“Maybe.”
“Let me ask you something harder,” she continues. “Do you believe you deserve love?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Because ever since Brooke met me, her life has been turned upside down. She lost her friends. She lost whatever version of normal she had left. She survived things most people wouldn't make it through. Two years of violence, cults, kidnappings, funerals, blood. All of it tied to me.
“Because I don’t know how to give someone peace. But Broo–Veronica saw the worst parts and didn’t run.”
“And you?”
“I stay too.”
There is no version of this where I leave.
“Last question for today,” she gives a small smile. “If the past never comes for you, if no one knocks on that door, who do you want to become?”
“Everything my father wasn’t.”
“Define that.”
“Predictable, safe, loving. The man who fixes things around the house. The one who shows up to school conferences. The one who doesn’t need a contingency plan for every grocery run. The man who loves his wife in every way.”
“And do you think that is possible?”
“Yeah.”
“Good… Same time next week?”
“Yeah.”
“Camera on?”
“Maybe.”
The call ends.
I sit there for a long moment after the screen goes dark.
Then I stand up and walk toward the sound of voices in the other room.
Elise is sitting cross-legged on the floor with a sketchpad in her lap, tongue between her teeth in concentration. Ryan’s next to her, half-watching, half-scrolling through something on a tablet Travis modded to run off-grid. Brooke’s in the kitchen, barefoot, hair tied up, voice low as she talks to Travis on the phone. She paces as she listens, relaxed, absentmindedly twirling the cord of the charger plugged into the wall.
They look… settled.
Elise glances up and catches me staring.
“What? Do I have something on my face?”
“No,” I reply. “Just trying to figure out if that’s supposed to be a raccoon or you.”
Ryan snorts. Elise rolls her eyes, but there’s no bite behind it.
“It’s Krueger, actually. I see you decided to be a D1 ragebaiter today.”
I walk over and crouch beside her. “I’m your big brother, I believe that’s part of the job description.”
