Beloved: A Henry Dawncraft Novel |boyxboy| Sequel to Lover for Pay

XXIV - Stricken

Henry still couldn't believe what he'd witnessed before leaving the little reunion yesterday. He'd called London later on in the evening after his son was put to bed, but Marbell had been the one to answer and insisted his brother was taking a moment for himself.

Sitting down in his dining room, Henry twirled a fork into the noodles of his dinner, not having taken a single bite yet. The sound of Elaine's hand smacking across London's face may as well have been a clap of thunder that shot through everyone. He could only imagine how his brother was feeling at the moment, especially since it all happened in front of his children. Back when Elaine had shown up before to essentially take her place with them after getting clean, London had been so proud of her for making such a difficult change and sticking to it, and now she'd thrown it all away all for her obsession and hidden disregard for her children.

And, Joyce, she'd seen it as well. All her life she'd only ever viewed London as a strong figure in her life, her very own father figure, had never witnessed anything of the sort happen to him, and there she'd seen her very own mother slap him in the face.

Shaking his head, Henry pushed his plate away and rose from the table. Daniel was across from him with an already half eaten meal, but Henry just wasn't feeling too hungry at the moment. "I'm going to see London today," he said, rounding the table towards his husband. He kissed Daniel's lips for a moment before heading to the back bedroom to grab his keys and shoes.

After they were on, Henry made sure to kiss his son goodbye as well and then was out the door. As he drove for several minutes across town to his brother's house, Henry couldn't help replaying events from the day before. He wanted to get the image of his mother putting a hand on London out of his mind, but he couldn't help visualizing the unfortunate happening.

His whole childhood, while Elaine hadn't been a very good mother to begin with, all of his hatred and negative feelings usually centered only around Travis. But, as Henry continued to drive in silence, surrounded only by his thoughts, he was finally seeing Elaine for what she was. He couldn't believe it'd taken him so long to realize his parents had certainly belonged in the same category when he was younger. Travis, at least for right now, was showing the true and honest changes he'd made while away. Only time would tell if he'd suddenly regress and find his old self again.

Elaine, on the other hand, hadn't wasted a moment to show her true colors when a selfish 'want' was in her path, and that 'want' was Travis. Throwing away all the progress she'd made with everyone, Elaine set sights on her ex-husband and allowed him to cloud her mind from everything else. She was a selfish woman who only thought of herself in the end.

Almost ashamed that he'd accepted her all his life, unable to see her major flaws past the darkness Travis had instilled when he was younger, Henry felt anger and disappointment in himself, but there was also a voice at the back of his head that simply hoped Travis stuck with his gut: coming to the decision to leave Elaine in the dust.

Upon arriving at his brother's home, Henry stalled the Rover behind the SUV in the long drive and sat behind the steering wheel for a moment. Every other time he'd pulled up to this house, ever since Marbell had purchased the wonderful home back then for his family, Henry couldn't remember a time when such an odd tension seemed to radiate from the roof itself. There had always been a certain air about the beautiful property, and it wasn't ever as thick, tense and foreboding whenever Henry arrived. This place almost felt foreign even before deciding to get out of the car.

Finally, Henry headed up to the front door and rang the doorbell. When the door came open, there were no children there to greet him as usual, no cartoons playing in the living room, or distant sounds of play as what had become the typical thing to see and hear after stepping through the door.