“They like to slide—your brothers, that is. The two of them could spend hours flipping up and sliding down.”
We sat next to each other in silence and listened to my brothers giggle from afar. I had no clue how to get out of this one. Silence: the defense of the guilty.
“So, were the two of you working together this entire time or did you jump at the opportunity when it presented itself?”
Might as well try denial. “I think you’ve lost your mind.”
“I’m a slob, but I’m an organized slob. You put your file back in the wrong spot. Do you have any idea how much trouble you could be in for this?”
Dammit. “What do you want to know?” Maybe if I played, she’d cut me some slack.
“Were you and Echo working together?”
I would never sell Echo out. “Next.”
Mrs. Collins sighed. “I promised Echo privacy and she trusted me. You shouldn’t have been anywhere near that office today.”
I swallowed down the guilt over leaving her. “Is she okay?”
Tyler squealed when Carrie pushed him on the swing. Mrs. Collins smoothed back her hair. “You should probably call her.”
I clasped my hands loosely between my knees as I leaned forward. “What happened to never discussing Echo with me?”
“What can I say? It’s been a bad day all around.”
We sat in silence again. Joe pulled into the driveway and ran across the street to the park. Tyler leapt off the swing and jumped into his open arms. I felt like someone punched me in the gut.
“They’re happy here, Noah. Are you that excited to rip them away from all of this?”
I had to admit, it was nice here. Guess financial gurus really did do well.
“What will you have to offer them? A two-bedroom apartment in a less-than-desirable end of town? I’m assuming you read the file. They go to the best private school in the county. In the state, actually. Both of your brothers have multiple extracurricular activities. How are you going to balance a full-time job and two little boys? How will you find the time to juggle their current schedule? Even better, how can you afford it?”
Joe covered his eyes with one hand and began to play hide-and-seek with my brothers. Jacob hid at the top of the slide while Tyler hid behind Carrie on the bench. When Joe stopped counting, he saw Tyler immediately but pretended he didn’t, to Tyler’s delight.
Mrs. Collins leaned into my line of sight. “There are other options. You can go to college. Continue your relationship with Echo. Become the man your parents intended you to be.”
My muscles tightened. “What does Echo have to do with this?”
“Have you ever asked her what her plans for the future are? Do you think she’s ready to date a single dad?”
I met Mrs. Collins’s eyes for the first time. Sincerity screamed from them. I swore under my breath and returned to watching my brothers. Echo. In all of my imagined scenarios involving my brothers or Echo, I’d never once thought of them in the same future. Separate—yes. Together—no. How the hell did the two combine—or could they?
Carrie and Joe called out to the boys, informing them that it was time to go inside. Jacob and Tyler ran ahead. I watched as a black Suburban pulled out of a spot a few feet down from my brothers.
Everything in my world slowed. I jumped to my feet and began to run toward them as Jacob and Tyler bolted in front of the moving car. No. Please, no. Not them, too. Brakes squealed, a horn blared and Jacob wrapped himself around our younger brother.
My heart beat once when the car stopped inches from Jacob and Tyler. Carrie and Joe swooped them up and hurried into the house. My blood pulsed nervously through my entire body and I could only take shallow breaths.
Mrs. Collins placed a hand on my arm. “They are okay, Noah. They’re safe.”
Fuck that. “They’ll be safer with me.”
Echo
My father followed me home, running two red lights in order to keep up. His tires screamed when he flung his car into Park, door open before he turned off the engine. “Echo!”
Oh, there’s the man I knew. Drill sergeant tone, fast as a rabbit. He could bark orders at me as much as he wanted. I’d discharged myself from his military. He grabbed my arm the moment he caught up with me in the kitchen.
He slammed the door behind him, causing Ashley to jump from the table. Her tabloid magazine fell to the floor. “What’s happened?”
I jerked my arm away. “I’ll tell you what happened. I was born. A couple of years later my genius parents figured out that my mother was bipolar. While she struggled to understand her condition you weaseled your way into our lives and tossed her out right when she finally accepted that she needed the meds.”
Ashley blinked rapidly and looked to my father for reassurance. “Owen, what happened?”
She hurt me. Ashley may have not have dug the cuts into my arms, but she was every bit as responsible. My blood dripped from her manicured hands. “How many times did he start to answer his phone and you stopped him? Did you seduce him into staying later at your stupid reunion or did you remind him that I wasn’t worth the effort?”
Her evil mouth fell into the shape of a round little O and her bloodred lipstick glowed against her now pale face. Disgust weaved through me. “Tell me, Ashley, when they brought my bloodless, lifeless body into the hospital, were you relieved when they told you that I may not make it? Did you celebrate that I was finally out of your life? After all, Aires was dead, my mom cast out for good. I was the only thing left standing in your way.”
She shook her head repeatedly and a single fake tear ran down her cheek. “No. I have always loved you. You, Aires and your father. All I ever wanted to do is to be your mother.”
The thin thread holding back any control snapped so loudly I blinked once. My eyes widened to the point of threatening to fall out of their sockets. “You are such a …”