Page 3 of When Hearts Unravel

I feel his pitying gaze boring into me as he tsks under his breath. “Thirty-seven doesn’t become you. You’re crashing out from all the partying, drinking, and not sleeping.”

“It’s called chronic insomnia. And if I look like shit, then you do too. There isn’t a party you say no to either.”

“That’s because I’m your best friend and someone needs to save your ass. Rex, stop punishing yourself. Stop playing Russian Roulette with your life. What are you trying to prove? That you’re no longer the scaredy cat from when we were kids?”

I recoil from his words, thinking back to the little boy who had the world but didn’t know better, who let fear rule his life until it cost him and his family everything.

I’m not that kid anymore.

A ball of fire bolts up my esophagus. Before I know it, I’m in Casey’s face and yanking him up by his collar. “Get out of my business. Fuck off.”

He doesn’t flinch. Instead, he shoves me off him. “I won’t watch you destroy your life. That’s what you’re doing. If I can’t save you, no one can. And fuck, I care about you. Your family cares about you too. Let us in.”

I’m a murderer.

I shove him out of the room and slam the door shut, hoping he’ll take the hint and leave.

And you think a cruise will make you feel better. Good luck with that.I shove the thoughts away. Beggars can’t be choosers. At least it’s a target, something to do.

Don’t disappoint your family, Rex.

“If you won’t let me in,” Casey pounds on the door, “find a therapist, a doctor, a fucking professional. Get help! Don’t be a coward. It doesn’t have to be like this.”

I stride back to the overlook window, eager to get away from Casey’s voice, because I don’t know how to unravel my emotions or thoughts.

Then, as if fate wants to rub salt in my wounds, I spotherdown below.

An innocent, lost lamb surrounded by hyenas.

Sleek black hair fastened into her usual no-nonsense bun, an unassuming white dress covering her petite figure, Olivia hugs her large handbag in front of her like a shield.

Dr. Olivia Lin, to be exact—gifted, perfectly put-together psychiatrist and my younger sisters’ best friend.

The fucking order to my chaos.

The woman I avoid.

I don’t need anyone else poking inside my fucked-up mind. God knows the last brain doctor did a number on me.

But Olivia—the woman with eyes who see too much—I remember how she looked at me, her eyes narrowed with suspicion, a few months ago at my brother, Ethan’s wedding. She caught me fake smiling at the happy couple, not because I wasn’t thrilled for them. I was. But I was also spiraling because I realized I could never have that happiness for myself.

After all, how do I atone for Mom and Raya’s deaths?

“Rex?” Casey hollers. “Fine. Go brood in silence. I’m out of here. But make no mistake, this doesn’t mean I’m giving up on you. I’ll see you on the damn cruise.”

My earlier guilt eats away at me.

I shouldn’t blow up at him. This isn’t me. I’m the charmer, the Anderson everyone loves. People come to me for a good time. They come to me to get away from my brooding brothers.

The neon strobe lights bathe the dance floor, highlighting the swaths of skin revealed by short skirts and barely there tops. Bodies writhe sinuously against each other, the promise of sin and chaos to follow, mostlikely in the adult-entertainment kink clubs and specialty rooms on our Rose floors, five levels within this building I’m intimately familiar with.

But somehow, I can’t look away from the fully clothed woman in white.

What are you doing there, little lamb?

The innocent good girl.

In the rare moments when we’d be in the same room, I’d spot her rolling her eyes, her skin flushed, when I cracked lewd jokes with my siblings. Because I’m good at that—saying inappropriate things to make people laugh.