“Did Dad…did he say…” He cracked his jaw to the right as if he couldn’t believe what he was going say.
“Don’t leave your brother,” we both said at the same time.
My eyes widened as I stared at him. “When did they-”
“Boston.” He nodded, gripping the steering wheel. “I thought I was just dying. That my mind made them up to comfort me. But I felt a pinch in my arm, and before Ivy died, she asked me if I’d taken anything—”
“Your blood!” I nearly screamed, remembering. “I knew it. You should have bled out, but you didn’t. And that medic kit….it was too prepared.”
“Helen swore she saw me save you both,” Ethan whispered. “But I didn’t. I had no idea. I’d gotten an alert, and our men were already on the way. I went back to look at the security footage, and it was gone. Not just for that day, but that whole week. Just gone. Even away from Cain, and I have way of finding out if we were hacked without—”
“Speaking to Uncle Declan or Helen.”
“Exactly.”
We both sat there, silently trying to process the fact that the last decade…no, almost two decades were a lie.
“What are you going to do?” I finally managed to ask him.
He
sighed and then shifted the car out of park and moving back onto the street. “There is nothing we can do.”
“What the hell are you saying? Do you hear yourself? Ethan, our parents. Both of them. They are alive. They are out there and—”
“And they’re never going to let us find them!” he snapped, and I saw the rage, the pain, the shock and confusion in his eyes, which I must have shared. “They know we know. For me, if you never said anything, I would have thought it was impossible…no, in all honestly, I would have forgotten about it—between the city, the family, and the business, when would I have time to really think about it? If Helen hadn’t thanked me for saving you both, I would have never brought it up. But she did, and I knew…there was only one man I could be confused with. And that look you gave Nana, I knew then…you were trying not to think about it, just like I was. They made a mistake. They thought you were gone. They came to say goodbye, but they must know now that you were awake all along and that, if that’s the case, you heard them.”
“So we’re just going to pretend we don’t know?” The two most important people in our family’s lives, my fucking life, weren’t dead. They were somewhere in Chicago, and we’re just supposed to forget?
“We should act with the knowledge that they can hear everything. That they can see everything—”
“That they made themselves gods?” Of course, they fucking did! “Who do you think I inherited my selfishness from? Mom or Dad? I’m guessing Mom. She went first. No way in hell Dad would have agreed to that…oh, and he acted so fucking hurt…bullshit. All of it was bullshit.” I looked around the car and then leaned into the speaker. “Mom, Dad, if you’re listening, please know from the bottom of my heart, it is with the deepest sincerities that I say you’re not worth the crack of yer arse of boiled snow, and if I see ye I’ma bust yer craniums in, you both cic maith sa tóin atá de dhíth air! (need a good kick up the arse).”
“Are you done?” he questioned. How he managed to be so calm is beyond me, and fucking annoying.
“No, I’m not done. But go ahead, explain to me why I should be done.”
“I want to see them,” he confessed throwing me off for a moment. “But then what? They didn’t go through all this trouble to come out of hiding. They aren’t coming back to be in our lives. And if we chase them and find…what happens when we outlive them? Do we re-bury them? Do we grieve all over again?”
No matter how badly he tried, he always showed how different he was from me. “You’re not supposed to be logical at this point, Ethan. You’re their child, too. They hurt you, too. You should just be upset. You shouldn’t think about what’s next and just want to see them. Ask them why they did—”
“They did it so that they could do this,” he said softly. “I’ve gotten lucky so many times. Now I wonder, what was by my own strength and what did they do? Either way, without them watching out for us, we’d be dead. I’d be dead before you came to operate. You would have died in the lobby.”
“You are logical for me, too,” I grumbled, staring out the window. “And I’ll be pissed for us both then.”
He chucked, but it was cut off when his phone rang, connecting with the car’s Bluetooth.
Seeing the caller ID, we both shared a look before he answered.
“Nana—”
“The party is canceled. You need to get home right now.” Her tone was completely off.
“What is it—”
“Can’t talk over the phone. Just get back now.” And with that she hung up.
“Remember the days when you used to run this family…or at least you thought you did?” I said to him. “Now you’re chauffeuring your little brother, and our grandmother is bossing you around.”