"I'm alright mum."
"You're not alright!" She yelled exasperated. "I don't want to lose you like I lost my dad, Ruby, don't do this to yourself and to me and to Rhett. You're 26, you're too young, you lived nothing yet. You should have called me."
Fuck, "Mum, I'm okay."
"Stop," she cried. "You're not. Is it getting worse?"
"No, mum, I'm fine. I just... went through a lot of overwhelming stress."
"You haven't been taking your meds," she accused me.
I felt cornered, "Mum,"
"You haven't. You promised you would," she cried.
"Mum, they make me numb, I can't write when I'm numb."
"Then stop bloody writing!" She yelled and I flinched.
"I can't, mum, I've barely written at all," I felt my head aching again.
"You wrote more than 20 books since 2019, Ruby, we're in 2026, that's a lot!"
"I haven't written enough," I groaned.
"Ruby," she held my face with both her hands, "think of Rhett, of me."
"I won't die, okay? I know my limits, I'm okay!"
Mum clenched her jaw, clearly wanting to fight it, but stopped, "We're fucked."
Where did that come from? "What?"
"We're fucked," she groaned. "You are phenomenally fucked."
"What mindset is that?" I gasped in utter dismay.
"You were with Leah Reid last night, wasn't you?"
What? "Yes? She's Lloyd's mum, he's Rhett's best friend."
She fought over something, opening and closing her lips, "She's an influencer."
"She's an event planner, mum."
"She's a socialite, an influencer, and an event planner, all together."
I'm not following. "Yes, and?"
Passing her right hand over her auburn hair that was cut over her shoulders, mum let out a huff, "Leah Reid posted pictures of you, Rhett, her, Neville, Lloyd, and the twins, on Instagram, where she's followed by 32 million people. People that include, Rhyot Crowther and Niklaus Crowther."
"Niklaus is a Crowther?" The question skipped my lips before I could help it.
She narrowed her eyes, "How do you know Niklaus? You didn't go to Harvard."
"Wait," I frowned, "how do you know Niklaus, mum?"
"You do remember I was married to your father until you were 10, right? And that until then, I was part of the close link the Sinnott had with the Crowther?" What is she saying? "I met the twins and Adeline's mum, and their mum's best friend, as well as their father's triplet brother."
"What the fuck?" My jaw dropped, "Their father is a triplet? Not an only son?"
Mum smacked the side of my head and I cried, "In what world are you living?"
"Ouch, mum, that hurt," I cried, actually cried, with tears.
"Snap out of it, Ruby, get back to the real world, darling. Jesus Christ. Morris is the older triplet of Mason and Madeleine Crowther, Ruby. Morris Crowther married Rowena Warner, with whom he had Adeline in May of 1995, Rhyot and Hayes in October of 1997. Rowena was the heiress of an old money family from Las Vegas, from the mafia there, her marriage with Morris was an arrangement for power, they married a year before me and your father did."
All I could think of was that, his name is actually Rhyot Warner Crowther.
"Rowena didn't come alone, she moved to Boston together with her childhood best friend and right arm, Ava Hiraizumi, the daughter of the right arm of her father, also part of the mafia. Ava fell in love with Mason Crowther, Morris' younger twin brother who hated him, they married in the same year I married your father, but we married in December and they married earlier in August, and from that marriage, they had Niklaus in November of 1997."
Shite, so, Niklaus is Rhyot's cousin!
"Morris cheated on Rowena with his personal assistant Melody Smith, when she learned about through me, she murdered Melody, and that caused their divorce, which ended with Rowena taking full guardianship of Adeline, while Morris took full guardianship of the twins. They were 13 and 11 at the time, and as it happened in late November of 2008, you were 8. When Rowena went back to Las Vegas, Ava followed her with her loyal husband Mason and their son. Niklaus was the only friend I ever remember Rhyot having, and after they got separate because of the divorce, that also took his mum and sister, and his uncle and aunt, all that he was closer to than Morris and Hayes himself, he changed."
"He began to get angry, and act on his anger, and Morris, the bastard, made him hang on his anger, made him use it, weaponize, which made him a very, very troublesome child. Rhyot was always quiet, silent, introverted, much like his mum and his uncle Mason, he remained like that, except he wasn't quiet no more, not with anger, and his behavior began to push everyone away. I remember that much very clearly before my divorce with your father in,"
"December 13th of 2010," I said through clenched teeth.
Sighing, she pressed her forehead on mine, "He was raised as part of the mafia in a way Hayes wasn't, Ruby, he has the rage of a natural disaster. Like you."
I swallowed, "I don't... I don't get where you're going, mum."
Cursing under her breath, she cupped my cheeks, "I hate to do this."
"Do... what?" I frowned, confused.
"Look, I know that you want nothing to with your father, and Cole, and your half siblings, darling, but I'm still Cole's mum, and despite despising him, given how he treated me all those years, I still care enough to keep tabs on them. And," she inhaled deeply, looking anxious, "Cole is bisexual, he's engaged to Hayes Crowther, and apparently, Hayes... was... born infertile, just like his aunt Madeleine, and his sister Adeline. Which means, Rhett's father is Rhyot, and he acted like he was Hayes, he's the one you fell in love for, the one who bathed before your classes, and the one you fucked twice."
Oh, shite. Was I the only one who... didn't know that? "Since when?"
She blinked, "Since when what?"
"Since when did you know that?"
Mum bit her bottom lip, "I've know ever since Rhett's 8th birthday," I felt sick. "But, you refused to talk about it, and I didn't know how to tell you it was actually Rhyot and not Hayes."
What the fuck? What... "The fuck?"
"Ruby, calm down, breathe."
"Why..."
She caressed my shoulders, "Calm down, I can't have you collapsing."
"Did you... did you keep it from me, because you thought... I was weak?"
"No!" She gasped horrified.
"So, you didn't keep it from because you thought I would collapse in a seizure?"
Mum went dead silent and I felt my knees weak, "Ruby."
"Why... why are you telling me this now?" I gasped.
"Because, Rhyot will come for you. Leah posted the photos of you together, Rhett is the spitting image of him, he will know it's his son the second his eyes lay on him, and he will come for you. For you both. Fuck, he could already be in London by now," she cried exasperated. "He's dangerous, and he could,"
The door I was holding close opened up and I would have fallen to the ground, given how I was grounding myself in it, had it not been for Rhys' strong arm catching me as I fell, "I am in London, yes, aunt Cinthya," he scoffed, taking me in his arms again. "And I'm not dangerous to Ruby, I'm dangerous to everyone who tries to keep me away from her and our son, to everyone who tries to harm them, and me. I'm here to stay and I'm not going anywhere, so you can choose to swallow me, or, go against me, but I advise you that the later won't end well."