Page 61 of His Gift
“I do worry,” I told him, crossing my arms the way Papa usually did when he was irritated by something. “Enzo is my omega.”
Dad made an annoyed sound. “He’s a low-class grifter who tried to wheedle his way into our family on his back. I’ll make certain he’s compensated for the baby, of course. We cannot allow one of our own to be raised adrift in the world.”
His words made me feel sick to my stomach. “Are you even listening to yourself?” I demanded. “That’s my baby you’re talking about, not some unfortunate error that might cost the company money.”
“Son, I know that you think you’re in love with that omega,” Dad started.
“I don’t think it, I am in love with him,” I cut him off. I glanced to Papa to make certain he knew he was included in what I was about to say as I went on. “Enzo came into my life completely by accident. If you must know, we were set up by some mutual friends.” That much was true enough, and I still hadn’t had time to thank Caden and Hamish properly. “These are friends I trust. Enzo isn’t someone who came out of nowhere.”
“I don’t know who he is,” Dad said, like that was all-important.
I shook my head. “You don’t know a lot of people, Dad, and the ones you do know are mostly terrible people. I’m sorry that you’ve always been as stuck in the world you’re trying to protect me and Walt from as Walt and I feel we are now, but at some point, the cycle has to be broken.”
“What cycle?” Dad said scoffingly. “There is no cycle. It’s the way the world is, whether we like it or not.”
“Do you like it?” I asked, the sudden, painful thought that my parents were as trapped in the cycle of competition and merit-seeking as Walt and I had been hitting me.
“No, of course I don’t like it,” Dad said. “I hate waking up every day into a job and a world where I have to do battle just to hold my head up high.”
“Why do you care so much about holding your head up high to a bunch of people who would rather see you cut down than given a seat at the table?” I asked, throwing my arm out to the tables throughout the event hall that the Pullman Center’s staff were rushing to set up. “What’s the point in tailoring everything we do, including our personal lives, to some idea of high society that doesn’t give a fuck about us?”
“Language, Shawn,” Papa said, though I had the distinct feeling from the way he leaned slightly toward me that he agreed with every word I was saying.
“Sorry, Papa,” I said, softening my tone. “But that’s what Enzo has taught me. I think that’s why we started bonding so fast, too. You don’t know what Enzo has been through in his life. His father is a deadbeat, his brother disappeared on him, and he had to put his own promise and ambition aside to care for his dying papa. His papa hasn’t even been gone for a year yet, but instead of mourning, he’s here, helping us. And how have you treated him in return?”
“The world is full of sharks who will try to take what you have,” Dad said, his certainty slipping by the moment. “As an alpha, it’s your job to protect what is yours and to shield those you love from everyone who wants to bring them down.”
“I don’t care if I’m brought down,” I said, letting out a heavy breath as so many things became clear to me. “I don’t care if I have a million dollars or five. Living in a penthouse apartment means nothing. I could live in a grubby, one-bedroom apartment in a seedy neighborhood if it meant I could be with Enzo.”
“That omega has poisoned your mind,” Dad said.
“No, he has not, Tristan,” Papa stepped in to defend me. Both Dad and I were surprised, especially when Papa went on with, “I’ve worked with Enzo on this project. I’ve seen just how clever he is. I didn’t know about his papa or his family,” Papa said, turning to me and looking sad. “I wish I had. I’d have been nicer to him, I think. Less suspicious.” He turned back to Dad. “Enzo isn’t the one who poisoned minds. You know as well as I do, Tristan, that our parents and the people we grew up around were the most venomous of them all.”
“Are you taking his side?” Dad asked, though strangely, he didn’t look angry or offended. He looked lost, actually.
Papa stepped forward, taking Dad’s hands. “I know that all you’ve wanted for all of us from the beginning is for us to be happy,” he said, gazing up at him. “You’ve been fighting for our family since that Christmas Eve night when you climbed up to my bedroom window and kidnapped me so my father wouldn’t force me to marry George Blunt in the morning.”
My eyebrows shot up. That was a story I’d never heard before. But why not?
“I couldn’t let that oaf lay a hand on you,” Dad said, caressing the side of Papa’s face tenderly. “You were mine. You have always been mine since the day we first met.”
“Shawn feels the same way about Enzo,” Papa said, resting his hand over Dad’s on his face. “I can see it in them both. They’ve already started to bond. The child Enzo is carrying was made out of love, I just know it.”
Hearing my papa speak in my favor was so wonderful that it choked me up. I’d always wanted some sort of overt show of love and support from my parents. I just wished it hadn’t had to come at such a fraught moment.
“Shawn has a point, dear,” Papa went on. “I would give up all this to have us together as a family, even if we all lived inthat rotten shack we found ourselves in for that first heat, when Shawn was conceived.”
My eyebrows shot up even higher. There was definitely a different story about how my parents got together than I’d been told.
“I just don’t want them to face what we faced,” Dad said, as soft and affectionate as I’d ever seen him. He was a completely different man when he was focused on my papa and not the world around him. It choked me up more than a little.
“They won’t,” Papa said. “Because they’ll have us. Walt and his baby, too.”
“But there’s so much?—”
“Shawn! Dad!” Walt called out, rushing into the event hall as fast as he could, one hand on his back. “You need to come right now. Enzo’s in trouble.”
I didn’t need any more of an explanation than that to guess what had happned. “Rick Deluca?” I asked, marching fast toward Walt.
