Page 50 of Vexatious Queen

“No, Theo…please don’t do that.”

“We’ll talk about it after we get you cleaned up. Okay?”

He nodded.

Liam was right. There was no way I could leave. My parents had always been there for me, for anything and everything, and as much as I wanted Harvard…it wasn’t as important as my family.

“You ready?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Dad gasped when Liam and I stood up.

“Theo.”

I glanced at Liam, and he held out his hand. His fingers were bright red with blood. Shit.

We took it slowly and got Dad into the bathroom and sitting on the edge of the tub. As soon as he shrugged out of the thick, maroon robe, it was easy to see that the bandage covering the incision site was soaked.

“Dad, you’re bleeding.”

He looked down and shrugged.

“I’ll be fine.”

“Yes, you will, because Liam is calling an ambulance to take you to the hospital.”

Liam left and closed the door.

“I don’t want to go to the hospital,” Dad said as tears filled his eyes.

“I know you don’t. But Blake and I can’t lose you, too.”

He lifted his head, and our eyes met.

“We need you. Lip needs you.”

God, I hated to see my dad like this. He’d always been so strong and confident.

“Okay,” he finally said. “Okay, I’ll go.”

“Good, now let’s get you cleaned up and into something comfortable.”

I turned on the water and went to grab a washcloth, but he caught my wrist and stopped me.

The agony in his stare hurt worse than any punch I’d ever received.

“No son should see their father like this, but…thank you. I…I love you.”

His hand fell away from my arm, and he stared into the water at his feet like he wanted it to swallow him.

I’d accepted that life wasn’t fair, but this…this was unjust in the cruelest fashion because there was nothing that I could do to make any of this better.

Mom was gone, she was never coming back, and even if my dad healed physically, I wasn’t sure he’d ever recover emotionally. Mom was the glue that held us together, and I didn’t know how to step into that role.

“We’re going to get through this,” I said, praying that I wasn’t feeding both my dad and Blake a lie, because I’d never been more unsure in my whole life.

5:30 AM