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Sylvester:What am I? A lizard?
Jude:If you were an animal, you might be a lizard
Jude:What are those ones with the funny necks? Like an Elizabethan collar?
Forest:Hahahaha
Forest:A frilled-neck lizard. YES!
Winston:Wow. We’ve finally solved the puzzle of which animal @Sylvester would be
Winston:I’m so proud of our achievements
Sylvester:Fuck you guys. See you soon
I tossed my phone onto the desk, allowing a little smirk across my mouth since no one was there to see it. Okay, my brothers could quite easily break through my crankiness. Maybe that’s what I’d needed – a bit of levity whenever I found myself feeling too serious. I was theleastserious of the Brock brothers. I had a reputation to uphold.
By the time the brothers had assembled in my office, I was a little more composed than I had been. “Just to warn you, there’s a bit of drama involved in the explanation of what happened.”
A collective groan. I would have joined them in it if it weren’t my own drama. We’d had enough drama in the past few years to last us a lifetime. Unfortunately, that was the life of a Brock heir.
I gave them a sympathetic look. “I know, I know. Here it goes... I tracked down Apollo’s ghostwriter. It turns out, the writer... is my ex-girlfriend.”
Winston chimed in with righteous annoyance. “Fucking hell, he knows how to pick them, doesn’t he!”
We all knew the story of how Apollo had teamed up with Winston’s own mom to try and use his own ex-girlfriend – and her secret child, of whom Winston was the unknowing father – against him.
“Yeah, I don’t even know if he intended it.” The words came out of my mouth, but they sounded foolish even as I heard them.
Jude’s deep voice hummed with disbelief. “Seriously, Sylvester? After everything else he’s done, you think it’s a coincidence that the ghostwriter he chose to pen his book full of lies about us is your ex?”
“Yeah, I just heard myself say it, and realized the same thing.” I growled, even crankier than I had been earlier. “But why? What does it get him?”
Forest’s arms were folded. “Well, he’s got you riled, so that’s a point to him already. He’ll do anything to get under our skin. And youarethe last one remaining out of us that he’s not targeted yet. Go on, tell us the history with your ex. Let us dissect your tale of misfortune and determine exactly what Apollo might be up to.”
I sighed. “We were teenagers, we were in love, etcetera. I was getting ready for my first tour when I got the missive from Emory about being his son blah blah blah. So, like you three, I spent that summer at his weird old mansion while he told us a bunch of creepy, evil lies about the world. Best summer camp ever.”
Winston chuckled darkly.
I continued. “Then, I went back home, and I realized what was going to happen when the old man died. We knew he intended to leave us the company, and we’d all realized we were going to be obligated to take it over. We’d seen his lifestyle, we knew how extreme it was. I didn’t want my ex or my bandmates getting caught up in things.”
“What did you do, Sylvester?” Winston spoke like he knew what was coming. Maybe he’d guessed it.
“I dumped her and got her dropped from the tour. Oh yeah, she was supposed to be a support act. Then I spent the next few years building my music career while getting my bandmates to hate me, until we split too. Just in time for Emory’s death and the press conference that started everything.”
Forest winced. “That was harsh.”
“Yeah, well, it was for the best. Winston tried entering his new life with a girlfriend in tow, and look how it went for them.”
Winston nodded. “I kinda agree. It was shitty for Monica back then.”
Jude had his eyebrows raised. “Sometimes I don’t understand any of you.”
“Yeah, well, the feeling’s mutual.” I winked at Jude.
We were all three quite different people – but being thrown into a similar set of circumstances at the same time had created a very strong bond between the four of us. I valued it more than anything. Of course, I never really showed how much I valued it... but that’s how family was. You just knew.
Rehashing my past had once again brought up the thought of contacting my old bandmates. After the Brocks had left, I opened my phone contacts. I still had Reed Stokes’ number, though I had no clue if it was still the same as it had been many years ago.
