Chapter 7
Anwen’s apartment was smaller than any room in my estate.
Cleaner too.
Theo’s things remained everywhere.
Blankets.
Bottles.
A wooden rabbit.
Three tiny shirts drying near the kitchen window.
Nothing looked abandoned.
Felice’s future story collapsed just by standing there.
I saw the letters Anwen had written me.
Copies.
She kept drafts because she was afraid she would someday forget what she tried to say.
The first was simple.
Duncan, I don’t expect anything from you. But you should know you have a son.
The second more frightened.
I received your response. If you truly want distance, I will respect it. Please do not stop his support because I wrote again.
I read that twice.
Then a third.
Never sent.
I don’t understand why you were kind to me and cruel on paper.
That one hurt.
I looked at Anwen.
“I wasn’t cruel.”
“I know that now.”
Not accusation.
Worse.
Sadness for wasted time.
I asked why she had never confronted me after joining the estate.
She laughed without humor.
“Felice showed me how many guards stood between staff and you.”
Fair.
“She told me the first time I approached you privately, I’d lose the job.”
I thought of my routines.
Private dining room.
Security corridors.
Assistants filtering requests.
Efficient.
Impenetrable.
Excellent for enemies.
Terrible for a frightened employee trying to tell me something.
“Did you ever try?”
“Three times.”
My jaw tightened.
Once through my secretary.
Once through Rafe’s junior officer.
Once by leaving a note inside a tray meant for my office.
All three disappeared.
Felice had instructed household management that Anwen was emotionally unstable about an old relationship and should not be allowed to bother me.
My own systems obeyed.
I looked at Theo sleeping.
“I built the walls.”
Anwen met my eyes.
“She used them.”
Important distinction.
“Yes.”
Both true.
I could fix the walls without stealing Felice’s responsibility.
Then Anwen asked the question I expected eventually.
“What happens now?”
Not to Felice.
To us.
I answered carefully.
“You decide what you want from me as Theo’s father.”
She stared.
“And from you?”
“Nothing is owed.”
That surprised her.
Good.
May you like
Fatherhood was already complicated enough.
I would not turn it into romantic debt.
