AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I wrap a towel around myself and slump on my bed. Not caring about the sheets getting wet, I lie down. My phone vibrates on my bedside cabinet and I grab it and see my sister’s name. I sigh and sit up, knowing if I ignore her she’ll hop a plane and bang my door down.
“Hey.”
Her soft greeting kicks me in the chest and I pinch the bridge of my nose to keep my emotions from exploding out of me in a torrent. “Hey, sis.”
“How you doing?”
I was expecting a lecture but I should have known better. Nora has always been my biggest supporter and advocate. “I’m fine. How are Amelia and Beck?”
“You’re not fine. Now, tell me the truth.”
I don’t miss the way she finessed her way around answering that question and that in itself is enough of an answer, and yet I still find my lips twitching at how Nora uses her ‘mom’ voice on me now. Isaac is a lucky kid to have her in his corner and so, I realize, am I.
“Honestly, I don’t know. This is my worst nightmare. I trusted them to keep this hidden, to protect me, and they didn’t. Now I’m stuck in the middle. I either have to choose my career or them.”
“Do you though? Why can’t you have both?”
“Because Len said.”
“Oh, fuck what Len said. The man’s a prick. What do you want?”
I pause at her angry outburst. Norrie is a gentle soul with one heck of a temper when it’s really triggered. “He made me what I am.”
“Bullshit. You made you what you are. He’s a leech who sucks the life from you and I’m not going to stand back and let him take this too.”
“I thought you liked him.”
“I’ve met him twice. The first time he patted me on the head like a fucking dog, the second time he hit on me.”
“He what?!” I shoot to standing, fury bubbling in my veins at the thought of that piece of shit hitting on my sister.
“Oh calm down, I handled him. But my point is, he isn’t a good person. He’s out for himself.”
“What are you saying? That it’s Len’s fault that Beck and Amelia threw discretion away and fucked me over?”
“I love you, Xander, so please know I say this with all the love in the world but grow the fuck up! You were out of line to ask them to do it in the first place. The only winner in that situation was you. Beck and Amelia have been in love for years and the second they admit it, they have to hide it from the world. How is that fair?”
“I didn’t force them to do it.”
“No, they did it because they care about you, because they love you and want what you had, and it was okay because there was an end in sight. Then you moved the goalposts without even asking them. It was selfish.”
“Wow, tell me how you really feel.”
“Someone has to. You’re surrounded by people with agendas, Xander, but the people who love you have just one, and that’s for you to be happy. If you dare tell me you were happy hiding your true self from the world, I’ll get on a plane and fly to L.A. so I can clock you one.”
I smile despite myself at her rant and the threats I know aren’t baseless. She’d do it and I love her for it. “Do you really think I’m selfish?”
“Don’t you?”
I think about what she’s saying about Beck and Amelia having to hide but I gave them choices. I never forced this on them, but she’s right about the moving of the goalposts. I did that and I need to figure out why. “I guess I was.”
“We love you, Xander, and you’re a good man, one of the best I know. There’s nobody I’d rather have as my big brother, but you need to figure out what you want and make some tough choices.”
“Is Amelia, okay?” She’s the one being dragged through the mud the hardest and the names they’re calling her disgust me. If I had my way, I’d make a statement defending her but Len thinks it would make things worse and make me look weak.
“No, she’s heartbroken. You won’t speak to her and she can’t leave her house without someone insulting her and calling her names. Beck isn’t much better, but as a man, he gets more of a pass.”
My heart aches and guilt feels like an anvil on my chest easing some of the anger toward them. “Tell her I’m sorry.”
