Sebastian's POV — Present Day
I opened the door to Ray's office and instantly regretted not knocking.
There she was.
My mom.
Sitting cross-legged on top of Ray's glass desk like it was a picnic table and not a thousand-dollar minimalist Italian statement piece. Her coat tossed over his chair, her heels kicked off, her hair a little too perfect for it to be accidental.
A crystal bowl of strawberries sat beside the quarterly reports, and she was popping one into her mouth mid-sentence.
"…and then he said, 'I'm not a baby anymore, Mom,' like he didn't literally cry when I left for France—don't roll your eyes, I know you cried, Sebby."
She didn't even look up. She just knew it was me.
I sighed and shut the door behind me. "I was two seconds old in that memory, Mother. Please stop romanticizing it."
She finally looked at me, face lighting up like I'd come back from war instead of school. "Sebby! You're here!"
"Clearly."
I dropped my bag on the floor and looked at her. Really looked.
She was still wearing her deep wine lipstick and the oversized sunglasses pushed up into her hair. She looked like she'd walked off a magazine cover. And maybe she had.
She always looked too young, too rich, too much to be anyone's mom.
Especially mine.
"I got you the sneakers," she said, voice bubbly. "The ones from France, remember? And that sweater you liked. And some skincare. And chocolates. And—"
"She bought out half of Paris," Ray muttered.
I glanced at him.
He was leaning back in his chair, hands steepled, pretending to work. But his eyes were on her.
And not in a polite way.
Not in a business partner way.
In a Ray way.
Soft, quiet, burning.
Like the sun rose just to light her face.
I'd never noticed it as a kid. Not really. But now… now it was obvious.
Every time she spoke, his eyes followed her lips like they were trying to memorize the movement. Every time she laughed, he looked like he could've fallen apart and been fine with it.
And she didn't see it.
She was too busy yapping about how I needed more hoodies and that I looked skinny and was I eating enough and Ray tell him he needs to drink more water.
Ray didn't say a word.
He just nodded.
Like he'd follow her off a cliff if she asked him nicely.
"…you're staring," I said quietly.
He blinked once, slow. "You would too. If you knew her as long as I have."
"I do know her."
"Not like I do."
That shut me up.
Because he wasn't wrong.
There were pieces of my mom I would never know—fifteen-year-old Ava with a baby and no idea how to be anything but brave, Ava the girl in the orphanage with dreams bigger than the ocean, Ava who called Ray at 3 AM because I was sick and she didn't know what to do.
He was there.
He'd always been there.
And I think he always would be.
Even if she never saw it.
Even if she never chose him.
"…stop staring at him like that," my mom said suddenly, tossing a strawberry at my chest. "You'll scare him."
Ray snorted. "It's going to take more than that."
"Okay, okay, family meeting!" She clapped her hands together, completely ignoring the tension in the air. "Sebby, what do you want for dinner? And don't say pizza. I am cooking tonight. For both of you."
I groaned. "God help us."
Ray looked at me.
I looked at him.
And I knew we were both thinking the same thing.
She would always be chaos. But she was ours.
And if Ray Chen was in love with my mother… well.
He wasn't the only one.
She was kind of hard not to love.