Casey stumbles over to Carlo and raises her arms, clenching and unclenching her fists to be picked up. Carlo sweeps her off the floor and onto his lap, placing a small kiss against her forehead. The boys climb over my mum, AJ playing with her hair and TJ tellingCarlo all about their day at the zoo. He listens attentively, asking questions and cooing in all the right places.
What confuses me isn’t just that they respond so easily to him, but that they do so with familiarity. I almost laugh at the bitter taste of betrayal that floods me as I watch them. All three of my siblings are aware of Carlo and Mum. They’ve built bonds with a man I barely knew. A man who by rights should have been my father first. It’s childish, petty, ludicrous, and unfortunately true, but I can’t lay any blame with them.
“What is this?” I ask. The words came out cold, but I simply can’t get my head around the scene in front of me. Dax and Aiden stop mumbling behind me to listen.
“Juliet—” my mum begins.
“Jules…” Carlo says warningly. They both try to speak at the same time and then stare at each other, communicating only with their eyes which of them should deal with me.
“Honey,” Mum tries again, but I shoot her a warning glance. She’s notHoney-ing me into forgiving her. She’s not even being sweet for my sake. It’s only so she looks good in front of Carlo. “Carlo and I…”
“Are shacking up together. Yep, we all gotthatmemo.”
“Yes, that is exactly what we’re doing. I have no choice now. I’m permanently leaving your father...Eric…after what happened today. There is no way we can safely go back to that apartment, neither can you.”
I shake my head incredulously; I’m still considered a separate entity. There’s them and then there’s me.
“What about you, Cue? You ready to take on a wife and kids? Kids that aren’t even yours? You’re a big man, but this is a heavy load to carry for a man who loved a teenager he ditched once upon a time. Have either of you thought this through?”
“I’ve never wanted anything more than I’ve wanted this. We’ve been planning for this for years,” he confesses. Years. Years of knowing Casey was his. Years of sneaking moments with Mumand the kids. Years of structuring a future. Years where she refused to tell him about me. I swallow the bitterness and suck in a deep breath.
“If it’s been years, then why are you only doing this now?”
“Because now they have the financial backing they need to take Eric Feelan to court for custody of the twins,” Dax interrupts at my back. I spin to face him.
Financial backing? He’s the only one with the money to support them, but why would he do this for them? Is this his way of fulfilling his promise? Because I can’t see how this helps me. And yes, I’m being a selfish bitch, but why should they benefit off my kindness when they’d never even considered me as part of their happy little future.
“You?” I ask Dax.
“Yes.” His response is blunt and invites me not to argue it.
I take a long look at my siblings. Sitting here wrapped around Mum and Carlo they almost look happy, like the shitty part of our day didn’t happen. There’s no mistaking that Casey is Cue’s daughter. I see it now, she has his eyes, a beautiful blue that twinkles with mischief. She has his temperament too, tough as old boots and a little bit crazy. It makes perfect sense, and yet I still feel as though my world has been stirred up by a tornado. Things that I thought were real are shredding around me and here I stand in the eye of the storm, pretending to be calm and collected, while filled with an urgency that I can’t place.
“He’ll never let the boys go. You’ll never get him to agree to it. Is that why you tried to give them back?” I state, but Mum flinches as though I’ve struck her across the face.
Mum’s expression sours, lips thinning as she prepares to attack back, not for a second willing to admit I’m right about this.
“Eric loves nothing more than money. Not even the boys,” she snaps.
“That’s not quite true, is it though?” I fire back. I think of the times we were forced to take days off work when he’d gone too farwith a beating. He didn’t care about the money then. “There’s one thing he loves more.”
She catches my eye this time and the anger contorting her features melts away to understanding.
She nods. “Cruelty.”
“He’ll refuse just to hurt you. Just to pour his poison in the heart of your new life together. He’d rather watch you rot than take any sum offered.”
“She’s right.” Mum sighs.
“And now that he has some powerful friends onside—” Aiden adds.
All heads turn to Aiden. No one has the nerve to ask for the truth except me and I’m not sure I want it.
I ask anyway. “What do you mean?”
Dax is the one who explains. “This afternoon, a rather expensively dressed lawyer from Bennington & Ridges met with your father at the police station. It’s a firm well known for its affiliations with Diverprop and Barry Franz.”
A thrumming in my temples, warns me that the truth isn’t going to set me free. I can’t take it.
