Rhys Hawking
I loved my family, I did. But I knew I'd be badgered this Thanksgiving in two ways. One by my father who is a pest about my dynastic plans and my mother who wants me to settle.
I'd never brought a girl home to them. My brother had introduced several girlfriends. He's fresh out of college and still dating the same girl from freshman year. If anyone will be badgered it would be him and Lydia.
Driving down the roads of Brookeville felt weird. This is where I grew up but yet I never felt more disconnected. I graduated college a year early as I was already working my way up during those years. I never made it back home, I went straight for the city.
I mostly did it to avoid my father and his plans for me. He was proud of what I'd done on my own but I still owed everything to my family. How it always was, but Adira.
She was always an escape, even if she couldn't be mine. She was my best friend and the only woman who'd get a speck of my attention. I hated Jace for how he was with her. So when he gave me his drunk confession on Kate.
I wouldn't let it happen. I couldn't just swallow it down and act like it was nothing. I was in love with Adira the second I saw her but I had to put those emotions aside to tell her the truth. I didn't want it to be so she'd run into my arms. I let her choose her own decisions, I'd always be here for her.
Even if she found another man besides me. I'd hold her hand through the heartbreak because I loved her. I always just wanted her to look at me and see it, then she did. The moment I've been waiting for the past eight years.
As I reached the secluded driveway I dreaded making it up to those front steps. Holidays never went smooth sailing when we were all under one roof.
I'm just glad Adira wouldn't have to be here for it, that she doesn't know our family business. My mother was always there for her children, she didn't care about her role within the family. She just cares about her two sons. My father cared about us but put his role first, one that he presumed me to take up.
It was a life that Adira hadn't been introduced to. Sure she'd met my mother a handful of times on parent's weekends and game days. But not my father, he was a private man for his safety.
The gates opened and security stood their ground as I pulled the car in front. Stepping out a man took my keys and I scrapped my shoes dragging them down the cobblestone.
The doors open for me and as I step inside I hear my mother laughing about something in the other room with guests. Thanksgiving was a holiday she loved to host.
"Mr.Hawking" My father's right-hand man exited the living room to see me. Arik was a few years older than me, but his company was always one I enjoyed.
"Arik, is my father brew-ding with my arrival?" He nods sighing as he turns to peak back in the room.
"You've been avoiding your duties, Rhys? I don't think he's quite pleased" I take the glass of scotch from his hand and down it, today would be long. Tomorrow would be even longer with a hangover.
"I have a life in New York I'm not giving that up, Porter is here for a reason?" I hear a slight gasp and look to see my mother in eyeshots. Her face brightens as she spots me and excuses herself from the unknown couple she was conversing with.
Springing towards me she wraps her arms around me tight, "Il mio bambino!" Stepping back she scans me as she does each time we see each other.
"Are you going to be like this every time I see you?" She shrugs.
"Maybe if you came home more often I wouldn't have to! You and Porter leave your poor mother alone?" Two arms wrap around her and Lydia rolls her eyes.
"Jennie we love you! We just have lives to live?" My mother huffs at her words and Lydia mouths a 'hello' to me, "I also think I burnt the stuffing" As she grimaces my mother immediately rushes to the kitchen.
"It's not even dinner and you're already fucking up the meal?" Nodding she gives me a high five and I pull her into a hug, "Where's my brother?"
"Fighting with your dad" Sounded just about right. Lydia was the little sister I never had, she knew all about Adira. She'd met her at a few lacrosse games my senior year and instantly knew.
She pushed her boundaries by budging me about it only being a few months in with Porter. But she saw it from a mile away and chirped me for standing by and letting her go.
I just wanted Adira to be happy.
"Would it be Thanksgiving if we weren't all fighting?"
"Mmm the Greeks and the Italians together on holiday, I wouldn't expect anything less?" Excusing herself she heads to find my distraught mother fixing whatever mess Lydia made.
I'm greeted by aunts and uncles as I enter the den. Being swarmed with questions was expected as I came home. Though it was only a two-hour drive from the city, it seemed as if I lived across the country.
But the worst was the questions about my love life, or when my future endeavors in it would begin. My father planned my life out before I was even born, but yet I seemed to weave my way out slowly. Choosing my own college, friends, and career and yet he still supported my decisions.
"Have you and your father been to Corfu yet to begin your training?" My Aunt Julia was one to be nosey, but she mostly just cared. She was my father's sister she escaped his life by being a woman. Which I deem sexist and unfair, she never wanted it though.
