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And I couldn’t do that to my brother and his husband-to-be Or any of the dozens of men and woht not have interacted with all of them as much as I would have liked, but they never failed to interact with me and always included me in their family events, even when they kneouldn’t attend On my birthday and Christh I wasn’t able to nus had always chosen to celebrate those holidays with me and we’d occasionally have Matty and his fathers there too, but that had been the extent of it

But now they were all in danger because of me

I could only hope that the ure out my connection to the members of my extended family But even if they did, I knew Dante would make sure everyone was safe Not to e family weren’t exactly helpless I wasn’t really sure what it was Dante exactly did for Ronan Grishah to know that it wasn’t just “security” like Dante would always say I probably should have asked more questions, but that concept was just like the choices one

I didn’t do either well

I sighed and stared at ht-yellow button-up shirt with the flower shop’s logo on it, but there was a big wet spot on the lower part of it where I’d thrown up and the top three buttons were gone My khaki pants looked okay, just really wrinkled My face was red and splotchy and ly endless tears

Those were another consequence of having choices and freedom

Father hadn’t liked it when I cried His punishments had proven just exactly how much it displeased him when I showed any kind of e caused entle touch onpair of arht as I needed until the ard feelings went away Even seven-year-old Matty would hug e… of course, he had a habit of hugging me just because

Magnus’s grandson really was a great hugger

He was another reason I was doing this… there was no chance in heck I’d risk anything coh his fathers were ive the people pursuing o after little Matty Hawkins The boy had spentcancer and deserved a normal childhood… I would not be the reason that was stolen from him

Spying the shower in ot it started I waited tothe rest of the buttons ona little soap and water from the sink, then laid it out on the countertop to dry It wouldn’t be anywhere near dry enough to hen I was done showering, but it would have to do

I scanned the drawers and cabinets for so I didn’t even see a towel, so I kneas going to have to useo the shower, but between the, and the vo to o home

I was in the process of reaching for the button on ht hn in the open doorway It wasn’t until that very moment that I realized I’d left the door open

Father had never allowedthe bathroom, so in the past two years I’d tried to break that particular habit But it was so I deliberately had to do and whenever I did, it’d felt like I was disappointing Father and risking his wrath My brother and Magnus had undoubtedly wondered rong with o into the bathroo and closing the door as I tried to convincea door between me and the outside world