The kitchen was a war zone of silence.
The three of them sat around the marble island, the air thick with things unsaid. Lucas had finally pulled on a pair of grey sweatpants and a hoodie, but his jaw remained set in stone, his eyes fixed on a knot in the wood grain of the table. A red handprint still bloomed on his cheek, stark against his pale skin.
Maggie laid the teal folder on the table. It was covered in pictures of palm trees, turquoise water, and people who looked like they had never known a moment's sorrow. GOLDEN SANDS RESORT: BANGKOK.
"We are leaving on Friday," Maggie said, her voice trembling but firm. She was channeling every ounce of her strength into being the buffer between the two alpha males in her life. "I used the emergency savings. The money we were saving for the extension. It's paid for. All-inclusive."
Thomas looked at the receipt sticking out of the folder. His eyes, still sharp from the adrenaline of the confrontation, scanned the fine print. "Maggie, the news... there's unrest in Thailand. Riots in Bangkok. It's not the time for a holiday."
"It's the only time, Thomas!" she snapped, her eyes flashing with a rare ferocity. "Because if we stay in this house, we won't have a son by the end of the month. You just hit him, Thomas. You spanked him like he was six. He's sixteen. If we don't break this cycle now, one of you is going to do something that can't be fixed."
Thomas looked at Lucas. Lucas stared back, his expression unreadable.
"I'm not going," Lucas said, his voice raspy. "I'm not playing happy family in a broiling tropical hellhole so you can feel like a good parent again."
"You are," Thomas said, his military tone returning. It was the voice of a man who had given orders that sent men into danger, and expected them to be followed. "Because I'm taking the power cables to your PC and your phone is staying in my safe. You can stay here in a dark house with no internet and no food for all I care, or you can go to Thailand. Choose."
Lucas looked at his mother's pleading eyes, wet with tears she refused to let fall. Then he looked at his father's iron mask. He realized he had no leverage. He was a prisoner of war in his own home, and the prison was being transferred to a different location.
He reached out and tapped the folder with a fingernail that was bitten down to the quick.
"Fine," Lucas said, his voice dripping with venom. "Let's go watch the world end in paradise."