.

“You too, honey,” she whispers as the footsteps of Liam’s siblings sound further and further away, until the click of the door closing brings Liam back to life it seems.

“I think I should stay.” He speaks evenly and there’s no trepidation in his words at all. “Whatever you’re going to ask, whatever Carter tells you isn’t something I have to be shielded from. And he didn’t do anything wrong,” he adds, speaking with a new desperation.

Sam just stares at him for a long moment before she nods and sits back down.

“Put one of your earbuds on in case you need them,” she murmurs and holds out her hand over the table.

He sits right in front of her and takes her hand, then just like his siblings, follows her order.

“Please tell us what happened.” Ed finally speaks, and he’s looking at me. I stand straight and don’t move as I try to tell them word for word what went down.

When I’m done, there’s barely a fraction of a second of complete silence before Sam shoots up with such force that her chair topples back and makes a racket as it falls on the hardwood floor.

Liam hurries to put on the remaining headphone just in time for her to let it rip .

“That two-timing son of a bitch!” she screams. “He’s a fucking wannabe, and who the fuck knows whose ass he had to kiss or which cock he had to suck to get invited to the Mayor’s Ball. He’s a slimy insect that we should’ve dealt with years ago.”

My eyes open wider the longer she rants, pacing up and down the room, and then she points almost accusingly at Ed. She keeps going before Liam’s dad has any chance to say anything .

“Now Liam has to act , which he can’t. And Carter has to act too, which he shouldn’t have to.

We should’ve protected him better, Ed. I fucking told you this little fucking cockroach passing off as a human being wasn’t going away.

I fucking told you—” A sob cuts her off and she falls back into the chair next to Liam’s, right between the two men.

Ed stands, then crouches next to her and hugs her hard against his chest while she cries—not sad, but beyond enraged.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.

Sorry that they have to go through this, even though I can still barely understand how the man I met could be in any way connected to them.

I’m not sorry about what I did; it wasn’t wrong.

Even though my actions have probably created more complications for the Trents, I can’t regret making that grave robbing dick feel an ounce of shame. The things he said were awful.

No one should ever be allowed to speak to Liam like that, and even though I never got to have that frank talk about becoming friends with him—and I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to talk about way more important shit before this ball—I know that if I have anything to say about it, no one ever will again.