Page 112 of Two For the Show
She waves her hand, hushing him.“The girls are talking. Tell me about the rest of the pack, Alex.”
Jude throws his hands up and rolls his eyes in good humor, letting me take over the phone and introduce his mom to the rest of the pack. After she meets and grills all of them on their roles in the circus and what we plan to do now that we’re a pack, I hand the phone back to Jude.
“So, Prime Alpha, is it?”she asks. There is so much pride in her voice. Jude must notice it too, because softness takes over his features.“I am so proud of you, my boy. You look good happy.”
“I am happy.” I slide my hand on top of his thigh and squeeze. He covers it with his own, fingers tangling with mine. “So happy.”
After several more minutes of getting to know her and making plans to visit her in Utah, we hang up, Jude looking more relaxed than he has in a while.
“Me next, I guess,” I say. “Unless Quinton, Matteo, you two want to call your parents first?”
Matteo waves me off. “I texted them. They’re happy for us.”
Quinton holds up his phone. “I called mine the day you bonded me. We’re not particularly close, but I still wanted them to know. We can call them later.”
My stomach drops. “Okay then. It’s my turn.”
I punch their number into Jude’s phone and put it on speaker. It rings and rings, and then, abruptly, my mother picks up.
“Yes?”
“Hi, Mom.” I sound like a child about to be scolded. And in a way, I am. If I had trusted my parents and believed they would have helped me, things would have been very different for me.
“Alex? Is that you? Oh my God. Theodore, it’s Alex!”I can hear my mother running across the house, and then my father is on the phone.“Is it really you?”
“Yeah,” tears clog my throat, and I clear it awkwardly. “It’s me. I’m so, so sorry. I should’ve called. I should’ve trusted you.”
The phone beeps with the notification of an incoming video call, and, reluctantly, I accept. I don’t want to seetheir disappointment, but I know I have to. My parents’ faces fill the screen, and my heart aches. I’ve missed them so much.
There must be something in my face that shows I’m bracing for a lecture, because my mom sighs softly as soon as she sees me.
“Alex, we’re not mad,” my mom says gently.“We wish you had felt comfortable coming to us, but we’re not upset. We’re just happy you’re safe now.”
Tears well up in my eyes, and I tighten my fists, digging my nails into my palms to keep them from falling. “You should be mad. Furious.”
My dad shakes his head.“We’re not. We’ve been so worried about you these past few years, especially the last six months, but as soon as we saw that video of you in the circus of all places, we knew you ended up where you were supposed to be.”
My mother crowds into the frame.“You threw a knife at your Alpha!”
Quinton pops up behind me. “She did. Hi, I’m Quinton.”
All the guys take a moment to lean into the video and introduce themselves to my parents before I take over, and we discuss what happened. I know I scared them, and that I should have trusted them, but sometimes, fear outweighs logic. I’ve seen it myself in the emergency room, when abuse victims would come in and refuse to give me information on their families so I could call them.
Living in guilt isn’t going to help anyone, though. Abuse is never the victim’s fault, and I won’t blame myself for how I handled it. It’s not like I was able to think clearly after everything they put me through. It’s not a commentary on how smart or clever I am, nor is it a moral failing on my part.
It’s what happens when someone degrades your self-esteem over time. It’s what happens when you hope that they’ll love you enough to stop.
They won’t.
I know that now.
And I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure they can’t hurt anyone the way they hurt me ever again.
Governor Evans’sface fills the television screen. He looks solemn, wearing a black suit with a white shirt and black tie, as if he is on his way to a funeral. His hair is perfectly styled, of course, not a piece out of place, and his wife stands behind him and to the side in a black dress with a string of pearls. Her hands are clasped in front of her, and her eyes are downcast. She looks devastated, but not a single tear falls.
Tripp is nowhere in sight.
“Good afternoon. I am here today to address the situation that Dr. Alex Shields brought to my attention on Wednesday. After thorough research, we have authorized the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to open an investigation into Dr. Richard Smith, Walter Evans the third, and Gregory Ramsey. As the governor of this beautiful state, I am furious that some of our citizens would harm the person they were supposed to love, and know they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. As a father, I am ashamed of my son and his behavior. This is not the way we raised him.
