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He dressed better now. Filled out the shirt more—and unless a part of said shirt was poking out the back of his pants, he was able to get that all done, too.
I was looking at my brother.
Damien.
The person who had once been my best friend and guided me through one of the hardest times of my life.
He opened his mouth to speak, and I burst into tears.
I buried my face in my hands. His arms circled me only seconds later, and he pulled me against him, resting his chin on the top of my head. Even with my heels I was shorter than him, and he squeezed me so tightly I thought he might squeeze all the pain out of me.
He didn’t say a word as I cried. He let me give in to the shock and ache, just holding me in his arms.
“Oh my god,” I breathed. “That wasn’t how I planned to say hi.”
His entire body shook with the rumble of his laughter. “Me either.” He released me enough to meet my gaze.
Tears shone in the corners of his eyes, and when he laughed again, they escaped.
“Sorry. I have no self-control.”
“Good to see some things haven’t changed.” He wiped at his eyes with a smile. “Will you come in?”
I nodded and stepped inside before he did. In the hall, I was struck at how…cold…it felt. There was a plant on the floor, but the walls were bare. Like this was a house and not a home.
“Dahlia did the same thing. I’m working on it.” He motioned lamely to the giant plant in a pot. “Thank god I pay someone to water it or it’d be dead already.”
“You didn’t even have a plant in here?”
“Who has the time to go shopping for plants?” He smirked as he looked at me. “I didn’t even buy that. I had to plead with my assistant to buy it and tell Dahlia I did.”
“Did she believe you?”
“What do you think?”
My lips twisted to one side. “I like her. She’s smart.”
“She’s something,” he muttered. Then, he paused, looking at me again. “I had all these plans for things I was gonna say, and I can’t remember a goddamn one except, “Let’s go and sit down.””
And just like that, my nerves disappeared.
“That sounds like a good idea.” I followed him into the large, open kitchen. He was pulling out chairs at a round table by the large windows that made up the entire outer wall of the room, so I joined him there and took a seat.
“Would you like a drink?”
“Do you have something stronger than coffee?”
“If I did, I’d be drinking it, too.”
Fair enough. “So,” I said, then waited.
“So,” Damien repeated. He waited, too, then followed up with a, “How are you?”
“Are we really going to small talk?”
He rubbed his hand down his face. “No, you’re right. That’s stupid.”
“We can small talk.”
“I’m sorry.”
I stilled at the apology.
“Perrie, I’m so fucking sorry.” He ran his fingers through his hair, looking at me with enough raw emotion in his eyes that there was no way I could deny it. “I regretted those words ever since I said them. I never should have said them to you. I never should have told you to abort her.”
I took a deep breath and blew it out, then said, “I forgive you.”
Damien jerked. “I don’t deserve it.”
“No, you’re right, you don’t. But I know now that you were only doing what Benedict wanted you to.” The truth struck hard. “I know you wouldn’t have said those words and meant them from your heart.”
“God, I should have told him to fuck off that day. You’d lost everything that mattered to you in such a short space of time, and he wanted to take that from you, too.”
“He hates me. He always has. I’m a constant reminder of when Mom cheated on him.” I sighed and sat back. “He wanted to make my life as hard as possible. I knew that when I got desperate and tried to withdraw money when Lola was about three months old. The bank manager told me he’d put a block on my account, and he could do that because it was within the business accounts he controlled.”
Anger twitched his jaw. “I didn’t find out about that until last week or I would have had it removed. I never understood why you did what you did for work until then.”
I looked away, shame hinting at me. “It was all I could do to keep her alive. It was easy money, and then when I decided I wanted a change, I could never get a proper job.”
“I thought you refused to touch the money. That’s what Dad told me when I asked—that you were stubborn and had turned your back on us. I should have known the piece of shit had lied to me.”
