AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ethan stepped towards his sister, but I made sure to hold his shoulder to stop him from doing something he would regret.
“The only reason you are here is because it was in Mom’s letter, otherwise I never would have invited you. She didn’t want you to know she was sick, but she still wanted you to be here for her funeral. So, if you want to leave, sis, you are free to go. We don’t need you here anyway. We were doing fine then, and we will do fine now.”
Ethan turned and headed for the kitchen but, before he rounded the corner, he looked over his shoulder at Jade.
“When you left, she got sober, but when she went to see you, she went spiraling and she died. I don’t know if I can ever forgive you for that.”
Then he left the room. Thunder rumbled outside, shaking my mom’s house. The room was still silent. All eyes were still on Jade, and her eyes stared at the corner Ethan had disappeared behind. I could see her blue-grey eyes glistening with unshed tears.
I took a step towards her, and her eyes snapped to mine. Our eyes met for a moment before she looked around the room. Everyone was staring shamelessly at her. Her eyes turned back to me, and she shook her head and then bolted for the stairs.
A part of me wanted to bolt after her, but I knew she would need a moment alone to process what had just happened.
My mother cleared her throat from the corner of the room. “Alright, thank you for coming, but I think it’s time for everyone to make their exit now.”
Everyone stood still, not making any move to leave.
“Get the fuck out of my house,” I bellowed, and that seemed to get everyone moving.
People started filing out of the room saying their goodbyes. Astrid walked up with a flirtatious smile playing on her lips. I hadn’t seen her since her little confession in the diner.
“Well, that was a little shit show, wasn’t it?” She came up right next to me and tried to place her hand on my chest, but I grabbed her wrist before she could touch me.
“Get out,” I seethed in a fit of low anger.
She looked at me, shocked. “What the hell, Grayson?”
“I don’t know what exactly you were trying to accomplish by pulling this little stunt, but you don’t fuck with my family, Astrid.”
“She is not your family.”
“Ethan is and this stunt you just pulled opened a whole can of worms. Get the fuck out of my mother’s house. I can’t even stand the sight of you right now.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but I gave her a hard look, and she closed it quickly. She stomped her heel on the ground like a child and made her way out.
It was only me and mother left in the living room now. The rain was coming down harder outside, and the thunder seemed to grow louder.
“I’m going to check on Jade.” My mother headed for the stairs.
After what happened with Jade in the past, my mother was not her biggest fan, but she could never leave a person in need who she could help. Jade needed the comfort of a mother, and my mom could offer her that.
I needed to find Ethan. I made my way to the kitchen where he had headed and found him sitting on the kitchen island with a beer bottle in hand.
“Are you here to yell at me?” He looked out the windows to the backyard that had the forest not too far away from it.
“No.” I stepped into the kitchen. “I just want to understand what that was all about in there.”
He took a swig of his beer. “I didn’t want to tell you. I couldn’t tell you. My mom told me that I couldn’t tell anyone. Her one wish was that her daughter would come and bury her. Now that it’s done, she can head back to New York where she belongs.”
“Are you really mad at her, E?”
“I think I may hate her.” He looked down at the bottle in his hands. “She was my mother’s sole purpose for getting sober. When she was going through withdrawal, she said she kept telling herself that she would get through it for Jade. That she wanted to make her proud.”
I sat and listened quietly.
“She got clean for her, and then Jade slammed the door in her face. I remember having to talk her off the rails multiple times that week when she got back. She refused to eat. It was like she had given up, and she had. She deliberately stopped taking her meds and just decided to die. She had me. She always had me, but that wasn’t enough for her to want to stay alive.”
Now, it all made sense. I didn’t think Ethan was angry at Jade. He was angry at his mother for choosing Jade and not him. It wasn’t like he could yell at his mother now, since she was dead, so all his anger and frustration were being targeted towards the one that was alive.
