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“Everywhere we went, the foster families always watched him extra intently.They whispered.Talked about him when they thought no one could hear.”But she’d heard.“The boy who killed his father.They said that had to leave a mark on him.That he’d always be troubled.That was when the labels started.Social workers put in his file that he exhibited signs of attachment disorder, oppositional defiance—”
“He only attached to you.Your brother only loved you.”
“Love isn’t easy.”Her heart broke thinking about him.“Everything they wrote about Lane?It was all true ofme.But they looked at me and saw a victim.They looked at him…and instead of seeing a hero, they saw…they saw the boy who’d killed his sick dad.”
He gripped the edges of the table.“I’m sorry.”
“He fired the gun after I killed our father.I didn’t realize why he’d done that but later…one of the cops said Lane had gunshot residue on him.I did, too, but no one ever tested me.Lane set the whole scene.He dideverythingto protect me.I tried to get the cops to listen to me, but they wouldn’t.”Lane had been too good at convincing them.And then…She swallowed the lump in her throat.“Three different families wanted to adopt me.”Now that she’d started talking about her past, the words just wouldn’t seem to stop.“But they didn’t wanthim.”
Oliver nodded.“And you were a package deal.”
“Yes.”Low.“We still are.”Did he get what she was saying?“I won’t abandon him.I can’t.By taking the fall for my father’s death, Lane was the one shunned by everyone.In school, in the foster homes, he was the one everyone always talked about.He has walked in shadows for years because he was trying to make things better forme.”
Oliver’s gaze cut away from her.
And the cereal she’d eaten suddenly felt very, very heavy in her stomach.“What is it?”
“We should go to that piss-poor excuse for an apartment.Clear everything out.Then I want to check in with Memphis.And with Theo and Jase.I need to see if the crime scene techs have unearthed anything we can use—”
“I thought you didn’t want secrets.”
Slowly, his stare returned to her.
“I don’t want them either.”Secrets just dragged you down and weighed on your heart.“Tellme what you are thinking.”
A long exhale.“You think you cleared Lane by telling me about your father’s death, don’t you?”
“I…” Hadn’t she?She was the killer, not her brother.
Oliver shook his head.“If he lied to protect you, and that lie…it made him become ostracized, it made him the villain, if it made him the one that the families wouldn’t choose to adopt, the teachers didn’t trust…baby, don’t you see?It still all points to him resenting you.To him developing a deep-seated anger toward you.To him hating—”
She shot to her feet.“My brother loves me.”
“Yeah, he does.”Oliver didn’t rise.His head tilted back as he studied her.“But don’t you understand, some people can hate the very things that they love?”
No.“Not Lane.”
“Right.Not precious Lane.”
Her eyes narrowed.“What is that supposed to mean?My brother is injail.You don’t get to say things like that about him!You don’t get to mock him.”
Now he did rise.“Oh, I’m not mocking him.”The legs of the chair scraped as he shoved it back.“I’m jealous as hell of him.”
“What?”In what universe did that make sense?
“What would it take for you to ever defend me the way you defend him?”
Her lips parted.
But no answer came.
Grimly, he nodded.“That’s what I thought.With you, your brother will always come first.You choose him over everyone else.I don’t think you did have attachment issues.I think you could probably attach just fine.”
He didn’t know her.He didn’t—
“But you didn’t want Lane to be alone.You never wanted him to feel like you weren’t there for him.So you kept everyone else away, didn’t you?”And he began to close in on her.One slow step at a time.
Those slow steps made her feel hunted, but Lark refused to retreat.
