“This is not your home. It never was.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I don’t think you really want to know what I’m thinking right now.”
“Seth…”
“Go away, Rowan. And please respect my decision just this once, and don’t come back.”
Seth shuts the door in my face, and all I have to do is accept my fate and return to my apartment, but just as I’m about to leave the landing, the door opens again.
“Emily?”
“Uncle Seth cries, locked in the bathroom.”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart, you don’t know how sorry I am.”
“Uncle Seth cried last night, too. All night long.”
I don’t know what to say except that I’m sorry, but I don’t think it makes any difference how many times I say it.
“I don’t want to hear him cry.”
“I don’t… I don’t know what to…”
“Do something. Please do something.”
“I’m trying.”
Logan and Mason appear in the doorway behind Emily’s back. Their hard looks tell me everything I need to hear.
“Try harder,” Mason tells me before calling his sister back inside.
“Logan,” I try, not even knowing what to add.
“It was never fiction to him. Not even for a moment. And for you?” He asks, not waiting for my answer. He goes back inside and closes the door, leaving me on their landing with an answer I’m not sure I’m ready to hear.
“GOOD MORNING, SETH. Good morning, guys,” I greet everyone in the corridors of the court.
“Hi, Uncle Rowan,” Emily says, hugging me briefly. She is the only one to respond to my greeting.
“How are you feeling?” I ask Seth.
He’s wearing a blue suit with a white shirt and a blue tie. He’s damn handsome, his hair a bit messy and the face of someone who hasn’t slept all night. I wish I could hold him and give him all the support he needs, tell him I’m there, one hundred percent, and that I’ll be with him no matter what, but I guess it’s too late for me now.
I have to let this family go their own way. Without me.
I was never part of it. Not even pretending to be. And I never will be.
“I’ve been better.”
I give him a weak smile, then signal for him to take his seat in the courtroom. Before he leaves with the kids, I take his hand to spend a few seconds with him.
“I just wanted to tell you that whatever happens, I am prepared to fight to the end, to appeal if necessary, but I swear I will find a way for the kids to stay with you.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“What do you mean?”
