AllFreeNovel
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“Max was in on it too,” Lucas says petulantly. “Why am I the only one getting yelled at?”
I snort. “Because Max ended the fight.”
Lucas’s gaze snaps to Max and he narrows his eyes. “You weren’t joining me to avenge our sister?”
“Sorry, dude,” Max says, shaking his head. “I was stopping it and the only way was to get Van on the ground.”
“You traitor,” Lucas exclaims dramatically.
I blow Max a kiss. “It’s why you’re my favorite brother.”
“Whatever.” Lucas scoffs and faces me. “But now that we have you alone and can talk some sense into you, I want you to give Van the divorce he’s seeking. He’s killing you slowly… death by a thousand paper cuts. Can’t stand the fucker and I say good riddance.”
He doesn’t elaborate but after that kind of statement, what more needs to be said? My head turns to Malik who I suspect has similar feelings.
Malik’s expression is sympathetic, but he shrugs. “You tried, Simone. Now it’s time to move on. While I love having you in the same city as me, you have a career back in Vermont that you should go back to. Dive into work. Take your mind off things.”
“And divorce Van?” I ask for clarification.
While his expression is still soft in understanding, his nod is firm. “Yes. And divorce Van.”
I swing my head toward Max, now perched on the edge of the recliner. He’s got his elbows on his knees, beer bottle held loosely in one hand. “And what about you?” I ask.
“I want you to be happy.”
“Me too,” I say with a bitter laugh. “And to me, that’s saving my marriage. Yet you want me to give up and not fight?”
Max nods at Malik and Lucas. “I agree with these bozos. I think you’ve done everything you can. I don’t agree you should give up hope, but I think you should give up trying. Van knows how you feel. It’s on him now.”
Always the voice of reason. Lucas and Malik are the hotheads, but Max has always been so steady, you can’t help but take his opinions seriously.
I grab a pillow and put it on my lap, tugging at the tasseled fringes. “I’m going to ask all three of you the same question and I want you to be honest with me.”
“Shoot,” Lucas says, draping his arm over the back of the couch and angling more my way.
I address him first as he’s the most vocal about disliking my husband and he tried to beat the shit out of him on the ice tonight.
“Do you care about Arco’s biography? Does that change how you view Van or feel about him?” Lucas opens his mouth to answer, but I hold my hand out. “And don’t tell me you dislike or hate him, because I know damn well you don’t. He was your teammate and he’s your brother-in-law, and I’ve watched you two over the years and—”
“Fine,” Lucas says with a grimace. “Yes, I like Van. I’m pissed as hell at him though for even going where he went with you. He’s disappointed me. And to answer your question, no, that shit doesn’t bother me at all. Arco was a psychopath and anything he wrote in those journals that got turned into a book was probably done with the intent to manipulate perception. I mean, anyone who reads that shit can see he’s just glorifying things in an attempt to torture Van long after the asshole kicked the bucket.”
“You read the book?” I ask, completely incredulous. Lucas hates reading.
“Of course I did. I wanted to be able to defend him if someone said something to me about it.”
Tears prick at my eyes over how thoughtful that was.
“We all read it,” Max says, and my head turns his way. “Even Mom and Dad, and we all discussed it.”
My jaw drops. “Without me?”
“You had enough on your plate,” Malik says, drawing my attention. “All of us think it’s horseshit, by the way.”
“And have any of you actually said that to Van?”
Utter silence. They glance at one another, then at me with guilt-ridden expressions.
“Jesus,” I mutter, taking the pillow and slinging it hard and fast at Lucas. It catches him in the face and beer spews out of his bottle all over his shirt. “You couldn’t have taken five minutes of your time to reach out to your brother-in-law to tell him not to worry about it? That it came across as kooky? That you had his back?”
