Episode 394: All Eyes

"It’s so good to have you here, Sebastian," his mother, Katherine said. "We’ve missed you so much."

Sebastian simply nodded. He had missed the idea of parents and family, a safety net. But he had not missed the unsafe feeling in the pit of his stomach throughout his mother’s affair when he was a teenager. Or the unsafe feeling whenever his father threatened to cut him off.

And now he was walking back into that world with much higher stakes if the cash flow stopped coming in. Ava’s future happiness depended on having the money to locate Xavier, to kick her life out of neutral.

"It’s nice to see you two here together," his father noted, a smug edge to his voice, undoubtedly congratulating himself for manipulative matchmaking well done.

"Sebastian’s been a great friend to me," Ava replied, her eyes promising him that she did not blame him for the fact that she’d needed a great friend.

"Yeah, we reconnected at the restaurant where we work," he paused to let the idea of his son busting tables sink in with dad. "And we’ve been living together ever since." He turned to Ava, a silent promise that he knew they weren’t really together. But for his father’s benefit, to keep him from knowing they would be using his money to find Xavier, potentially to break the prodigal son’s heart. Not exactly an investment any parent would want to make.

So for the near future in front of his parents, he and Ava were a couple. Sebastian could think of worse things.

Episode 395: Dangerously In Love