Page 76 of All the Ugly Things
“On parole.”
“And Dad’s…”
“It’s what Melissa wanted.”
His shoulders heaved, face turned purple. Right before I went to get him off me, he shoved me harder into the wall and stepped back, scrubbing his hands in his hair.
“You knew about this?”
I should have felt like an asshole for keeping this from him, but I couldn’t quite summon the emotion up. Brandon did better when he didn’t have to overthink things. And this was something that would have made him struggle. This way, he could meet her, decide he likes her, and move on. “For the last year, yeah, knew he wanted to help her.”
“This is fucked up.”
“Yup.”
“Shit.” He leaned forward and braced his hands on his knees. Breathing slowly, he tilted his head back. Pain. Memories. Hell, painful memories, etched into the lines on his forehead. “You both owe me some serious expensive fucking bourbon for not clueing me in on this earlier.”
“Dad thought it’d be easier if we kept it between us.”
“So what? She’s his new runaway project?”
“It worked for you.”
He closed his eyes then and stood. Dad found Brandon under a bridge at the age of thirteen years old and brought him home. After a call to the police station, several to family services, he was placed in our home after the cops arrested his parents. That wasn’t unusual but considering Brandon had been living on the streets for over a week and when the cops went to his house his mom was high as a kite and in possession of enough heroin to make a small country rich with drug money, he never saw her again.
She was still in Mitchellville Women’s Prison. On her third stint.
Clean, for all we knew, but Brandon had never gone to see her.
When he was sixteen and getting close to aging out of the system, Dad and Mom legally adopted him so he knew he’d always have people who loved him.
While we were always close, always best friends after several months of adjustment, it was Melissa who he was closest with.
“You are so damn lucky Jenna and I have dinner with her parents right after I leave here or otherwise, I’d be bloodying your face with my fist.”
I had no doubt. Brandon’s anger issues ran deep along with his fear of abandonment. A handful of others. Jenna soothed him in a way I never could. After he raged for months after Melissa’s death, it was Jenna who pulled him back.
“Come on.” I slapped his shoulder. “You have a new assistant to hire.”
“Seriously. This is messed up shit. She know anything?”
“Dad wants to tell her when the time is right.”
“When’s that?”
“Whenever he says.”
Brandon huffed. I lost my grin.
There was only so much I could do, so far I could push, before Lilly was sure to find out the truth.
We were destined to explode before we ever began.
I had every intention of riding this wave of borrowed time for as long as I could.
19
Lilly
