Page 18 of Tender
“Where is he?”
Rolling her eyes, Selene snorted and shrugged. “Fuck knows. We had a big fight thanks to you blowing my goddamn cover and took all his shit and left. Not that he has anywhere to go—he’s an orphan and his one rich friend barely has anything to do with him. He’s probably at a shelter or some shit.”
Cosimo felt his heart hit his feet. “Why? Why did you do this to him?”
“Why not? He’s fucking useless. I mean, obviously not,” she added with a laugh. “He’s good for some things. But seriously, why does he have the nerve to care what I do in my free time? He should be grateful I’ve given him all this. You should have seen the place he was living. It was fucking disgusting.”
Cosimo looked at Emmett who was seething. He’d never seen his husband look so angry before. He was usually the one with the temper, but for whatever reason, he knew he was the most even one in that moment.
He had to speak before Emmett did.
“You’re abusing him.”
“Oh my god, you’re so dramatic?—”
“Until you get help, Selene,” he said slowly, signing along so she couldn’t use any excuse to claim she didn’t understand what he was saying, “we’re done.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“It means we’re done,” Cosimo said. He looked to Emmett who just nodded. “No more credit cards. No more rent. No more car payment.”
Her eyes widened, then she rolled them again. “Yeah, right.”
“You’re welcome to not believe us, but this is your one warning that you’d better figure out your payments because whatever’s in your account now, that’s it.” He knew it was a lot. He always made sure she had at least six months’ worth of bills in case anything ever went wrong.
He just hadn’t expected that emergency to be this.
“You’re not funny,” Selene told him. Ah, there it was. The realization in her voice that he was not kidding. “Just because I don’t like him doesn’t mean?—”
“That you get to abuse him. And the fact that you don’t see what you did to him as anything other than that is a problem,” Emmett finally said. His voice was very, very controlled. He took another deep breath. “I don’t think we want to see you for a while.”
“You’re joking,” she said, eyes wide.
“We’re not. We spoiled you, yes, but we taught you better than this. I don’t know what kind of therapy you need or what kind of introspection you need to do, but you should take some time to figure it out. And when you’re ready to apologize and take accountability for it all, you can call us. If not…” Emmett trailed off.
“What?” she said, her voice dripping with hatred. “You’ll abandon your daughter.”
“You’re a grown woman. You have a college degree and plenty of friends,” Cosimo said, letting all the emotion leave his voice. “I have faith you can figure it out.”
“Hold the fuck up?—”
Before she could finish her sentence, Emmett ended the call. The pain was overwhelming, but what else were they supposed to do? She needed to hit a wall of silence, otherwise nothing would ever happen. They’d keep enabling her, and she’d keep doing what she did until she had a trail of shattered lives and broken hearts behind her.
If they loved their daughter at all, this was what had to happen.
“What now?” Cosimo asked.
Emmett bit his lip, then said, “We should go look for him.”
“Just you,” Cosimo said. Emmett opened his mouth to argue, but Cosimo shook his head. “Just you. I think I scare him. And besides, I…”I think he’s for you, he wanted to say. But he couldn’t bring himself to. Not yet. Because he didn’t want it to be that way. He wanted whoever they found to fit with themboth. That was his insecurity talking. “I think he needs your ability to be soft,” he finished instead.
Emmett closed his eyes, took a breath, then nodded. “Yeah. Okay. You think he’s still around her place?”
“I think it’s a good start,” Cosimo said. “And if not…” He was interrupted by Emmett’s phone going off again. For a beat, he figured it was Selene calling back until he glanced at the screen. It was an unfamiliar number. They exchanged started glances, then Cosimo nodded. “Answer it.”
Emmett did, and he put it on speaker. “Hello?”
“Um.Hi.Sorry…hello.” It washim.
