AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mostly.
The lies still continued here in front of my family, but I was giving them what they could handle at this point. The night had turned into something else, but this version was just as fucked up.
I lifted my shoulders after what my mother said, and with barely a response from me, she frowned. She still basically had her coat on, even though we were inside my dad’s office with the fireplace going. She pushed her hand into her dark hair, and after her hand dropped, my dad reached for it. He was able to do that now that she’d stopped pacing. He sat in one of his leather easy chairs while my mother had completely abandoned the one beside it.
“Tell me you at least took care of Fawn’s internship,” Dad said, and yeah, I’d been forced to admit that too, the blackmail. He actually already knew about her internship since he’d technically met Fawn before. It’d been at her internship interview, but she hadn’t been my girlfriend then.
Your fake girlfriend.
My dad wet his lips, and his patience was thinning, considering his terse expression. “Son?”
“Yes. Yeah.” I dropped my head, too many eyes on me. Normally, I was strong enough to stand in front of my parents regarding anything I’d done. I didn’t back down from my fuckups, but disappointing them in this way hit hard. It reminded me of all the other times I’d disappointed them in the past when I really had been fucked up. Shit got so dark back when I was in high school. Since my sister, Sloane, hadn’t always been with us, I hadn’t handled that well. She’d been taken from us, stolen.
She was here now obviously, and her disappointment hit just as bad. She sat on the couch next to Bru. She had her feet up on the sofa, and her oversize hoodie completely covered her leggings. It looked like one of Dorian’s since it said Pembroke Football.
“You know, I really don’t know what’s worse, Ares.” Dad guided Mom over to the arm of his chair. Slinging an arm around her waist, he managed to get her to sit instead of pacing. His eyes narrowed. “The fact that you did all this, or the only reason you came clean was because your hand was forced. Because your brother ran into Fawn at the airport and you had no choice.”
I glanced over at the kid in that moment, and if it was possible, he appeared madder at me than anyone. I mean, my mom was pretty pissed, but red had completely colored Bru’s tightened jaw. I figured his anger was because he knew Fawn, and well, because what I’d done was pretty fucked up.
“I know the answer to that,” Mom answered for my father, and he apparently did too because he shook his head.
“And you said you know her from high school?” Sloane asked, facing our brother. She hadn’t gotten the reunion with him she’d probably wanted. The two were so fucking close, but all that was rushed due to all this shit. She placed a hand on his arm. “I don’t remember seeing her.”
“Well, it was a big school, and we lived in New York for only like a minute before Dad forced us to leave,” he said, referring to his bio dad and Sloane’s kidnapper. Bru’s biological father had been forced to take Sloane by a third party. The man had been threatened, and it was understood by everyone in this room he’d been guilt-ridden about it. That was all a story for another day, but the signs were there according to Sloane and Bru. The man was severely depressed, anxious, and the result led to Sloane and Bru basically raising themselves.
There was so much trauma in this fucking room, so much goddamn trauma, and all I’d done was add to it. The story surrounding my sister’s reunion into my family was a long one, and though it certainly didn’t end happy, it had started to gain some light. It had until I’d gotten sick.
I rubbed my hands in front of the fireplace light, and all eyes were gratefully on Bru at the moment.
“I hadn’t seen her since then,” Bru continued. “I was still in disbelief about that when she told me about Ares.”
“Which is why you actually brought her home, then?” I asked, knowing I really had no fucking right, but I hadn’t forgotten what he said about that whole Christmas thing. He said Red was his guest but she hadn’t even fucking wanted to be here. In fact, she’d tried to stop this whole thing, lie for me…
“Actually, no. At least, not at first,” Bru quipped, instantly jerking me out of my thoughts. His lips turned down. “I invited Fawn, initially, to spend Christmas with our family. That’d been before you and all that.” He tossed out a hand before facing our parents. “Fawn missed her flight back home to her own family. She was talking like she was going to spend the holidays on campus, but rather than let her do that, I extended an invitation for her to stay with us.”
Red had been trying to go back home? To her family?
“Of course, that all backfired when she found out who my brother was.” The kid was shooting daggers at me with his eyes, and it’d been a long time since he’d looked at me so cold. We hadn’t always gotten along, the kid and me. Things were rather tense when my sister came back, and neither one of us was sure how to adjust to our roles as Sloane’s siblings. We’d gotten around it, though, and I’d literally die for this kid. He was my brother, blood or fucking not.
I didn’t know the details surrounding his friendship with Fawn, but a friend would care about another friend. He would if he wasn’t an asshole, and Red deserved to be cared about. She deserved more than that…
If I’d done any type of caring, none of us would be here right now, and I was surprised to hear what Bru said about Fawn’s family. Red had been kind of estranged from them since her dad died. She’d distanced herself and closed off.
We were so much like each other.
Just tack on another reason why I needed to stay the hell away from her. My parents sighed yet again.
“Of course, she’s welcome here, son. That is, if she still wants to,” Dad stated, eyeing me. My dad was never the stern one, but I never fucked up in front of him either if I could help it. My father was laid back, so when he did crack enough to show his anger, that felt ten times worse than seeing Mom’s. It meant I broke him, and I hated that. He glanced at my mom. “Though, this does complicate things.”
I didn’t understand, nor did Bru or Sloane. They finally let up with their leering in my direction to study our parents. Reaching down, Mom grabbed her handbag, then handed my sister a green envelope.
“What’s this?” I asked, but instantly shut my mouth when I got that heat from, like, everyone in the room. My dad’s eyes held nothing but warning. I wasn’t to talk, not right now.
I stayed silent, watching as my sister opened the envelope. The front of it said, “To the kids,” and when she opened it, a handful of tickets fell out.
Plane tickets.
“The Reeds have some property in South Carolina,” Mom said, referring to my buddy Thatcher’s parents. “They have a house, and the families all planned to spend Christmas down there together. Escape the winter and my parties, which I know you kids hate.”
