Chapter 129

That silver is going to kill Neil?!

I don’t wait for any more explanation, I don’t wait for anything at all. Instead, I go to Mia, take her from her playpen, and bring her with me straight to Neil’s door.

I knock once, but it’s unlocked so I barge my way in without waiting for a reply.

Neil is sitting at his desk. He startles as I burst my way in. “Chloe?”

I walk straight to his side. He’s sitting in his office chair and has to tilt his head upward to look at me.

“Steven confirmed it,” I say. There’s no use pulling any punches. “If you don’t get that silver out of you, you are going to die.”

His surprise falls away and he returns his focus to his paperwork on his desk. “You are being dramatic.”

Dramatic?! It’s his life! “No, this is dramatic.” I place one arm on the desk in front of him and swoop all of the papers off of it. Some flutter in the air before falling down. Mia claps happily at the excitement, and even makes a grab at one of them. She misses entirely.

Neil catches what he can and returns them to his desk. Then he stands, pushing out his chair behind him. Like this, I have to look up at him now, a situation we’re probably both more used to. He’s glaring at me, but I’m not about to apologize.

“We’re talking about your life, Neil. It’s not fucking dramatic to care about whether you live or die.”

The anger in his eyes slowly dims. “You are going to clean up this mess.” He waves to the assortment of fallen papers around us. I haven’t forgotten that he’s so neat and tidy all the time. It’s probably driving him up the wall to see such disorder.

“No one will care about the mess if you are dead.”

He lifts a hand and rubs at his forehead. He’s annoyed with me. Good. If he can’t be convinced into seeing a doctor, then maybe I can annoy him into it instead.

“I know,” he says, and it’s so abrupt, I feel like I’ve got whiplash.

“What?”

He lowers his hand and looks at me fully. His eyes are no less tired than the other night. He looks like a zombie.

“I know the silver will eventually kill me.”

He… does? Then why…?

He must see the question in my face. “I’m fully confident that my father will call off this whole punishment before it gets that far.”

Maybe Neil could be confident about that, but I sure as hell wasn’t. Their father was a man who constantly berated all of them. And Neil had it the worst. I’d seen the brunt of the punishments before, when Neil came back battered and broken.

Murder was a short step away from torture. Their father wouldn’t even have to try all that hard to do it. He could just go on vacation or something and forget about his oldest son for a while.

“To hell with your father,” I say. “Save yourself, Neil. Who cares if he approves of it or not? It’s your life.”

“I’m nothing if not a dutiful and diligent son,” Neil says, frowning. “My father wishes to teach me a lesson, and I must be steadfast in learning it. I will see this punishment through.”

“Bullshit,” I say, then snap my mouth closed, glancing at Mia. I look at Neil again. “Bull… turds.”

Neil gives me a flat, unimpressed look. He sighs. “I appreciate your concern, but there is nothing to worry about.”

Neil steps closer, he looks down at Mia. He lifts a hand as if to caress Mia’s cheek. But the minute his fingers get close, her entire body shuffles back like he struck her and she screams.

Neil immediately backs up.

I swirl on my heel, pulled Mia more firmly into my embrace. I bounce her some, but Neil’s distance is what truly seems to be easing up the waterworks.

Neil looks at me and then at Mia, and there is heartbreak in his face. “I didn’t…”

I know he didn’t. He didn’t even touch her! Let alone hit her like she acted!

Unless… “It’s the silver?” I say, unsure.

His eyes go wide. He looks down at his hands.

I’ve never met anyone with silver poisoning before, let alone someone with as severe a case as Neil’s. But even I can piece together that a vulnerable little baby like Mia might be able to feel the silver on him.

It might even be enough to hurt her.

“I never meant to…”

“I know,” I say, because he looks genuinely upset. I want him to understand that I know. It’s not his fault. Well, mostly not his fault. If he would just get that damned silver out of him. “You can’t watch her like this.”

He nods at once. “Yes. I… The schedule.” He turns toward his desk and wades through his disheveled paperwork. He’s a bit manic in his movements, likely from the fear and the hurt. He shuffles and shuffles, but he can’t find the schedule. Maybe it’s on the floor…

He stops only to push his fingers through his hair. He looks like he’s on the verge of a panic attack. That had not been my intension when I threw his paperwork on the ground and I’m starting to feel bad about it.

“I can watch her more, it’s okay,” I say. “And I’m sure the others can pick up the load as well. Until you are better.”

He nods, and his face calms somewhat.

“But I will never stop trying to change your mind about this,” I say.

He nods again, and looks at me. “And I will never be convinced.”

I always admired his determination, but I kind of hate it now. I feel like I’m beating my head against the wall, or shouting into a void.

But since there’s nothing more I can do, I turn and leave him.

The next day, I head to brunch with Angela. She was surprised to get my invitation text, but happily accepted. When I get to the café, she’s already sitting at a table. I plop down into the chair across from her and waste no time.

“Hi, Chloe –”

“Neil has silver poisoning,” I say.

Angela nearly drops her fork. She catches it at the last minute, but the end still clatters against her plate. “What?”

I quickly fill her in: about his father’s punishment, about the silver, about how Neil refuses to have it removed.

By the time I finish, she’s placed her fork down totally at the side of her plate and wiped her mouth with her napkin. I expect her to be more urgent. She is concerned, I can see it in the downward curl of her lips and the downcast slant of her gaze.

But she isn’t doing or saying anything.

“I’m sure from your explanation, you’ve already surmised that the Hayes patriarch is… unkind… to his children. Neil especially,” she says.

“Yes, I know,” I grumble. Give me five minutes alone with that asshole. That’s all I’d need.

“Then I’m also sure you know that Neil would let his father torture him without complaint.”

I grimace. “Yes.”

Angela frowns down at her half-eaten pancakes. She doesn’t say anything else.

I tried of waiting after a few seconds and ask her outright. “So, you’ll help me convince him to get the silver removed? Regardless of what his father wants? He’s so stubborn, but maybe if it comes from both of us…”

“No,” Angela says, and my brain skids to a stop.

I must have misheard, so I clarify, “’No?’”

Angela looks at me. There’s pity in her eyes, but it’s not enough. Not by far.

“I can’t help you.”