Chapter 0236


    Daniel stares at me, then, his whole face going red as he clenches his teeth. | freeze in my surprise, my eyes going wide. Never-


    ever have | seen Daniel lose his temper like this. He’s usually so even controlled, in his own way, like his dad. But as he res at


    me, shaking his head a little bit, his hands syed wide and tense on the table. | can see that he’s about to burst.


    | open my mouth, desperate to say something, to break the tension, looking around a little frantically, wnen | suddenly see Kent


    striding over to us.


    Daniel looks up at his father, transferring his rage to him now, but Kent just looks evenly down at his son. Not angry, not


    responding to his son’s temper, just perfectly calm.


    “Get it together, Daniel,” Kent says, his tone unwavering but also not unkind. “Don’t air your dirtyundry at the breakfast table.”


    And, to my shock, it works. | watch Daniel reel himself back in, almost physically, tucking his emotions away somewhere deep


    inside of myself, his face turning back to its normal color and bing again passive. And while I’m d that he’s not going to


    flip out on me, the therapist within me wails, a little, to see how practiced Daniel is at tucking those emotions away.


    Because it looks like it’s something he does on the daily. And one


    Chapter 236


    214


    day, all of those emotions are going toe out. | reach forward, then, taking his hand, looking at him with a great deal of


    empathy in my eyes. And Daniel leans back in his chair, staring down at himself, looking...just, so defeated.


    “Good,” Kent says, patting him on the shoulder and turning back to the galley. “I''ll get you two some breakfast.” And then he


    walks away.


    “Daniel,” | begin, as soon as he’s out of carshot. “I never meant to —”


    “But you did, Fay,” Daniel says, looking up at me, and my heart breaks to see that his eyes are lined with tears. “Like everyone


    else — you took his side.”


    “I''m still on your side,” | try to assure him, shaking my head earnestly. “I can do both —”


    “No,” he sighs, slipping his hand from beneath mine. “You can’t. Because his side is not my side.”


    I sigh, nodding, wanting to listen rather than correct. But Daniel doesn’t say anything else, just stares down at himself while we


    wait in silence for Kent to bring our food. When Kent does bring our food, | smile up at him, eager to break the tension at the


    table, but he just looks impassively at us as he slides the tes onto the table.


    “All right?” he asks, slipping his hands into his pockets and looking between us.


    3/4


    Daniel just nods, not moving or saying anything otherwise, and | nod too, still looking up at Kent.


    “Okay then,” Kent says, turning swiftly away from us. | blink at him a little in shock and then call his name out after him. Kent


    pauses


    for a second and thenes back to stand at the table, looking down at me, his face nk.


    “Um,” | say, suddenly awkward under his stare. Where was the man | wasughing with this morning? Who held me tight in his


    arms all night? “What am | supposed to do today?”


    “What?” he asks, apparently confused.Property of N?)(velDr(a)ma.Org.


    “You sent this dress,” | say, gesturing towards it. “| mean if you don’t have anything nned, you usually send riding clothes so |


    can go to the stables. So, am | going somewhere today...?”