Page 40 of Titus

“Why are our children playing in the water like orphans, fully dressed?” he asked my mother in a resolute tone.

“Because they’re children,” she answered him, her usual annoyance evident. “Why are you here?”

My father looked at me. “You and your brothers will be leaving for England at the end of the week,” he said. He then looked at my mother. “All of this running away for the summers will cease. Our boys are going to receive proper education, structure, and discipline.”

My chest tightened. I always knew this day was coming, but I didn’t think it would come this fast.

My mother sighed, “We talked about this, and we both agreed that after next summer we will place them in those schools.”

He ignored her. “What is expected of them requires more than nonsensical adventures,” he added. “If we are to continue the empire I’m building for this family, they need to understand that life is not filled with games and light-hearted pastimes.”

My mother stayed silent and didn’t argue with him because she, too, knew the fallout of challenging the man.

The sound of the ocean carried behind me, steady and endless. As I stood there listening, I felt something shift into place inside me, something I wouldn’t fully understand until years later. I glanced once more at my mom’s saddened expression, summer cut short, and then the image of her dissolved into nothing.

My eyes snapped open, and I exhaled, releasing the feelings from the dream of my past. I sat up in bed, trying to find my bearings, as I hadn’t dreamed of my parents in years.

Hell, I hadn’t dreamed of being that little boy—wild and carefree during our summers on the Mediterranean—in decades. I knew the dream had to have come because I brought Cat into that room I rarely visited. In fact, I only revisited the memories that hung on those walls and the journals my mom had written when I needed to regain my composure and ground myself in business.

My mouth was parched, and I needed water. As I walked through the house, my mind drifted back to Cat being with me tonight. Her personality was so much like my mother’s, but there was more strength behind her eyes and in her presence.

Where my father took years to break my mother down through abuse and mold her into the obedient woman she’d become with him, I couldn’t see how a man could ever break down Catalina’s walls, and I greatly admired that strength in her.

Even more so now, after that dream had brought back memories of my father controlling our family with an iron fist and my mom allowing it. It’s not that I was upset about it, though. I was the man I am today because of it.

It’s also why Catalina could be dangerous if I found myself admiring more than her strength. Any emotion of love or admiration for any woman was one I knew I couldn’t control, and that was something I could never risk happening to me.

I downed a glass of water, knowing I’d sleep soundly for the rest of the evening. If anything, that dream was a reminder that I could not allow the multiple emotions that had taken place tonight with Cat in my presence to happen again while I used her to get to Jameston.

A week had passed since I walked Catalina out of my home and watched her leave with far more control than I’d intended to allow. And somehow, everything since had been just slightly off.

For the first couple of days, I’d chalked it up to that dream I’d had about my parents, but after a week, the feeling still hadn’t gone away. It was like a damn itch I couldn't scratch. Whatever it was, I kept it buried well enough that no one around me noticed, and business continued as usual.

This meeting in New York should have held my full attention. It was a multi-billion-dollar acquisition, with three firms competing for position, and a room filled with men who built their reputations on not being the first to blink.

Normally, I would’ve enjoyed it, controlled it, and closed it. Instead, I found myself watching one of the men speak, and while he was mid-sentence, I realized I hadn’t heard a damn word he’d said.

Fucking annoying.

I shifted slightly in my chair, steepling my fingers as I refocused on the discussion, forcing my attention back to where it belonged. I had a feeling that if Colton and Wyatt were with me, they’d see right through this bullshit, so thank God they weren’t.

I needed to stay focused and handle the numbers, the strategy, and the outcome—because that’s what mattered. That’s what always fucking mattered in my life. And yet, like a damn intrusion, my mind drifted back to her again.

The way she stood in that room, as if she didn’t need anything from me. The way she refused to let the conversation bend, no matter how many times I tried to redirect it. The way she walked out of my house without asking what I was offering her.

Most women—or men, for that matter—would’ve waited. Pressed. Or positioned themselves for the outcome. She didn’t. Instead, she acted uninterested in everything I had to say, then left.

And that alone had shifted the entire dynamic between what she meant to me and my business.

The meetings ended, and I signed the final document without hesitation, sliding it back across the table as the room fell into quiet approval. The deal was done, and even though I was half aware of how I pulled it off, I knew it would all have been finalized the way I wanted. It always was.

“Congratulations, Mr. Hawk,” one of the men said, extending his hand.

I shook it without a second thought, “Pleasure doing business.”

It wasn’t. Business was predictable. This? The thoughts of Catalina, now plaguing my mind? That wasn’t predictable, and I didn’t like it.

By the time I stepped out of the building, the late-afternoon air in Manhattan was sharp, cutting through the city’s noise in a way that usually grounded me. Today, it didn’t. My driver had the car waiting, and after a nod of acknowledgment, I slid into the back seat, loosening my tie slightly as the door closed behind me.