annekane:
Baltimore felt more reminiscent for her than Bethesda, but she liked her house and her plants and having Alex there. She liked how it nestled next to DC and close enough to visit her dad and her kids. Close to work and still good old Maryland. And the people she considered friends and found family… “Family shouldn’t just be based on blood,” she insisted, thinking they sound like an unpleasant bunch if they were so hateful towards an in-law. The only ones she’d really known were Rosie’s parents, but that was a whole other story. “The world is full of opportunities,” she pointed out, though she understood where he was coming from in that regard. The reason she’d first moved here was for all the legal jobs and potential. Plus a steady place to raise her Katy and Pete. “I probably would have followed them if they’d moved, or travelled a lot.” It wouldn’t have bothered her, just made her sad if she couldn’t see them as often. She wondered, would he give up his dreams for Henry? Being a parent meant making sacrifices, didn’t it? “Did you run for him, then?”
“But it is in the South,” he chuckled lowly, giving a casual shrug as if ultimately, he was unbothered by that fact (whether that was actually true or not..). And that’s why I barely have any. But the fact was, that he’d left behind his friends when he’d left to go to university... and he’d never looked back. And besides, what had all of those people become? Not much of anything. He knew that hanging around people like that would only hold him back. He needed to be around people as hungry, as ambitious as him. It challenged him to do better. To be more. “Henry is...” Not like him. To chase opportunities... (And he knew that meant his son would stay close to him... which he selfishly was glad for.) “Well, there’s going to be great opportunities for him in DC down the line,” he replied cryptically. Silas had his plans for him... He was a little taken aback by the question, though it’s one that he had answered plenty of times in a political context. (I ran for my son, for the next generation, to make the future better for everyone...) “I ran because...” Because he had been depressed when his son had left for university. Because by running, he could ask Henry to be by his side. But there are other reasons, too. Ones he can say. “I needed something that was mine. That I had accomplished. The company... that was the legacy of my wife’s family, not mine.” And everyone always looked at him like he didn’t deserve it. “Do you get what I mean?” He asked her, wondering if she could understand.











