Page 97 of Research with Rivals
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Ambrose
I’d meant it when I told her I would follow her. Nothing would bring me more joy. That didn’t mean I looked forward to telling my family.
Moving to my own apartment had been necessary. I’d needed my own space, but I truly enjoyed the ease with which I could spend time with them. This would be different. It took a day and a half to get from Sandrin to Compass Lake. It was a world of difference from a few steps across the hall.
I took the familiar journey from my apartment door to my parents’ now. Things between Father and me had been strained when I’d visited last night. Maybe he wouldn’t even care that I was leaving.
“Hello,” I called as I opened the door.
My parents sat at the table. Father ate, while Mother wrote in a ledger. Sasha and Timothy played with their toys in front of the sofa.
“Ambrose.” Father looked up first. “We’re glad you’re here.”
He sounded tired, like I felt. The night without sleep had caught up to me, which was too bad, considering the paper I’d reviewed had been irrelevant. Not that I hadn’t enjoyed reading it. It just would have been more enjoyable during my usual workday at the library.
Mother closed her book. “We hoped you would come by today.” She pulled out a chair at the table.
“I have something to tell you.” My shoulders fell as I thought about what came next. Sasha and Timothy wouldn’t be happy. As an adult, I needed to make decisions for my life, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t hurt.
“Us, too,” Father said.
Mother put her hand over his and squeezed. It was only then that I realized Father didn’t only look tired—he lacked his usual confidence. He pushed aside his plate, most of the food untouched, and folded his fingers together before him. “I’m sorry for how I acted yesterday.”
I had barely sat in the chair, occupied, preparing my own side of the conversation. His words stopped me in my tracks. “Excuse me?”
His head fell. “I’m sorry.”
Mother squeezed his hand again, and he continued. “I shouldn’t have interfered in your work at the library. I shouldn’t have been so hard on you about blood magic. If anyone knows the opportunities it can bring, it’s me. It’s why I studied it in the first place.”
“But—”
“My fear overshadowed everything I knew,” he said quietly, like it wasn’t the single most radical thing I’d ever heard him say.
As the words sank in, I huffed out a laugh. “I understand that too well.”
Father winced. “I fear that is my fault also. I should have realized sooner how much my fears became your own—how much I forced them on you.”
“What’s made you realize them now?” I asked, too stunned to pretend things weren’t exactly as he said. It had taken me a while to realize, and once I had, I liked to think I’d taken my own steps to determine my perspective, but still.
Mother patted his hand again. “We didn’t like the way you left yesterday.”
“Your mother pointed out how many lines I’d crossed in our single conversation. Not to mention my stops by the Vesten Library to check on you.”
Something tightened in my chest. While nice to hear, this didn’t change what I had come here to say. Father wouldn’t find it so easy to stop by the library and check on me in the future.
“I need to tell you both something as well.” My voice shook more than I cared for.
“It doesn’t matter if you got the Vesten historian job or not, Ambrose. I hope you know that,” Father said. He must have heard of the Vesten Point’s arrival and misconstrued my news.
I huffed another laugh, considering my news was technically what he had wanted for me. I ran my fingers through my hair. “I did get the job.”
Mother and Father froze. “We thought…” Father started.
I tilted my head in question.
Mother cleared her throat. “Why do you look upset if you got the job? Do you not want it?” A new set of fears flashed across Father’s features with her words, like maybe he worried he’d pushed me into something I never wanted. I wasn’t sure what to do with this introspective version of my father, but I’d tell him what I could.
