Enraptured

Chapter 60

I laced my fingers through Demetri's hair, twirling little strands here and there as I waited for him to finish the paperwork that he had brought to bed with him.

He was dressed in only his sweatpants, as usual, but he normally tried not to bring work back with him and definitely never brought them straight into bed before. He had papers scattered across the bed as he laid stiffly in between my legs, sorting through the papers one at a time with deep crease lines etched into his forehead.

I gently rubbed his frown lines away with my thumb and asked, "Did something happen at work?"

He shook his head and set aside the papers with a heavy sigh. "I just got distracted thinking about something else at work today..."

I carefully eased his reading glasses off and pulled his head back to rest against my stomach. Stroking his head soothingly, I asked, "Would you like to tell me about it? It's alright if you don't."

He melted instantly under my touch, closing his eyes with a soft contentful hum. After a moment of silence, he eventually confessed, "I'm worried about Theo. He's been... eating less and... isolating himself more and... working harder on his school work than before... Maybe I'm just overthinking, but what do you think? Do you think it's because we haven't been giving him enough attention?"

I hummed in thought, pausing momentarily to really think about it.

We had both been so busy with work and the wedding that we barely got to spend any time with Theo. I tried to talk to Theo about it before, but he said that he was alright and insisted that we continue with the wedding instead of pushing it back for him.

Demetri continued, "Then, I thought it might be because school was becoming too much for him and that I made a wrong decision to enroll him into Princeton so early. But when I spoke to the professor, he said that Theo had no trouble finishing the assigned work and actually asked for extra projects to work on."

My eyes rounded in surprise, not realizing how well he had been doing at school. All Theo told me when I asked was that he was acing his exams and had no trouble with anything. Blunt and to the point without much explanation.

But there was one thing he did ask me about after anything he told me: was I proud of him?

Of course, I was proud of him. Even if he wasn't a little genius, I still would've been happy with whatever he accomplished, but he never seemed satisfied with that answer.

Demetri rubbed his head tiredly and sighed, "After that, I couldn't think of any other reason for his change in behavior, but there was a little voice in the back of my head that kept bothering me about what had happened last week."

I raised an eyebrow in concern, "Something happened last week?"

He nodded quietly and explained to me, "He bumped into some stranger when I took him to the florist last week. Theo said that they only bumped into each other lightly, but the guy was unusually bothered by the sight of Theo for a stranger, and Theo seemed quite afraid of him for some reason. And it kept bothering me how much they looked alike except for their eyes. I just can't help thinking that there might be something more than just an accidental bump between strangers. Do you think Theo knew him from somewhere before? Maybe an old relative or something?"

I pursed my lips. I had always been worried about Theo's old family someday trying to take him away from me, but he always assured me that they wanted nothing to do with him. I never thought that they would ever accidentally meet like this again.

"Belle? Is everything alright?" Demetri reached up and cupped my face worriedly.

I nodded and tried to quickly wipe my eyes before any tears could fall. "Theo never told me who his biological parents were or what they were like. All he said was that they didn't want him... But do you think they would try to take him away from us?"