Beyond Bloodline - Unbreakable Bonds

thirty eight

drum roll, please~

—

Her eyes moved over him in the same manner that had always made him feel so small —still did. Then her lips were curling as though she'd caught a whiff of something unpleasant. "That's not really any of your business," she said, sharp dark eyes like glaciers of ice.

"It's my business if he's ignoring me," he said, calmly.

"He is?" her eyes were suddenly sparkling as if she'd won a lottery and Nigel felt a lurch of disgust at the pure elation that streaked across her eyes.

"Not anymore," he said, not stopping his sneer. "Can't bear to see it? He's not you."

She clicked her tongue non-committally in sudden disinterest and went back to perusing the screen of her laptop.

Nigel glanced at the sumptuous dinner in front of him, feeling his appetite declining into the negatives. Why was he even doing this to himself? He should just take his dinner and go upstairs.

"What did you guys argue about?" he still couldn't help but ask. He knew his twin well enough. All of a sudden, the person he'd always known like the back of his hand suddenly became someone unfamiliar. Rather than continue living in ignorance, he'd rather find out why so he could at least try to avoid it next time.

She cursed under her breath, abandoning her laptop to stare at him in irritation. "You," she said, disdain flowing from her every pore.

Nigel's brow furrowed. Long as he'd known him, Saxon had never outrightly spoken against them, willing to do anything to preserve the much flagrant notion of peace. What exactly had ticked him off? And why now?

"Disrupting our damn lives," she cursed more colorfully as she reached for the glass and red wine that had remained at her side all this while. "Turning my own son against me."

Nigel watched her fill the glass to quarter then quietly swirl and raise it to her lips. This was his own mother. "You speak like I'm not also your son," he said, heart numb as he popped a fry in his mouth.

Her eyes filled with amusement as she carefully finished her sip before replacing it in front of her. "You're really not," she said, shoulder rounding in a half shrug as he raised his confused gaze to her.

"What?" his mind went blank and the fries lost their taste, making him feel like he was gnawing on wax.

"You've always been quite dense," she remarked but offered no further explanation to her off-the-cuff comments.

Not that Nigel needed the explanation from her to buttress her statement. He wasn't stupid. He just didn't want to believe it. "That's not funny," he said, eyes hot with angry tears.

"Use your own fucking head," her words barreled out like explosives. "What kind of mother would hate her own son? You'd have figured it out earlier if you'd so much as opened your eyes to the hints I'd been dropping."

"Hints?" Nigel scoffed, wanting to scream at her but only having the strength for a short, depreciating bark of laughter. "Who drops hints like you do? Neglecting me? You might as well just have told me outright!"

"You think I wanted to take over someone's own reject?" she scowled, brows drawn fiercely together and face taut with barely repressed fury. "My child was out there and Rob thought it'd be heartbreaking taking you back after only welcoming you home with open arms. He pitied you."

It hadn't seemed like it then and now, Nigel just had one massive headache. "So, what?" he said, tone bitter. "You thought you'd just do some charity?" He'd rather they never had picked him up in the first place or better yet, that they'd just returned him— to the hospital to finish his recuperating, by the roadside, literally anywhere else would be better than with them. Perhaps he'd still be bemoaning a miserable fate but he'd take that over growing up in their disregard.