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My mother.
I think about her more now than I have in the last twenty five years. It hurts most of the time but a lot less than before. Maybe it was because Fallon liked the movies that she did. Even when I was little, those kinds of films were ancient. Nada Hamilton was probably possessed by her grandmother or something.
It was Friday and I had spent two days with Fallon doing absolutely nothing. We watched a movie and then I watched her read some romcom that should actually be hidden from daylight because it was diabolical. The lines she showed me were horrid.
'Mars is knocked out cold for now. He barely sleeps through the night. God knows what he will when he wakes up at two am again to find that we actually have the audacity to sleep,' Fallon walked in and plopped on the bed.
She had asked me if I wanted the guest room but hearing about Nina and shamelessly being afraid of the dark made me ask to share instead.
'I will handle it,' I promised and she nodded before crawling up to the pillows.
She wore pyjamas shorts and a tshirt from her mother's 2004 tour. She put her hair in a ponytail this time. I laid down beside her, pulling her in with my right arm and leaving it there.
'Margot is dropping off the twins tomorrow. If you're not comfortable with that, you could...'
'I am. So, I will stay.'
Made herself more comfortable in my arms. I had known her for less than two weeks and I was already pathetically attached. It was a fucking mess. The whole darned thing. Luciel had been the only friend I had made in years. I inherited Nico and Dante who I hated and loved.
My past relationships had never worked out. No woman wanted to be with a man that worked more than they fucked and I understood them. I always did. I had not really loved any of them and most of them were better off after me. Mars had been a mistake. I stumbled upon him in my morning run in DC. He was damp and underfed. I found his siblings in the same shrub, one died. The others were in critical condition. I had made sure that Mars' siblings got into loving homes but I kept Mars and raised him. He got used to me and we never left each other since.
Watching him with Fallon was calming.
'I think I need to get more involved in FH,' she said out of the blue.
'That might require you to demote Malika,' I answered already thinking about how Malika might take the news.
'I am Chairman of the Board. I think I can work without needing to do that. Is your office okay without you?'
Wednesday night had been hell. I had been preparing to leave when the issue reared its head. Someone had been trying to hack a client, a banking executive and the hacker was so damn good that we spent hours building walls. I caught the bastard and left him with the nastiest virus known to machine. By the time I got home, the sun was rising. I had expected Fallon to be pissed but at least she let me in.
