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Rafferty is broken. As soon as he entered his apartment and found me waiting for him, he broke down and I ran into his arms and sobbed, “I’m so sorry, Rafe. I should have told you when I found out.”
He clings to me and says in a voice that kills me inside, “I fucking hate them both.”
“Me too.”
He pulls away and the anger in his eyes is hard to witness as he growls, “Tell me everything.”
As I fill him in, his face is frozen into a blank expression. It’s as if all emotion has deserted my brother and left him a machine. A broken machine with no life left in it and it breaks my heart.
I finish up and he runs his fingers through his hair and says with a slight hiss, “It was all over the fucking internet before I could deal with it. One of the guys showed me on his phone and I had no place to hide.”
He shakes his head. “Mom called when you left and told me the happy news. She broke down on the phone and asked me to forgive her.”
“What did you say?” I ask, not surprised when he growls, “I cut the call. That was the last time I spoke to her.”
He grabs a beer from the fridge and leans against it, a sad expression in his eye as he whispers, “I called dad. I asked him to come and meet us here.”
“Is he coming?”
He should be here soon. I want to check he’s okay.”
“Areyouokay, Rafe?”
I’m concerned because my brother appears to have changed overnight and become harder, emotionless and no longer the sweet, friendly guy he’s always been.
“I’m just fine, Ally. Don’t you worry about me.”
I am worried though. He has adopted a hard edge that I’m convinced is to protect himself. I don’t like seeing it because Rafferty isn’t this man before me.
There’s a knock on the door and Rafferty sighs. “We may as well get this over with.”
My heart lurches because what if it’s not our father? It could be anyone and even though Shade has positioned his guards outside, I am still mindful there’s someone out there with a grudge against us. What if it’s something else entirely?
“Come in dad.”
My heart sags with relief as my father walks into the apartment, a shadow of his former self.
He appears weary, tense and on edge and my heart breaks for him as he hugs his son hard.
“I’m so sorry, Rafe.” He says with a break to his voice and as his eyes connect with mine, I sob as he opens his arms to let me into the hug.
We stand for what seems like ages as we hug it out and it strikes me that this is the new face of our family unit. Just the three of us.
We break apart and as I join my father on the couch, Rafferty tosses him a beer and nods toward the coffee machine. “Want one?”
“No. I’m good, thanks.”
I note my father’s fingers tremble as he holds the beer and I rest my hand on his arm and say softly, “I’m so sorry dad.”
“It’s not your apology to make, Ally.” He sighs. “I should be the one apologizing to you. To both of you.”
He shakes his head. “We should have told you the story from the beginning. Your mom didn’t want to, though. She didn’t see the need because you were still tied to me by blood.”
He sighs heavily. “I was so happy when Lucas offered to donate his sperm. It was the most precious gift a brother could give. I didn’t realize he took it literally though and did it the old-fashioned way.”
He sounds bitter and I’m really not surprised about that, and I put my arm around him and say with concern, “What are you going to do now?”
“Divorce Meredith. There is no going back from this.”
