Ryan blinked awkwardly when everyone in the room froze the mont he entered.
"Did I interrupt sothing?" he asked slowly, eyes shifting from Regina to Lucas, then to Naomi, who looked vaguely guilty.
Naomi cleared her throat, standing from her chair with a soft, "Hey," before walking over and adjusting the baby in her arms. "Sorry. I texted you to take him. We were just... in the middle of sothing."
Ryan’s gaze dropped to the baby now nestled snugly in Naomi’s arms. "Right. Of course." He stepped closer, instinctively quieting his voice. "You okay?"
Naomi nodded. "Yeah. Just... give a second."
She looked at her son, pressing a gentle kiss to his head before whispering sothing only he could hear. Then, with a final glance toward Eryx, she passed the baby to Ryan.
"I’ll take him down to the garden," Ryan said, now catching the tense atmosphere that hadn’t eased since he walked in. "Text when you’re done."
Naomi gave a small, grateful smile. Ryan exited with their son, leaving the door to shut softly behind him.
The room held its breath again.
Eryx’s voice broke through, hoarse and impatient. "Okay. Can soone please explain what’s going on? What the hell happened to ? And tell , tell everything that I need to know?"
Lucas clicked his tongue, "Said soone who’s refused to wake up." He walked, pulled the chair to sit down and looked straight to Eryx, "Honestly, if you are that weak, why act tough the whole ti?"
Eryx frowned as he couldn’t get the sarcasm at all. "What do you an?"
"I an...after being stabbed, the doctor said, you and your brain, refused to wake up." Lucas leaned to the chair.
Eryx blinked. "I wasn’t refusing... I was...I was..." He stopped, unsure himself.
Lucas raised a brow. "Yeah, but not like... entirely. That’s the weird part. You were in so kind of limbo. Like your brain was actively choosing not to wake up. Even the doctors didn’t get it. Physically, you should’ve co back weeks...months...ago."
"That’s not possible," Eryx muttered.
Naomi crossed her arms, her expression more tired than angry. "They said it wasn’t dical. It was psychological. Like sothing in you was too scared or too stubborn to co back. We didn’t want to believe it either at first."
Eryx’s gaze bounced between them, a cold weight settling in his chest. "You refused to wake up? You think I chose to—?"
"No," Regina said softly, her voice breaking through the tension. "We think sothing inside you couldn’t bear to face everything waiting on the other side."
Eryx flinched at that. "I—" His voice caught, too dry. "I don’t rember much. It’s all... flashes. Dreams. Her voice, sotis. But I didn’t think—"
Lucas shook his head. "I’m not blaming you. I’m just telling you the truth."
The silence that followed wasn’t accusing. It was heavy. Full of things no one had been ready to say aloud until now.
Then Regina stepped closer to him, "I guess there is one thing that I am supposed to do the first thing you wake up, or maybe, I should do it long ago..." he gulped, looking straight at her first born, "I’m sorry for putting all the burden on you, pushed the harshness I received toward you and raising you in tough without much love."
Eryx’s throat tightened. He turned his head slightly, searching her face as if he hadn’t heard her right. "What...?"
Regina took another step, her usually composed posture trembling just enough to betray the emotion she’d buried for decades. "You were just a boy, Eryx. And I made you feel like you had to be a man from the mont you could walk. I thought I was protecting you. But the truth is... I was punishing you. For things that had nothing to do with you."
She paused, then whispered, "For things your father did. For what I lost. For what Matilda expected to be. I poured it all into shaping you into sothing unbreakable, and I... I never once stopped to think if you were breaking quietly all along."
Lucas looked away. Naomi’s hand went instinctively to her mouth, her eyes glistening.
Eryx blinked slowly. His voice was hoarse. "Why now?"
"Because I almost thought I lost you," Regina said, her voice cracking. "And when I watched Lunara sit by your side every day... loving you so gently, so fully, it hit . You didn’t need to be shaped into soone strong. You already were. You just needed to be loved for it."
The room went still again.
For a second, Eryx couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t speak. His mind felt like it was clawing through mories he didn’t want to revisit, mories of being scolded instead of comforted, told to man up instead of cry, to achieve more instead of rest.
And yet here she was. His mother. Apologizing.
Eryx’s lips parted, moving, but nothing ca out from it.
He stared at her, the woman who had always been more steel than warmth, more command than comfort and for a mont, he didn’t see his mother. He saw the shadow of the boy he used to be. Sitting up straighter at the dinner table so she wouldn’t snap. Swallowing tears in silence because she never tolerated weakness. Aching for her approval even when he pretended not to care.
And now... here she was.
Softer. Smaller. Human.
"I wanted you to be proud of ," he finally whispered, voice rough. "That’s all I ever wanted."
Regina’s shoulders shook as she reached for him, but hesitated midair, unsure if she had the right. "I am, I am always proud of you."
But Eryx closed the distance first. His hand found hers, clumsy and trembling. A quiet, fragile forgiveness.
"Thank you," she said, so softly he almost didn’t hear it. "For staying... and thank you for surviving all the harshness you received the mont you stepped into Grantham’s mansion."
The whole room went quiet, and Regina, whose words had caught in her throat, began to tremble with emotion. Her eyes reddened, blinking fast, but it wasn’t long before the dam broke.
She burst into tears.
Not the kind she could hide behind a tissue or wave off with a sharp comnt. These were raw, unfiltered sobs—twenty-so years of guilt, regret, and buried softness finally clawing their way to the surface.
Naomi lowered her gaze, biting her lip. Lucas turned away slightly, blinking toward the window as if he needed sowhere to look that wouldn’t wreck him.
Eryx didn’t move.
He just held her hand tighter.
For once, there was no need to fill the silence with words.
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