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I had to force myself to forget about Tyler, starting right now. Pull every memory out at the root until he didn’t exist for me.
“I’m not defending him,” Dad said, “because what he did was wrong. But I’m telling you I understand what he did. And why.”
It was too much.
“I’m done being lied to and manipulated by the men in my life,” I snapped. “I deserve better. I deserve to be treated like a woman who can make my own decisions. I don’t need protection—I don’t need someone watching my every move.”
Jasper nodded, his eyes glittering.
“I don’t forgive you for what you’ve done,” I said.
“I know.”
“I need to go find Miguel,” I said, and my dad nodded as if accepting that I had nothing to give him and somehow that was the saddest thing of all.
“You did a good job back there,” he said. “With Owens. Letting Tyler cool his heels made sense, too.”
He lifted his hand in a meager wave and then walked away to his car.
I grabbed my cell phone and called Miguel but didn’t get an answer.
I called Patricia next, but she hadn’t seen the kids, either.
I drove out to The Manor, but it was dark and empty.
Finally, I called Nora to let her know what was going on.
“Nora,” I said when the counselor answered the phone. “We’ve got a situation with Miguel and Louisa—”
“I know,” Nora said. “We’re in the emergency room in Ellicott City.”
“We?”
“I’ve got the kids. Tyler called me when he couldn’t find you.”
How many times, I wondered, could my world get rearranged? How many times could I be left sorting through Tyler O’Neill’s truths and lies, measuring the good he did against the destructive?
“I’ll be right there,” I said, and hung up.
TYLER
Hours later, I watched my brother blow into the holding cells like a cyclone. Contained, beautiful in a way, but capable of massive destruction.
“Well, well,” Carter said, stopping in front of the bars I stood behind. His suit was perfect. Hair—perfect. His face looked like it belonged in profile on a coin somewhere.
Carter was like royalty. If the Notorious O’Neills had such a thing.
“Tyler in jail.” Carter glanced around the yellow walls and bars as if he could smell them and it wasn’t good. “Again.”
“Hope I didn’t bother you,” I drawled, and Carter’s eyebrows arched. I wanted a fight. I needed to tear things apart, throw things against the wall and obliterate everything in my path.
Luckily, Carter was always good for a fight. I just needed my brother to get me out of this cell so I could pick one with him.
“Not at all. My date was boring.” Carter unbuttoned his blazer and loosened his tie. “I can assume you didn’t assault the man in question?”
“I did not.”
“And the boy?”
“Miguel.”
“Right. You know where he is?”
“Community services,” I said, and handed him Nora Sullivan’s number. Miguel and Louisa should be with Juliette by now, and therefore safe. That was all that mattered.
I tried to convince myself that my heart didn’t matter. The cold stone stare in Juliette’s eyes didn’t matter. The future stretching out grim and wasted—none of it mattered.
If Miguel and Louisa could be with Juliette, then part of the night was a success.
“What happened here, Tyler?”
“The kid is a friend—”
“Not your usual kind.”
I thought of the attempted car theft and the extortion, the way Miguel had lied to get Richard to teach him cards. “He’s exactly the usual kind. He’s just sixteen and he was protecting his sister.”
“It was self-defense?” Carter asked, taking the card. “And there’s proof?”
“The little girl’s face is about all the proof you need. Nora will answer all your questions.”
Carter tilted his head, his icy-blue eyes watching me carefully. “You okay?”
Okay? I was so far from okay I was in a different time zone. A different hemisphere.
“Sure,” I said, sitting on the bench in my cell.
“You know, Ty,” Carter said, wrapping his hand around one of the bars. “You may have the rest of the world fooled, but I’m your brother.”
It was about as close to a speech of brotherly love as Carter ever got.
“Get me out of here, Carter,” I whispered.
“Right,” Carter said, and then left to go show a cop he didn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground.
I dropped my head back against the wall so hard I saw stars. The pain was cleansing. Real. Gave all my rage something to do.
I was a fool to think you’d changed.
Her words wrapped around my brain, squeezing until I couldn’t think of anything else. Anything but the fact that I had changed—but too late for it to mean anything.
“There are no charges,” Carter said, coming back into the cell. “We’re free to go.”
20
“Richard did quite a number on Margot’s stock,” Carter said, reaching into the back of the liquor cabinet for a dusty bottle of Scotch.
