“Tonight?!”
James screeches from across the table. We’re having lunch in our usual restaurant and I have just broken the news to him.
“This is ludicrous,” he gushes, stabbing his fork in the air. I wonder if he’s imagining stabbing Neal. “You’re not a mindless toy to be pushed around at his every whim…”
A headache blooms in the recesses of my cranium and I try massaging it away with my fingers. James rages on and on, his lunch completely forgotten.
“…no right to make such demands of you,” he fumes. His face is already tinted purple and he’s panting from exertion. “Please tell me you’re not leaving.”
I balk at him, “Why not?”
“Because this is the time your family needs you most.”
He is right. With Richard in detention, I need to support my parents physically and emotionally.
But…th
