Page 110 of Everything We Found

“Of course.” James stood. He tossed Thomas a silent message to go easy on their mother. As if he was in the condition or position to argue with her. Besides, Claire had disowned himin a matter of words, if not on paper. Not the other way around. Except on rare occasions, they hadn’t spoken in some time. When they did, their conversation had been stilted and spiteful.

“You stole the company from me,” Thomas said as soon as James left the room. He regretted the words as soon as they aired. So much for going easy on her. He blamed the medication. But, hell… Maybe it was time they got everything out in the open. He’d promised Nadia no holding back.

Claire lifted her chin. “You never would have quit on your own. You weren’t meant to run it.”

“Like hell. Ever since I was a kid you and Dad told me the business would be mine one day. You trained me to take over because you both knew Phil wasn’t capable. My whole life?—”

“Yes, yes. Your whole life was shaped around one role. You poor thing, you had a career others would die for—” She stalled, hand twitching when she realized what she’d just said. Her mouth pursed and she glanced away before a shadow passed over her eyes and her face slackened. She turned back to him, saying, “We expected too much from you. It wasn’t fair, the burden we put on you. We should have given you a choice.”

He gave her a sidewards glance. “I didn’t believe James when he told me.” She arched a brow. “You’ve gotten soft in your old age.” The past few days might have been cloudy, but Thomas did recall bits of what James shared with him of their mother’s visits with her grandkids.

Claire sniffed. “I paint too,” she said, refusing to take the insult. “Fancy that.”

That, James hadn’t shared.

Thomas relaxed into the mattress. He looked at the empty space where her finger had been under all the bandaging. “Sorry for what they did to you.”

Claire held up her hand and studied the gauze wrapping. “Good reason never to remarry. Can’t put a ring on it.”

He huffed a dry laugh, which only hurt his arm and he groaned. “Can’t believe you can joke about that.”

Claire touched his leg, worriedly glancing at the monitor beside the bed.

“I’m all right,” he reassured.

“You need more meds.”

“I’m sure the nurse will be by soon.” They rotated more efficiently than an F1 race team.

Thomas could hardly bring himself to ask, but he had to. “Phil…”

“Was a troubled boy, long before he discovered his parentage.” Claire looked at the floor then out the window. “I’m… not perfect. I grew up very lonely, and my brother took advantage of that. But I loved him, as strange as that might seem to you.”

“You don’t have to tell me this.” Claire’s relationship with his uncle made him queasy and he preferred to leave that part of the discussion untouched.

“I loved Phil, if that’s what you want to know.” She turned back to him and lifted her nose. “I could have done better with him. But that’s in the past now, something I’ll have to live with.”

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about what happened to him.”

She nodded tightly, studying the sheets on his bed like she wanted to know the thread count. “I should let you rest.”

Thomas knew when to change the subject. “I heard you and Natalya’s dad have a thing.”

“Don’t push it, young man.” She headed for the door.

Thomas coughed another laugh and grimaced. He was far from young. His body ached, often betraying his middle age, even when he wasn’t laid up in the hospital.

“Bye, Grammie.”

“I can still disown you.” Her voice trailed her from the room.

James reappeared, nudged aside by a nurse stopping in on her rounds. He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe.

Thomas groaned. “You’re still here?”

“Just making sure Mom didn’t suffocate you with a pillow. But yes,” he said, coming into the room. “I didn’t want to leave until you remembered that you were welcome to come visit Natalya and me, anytime.”

He blinked up at his brother. “Really?”