"I haven't."
With those two words, heads turned my way. I have avoided every single responsibility so far with being a Hawking. Slowly waiting for my father to turn his head to Porter. He had Lydia and he was set up for the job.
I wouldn't be the next Don. That was a job built for Porter, "What do you mean you haven't, you're twenty-six are you not?" Aunt Julie badgers me again.
"Twenty-seven" I speak and this time my throat is cleared.
"Dinner is ready!" My mother announces and with that, a jab is felt in my side.
"Save by the bell" I turned to see Porter chuckling as I looked at him annoyed.
"Not by you, you haven't convinced Dad to take you to Corfu?"
"I'm twenty-four, I have to be twenty-five for the chance. It's a waiting game, you've been doing a good job keeping him out of your hair. Because he didn't mention you once in our fight."
I hated putting my brother on this path. But he wanted it, he always had. My life wasn't simple and wasn't small for sure. But I didn't want it to be bigger than it was, I had control over other things that needed my attention. It wasn't a job for me and I amended that to my father many times.
"Let's eat whatever mom burned."
"Aren't Italians usually good cooks?" I mused.
"She'd kill you if she heard that. Come on thanksgiving is no Italian dish, not one thing" I turned to enter the dining room following our family members. The absence of my cousins was no surprise.
Most were traveling or they'd stay on campus for the holiday. But that's as due to the avoidance of my father, he was warm to his sons but not to most. He'd basically pick apart my cousin Colin for being an idiot in the tabloids.
But it was no surprise that my seat was beside him and across from my mother. Usually, in a household like mine, you would presume the wife would take the other end of the table. But she loved sitting next to my father and beside Porter, which was something I admired about her. She didn't mind much of social standards as a wife of a don.
She sacrificed herself from her family for my father. She hadn't seen her sister since the day before her wedding, and she was the closest person in my mom's life.
I'd never met any of them, I don't try to. But sometimes my mom would tell me the stories, she loved them. She grew up in a tiny village in Italy but when she finished college she took a trip to the States to meet my father.
"Thanks for the meal Mama" She shrugged with a smile as she took her seat. Another thing, usually chefs would usually prepare the Thanksgiving dinner. But she always wanted it to truly be home-cooked.
Then his voice boasted down the hall "You know it will be good when Jennie makes it" My father stepped in and immediately caught my gaze. Words unspoken sifted between those dark eyes.
"Rhys?" He almost seemed surprised by my presence though I make it to every holiday.
"Father" I stood shaking his hand before he sat and then he began to carve the turkey.
The beginning of the dinner went smoothly as people talked and I observed. My mothers never never-ending hints as to when Porter and Lydia would be engaged were thrown in as guessed. Lydia just blushed as Porter sat flustered. Of course, he'd never tell my mother, she'd spoil the whole thing.
"So, when do you plan on meeting Cressida?" The first words my father spoke to me obviously left me icy and the room silent.
As my gaze shifted on him, I knew he wouldn't find excuses worth his time, "I won't be."
"You are to marry her, we've already had this discussion, son. I've dealt with all your bullshit and avoidance but Cressida and you are to be wed and produce an heir" My gaze sets on Porter who shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"These two can give you an heir, you made a plan for me as a fetus. I have my own plans now" He scoffed at me shaking his head as he grew more impatient with me.
I was signed into a dynastic plan as a birthright to a girl I'd never met. My father made a deal with a partner, and even though that man was dead. He still intends to keep his word to save her from financial ruin. I didn't understand why he wouldn't just pay the girl off herself. Why he needed me to do so will never make sense to me.
"I'm done with this game, you must marry. It's a responsibility you have for this family, Porter is different and you know that. This is your job, you can avoid all you want it's only because I care about you" I wanted to laugh until my lungs hurt, he didn't know what I needed or wanted.
He never even met my friends or knew much of my personal life. But he dared to try and control it, he wasn't the worst father growing up in ways. We never skipped on holidays or exposed us to bad shit when we were younger. But he wasn't there for birthdays or the things that counted.
I didn't have much of a childhood besides the holidays. They sunk me into education and schools where the trauma lingered. It was the neglect from him that made my exterior more icey to his presence.
"I don't want to marry Cressida okay?" His fork slammed against the table with my words.
"Rhys you have to-"
"I'm going to marry another woman who I hope someday you will gain your approval under. But for now, I'll remain unmarried until then."
"I'm done with this charade Rhys. You can't lie your way to freedom, I made a promise to Arthur with Cressida, I owe him."
