Theon had put it off for longer than he should have. He wasn't sure what he had been waiting for exactly. Maybe it was for a better moment or the right words to frame it with, but there were no right words for what he had said to Azaria in that conference room, and he had known that from the moment she walked out. So he had carried it around with him for days, turning it over in his mind, until he finally walked to his parents' house one evening and sat down in the living room and told them everything.
He kept it straightforward. He told them about the HR meeting, about the exit interview, about what he had said to her that had her leaving quickly. He just said it plainly and then sat with the silence that followed.
Valeria stared at him for a moment, then slapped her palm flat against her forehead and dragged it slowly down her face. "Theon," she dragged his name.
"I know," he said.
"Do you?" She dropped her hand and looked at him. "Because that's– I mean, what were you even thinking? What possessed you to say something like that to her?"
He didn't have a good answer for that, so he didn't offer one.
Lenora had been quiet from the moment he finished speaking, sitting with her hands folded in her lap, her expression was the same one that Theon had learned over the years meant she was working very hard to remain calm. She looked at him now with eyes that made him feel considerably younger than thirty.
"I could hit you," It was said calmly and that somehow made it worse. "I raised you in this house," she continued. "You sat at that table and ate my food and I watched you grow up and I thought– I genuinely believed that I had done a reasonable job." She paused. "And then you go and say something like that to a woman who was simply standing up for herself."
"Mum–"
"I'm not finished." She wasn't loud about it. She didn't need to be. "You embarrassed yourself. More than that, you were unkind, and that is not something I will excuse because you were caught off guard or because you were having a bad day or for any other reason you might want to give me."
Theon said nothing. He didn't want to tell her he initially thought nothing wrong with what he said to Azaria. She was right, though, and he knew it and the shame of it had been sitting in his chest for days.
Dorian, who had been leaning back in his chair with his ankle resting on his knee, made a sound and everyone turned to him.
"I mean," he said, "in fairness…"
Lenora turned her head and looked at him with a deep and intimidating glare and whatever he wanted to say died on his lips.
Dorian uncrossed his leg and sat forward slightly. "What I mean to say is yes. It was wrong. Completely wrong." He gave a small nod, more to himself than anyone else. "That's all I was going to say."
Valeria made a sound under her breath that might have been a laugh if the situation had been slightly different.
Theon ran a hand over his face and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. The living room was quiet. He had sat in this room a hundred times, had conversations a hundred times, but he couldn't remember the last time he had felt quite this much like he had let people down.
"I know what I did," he said. "I'm not trying to justify it. I just… I needed to tell you."
"And what are you going to do about it?" Lenora asked.
That was the part he hadn't worked out yet. He had tried once already, after the conference room. He had attempted an explanation that Azaria had shut down and made it clear she had no interest in hearing it, and he hadn't blamed her for that either. He didn't know how to get past that wall, and showing up again with another attempt that she hadn't asked for felt like it would only make things worse.
He said as much to his family.
Valeria had her arms crossed by then, one leg swinging slightly where she sat on the arm of the sofa. She chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment, thinking.
"You can't just leave it," she said. "She's going to remember what you said. People don't forget things like that."
Theon didn't argue with that.
It was Lenora who spoke next, and her voice had shifted slightly from what it had been before. The edge of it was still there, though. "What if we helped," she said.
Theon looked at her. "What do you mean? Help how?"
She was quiet for a moment, working through it. "I could meet her. Somewhere natural, somewhere she wouldn't think anything of it. We've never crossed paths, she doesn't know who I am or what family I belong to, so there's nothing to make her suspicious." She paused. "I get close to her gradually. And once she trusts me, I speak well of you and I will not mention your name at first. Maybe I could build a small friendship with her or her parents. And then later, when the time is right, I "introduce" you." She made air quotes with her fingers. "properly."
The room sat with that for a moment. Valeria was the first to respond. "That's a long shot."
"Most things worth doing are."
"No, I mean, a real long shot. She sounds like a very intelligent person. If she figures out the connection before you're ready for her to, it falls apart completely and you've made it worse." She uncrossed her arms and tilted her head. "And who wants to be friends with a woman twice her age?" Lenora frowned at that. "I'd have a better chance, honestly. I'm closer to her age, maybe, it'd be more natural, we'd have more to talk about–"
"No," Theon interrupted her.
Valeria looked at him. "Excuse me?"
"I said no." He met her eyes steadily. "I know you. And I don't need you going in there and deciding to improvise halfway through because you got bored of the plan."
Her mouth opened. "I do not–"
"Valeria."
She closed her mouth, pressed her lips together, and folded her arms again. The look on her face made her opinion very clear without requiring any further words on the subject.
Dorian, for his part, had been watching the exchange with a mild, but patience expression. He had spent decades in this house with these particular people and had learned when to contribute and when to simply observe. He glanced at Lenora, who was looking at Theon with a softer look in her eyes that was different from where it had been at the start of the evening.
"You really think it could work?" Theon asked her.
"I think it's worth trying," she said. "I'm not promising anything. But I'd rather try something than watch you do something like what you did again."
He leaned back and looked at the ceiling for a moment, turning everything over in his head. It wasn't a perfect plan and there were too many scenarios that could unravel. But Lenora was careful and perceptive and she had a way with people that Theon had always admired without being entirely sure he had inherited. If anyone in this family could pull something like this off, it was her.
He looked back down.
"Alright," he said. "But we need to work out how you actually meet. It can't look like it was arranged. It has to be by chance or at least it has to feel like it."
Lenora nodded. "Then that's what we will figure out next."
Valeria said nothing. She was still sitting with her arms folded and she looked beyond annoyed with the whole idea of Lenora being friends with Azaria. She wanted that chance first. But she didn't argue again, and in the Aldrith household, that was more or less the same thing as agreement.
The plan wasn't settled in every detail. There were still pieces missing that hadn't been worked through. But it was slowly shaping up.
Lenora would find a way to cross paths with Azaria. She would take it slowly, build something and when the moment came, she would use it. They just had to figure out how to make the first meeting happen in a way that looked like nothing more than chance.