Chapter 92 APOLOGIES
GALLAHAN’S POV
Willa herded Gillian into the adjoined kitchen and dining area without waiting for a response from anyone. I trailed behind them, shifting Calisto in my arms so he could settle against my hip comfortably.
Wordlessly, Gillian clambered onto a chair by herself, and once she was properly seated, she made it a point to burn holes on the dining table table with her intense little stare.
“Any particular request?” Willa asked, heading straight to the kitchen and opening up the fridge and her humble pantry for something to feed us all.
But as I was about to put down Calisto on the chair next to his sister, he began to whine, “But I already ate with Memaw and Pepaw! I just want to play now. Can I? Please? With Daddy?”
Willa and I exchanged glances, and I shot her a furtive nod as if to say ‘I’ll handle it.’
She seemed to understand this, so she gave me a nod before returning to her task of preparing a quick but healthy breakfast for us.
“Daddy,” Calisto said, tugging at the front of my top. “Can we just skip breakfast with Mommy and Gil?”
I set him down on the chair, exactly as I had intended moments before Calisto had made his request known.
Thankfully, he didn’t fuss much about it, but he was pouting, and his eyes were starting to glisten with tears.
So I quickly knelt down before him, taking his hands in mine. “Sorry, bud. I know you want to play, but I want us to eat together as a family.”
“But I don’t want to eat!”
“Hm, and what did you eat with your Memaw and Pepaw?” I asked with a lifted brow.
He averted his gaze, looking at the edge of the table rather than meeting my eyes.
“Cal, what did you eat with your Memaw and Pepaw?” I repeated, injecting a tone of sternness into my voice.
“Just a cookie,” he quietly admitted as he finally dared to make eye contact.
“That’s not enough for breakfast, buddy,” I said, taking on a kinder lilt now. “You have to fill your tummy with something good and healthy. In that way, you will have the energy to play lots and lots with me. See how I’m so big and so strong?”
I made a show to flex my arms to prove my point, making Calisto’s eyes twinkle in wonder. “It’s because Daddy always eats right. So do you want to become big and strong like me? Do you want your wolf to be fast and really tough too?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you have to eat right, buddy.”
“Eating… Eating also makes you smart,” Gillian chimed in softly, her voice slightly trembling with hesitation.
It was an olive branch. Not just for Calisto, but for me as well, and it made my breath hitch in my throat.
Affection swelled inside my chest, and I could feel my cheeks bunching up with how my lips had stretched into a wide smile.
“That’s right, and-”
“Daddy is talking to me, Gil. Not to you,” Calisto snapped irately.
A clattering of cutlery rang from the kitchen. Willa must’ve dropped a spoon or a knife, but I didn’t have a second to spare her when I had every intention to set Calisto right. Immediately.
This was the second time he had been rude to his twin, and I wouldn’t let it go unchecked. His remark about Willa during the ‘big fight’ would also have to be straightened out.
“Calisto,” I said in a reprimanding tone. “That’s not nice. You haven’t been nice to your sister at all. That’s not you, Cal. I know it isn’t. I’m sure your Mommy has taught you better than this.”
Calisto looked at me as if I had betrayed him. I almost felt guilty about it. Almost.
“She’s not my sister. She said it herself! She said I’m not her brother anymore!”
“Hey,” I said, meeting his gaze head on.
I knew Willa was watching the entire thing go down like a hawk. So I couldn’t make a blunder in parenting our son right now. I didn’t really even care how I would sound and seem like a pure hypocrite for what I was about to say.
“Your hurt does not give you a free pass to be mean, Cal. Especially to your own family.”
My voice had come out firm, but it ended up being drowned by Gillian’s as she loudly and defensively piped in, “You made Mommy cry, Cal! And I hated you for it.”
Calisto turned his head so quickly that I worried for a split second that his neck must’ve gotten strained by it. Then, as he shot Gillian with his angry glare, he retorted, “You said mean things about Daddy too!”
“I didn’t!” Gillian denied in a scream. “I just said he’s not coming back!”
Calisto made a sound in his throat, something akin to a furious little growl. “You also said he didn’t love us!”
That was a punch in the gut, and it nearly left me winded and unable to find my voice.
“Alright. That’s enough,” I said, hoping to cut through their shouting match by slightly raising my voice too.
But my attempt fell in vain.
Gillian, who was red in the face now, screamed, “Because he was gone! And I knew you cried about it at night!”
This came as a slap to my face, and it seemed like it was the same for Calisto, who was rendered speechless, looking as if he didn’t know Gillian had this bit of information about him.
I chanced a glance at Willa, and her face told me exactly what I had expected. She didn’t know either.
Meanwhile, Gillian took the chance to say her piece. So she added, “And, and, I wanted him back. I really did. But… but he was gone for so long. He wasn’t here before we got sick either! How would I know he loves us? It’s Mommy who’s always with us, but you made her cry. You were very mean!”
“Because… Because I was angry,” Calisto rebutted, but there was an obvious lack of bite in his tone now. Instead, his voice was heavily laced with guilt and sadness. “And I didn’t want to believe you were right. I wanted… I want us to be complete. And I felt angry. I thought you didn’t want the same.”
“Idiot,” Gillian insulted, but it rang with affection.
“Hey!”
“I missed you, Cal.”
Calisto’s bottom lip quivered, and his tears finally slid down his red, plump cheeks. “I’m sorry. I miss you too, Gil. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to be bad. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Mommy. I, I’m sorry. I love Mommy and Gil and-”
A loud hiccup and a choked out sob broke off his string of apologies.
Then, in a heartbeat, Willa had swept into the scene. She stood behind Gillian and Calisto, leaning down and gathering them in a badly-positioned hug.
“I forgive you, Cal. I know big emotions are hard to handle sometimes. I understand,” Willa murmured against the crown of Calisto’s head. “We’ll just be better next time, yeah? Mommy loves the two of you so much.”
Calisto tearfully nodded, his flushed face glistening with tears and a bit of snot. “I love you, Mommy.”
“I love you too, Cal. You and Gillian.”
This pulled another batch of tears from Calisto’s eyes, and Willa was quick to hush him with sweet words of assurances.
Meanwhile, I remained quiet on the sideline, fully content in ingraining the image of my pups and my mate together.
After a while, once the maelstrom of Gillian’s and Calisto’s emotions ebbed away, I asked, “So are we okay now?”
Calisto immediately nodded, but Gillian said, “No. Not yet, Daddy. Uncle William said you’re a bad man.”