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

XX - Reunion

Stalling the Rover in the parking lot in front of the apartments his grandmother lived in, Henry sat there behind the steering wheel with the engine still running. He hadn't even gotten out of the vehicle yet and his heart was racing. After ten whole years of getting used to a life without his father, without the abuse he'd suffered through as a teen, he was so close to finally standing face to face with the person behind the reason for his fears. Suddenly, as he waited for Elaine to arrive at the apartment complex as well, memories of his past with his father ran through his mind. He heard the times he'd screamed how much he hated Travis at the top of his lungs, envisioned the bruises once left behind on him, the look of aversion his father used to give him. And as every horrid memory revisited him, the more Henry could feel his courage fading.

Although Henry was well aware of the guilt that lived in his father now, of how sorry Travis was and wished for the opportunity to sincerely apologize to his son...Henry was incapable of fully accepting that. While he told himself he would sit and listen to what his father had to say, another part of Henry just wished Travis didn't have a reason to apologize for everything he'd done. If he had simply been a good, decent figure in his children's lives...none of this would need to be happening. His parents wouldn't have gotten divorced, he and his brother would have never been abused, London wouldn't have had to feel the need to sell sex for money just to take care of his siblings, and Travis wouldn't have gone to prison in the first place. So much more would have likely been different, and there was one thing especially that crossed Henry's mind for a moment; perhaps Dorian would have never been born. Not that he thought Dorian didn't belong...but it was true.

Trying to calm himself down, Henry leaned back in the driver's seat and closed his eyes. He saw his beautiful son in his mind, his Dimitri, and he felt a tick in his chest as the yearning to see his newborn. As the infant crossed his mind, Henry wondered if he would allow Travis access to his son. He hadn't proven to be a good enough father years ago, but perhaps with the turn around he seemed to have made, would he show to have redeemed himself enough to be a good grandfather? Completely unsure to what judgement he would make today once he saw Travis, Henry just tried to keep in mind that giving his father a chance was something that was totally up to him. If he couldn't...then he just couldn't.

Startled by a sudden knock on his driver side window, when he looked over, Elaine was standing there with her purse and waved.

Swallowing a nervousness caught in his throat, Henry finally turned off the Rover and got out of the car. He tucked the keys in his pocket and was then rushed by his mother when she hugged her arms tightly around him. It was true Elaine hadn't been a very good mother either while he and London were growing up, or even after Joyce was born, even though each of her children had come around to accepting her into their family, there was still a good amount of uncertainty in everyone when it came to Elaine. It had taken years for her to get clean from her drug addiction, years for her to be fully trusted, and even though she was allowed to come around a see her children and grandchildren, something London had never personally allowed - was Elaine the privilege of being alone with any of them.

As a grandmother, she's never babysat Ben, the twins, or Ozzy before, and she's also never gone on solo outings with her own daughter, more so because - even though London saw her as a changed woman - there was still a fear in him that she could return to her old ways out of nowhere. He couldn't help it.

Henry did love Elaine, but there was a part of him as well that didn't know if he could truly trust in her with his own son. Over the years with London, however, she seemed to have come to accept that herself.

"Thank you, Henry," Elaine said then, releasing her son and she took a step back. "Before we go in there to see your father, I just want you to know that I did want to come here for a serious reason."