Giovanni
“Nice of you to join us,” Declan says.
I ignore him.
Benjamin is sitting behind my father’s antique desk and a man I don’t recognize is standing beside him pointing to something on a document. He’s introduced as Michael Smith, one of the attorneys of the estate.
Declan watches me from his place at the far wall. He’s leaning against it and has the bottom of his right foot resting on it. His arms are crossed over his chest and he looks so different to how I remember him. Older than he is.
I wonder how he sees me.
Last time I saw him he was fifteen years old. Benjamin has sent photographs over they years, but I threw most away.
When my father married his mother and he became my brother, I was excited about the idea. I liked Declan, we were close, even.
But that was when I’d thought he was my stepbrother, not a half-brother. We were friends before that, too. When my mother was alive.
But with my mother’s death, everything changed.
And being back here, it brings back all those old memories. Those old betrayals.
“How’s the master bedroom?” Declan asks.
I look at him, eyes narrowing.
“Fuck her in the laird’s bed yet?”
I cross the room in three steps and grip him by the collar. He does the same to me, his grip as powerful as mine. If we fought, we’d be equally matched. Two Goliaths at war.
“You will talk to me with respect.”
He gives me a one-sided grin. “Your ears grow delicate, brother?”
“I am not your brother and I will demolish you.”
“I doubt it.”
“Look around you, Declan. I already have.”
“No, you demolished him.”
That renders me mute.
“Stop it, both of you,” Benjamin orders. “Sit down.”
“I tried to shield him from the truth of what you did, you know that? Of what you were doing to your own family.”
“He wasn’t my family. He chose.”
“Imagine that. I had to protect my father from his own son. His first-born.”
His father.
“Who was protecting him from your mother? I saw her closet overflowing with clothes they couldn’t afford. And look at this house. Look at the state of things.”
“No matter what you want to believe, he loved her.”
“Oh, I have no doubt of that. She made a fool of an old man. My question is did she ever love him? Love his name? Love his family?”
“You chose to leave. Remember that.”
“It wasn’t that simple and you know it,” I say, releasing him, shoving him backward. “But you know what? It doesn’t matter. I own fifty-one percent of the company and the estate is effectively bankrupt. You’ll sign the papers and the house will be mine in a matter of hours. I’ve won, brother. So fuck you.”
“Ever hear the term cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face? Not sure I’d call what you did winning.”
“You can pack your things and get the hell out as soon as the papers are signed,” I say.
He grins, adjusts the cuffs of his shirt, his attention to them as he replies. “You tell your nephew he’s got no home, then.”
“You mean your bastard-”
“Giovanni!” Benjamin interjects.
Fuck.
I turn away, grit my teeth.
“What in God’s name has come over you?” Benjamin asks.
He’s right. The child is what? Four? He’s not to blame. Not to be hated.
As if on cue, the door flies open and we all turn to find a boy-my nephew I know from first sight-charge inside. He’s got a toy train in his hand and runs directly to Declan who catches him and lifts him into the air.
“I found it! I told you it was under the bed and no one would trip over it.”
Declan cradles him, smiles at him in a way I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile. It’s like his entire face softens.
He takes the toy train from his son’s hand.
The boy spots me from the corner of his eye, a stranger, and turns his full attention to me. His eyebrows furrow together and it’s like looking into a mirror when I see his blue and green eyes.
But for all the innocence inside his, I know the opposite fills mine.