Theo’s voice sounds small when he growls, “What do you want?”
“Answers,” I grunt heatedly.
He barks out a laugh and it grates on my nerves. Originally, I wasn’t going to wait this long to pay him a visit, but I knew I needed to have a level head when I came, and it’s taken me this long to accomplish that.
“Why would I tell you anything?” he asks.
“Because you’ve got nothing to lose, and because you fucking owe Jules and me.”
He scratches the scruff on his face and doesn’t say anything for several minutes. Finally, he nods, and I get right to the point. I want this over and done with as soon as possible.
“Why?”
“Because I wanted her,” he answers simply, like it’s perfectly normal for someone to do the shit he did.
Theo’s lawyer tried to play the insane card, but the prosecuting attorney knocked that shit out of the water real fucking quick. My brother isn’t crazy, he’s just really smart and determined.
I move on to my next question. “Why did you take Jules to the hospital after you attacked her?” And why not blame me and have me arrested when I woke up with no memory? They saw the damage done to her. Someone had to be blamed for it.
He shrugs. “I freaked out when the bitch hit her head and wouldn’t wake up. I took her to the hospital and told them someone broke into her house.”
My jaw tightens, but I hold back my snarl as he continues.
“And you not remembering her was poetic. You both loved each other so much, and it was fucking perfect when you didn’t remember her. Why take the chance of getting caught in a lie when I could just take your place? And I wasn’t taking the chance of you remembering.”
I’d give anything to reach through the glass and wrap my hands around the smug bastard’s throat. Nothing would be more satisfying than watching the life drain from his eyes.
“Once she woke up, you must have been worried that one of us would remember,” I state through gritted teeth.
He sits back in his chair, crosses one arm over his chest, and rests the other elbow on top of it. “It was a chance I was willing to take. And it was so fucking satisfying having her so close to me right under your nose.”
“What in the hell did I ever do to you to make you hate me so much you’d fuck with my life like you did? Your own fucking brother.”
He sighs and scrubs his hand down his face.
“It wasn’t you, Luca. It was her. When I saw you come in with her that day to pick up her car, my whole fucking world stopped. I had seen her first, she was always supposed to be mine. You fucked up my life.”
I bare my teeth. “If you cared for her so much, why did you keep Aria from her once she woke up?”
Anger flashes in his eyes and he sits up straighter in his seat. “Because she was supposed to be mine too. It was just another way to punish her for picking you over me.”
“Why did you move her from across town to our hospital?”
His lip curls up into a sneer with that one. “It had been years and she still hadn’t woken up, and you never regained your memories. I thought it was safe to think she’d never come out of her coma. In the beginning, I wanted to keep her as far away from you as possible. United was the safest bet. It was my fuckup to move her to General. I should have fucking known you’d come across her eventually.”
It was divine fucking intervention he did move her. I never went to United, so I have no doubt had he not moved her, I would have never laid eyes on her again. It makes me wonder if she would have ever woken up had I not found my way into her room. I like to think it was my presence that brought her back to life. She was waiting for me to find her way back.
I ask one final question. The answer doesn’t matter, but I still want to know.
“Do you regret it?”
His answer is immediate and the sinister look in his eye is maniacal.
He leans forward until his nose practically touches the glass. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Over and over. You may have her now, brother, but never forget, I had her too. She was never meant to be yours.”
His words break the final single thread of feeling I had for my brother. I didn’t realize until just now there even was any feeling left, but it’s fucking gone now.
My voice is void of emotion when I tell him. “My brother died the day he raped my wife and tried to steal her from me. You’re wrong, Theo. Jules was never yours. You may have kept her from me for years, but we would have always found our way back to each other. There’s nothing you could have done to change that.”