Page 76 of The Promises We Break

Bobby stands a football field away, appraising us all. I reach out to shake his hand, and he tilts his chin at me, giving me the only acknowledgment he feels like I deserve.

The internal debate to punch his smug face crosses my mind. If it were Seamus, that’s probably what he would do, but I do recognize that he’s Ember’s older brother and I am giving him the benefit of the doubt that he’s just being protective of her and not controlling.

“Bobby…” Ember’s eye roll can be seen from space.

“Come on, let’s go say hi to my parents.” Ember grabs my hand and leads me further into the backyard. She’s taking charge, and I fucking love when she stands up for herself.

“Nice to meet you guys.”

As we walk toward her parents, they stiffen more, if that’s even possible. We’re here celebrating their thirty years of love and devotion, yet they don’t even look like they like each other, much less love each other.

There is always a distinct look of a politician. Ember’s father exudes this energy loud enough to be heard across the entire state of Missouri. It stiffens the air around us and blankets everything with complete revulsion. It matches the scowl on his face, which is so hard a divot appears between his brows deeper than a moon crater, and his jaw is as tight as a TSA guard. Jesus, forget liking each other; there is no love or happinessseeing his gorgeous, successful, driven daughter. It’s like he’s disgusted that she purely exists.

I always assumed Ember would look exactly like her mother, and they look alike, but different. Her platinum hair is harshly dyed and as dry as a tumbleweed. She holds herself like a queen in an all white jumpsuit, and her eyes are nothing like the jade gems I gaze into in Ember. Her confidence is a stark contrast to the moments when Ember is confident. Her mother’s comes with an extra large side of superiority and an excess of arrogance.

They don’t hug her or kiss her. They don’t even smile at her.

“Mom, Dad, this is Hudson. Hudson, these are my parents, Esther and Robert Riley.” Her voice is tight as she introduces me.

“You always introduce me first, young lady,” he scolds her immediately before turning to me.

“Good evening.” I’d say it’s great to meet you, but it’s not. Keeping that thought to myself, I hold my right hand out to Robert. He switches the grip on his drink into his shaking hand, and I stand similarly to how I stood with his mini me, Bobby Jr., blankly holding my hand out that he refuses to shake.

Esther reaches over and slides her hand into mine to take the focus off her husband. “It’s a few months too late to introduce yourself, don’t you think?” Esther replies as she quickly shakes my hand out of obligation, then lets it go.

“I understand what you must think, but I am very committed to your daughter,” I reply, with more truth than I can admit to Ember. I’d stayfakemarried to her for life, if that’s what she needed.

He completely ignores me, looking straight at Ember. “You said you needed some time away. You weren’t supposed to run off and ruin your life. You are done acting like a lovesickteenager, do you understand me? You are staying home, that’s final.”

“Dad,” Ember whispers, looking around.

Esther says nothing, just staring at Ember with laser focus, scolding her silently.

“How could you be so careless and stupid?” he replies. Calling her stupid eases off his tongue like it’s as automatic as breathing. Ember’s shoulders deflate and her gaze turns downward to her feet, like it typically does the moment she internally starts scolding herself, and I see exactly where this behavior comes from.

“Enough of this.” I pull Ember into me and step back, turning around and walking away from the pending nuclear bomb that the situation holds.

I glance back to Robert taking a sip of his drink and her mother smiling, checking her surroundings, making sure no one heard. Both act like nothing is wrong. When everything is fucking wrong.

How can they treat her with such disregard? They haven’t seen her in months and showed no excitement that she’s home.

When my gaze returns to Ember’s, her eyes are filled with tears that she fights to hold back. We turn the corner into a private, secluded area of the backyard. She is still gazing down, shamed, humiliated, and fucking broken.

I pull her chin up to look at me. A tear escapes, floating down her cheek, and I watch it trail away from her gorgeous emerald eyes. The ones I’ve seen light up with so much love and excitement for the new life she is building for herself, but are now extinguished of the brilliance they normally beam.

The anger I have felt since all of this has come to light is boiling over. It takes everything in me to refrain from stealing her away from here and never allowing her to look back.

“I just wish they would be more understanding. I wish the things that I did, the things I work so hard to accomplish,would make them proud.” Her voice breaks, like her shattered spirit, barely loud enough for me to hear her.

“Your mom didn’t say anything,” I state, factually but questionably.

“She doesn’t, she never does. Like I said, whatever my dad wants, she wants.” That irritates me. She literally has no one in her corner. Except maybe Benson, but it seems like no one really stands up to her parents.

“We don’t have to stay. We can do whatever you want,” I remind her.

“No, I need to stay. You can go. I can just Uber back to the hotel.”

Oh, fuck that.

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