Page 38 of Sinner
That her son had initially been forced and threatened, and despite all of that, had eventually fallen for his antagonists.
“Please,” he blew out a breath. “Can we just talk calmly? This isn’t as big a deal as you’re making it seem.”
“You’re about to move into the palace!” she shouted. “You’re official title is now Royal Consort Phoenix Monroe! It doesn’t get bigger than this, mister. There is no downplaying the world of trouble you’ve gotten yourself into. Do you understand what this means? Truly? There’s no going back now. Even if you wake up and realize what an epic mistake you’ve made, you can’t undo it. It’s not like marriage. There is no divorcing the emperor!”
She swayed a little dramatically and his father ended up having to steady her with an arm around her shoulder.
Nix would never say this to them, but he knew they were hamming it up to try and make their point. That he was a terrible son who’d caused them all this unnecessary stress. The problem was, he didn’t even blame them. Getting this deeply involved with the Imperial family was foolish. Becoming a RoyalConsort, giving the world access to his information, and making his relationship with the Demons public knowledgewasfoolish.
Hell, his cousin’s death was what had brought him to this place, and she’d arguably been pushed to the edge by the very power play Nix now found himself in the middle of. Juri had used her because of the Club and his need to shove Lake and the others down a peg.
They were all members of Club Essential, the very club Nix was now a part of.
He decided not to tell his parents about how he’d agreed to turn their family Imperial if anything ever happened to his boyfriends. It didn’t seem like the right time and, in any case, he doubted it would ever come to that. They never had to know, because it was never going to happen.
“I’m not going to want to divorce him, Mom.”
“You don’t know that!”
“Do you want to divorce Dad after all this time?”
She bristled. “That is not the same and you know it.”
“No,” he shook his head. “I think it is. You fell in love with Dad, not because you wanted to, but just because you did. Well, that’s what happened to me. I love them. It was unexpected, and I tried to resist, but I…couldn’t.”
“There are three of them,” his dad reminded then, giving him an odd look. “You never even seemed interested in dating one person, let alone having three at once.”
Nix was sitting in the kitchen with his device set on the center of the granite island. When he heard the sound of the front door opening and closing, his eyes darted in that direction, but he didn’t allow his gaze to linger for long, so he missed when Yejun entered the living room from the foyer and spotted him.
“Can we not get into that?” Nix felt his cheeks start to pinken. The last thing he wanted to discuss with his parents washis sex life. Even if it was all over the news, along with the rest of his business. “Can’t you both just be happy for me?”
“This isn’t the future we wanted for you,” his dad said.
“Maybe not, but it’s the one I’ve chosen for myself.” This had gone about as well as he’d expected, and since there wasn’t much more he could say, Nix figured it was probably better to end it and give them all a chance to cool off. “I’ve got to go.”
“Why?” His mother’s gaze hardened. “Is one of them there with you now? Put him on.”
“No.” Nix shook his head, and it took all his willpower not to look up and over to the man standing in the living room, quietly waiting. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I just wanted you both to know that I’m sorry it came out this way, but I’m happy, and I’ve chosen this. I’ll call you again later, okay?”
“Phoenix, this isn’t—”
He clicked the end button before his mom could finish scolding him and let out a loud groan, dropping his head into his hands.
“That sounded like a time,” Yejun said, slowly approaching him as though he wasn’t quite sure whether or not Nix wanted company at the moment. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to walk in and ruin your call.”
“You didn’t.” He snorted. “It was already going terribly. If anything, you saved me from having to put up with it any longer.”
“Not our biggest fans, huh?”
“We didn’t even get into that,” he admitted. Nix hadn’t wanted to hear them badmouth Yejun or the others, and definitely didn’t want to have to talk about what he could possibly see in any of them enough to want to give them his future. That was where the conversation had been heading, he just knew it. “Briant is talking to his parents in his room. We’rehoping he’ll have better luck with them, and then they can talk to mine.”
“Utilizing the whole family,” Yejun hummed in approval. “I like it. It’s smart thinking.”
“It’s manipulative at best,” Nix dropped his hands to find the Demon standing directly across the table from him, “but I’ll do what I have to at this point. I just want to smooth things over with them before the coronation.”
“What if they don’t want to come?”
“Briant already promised me he’d be there, so you don’t have to worry. I’ll have a family representative for the ceremony.”
