Sugar Baby Beautiful(78)
“Theodore, sweetheart, you made it.”
“It’s kind of hard to miss a plane I asked to wait for me. The real question is why are you both here? I thought you were staying in the Hamptons for the Fourth of July weekend.” I took a seat across from them.
“We were, then thought it would be best to spend it as a family. Honestly, when was the last time we were all together for the holidays?” Lorelai grinned, pulling out her phone. “I called your secretary, and she said you wanted the weekend off, so—”
“Mother, I’m busy this weekend.”
She paused, staring at me in confusion. “With what?”
“More importantly, with whom?” Arthur asked. “And please do not tell me it is Felicity Ford. Word about her condition has spread all across the company.”
“I’m not a teenager. I’m not required to answer that question, nor are you allowed to tell me who I should or should not be spending my weekend with.”
My mother sighed, putting her drink down. “Theodore, we’re worried about you. You’re losing your head over some woman you barely know. It’s crazy—”
“From a practical standpoint, it is insane. Yes, this girl is a good dancer, and if it weren’t for illness, maybe, just maybe, it would be all right, but—” my father started to say, but I couldn’t listen to any more.
“But what? Because she’s sick she’s no longer worthy of my time or your respect?” I’d had it up to my neck with people today. Rising from my seat, I grabbed my things.
“Theodore, she’s not your reasonability. She is making you look like an idiot. I know it is not her fault, but she’s just a woman. People are talking, and it’s better you distance yourself now before—”
“Before what?” I hissed. “What? What are people going to say to me that is so horrible? They’ll speak behind my back? Throw short jabs at me? What, am I five? Why the fuck should I care?”
“Because you are the head of a multibillion dollar company! People look to you for leadership! You have no time to take care of a mentally ill person.”
I laughed bitterly. “Is that the same rationale you used on yourself when I was child?”
“What?” My mother—no, my aunt—asked, sitting straighter.
“My mother, my birth mother, died of Huntington's disease. It’s hereditary, and I remember a week after I came to live with you two, walking past your bedroom as you worried over what to do with me if I were like her. You wondered if you should start looking for a care provider or maybe send me to boarding school so Arty and Walt didn’t get too attached. You might not remember, but you all were pretty cold then… that was until the test came back negative. Suddenly, you guys bought me this suit and told me we were getting a new family painting done. You said something along the lines of, Thank god his Darcy blood was dominant. I remember thinking there couldn’t be one thing wrong with me because if there were, you’d blame my real mother. So I tried to be the good son. Tried to blend in and not gag every time I saw that damned painting hanging in your house. Yes, part of me loves both of you dearly, but I always wondered what would have happened had that test come back positive. Would you guys even care if I spent the weekend alone—”
“Theodore, sweetheart, I love you! Back then we were scared and shocked, but we have loved you like you were our own. You are my own.” Lorelai stood up and tried to touch me, but I wouldn’t let her.
“I know you do now. But it doesn’t change the fact you wouldn’t have been able to love me had I been sick. You telling me to walk away from her now proves that.”
“She isn’t family, Theo! It’s different,” my uncle yelled at me.
“No, but I want her to be. I’m in love with her. To you it’s crazy. To me it is the most common sense thing in the world, and I know we’re going to get over this. When we do, I’ll contact you both again.” I got off the plane.
I would take the next plane. Right now I just needed to be away from them. Everyone’s solution was to just throw money at the situation and hope it fixed itself. It’s what Felicity’s father had done to her, and it’s what my aunt and uncle would have done to me. The only thing none of them seemed to realize was replacing love with money only ever ends one way, in heartbreak.
It felt like the whole world was telling me to stay away from Felicity Harper, yet next to her was the one place I really wanted to be.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
We're all messed up
Theo
“We had a small setback,” Dr. Butler said to me as I stood outside Felicity’s door. I had expected to see her this morning, but when I arrived, they told me I had to speak with him first. She sat in the middle of her bed, looking out the window, her legs tucked into her chest.