“You deserve to rot in hell,” Dad hisses at Steve, his whole body vibrating with suppressed rage. “I stood by you for so long. Stuck up for you whenever anyone questioned your honor, your loyalty.” He takes a deep, heaving breath. “I can’t stand to look at you.”
I only allow myself a quick glance at the letter, and just the sight of my mom’s handwriting makes my heart ache. All this time, I thought I’d driven Mom to her death. Easton blamed himself, too. The twins were torn up for months. We fell apart as a family. We hated Dad, hated ourselves. When Ella arrived unannounced, we hated her, too. We treated her like dirt.
East and I left her on the side of the road one night and forced her to walk home. We followed her at a distance, because we’re not total assholes, but we’d made her believe she was alone.
I don’t know, or understand, how she forgave me, how she came to love me.
As I’m lost in my head, Dad shoves past East, sidesteps Cousins, and punches Steve in the jaw so hard that the sound of the impact echoes from one side of the large living room to the other. This time when Steve wipes a hand across his mouth, blood smears across his face.
“Enough. He’s in police custody,” Detective Cousins snaps.
Dad doesn’t look away from Steve. “You bastard. You sleep with my wife, kill a woman, and try to pin it on my son?”
“Dad,” I say hoarsely. “He’s not worth it.”
And he’s not. Steve doesn’t matter anymore. All that matters is I’m alive. Everyone I care about is alive and unhurt. I’m not going to prison. Ella’s coming home with us, where she belongs. We’re going to survive this, just like we survived our mother’s suicide, our broken family, and our own demons.
I tuck Ella’s hand securely in mine and say, “Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?” she asks.
“Home.”
She’s silent for a moment. “That’s good.”
“Yeah,” Easton says, coming up on Ella’s other side. “Your room’s a mess.”
“Because you keep watching football in there,” she mutters as we lead her away. “I expect you to clean it the moment we get back.”
Easton stops at the penthouse door and looks at her incredulously. “I’m Easton Royal. I don’t clean shit.”
Dad sighs. The twins snicker. Even the cops look like they’re trying not to laugh.
I clasp Ella’s hand more firmly in mine and walk out with each of my brothers falling in line. Behind us is the tormented and terrible past. In front of us is our unblemished future.
I’m not looking back again.
36
Reed
It takes all of forty-eight hours for Halston Grier to get another hearing for me. This time, I’m not even annoyed that Judge Delacorte is assigned to the case. There’s something awesomely ironic about the fact that he’s going to have to rule on the motion to dismiss all the charges against me after he tried to bribe my father.
“Given your past with this judge, my advice is to look suitably penitent throughout the proceeding,” Grier advises as we wait for Delacorte to appear from his chambers. The hearing was supposed to start fifteen minutes ago, but the judge is sulking in the back, trying to delay the inevitable.
Grier’s warning is unnecessary. I haven’t smiled much since I got the call from Ella on Saturday night.
“All rise, the Honorable Judge Delacorte is presiding.”
“Honorable, my ass,” East mutters loudly behind me.
Grier is facing forward, but his co-counsel, Sonya Clark, turns to glare at my brother.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Easton making a zipping motion across his lips. Ella is beside him, and she’s sitting strangely close to Dinah. I guess the two of them formed a weird bond the night that Steve confessed to killing Brooke because he’d mistakenly thought she was Dinah.
I still think Dinah is a snake, but holy shit am I grateful to her. Yes, she blackmailed my brother, but she also saved Ella’s life. If she hadn’t grabbed that gun out of the safe and come to Ella’s aid, things could have ended a lot differently. Thanks to Dinah, Ella is safe and Steve O’Halloran will be behind bars, charged with the crime that everyone thought I committed.
Every time I think about it, I want to punch something. That bastard was actually going to let me rot in jail for something I didn’t do. I know he’s Ella’s father, but I’ll never be able to forgive him for what he did. I don’t think Ella can, either.
Grier tugs on my jacket as a reminder to get to my feet. I stand, as ordered, and then wait for the bailiff to give us the okay to sit down.