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As I slipped the towel from my body, I watched Zerro. I was done letting him be the one in control. I was done being afraid. I was tired of feeling caged, and if I couldn’t get someone to give me the answers I wanted, then I would get them myself.
“What happened in there doesn’t make us okay,” I said sternly. I had given into my biggest weakness. Him. His eyes twinkled with amusement and a pantie-dropping smirk formed on his face as I pulled on the sweatpants.
“Right… So fucking you senseless won’t make things better, but it’ll get you to forget for a short time.” My eyes narrowed at him. He knew I had used him as a way to let the pain go. He wasn’t dumb and I didn’t expect him to be. I just didn’t think he had me figured out yet.
“Don’t think you have me figured out because you don’t,” I growled, looking him straight in the eyes. He fed off breaking the weak, off making them feel as useless as he felt they were. When I looked at him, I saw a man I loved… and a man who was capable of killing me.
Taking a step forward into my space, his finger traced my bottom lip as if he were memorizing it.
“I don’t think I have you figured out… I always have. There was no thinking needed. Now go,” he ordered. I didn’t want him to think I was listening to him, but I was eager to hear what Jared had to say and if any of it was true.
Balling my hands into fists, I pulled my shirt on ignoring him. Once fully dressed, I walked out of the room slamming the door behind me. That’ll fucking teach him. As childish as it all was, I had been through so much shit. I understood his pain, the feelings he felt about losing his mom. My question was why would you want to inflict the same pain on someone you loved? Someone who had already lost so much.
“Come sit down,” Jared commanded, smiling at me softly. It was impossibly hard to look at him as a half-brother or a relative at all. Passing around the leather couch, I took a chair in the corner. The cushion was soft and I sank right into it.
Training my eyes on his, I spoke softly. “I want to know everything. I want to know what happened and how we got where we are. So much shit has happened in the last month, and I don’t know who to believe and who not to believe. As of right now, I have nothing to lose but my own life.”
He smiled casually taking a seat on the leather couch. I wondered what our father looked like. If he looked like Jared. Hell, I wondered where he had been all these years. What he was doing when my mom was dying of cancer?
“First, as weird as this is… it’s pretty cool to have a sibling. Granted, the death of John is hard on you right now. You have to know he wasn’t your father, though. I know Zerro killing him made it harder than ever to deal with it, but there is more to it than what he just did to Zerro. Though he was my uncle, I still think he deserved to die.”
“Uncle?” I questioned. What the hell was he talking about? John was an only child. I never met my grandparents because they were dead. When mom died, it was simply Dad… I mean John, and a few friends who came to visit.
Scratching at the back of his head as if worried, he looked at the ceiling. “Yes Uncle. As in my dad, I mean our dad and John were brothers. It explains why it was possible for him to push off you being his daughter. Now see… I know your mind is spiraling out of control, but just breathe….”
I couldn’t wipe the shocked expression from my face. My jaw was practically hanging open, and an outpour of anger radiated from somewhere inside me. My whole fucking life had been a lie. A big huge fucking lie.
“My whole life was a lie…” I murmured as if in a trance. This had to be a dream, a sick and twisted dream. I was just waiting for someone to come and wake me up.
“Don’t look at it like that,” Jared pleaded. Lifting my gaze, I stared off into the distance. John wasn’t my father, but my uncle and Jared. Alzerro’s right-hand man or driver or whatever the fuck he was, was my brother.
“Did Zerro know?” I questioned. It wouldn’t surprise me if he did. He knew everything. Secrets were kept deep in his mind, behind tightly closed lips.
Shaking his head, he said, “No. He didn’t. There’s more though. Just know none of us knew anything about this. I mean, hell, I didn’t even know, Bree. Believe me when I say I’m truly sorry. I never meant for any of this to take place, and I know you have already had so much heartache this year, but know you’re not alone.”
“Alone,” I huffed out, almost wanting to laugh a hysterical laugh—not out of laughter but craziness, because honestly, I felt like I was losing my mind.
“I mean, I know you lost John and your mother, but you have me now and our dad.” The way he said all of this made it seem like I should be happy. I should have understood and to be grateful to have lost so much just to gain two people I hadn’t known at all and who I knew nothing about.
“How? How did this happen? What the fuck took place for this lie to spiral years and years out of control?” I was on the verge of losing it—hell, I already had. I just wasn’t sure I could come back from all of this if I did.
Smiling, Jared stood. Where the fuck was he going? “Tell me everything,” I cried out as he walked into the open kitchen and grabbed a bottle of something with brown contents. My guess was whiskey, but who was I kidding—I didn’t drink. Until now.
