Mr. Blackbourne's Mistake

Chapter 3 - North's Choice

North

"You can't be serious," North boomed, lunging to his feet. He wasn't going to sit here and listen to this any longer. "I'm not leaving Sang for a year, especially not while telling her to go out and find some other boyfriend to see if she likes that better."

"But what if she does?" Silas interrupted, his voice low, his eyes dark and troubled. "What if she would prefer that, North? You and I have both had girlfriends who were only ours, but all she's ever had is all of us us."

"Because that's all she needs," he snapped back. "You're treating her like she's some little girl who doesn't know her own mind."

"We did save her," Victor said quietly, staring down at his hands. "I know she loves us, and of course we love her. But . . . maybe a little seperation would be good. Just so that we can be sure this is what we really want before we move forward with this."

North shook his head, so angry he couldn't speak for a full minute. How could they be saying this? How could any of them even think of supporting this? Worse, why had this even been brought up in the first place? Except he knew the answer to that. "You let Mr. Blackbourne get into your heads. He's the one who first brought up all of us being with Sang so we could stay together as a family, so we could keep operating as a team without fighting over her and without breaking apart some day when our lives changed. And now he comes out with this bull crap that the past two years weren't good enough to let us know we want this?"

Gabriel sent Dr. Green an uncertain look. "Has Mr. B changed his mind about us all being with Sang? Is that why he . . .?"

"No." Dr. Green spoke in a fierce tone, his eyes flashing. "Absolutely not. He just wants to make sure that every last one of us is absolutely certain of what we want."

"Sure sounds like he's doubting the plan to me," North ground out. "And rather than talking about it with us like an adult, he decided to try to manipulate us all into going along with his new plan."

Gabriel gave Dr. Green another uncertain look as Nathan and Victor frowned at him.

Dr. Green sighed. "Stop trying to twist Mr. Blackbourne's motives, North. You're as welcome to talk with him about any concerns you have as always. You—"

"Right," North snapped, spinning toward the hallway leading to the front door. "That's why he's here right now talking to us, huh? So we can express our concerns to him." He ignored Dr. Green calling out to him, striding for the front door and slamming it behind him. He almost went for his car, but he didn't want to got too far, not without knowing where Sang was and what Mr. Blackbourne was saying to her right then. He would have stormed to where they were if he'd known.

Taking out his phone, he sent her a text.

North: Where are you?

Then he kept walking, glancing down at the phone in his hand every few minutes as he walked, as though maybe he'd just missed the buzz of her incoming response. It didn't come. He frowned, a dark feeling growing in his chest as she didn't answer. Maybe she was still talking to Mr. Blackbourne and wasn't look at her phone, but . . . he didn't like this. Not right now. He needed a response.

He wasn't sure how long he walked before he was heading back toward the townhome, worry growing in his chest. He needed to see her, to talk to her, to make sure she thought Mr. Blackbourne was as full of it with this idiotic plan as he did.

When he'd reached their neighborhood he saw her walking with a duffle bag over his shoulder. Panic consumed him before something inside of him snapped. "Hey!" he yelled, lengthening his stride to catch up with her.