“As a parent, you want your kids to be fearless,” Drake’s father said. “You want them to believe that they can do absolutely anything. But then when they push the limits, all you can think about is how destroyed you’d be if anything ever happened to them.”
He put his fork down, the entire tenor of dinner having shifted as soon as he’d said destroyed.
“I know I haven’t said this nearly enough, but I’m so damned proud of all of you.”
“We know you are, Dad,” Suz said immediately, obviously intent on smoothing over the situation the way she had her whole life.
But where had smoothing things over, where had brushing things under the rug, ever gotten them, apart from an awkward, distant relationship with their father? Earlier, Rosa had told Drake she was done running and hiding. They could all take a lesson from her.
Right here, right now.
“No.” Drake looked his father straight in the eye. “We don’t know it.”
“Drake.” Harry didn’t often sound threatening. But when he did, he was big enough and good enough with his fists that you knew to take it seriously. “We don’t need to do this tonight.”
Drake had always believed Rosa was strong enough to risk speaking up, and resilient enough to weather making a huge change. He knew his sister and brothers were too.
The only person at the table he didn’t know nearly well enough was his father. But he wanted so badly to get to know him, wanted more than anything else to bridge the gap between them before the distance grew so big that no one dared. Tonight, with Rosa by his side. Even if it meant the possibility of upsetting every member of his immediate family.
“You know why we were hanging from the rafters that day?” Thirty years of the frustration and pain that Drake had always been so careful to shove away finally rose, hot and fierce. “To try to get your attention. To try to get you to see that even though you’d lost your wife, there were four kids waiting for you.” Rosa slid her hand into his beneath the table, and he let her warmth, her strength, fuel him. “We needed you. But all you’ve ever seemed to need are the paintings.”
“That’s not true.” His father’s deep voice vibrated with emotion.
“Then tell me,” Drake said in a voice that he deliberately softened, “tell all of us something that is true.”
“I didn’t know what to do.” His father had never sounded more defeated. “I never knew what to do, not with your mother and not with any of you after she was gone.” He looked at each of his kids. “I still don’t know, couldn’t think of any other way to get you here than to say you had thirty days to take the paintings, or I would get rid of them.” He ran a hand over his eyes, held it there as though he couldn’t bear to see their expressions. “I didn’t think any of you would come otherwise.”
Drake needed his father to know, “I didn’t come for the paintings. I came for answers.”
Alec had been silent throughout the heated exchange, but now he said, “So did I.”
Suz took a deep breath before adding, “Me too.”
Harry had always been the hardest to read of the four of them, the one who held his thoughts and opinions the closest. But though he hadn’t wanted to unlatch the cage, now that the wild animals were running free, he obviously realized there was no point in trying to get them back inside. Especially when, at his core, he was just as wild as the rest of them. “That’s why I’m here too.”
Though William Sullivan’s hand was strong enough to easily lift a steel beam, it shook as it dropped away from his face. “I know I owe all of you answers. But I don’t know where to start. I never have.”
“At the beginning.” Harry’s entire adult life had been devoted to studying history, so it made sense that he would be the one to direct the timeline. “Start with the day you met our mother.”
“You know that already,” their father said, “how we met at a party my brother Ethan threw in the city. Lynn was the most beautiful woman I’d ever set eyes on—and the most challenging too.”
“What do you mean, challenging?” Suz asked.
“Your mother almost seemed to float, as if her feet never quite touched the ground. And she was obviously overwhelmed by the people, the noise. So I asked her if she wanted to leave, to find someplace quiet.” Drake could see that his father was lost in memories. “I took her hand and vowed to keep her safe. She seemed relieved. She told me she needed help to stay grounded. We fell in love that night as we searched for someplace quiet to go to get to know each other better, and I painted her for the first time the following morning. We were married soon after, and then we had you, Alec. She loved you. Loved all of you so much.”
“Then why did she leave?” Drake needed to know the truth, once and for all, even if it hurt. “Was it because four kids were too many?”
The way his father’s eyes went wide with shock at the question was already an answer. One that filled Drake with long overdue relief.