Chapter 6 - THE NIGHT WE ASKED HER NOT TO LEAVE
Eleanor packed anyway.
That made it worse.
One suitcase.
Same one she'd arrived with.
Jamie sat outside her room crying.
Theo leaned against the wall.
Roman paced.
I stood in the doorway.
“You can't go.”
Eleanor folded a sweater.
“Your father dismissed me.”
“He was angry.”
“So were you when you broke Mason's nose.”
Low blow.
Accurate.
“We can change his mind.”
“This isn't about winning.”
“Then what?”
She stopped packing.
“Your father has to decide whether people in this house are allowed to disagree with him without being removed.”
I said nothing.
“If I stay because four boys threaten rebellion, nothing changes.”
Roman muttered:
“We could make it very unpleasant.”
She looked at him.
“I know.”
He shut up.
Jamie whispered:
“Did we break you?”
Eleanor's face changed immediately.
She knelt.
“No.”
“You said we wouldn't.”
“You didn't.”
“Then why go?”
“Because staying somewhere should be a choice.”
Jamie cried harder.
Eleanor hugged him only after he moved toward her.
Then Dad appeared.
Nobody had heard him.
He looked at his sons.
Then Eleanor's suitcase.
Finally:
“I was wrong.”
Roman whispered:
“What?”
Dad glared.
“I am capable of saying it once.”
Eleanor stood.
“That won't be enough.”
I nearly laughed.
Dad looked exhausted.
“No.”
He nodded.
“It won't.”
Then he did something I had never seen.
He apologized without explaining himself.
“I was angry that Declan trusted you before me.”
Silence.
“I blamed you for that instead of asking why.”
He looked toward me.
“I am still his father.”
“Yes,” Eleanor said.
“But that title is a relationship, not a security clearance.”
Roman made a choking sound because he was trying not to laugh.
Dad ignored him.
“What would it take for you to stay?”
Eleanor thought.
“Written authority over household decisions during work hours.”
Dad blinked.
“Meaning?”
“If one of them breaks a rule, you don't overturn the consequence because you're tired.”
“Fine.”
“Scheduled evenings with your sons.”
His eyebrows rose.
“They need appointments now?”
“They already have them. You call them meetings.”
I looked away so Dad wouldn't see me smiling.
“And?”
“No firing employees while angry.”
Dad almost objected.
Then:
“Reasonable.”
“And therapy.”
Every male Cavanaugh in the hallway reacted.
Eleanor crossed her arms.
“All five of you.”
Dad stared.
“You're negotiating psychiatric treatment into an employment contract?”
“Yes.”
Long silence.
Then Julian Cavanaugh nodded.
“Stay.”
Eleanor looked at us.
Jamie held his breath.
Theo did too.
Finally:
“Six months.”
Jamie smiled.
Roman exhaled.
I felt something in my chest unclench.
Dad said:
“We'll revisit after six.”
Eleanor picked up her suitcase.
“I'll unpack tomorrow.”
Jamie immediately grabbed it.
“I'll do it.”
May you like
She smiled.
For the first time, I understood that staying meant more because she was allowed to leave.
