Page 70 of One Quick Obsession

I raised a brow. “And?”

“You’ve never brought a woman before. Ever. To any family function. Let alone the final Cage forced dinner.”

“It’s a step.” James nodded tightly. “A big step.”

“You guys have been working together for so long that you’re starting to sound like twins who finish each other’s sentences. It’s a little weird.” I shook my head. “And everybody here knows Scarlett. Of course I was going to bring her. I don’t want her to be alone.”

Worry washed over James’s face as Flynn let out a deep breath.

“He’s behind bars?” Flynn asked softly.

“Yes. And will be for a long while. I think this was the final straw in terms of the legal shit.” I gritted my teeth. “At least it better be.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t rough him up a bit,” Flynn said after a moment.

My hand squeezed on my beer bottle, and I forced myself to relax. “I did. A little. But Scarlett needed me more.”

Flynn whistled through his teeth. “Noted.”

“No. Nothing to noted. We’re just… I don’t know. I have no idea what the fuck I’m doing, okay?”

“Do you love her?” James asked, and I cursed under my breath, looking around in case anybody had heard.

“We’re not… I don’t know. That seems like a big…” I wave my hands around. “thing. Let’s just have this dinner, read the ridiculous next step of the will, and go home.”

“Whatever you say,” Flynn drawled out, and I shoved at his shoulder, before stomping towards Aston.

“Can we get this part done?” I asked, interrupting Aston and Kyler’s conversation.

The fact that Kyler had even been able to take time off his tour to be here, spoke volumes. We all wanted this will to be done. Having our father hovering over us for any period of time was our own circle of hell.

“Sure. We can make that happen.”

Aston cleared his throat, and just like that, the noise in the room lowered.

All twelve siblings, the spouses, and even the kids quieted to a murmur.

Constance held Ford’s son in her arms, while the twins played at her feet, and yet, everybody’s attention was still on Aston.

“I have the final paperwork here,” Aston said after a moment, staring down at the envelope in front of him. Blakely moved to him, her hand on the round of her stomach as she came to lean against her husband.

“The lawyer didn’t need to be here?” Theo asked from his seat on one of the couches next to Emily and Phoebe. Phoebe’s husband stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders.

Dorian and Harper sat on the love seat next to them as others began to mill about. Cale came forward and stood next to his wife, an odd expression on his face I couldn’t read.

This whole thing was a farce, and a weird fucking way to begin a dinner, but that was our father, making everything far more complicated than it needed to be.

I looked around the room once more and took a few steps to the right to be near Scarlett. She slid her hand into mine, and I didn’t miss the fact that others had seen. I squeezed her hand and waited for Aston to continue.

“No lawyer. This is just us. He knows we’re all here. We’ll do the photo just to annoy the fuck out of him like always.” His lips twitched as everybody gave an awkward laugh. “I know the kids are in here, so I’ll try to keep my language a little tamer.” Aston winced. “Our father was not a good man. We all know that. He made his decisions, ones that we didn’t have a say in.”

I risked a glance over at Constance as she swayed with Wyatt in her arms, but her face was blank.

Maybe she didn’t have the same say in her circumstances as our mother had. I didn’t know her, but I had a feeling with the gravity of my father’s presence, and the way my mother could manipulate, perhaps Constance hadn’t had a choice in the way that we had all thought.

Though I didn’t know why that idea had just come to me in that moment.

She met my gaze, gave me a sad smile, and then slowly began to take the kids out of the room.