He was quiet for a moment. “So what you’re saying is Lee’s soul recognizes that Kelsey is his daughter. And they didn’t have a relationship when old Lee was alive. His soul has unfinished business with her.”
“I think we meet the same souls over and over again as we move through existence. Kelsey and Lee recognize each other. You are something different. You’ve just started your journey. We’re the first souls yours has ever encountered, and the one you trusted most in all the world left you.”
“You can’t know I trusted you most.”
He wasn’t remembering our circumstances. “Yes, I can because I was with you last week, Rhys. You were eleven and you had a bad day at school and you didn’t want to talk about it. So I watched some anime show with you and you leaned against me and after a while you got tired and laid down with your head on my lap and you finally told me that some of the kids were bullying you. I’m your mom. If I’m not the person you trusted most in the world when you were a child, then I did something terribly wrong.”
He went quiet for a moment. “I remember that day. And if you had gone through my other pack, the one I take with me when we go on missions, well, you would have found the last note you left me. It was in the backpack I had on me when we went on the run. I’ve kept it all these years.”
I had slipped the note into his backpack because they were serving pizza in the cafeteria and he liked to buy lunch on pizza days. “The funny thing is I don’t remember exactly what I wrote. It was something about standing up to them, right?”
“‘I love you and I’m proud to call you my son. You are a prince and a brother. A son and a friend. You have power and you will use it for good.’” He sighed. “It was a lot for an eleven-year-old, but I needed it then. I still do.”
“I never meant to leave you. If I could change it, I would. If I could go back and stay there, I would change everything to stay with you. I would send your dad through and survive these years with you and Lee and Evan.” I sniffled because I meant every word. I would give up that time with Summer, give it to Daniel and Dev not because I didn’t hold it precious, but because my other children had been so young. They’d needed one of us. “I hope Lee gets here soon because my tears are freezing as they come out and it’s uncomfortable.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought you here until I was sure. Though you are the one who pushed the matter. Is it so important you talk to them?”
“I had another reason to look for them. It was important to spend time with you,” I admitted. “I can’t spend time with Evan, and Lee seems to be surprisingly all right. You’re the one who shuts me out. I know I should be patient, but that has never been my strong point.”
“I’m not trying to shut you out, but you have to understand that I’m not a little boy anymore. And I would think you would need to spend more time with Lee. After all, you have a heist to plan with him. I’m surprised you haven’t holed up with Lee and Grandad. They do that from time to time. They go off on fishing trips.”
“And they don’t take you?” That would bug Rhys on several levels. He would be upset that he’d been left out and that Shy was spending time with Lee and not him. Even if it wasn’t really Shy.
“They’ve offered, but I find my relationship with Grandad uncomfortable, to say the least,” Rhys admitted. “I’m attracted to Shy in a way I never have been with another woman. And honestly, Grandad never has known what to do with me. I’m not half the thief Lee is. He always liked those lessons of Grandad’s, and I was happier helping Christine with her garden. I will admit that all those lessons came in handy. Lee is a good thief. He’ll make you proud.”
“He taught Lee because he thought Lee was human.”
“He did that because he saw himself in Lee,” Rhys corrected. “He saw Papa in me. It’s fine. I dealt with the fact that I was on the outside a very long time ago. Lee was the fragile human and Evan was the daughter you always wanted.”
“Rhys, you can’t think that way.”
“I don’t see why not,” he replied. “It’s the truth. Everyone worried about Lee not fitting in and Evan walking around like a glowing ball of light for any vampire to find. I was the easy one to forget because one day I would be given to the Fae.”