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“West?” Did he really believe that? “You’re wrong about her.”
“Now who’s hurt?” West asked flippantly. “I really thought you were too smart for her, the way you kept running. Watch how this all rolls out for yourself if you still don’t believe me. She’ll come with me tonight and get lost in her world of parties and fame and forgetallabout you. That’s who she is. Now that she’s gotten what she wants from us, you’ll never see her again.”
Cole couldn’t believe that he was hearing this, and yet a part of him knew that Evacouldbe manipulated into living in that world. She’d been lost in that emptiness before. She’d desperately sought fame and attention, not knowing where to go to find love. Cole realized that Eva needed him more than ever. The thought of West taking her back there was terrifying.
“You’ll destroy her this way,” Cole said.
“Please! She loves this, as much as she loves the glittering life of Nashville, and True Crime, and the drama she always tries to make of my life, so yeah, I’m sorry to ruin your plans to exchange vows on the top of this old barn, but I’m sure you’ll thank me some day.”
He doubted that, though he saw that West was desperate to keep himself “chained” to this monster he’d made of Eva. A rich diva was his ticket to that underworld. “You have to let her go, let her run her own life. She can’t be your puppet anymore, West.”
“Is that what she said?” West’s voice cracked on his incredulity. “What sweet and pathetic stories did she whisper into your ear about her life? That she was the damsel in distress? And still, you’dneverfall for her sob stories if she wasn’t such a tantalizing distraction from the dullness of your life.”
Cole didn’t have to listen to this. He was a full head taller than his older brother. “Get out of my way,” he said, “before I move you myself.”
“Temptation is sweet, isn’t it? She’ll have you go against everything you believe in. What would Momma think? But Eva’s so gorgeous, fashionable, rich, soft…” West’s strength wasn’t in his fists, but in his hypnotic words that rooted through Cole’s soul before he even realized his brother had planted a seed in there. “There are strings attached to that girl that you won’t want to go up against.” West shook his head. “You call her the puppet? Just wait… and when you see it, you’ll run, because not evenyouwill be stupid enough to stick around.”
His brother could try to twist this to make Cole look like an idiot, weak; he always did this to get into his head, but what Eva and Cole had was simpler than this intrigue that West tried to make out of everything. “I love her,” Cole said. “That’s enough. You can’t say anything to get in the way of that.” He tried to get past West again.
His brother stubbornly took three steps back to block Cole from getting to the stairs. “You don’t know anything, do you? You’re gonna face her daddy, is that it? You’re coming in with your javelin and armor to take down all the dragons of that rich world that she lives in, despite her screams to the contrary? That’s real cute, hero. Too bad Eva’s only using you, because you were made for each other, both bright-eyed infantile dreamers, absolute children.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Cole exploded. “You really think you’re better than all of us, don’t you? You had no trouble using me before I got too difficult. That’s your real problem, huh? People are just objects to you.”
Cole, Nash, Eva! West had even thrown their momma through the ringer. An image of Momma praying and crying for her sweet boy was seared into Cole’s darkest memories. It didn’t matter how much she cared, West had torn Momma’s world down over her ears.
“I’m not going to stand here and watch you do the same thing to Eva as you did to Momma.”
“What?” West’s voice took a dangerous turn.
Now that the accusation was out, Cole wasn’t keeping anything back to save his brother’s feelings. They’d done that for too long and West’s destructive pride was the consequence. “Everything you did put her one step closer to the grave.”
West was silent, staring him down. He took a deep breath. “I know!” he said. “Is that what you wanted to hear?”
Cole was taken aback. That had been far too easy… and didn’t feel right at all. Winning this fight by tearing West into pieces wasn’t going to save Eva. A pit of unease dug into his stomach as he watched this dark and bitter pain consume his brother.
“Why do you think I stay by her bedside and work out these–these deals to get these surgeons to even consider her case?” West asked. “I’m playing catch-up, every day coming up short… everything just falls through my fingers, and I don’t expect you to understand anything that I do, only that it’s necessary, and I can’t quit… or she dies.”
“She dies?” Cole asked.
Wait, was West really putting the fate of his mother’s life on his shoulders like this? It was like he’d completely taken God out of the equation, and now he thought he was the one in control… over life and death, even?
West’s fists clenched, every part of him rigid from the pressure of keeping the heavy weight of guilt he carried from crushing him.
Cole happened to be the idiot that helped place that burden squarely on West, when disease and failing health and… even wayward children—for heaven’s sake—was the nature of being alive in a world that was fallen, an existence that was meant to turn in cycles in every season of life.
His heart sank at how he’d blamed his brother for every bad thing that had ever happened over the years.
“I was wrong to say that,” Cole said.
Or to think it.
How could West not catch on to their negative vibes? The men in the Slade family had blamed him for as long as Cole could remember.
Ugh. Cole had fallen for the same trap that the prodigal’s brother had. He somehow believed that justice and mercy belonged in his hands. To nudge God aside and say that he could do a better job at His judgement? Now who didn’t believe in His power?
“You’re not to blame for Momma,” Cole said. The words were years too late.
West snorted. His eyes glittered under the broken shafts of light in the cellar. His brother would only accept the worst version of himself, just like he did with everyone around him. And yet, didn’t taking the sole blame also make West believe he had some control when he didn’t?
