Chapter 13 Complicated
Lydia sucked in a breath through her teeth, mulling over how to answer that.
Technically, yes. Neither of them had called it off or said they weren’t going to date any longer, but they hadn’t been on a date since before she left for Chicago. Early summer was weird for the Aegis Knights. It was the best time for Ken to go back to Sapporo and see his family before the summer skill clinics with the Fortuna Centurions started. Before that had been finals, her junior year capstone project for her portfolio, and the mess of his own classes.
Besides the lack of time, he’d been pulling away more and more. Now that they were both back on the island, she’d planned to invite him out on a date.
The flash of irritation that had crossed his face during their last conversation made her flinch, and her stomach churned. It hadn’t lasted long. He hadn’t said anything, but she’d heard and felt the door slam in her face.
She’d been gearing up to finish that conversation within the week.
“Complicated?” Her grandpa leaned toward the camera, narrowing his eyes. “That boy giving you trouble?”
She chuckled. “Nothing more than usual. Things are just… complicated right now.” Lydia shook her head and lifted the box into her arms. “I’ll figure it out, and yeah, probably. Thanks for the gifts. It will all be put to use.”
“We left the gift receipts in there for the art supplies, in case it’s not the right stuff.” Her mom laughed. “But efforts were made!”
She chuckled. “I’ll use every bit of it. I promise. Thanks, Mom, Grandpa. You’re the best. How are things otherwise?”
Her mom settled at the table and sighed.
Her grandpa nudged her. “Go on.”
Lydia swallowed. “What is it?”
Her mom shifted and rearranged her books.
“Mom.”
Her lips twitched.
“Mom…”
Mom huffed. “You were always impatient.”
“Time is money, as grandpa would say.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “She’s got you there.”
Her mom glowered at the camera. “I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but I’m your mother, so I have to tell you.”
Lydia’s stomach jolted. “Tell me what?”
She drew in a deep breath. “It’s… about your father.”
Lydia set her jaw. Because of course, today had to get worse. What the hell did her ex want?
“He sent you some of that money he owes you?”
“No.”
“Chipped in for Quillan’s retainer?”
She sighed, and her shoulders slumped.
“Then, you’re right, I’d rather not know.”
She’d rather never hear about that deadbeat fucker who left her mother in Chicago alone with two of his children to fuck off to the land of filial piety. Weak. Pathetic. Absent. That man had gotten married years ago and had the nerve to send them a card with his perfect little, Wasian family at the altar.
Lydia had burned it, and Quillan had been furious for weeks after it had arrived. She’d never forget the hurt on her mother’s face that day. She’d never forgive him for causing her mother that kind of pain when he had already wrecked her life.
She had wished him all sorts of petty inconveniences over the years. Every time money came up short, knowing he had the money to ensure they had a more comfortable life, she’d hoped his debit and credit card suddenly stopped working and embarrassed him, or he was passed over for promotion for the more competent woman or man of any other race in his office.
She’d stopped looking at his social media out of self-preservation or the rage would have eaten her alive lng before Quillan had been sent to jail.
“He’s going to be at Aegis soon.”
Lydia clenched her phone so tight the case creaked. Of all the thing she thought she would hear today, that wasn’t on the list.
“What? More importantly when and why?”
“Your younger brother—“
“Stepbrother,” she corrected, hating even having to say it, hating to acknowledge that he and his sister existed, given how her and Quillan had lived all these years.
They didn’t know she and Quillan existed, but she and Quillan had carried the knowledge that their father enjoyed being their father and would never acknowledge them.
Her mom nodded. “He got into the Robotics and Engineering Camp at Aegis.”
She scoffed. “There’s no getting into the camps, Mom. You either pay for it, or you don’t.”
A fact that anyone who didn’t too much care about the details would miss and probably ignore.
“Be that as it may. They’re going to be on the island. It’s like a four-week camp, and they’re staying at the Resort.”
She blew out. “Blessings in disguise.”
Her grandpa snickered. “He really wants to go to Aegis. Got his heart set on it, apparently.”
Not surprising. Aegis wasn’t Ivy League for some reason, but they were always neck and neck in performance with them and had been since they were established. They had a full blind admissions process. There were a few legacies, she was sure, but the campus wasn’t full of them like other universities, and the legacies showed exactly why they attended at every opportunity.
“I thought that it all might give you a bit of a boost if you had to see them,” her mom said. “He doesn’t know, as far as I know, that you’re there, so it’ll be a nice slap in the face, and… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to meet your brother?”
Lydia purse her lips. “Are you advising me on the basis of karma or is this your desire for me to have some relationship with him?”
Mom grimaced. “I don’t think it’s a bad desire to have. For everything he’s done to me, he is still your father. Your issues have to be separate.”
Lydia stared at her mom, trying to understand what her aim was with this. When she came up with nothing but her mom’s gentle heart wanting her to have some semblance of a connection to her father, she forced her expression into a smooth calmness.
“I respectfully disagree and would like to exit this conversation.”
She groaned. “Lydia, I… I just…” She shook her head. “He’s not—well, honestly, I…” She hung her head and rubbed her forehead. “Why is this so hard?”
“Because you’re trying to be gentle about it, and there’s no way to be gentle about this.” Her grandpa pat her mom on the back. “Just tell her the rest, dear.”
Another long, withering sigh twisted Lydia’s stomach into knots.
“He reached out to me… asking about you.”
Lydia narrowed her eyes. “When?”
“Recently.”
“How recently, Mom?”
She grimaced. “Today.”
Fucker.
“And Quillan?”
Her mother’s long silence told her enough.
“Did he ask about Quillan?”
Had he even gone to visit? Sent a fucking letter? Put money on his commissary?
“Just you, dear.”
Of course he did, the bastard.
“And I hope you told him where he could stick his questions?”
Her grandfather snickered. Her mom glowered at him.
“You are not helping, Dad.”
“Didn’t say I was going to.”
Her mother turned back. “He mentioned…”