"You owe him someone, but that's not me. It's not a lie but I won't force my hand on her. I've wanted to be with this girl for nine years and I won't be leaving her now that my daddy said so" The room sat uncomfortably with my words.
But curiosity lingered against the three faces across from me. But with the look on Lydia's face, it's like she already knew. Impatience filled her along with my mother.
Then my mother breaks, "Darling why on earth is she not here for Thanksgiving? If you are to marry her, why isn't she here!" Porter rolled his eyes at her as she spoke.
"She probably is spending it with her family mother. They are probably questioning why Rhys isn't at their Thanksgiving?"
They weren't.
"Precisely" But I knew Porter, the second dinner was over I'd be cornered and questioned.
"I must approve" His voice cuts in again as I stare at him, "If she is to be your wife, to take on responsibilities I have to approve" He would never approve and Adira wouldn't have that role.
"She works for NASA, she's got a life of her own. I'm sure Porter would be happy to take the job off my hands so I can live with my wife away from this" Silence followed as I continued with my meal.
"Well I'm thankful for the food and family and... oh! Jimmy Choos" Lydia cuts in and I can't help but want to laugh. She always knew how to make light of awkward situations.
"Amen," My Uncle George adds.
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The patio door creaks and I look to see him confused, "So remind me how you have a wife on the way and I was not informed" I puff out the smoke from my lips as I hand the cigar to him.
"It's been a month, but I've known for years" Sinking across from me for a moment he stares in thought and then it registers.
"Holy shit" I nod.
"Sometimes playing the long game works out brother, you were right Porter. I wish it was us years ago, but she stayed with that dick. I still want to kill him." A smirk forms on his face as he just listens, he hates Jace as well.
"Do it" He jests, "I'll cover your ass" No matter what my feelings were, I knew killing Jace wouldn't bring Adira justice. In fact, I think it would cause less mercy in her life.
"I don't want to fuck it up, I knew I'd never marry Cressida. She belongs at bimbo summit, it doesn't hold a candle to Adira" He sighs in agreement, but he knows my father was stone. He didn't like anyone especially if being forced or asked to.
"Get her pregnant, then you'll have to get married" His words leave me silent, disgusted, and slightly disappointed.
I could never do that to Adira, betray her like that. Our relationship needed trust and not betrayal. It would be slow but the things you want the most are earned and worth waiting for.
"I'd never do that to her, that's sick of you to suggest. She's going through so much, you know what happened with the wedding" A smirk grows against his face.
"Yeah, you devious dawg" He laughed at me as I sat frustrated, I could never take him seriously.
"Figured out what I'm thankful for and it's that I only have to see you sparingly" Chuckling he passes the cigar back to me.
"You've loved her for years, I'm sure she shares the sentiments. I mean god the way she looked at you, Jace was an idiot and a scared one" His words left me confused as I sat.
"Adira has loved you for years, he only proposed because Tatum accidentally told him. Why do you think you were the best man, salt in the wound brother? He knew, he always knew but wanted Adira selfishly."
"How do you know this? Who would tell my brother instead of me and why on earth would you keep it from me?"
"I wasn't stepping in, this wasn't my place. Stiles told me years ago, she doesn't even remember it" He stared at me for a moment and then sat up slightly, "She was drunk with Stiles at Tatum's beach house. Everyone had gone out to dinner and they stayed in with wine and a movie. She drank the whole bottle full and told Stiles everything. All of it, I have the page 6 version."
I wanted to know the full story and why Porter would know but not me. My own best friends kept this from me for years. Maybe they didn't want to betray Jace by telling me the truth, but I didn't care. I deserved the truth.
"What do you mean?"
"She loved Jace in high school? You were different, older, and mature. It was college and your friends probably didn't want to overstep, she chose Jace, and then... she chose you."
She chose me.
"I mean I saw pictures of her at that rehearsal dinner, she was white as a ghost. Lydia said she had never seen a more uncomfortable bride-to-be. Then I got a call from Beck that the bride and you were missing. But I thought, hey my brother would tell me. I guess we both have a lot of surprises. We are even?"
"Even? You kept that from me for years"
"Imagine if I didn't? What would you be together, would she have left Jace with no reason?"
"I would've been the reason" He shook his head.
"Adira is a kind soul, she needed a reason to leave she would've sucked it up for her family. I let it resolve itself, now cherish the girl. I swear if you fuck it up I'll kill you after Jace."
"I hate your Porter."
"I hate you too."
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