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He walks past us into the living room, leaving Harper and me to exchange looks.
“At least he didn’t hit you,” Harper murmurs.
“Yeah, good to look on the bright side.”
She smiles briefly, then pushes it from her face as though she doesn’t want to let any happiness enter this moment.
We walk together into the living room to find Adam sitting on the couch, his elbows resting on his knees, hands clasped. There’s a picture of Eva on the large TV in the living room, an expression on her face I recognize from when we were kids.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“I never told you, either of you.” Adam looks at Harper and then at me as we settle on the other couch. “Eva was diagnosed with cancer two weeks before the car accident. We were working out how to tell the family when… Well…”
Adam pauses, his clasped hands shaking, like he’s struggling to keep the sadness contained.
“If you said she had the worst luck a person can,” he goes on. “I would have agreed with you. You know Eva. She wanted to be ready. She started recording videos. They were all for me, but I think she was planning to do more for everybody else before…”
When Adam shudders again, Harper leaves the couch and goes to him, wrapping her arm around her brother. I’m relieved he doesn’t flinch away. Maybe it means there’s some hope.
If he’s guessed about Harper and me, surely he’d be pissed. Yeah, at me. Maybe not at her.
My chest tightens at the pain in Adam’s voice.
“This one was about the two of you,” Adam says.
“For both of us?” I ask.
Adam looks at me, nodding shortly. “I told her about the conversation we had. I told her, Harper, about your crush on Bryson.”
“You knew about that?” Harper gasps.
“I found your notebook,” Bryson replies. “Twice, actually. Once when you were maybe thirteen and then again shortly after. It was when I was helping you and Tiffany move into the apartment. I didn’t mean to see it. I never mentioned it because it’s your business.”
Harper looks at me, her eyes wide as though panic is threading through her.
“I want you both to watch this,” Adam says, then picks up the TV remote and presses play.
Eva brushes her hair down, then sighs with a soft smile on her lips. I remember the same gesture from countless times when we were kids—when she was summoning her courage for an unpleasant task ahead, knowing it had to be done. Always with a smile on her face.
Emotion touches me. Harper glances at me, sympathy in her eyes, no judgment or jealousy there now that she knows the truth about Eva and me.
“Adam,” Eva says. “I know you’re probably getting sick of my voice by now…”
She laughs ironically, and Adam shudders. Harper hugs him closer.
“But I want you to listen to me. You know it’s difficult for me to talk about my childhood, but I think I have to. In that orphanage, after my druggie parents decided raising me was a hassle, I had no friends, no family, nobody to look out for me.”
She smooths one hand over the other as if she’s struggling to contain the energy bubbling up inside her.
“I was stranded, alone. I never thought I’d have somebody to help me when… Well, there’s no use dwelling on the bad things.”
Adam pauses the video, his eyes shimmering, but then his face toughens just like when he set his own dislocated finger. “She never told me what those bad things were. It might not be right for me to ask, but I have to know. Bryson?”
It wouldn’t be right for me to keep this from him.
“When they moved me to Eva’s home, there was this slick, disgusting bastard who could fool the world into thinking he wasn’t a complete monster. He’d take too much interest in some of the girls. I was already big for my age, so I beat him up pretty badly once and he stopped.”
“Jesus.” Adam shakes his head. “Thank you.”
