“I can’t go over it twice,” I finally say as I start to walk away from her. “Just…come in the office. I’ll explain when everyone gets here.
My family assembles on the couch and chairs around my desk. The customary chatter prior to a family meeting is absent as they all settle into their seats and look at me.
“There isn’t going to be a wedding,” I say. I close my eyes and take a deep breath before I tell them about the PO box, the clues hidden in furniture, the shooting at the cheese shop, and ultimately, our discovery of Cherry’s true birth parents.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Threes mutters.
Anthony shakes his head, apparently unable to come up with a single remark. Andrea is silent, unable to make eye contact with me at all, and Kate wrings her hands and glances at the other family members nervously. Twos looks at Nora, and they nod at each other right before they both stand and start toward the office door.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“To see Cherry, of course,” Nora says. “She’s sitting in that apartment all alone trying to deal with this. I’m not going to abandon her.”
“I didn’t say you should, but she said she needed some time.”
“Time away from you, I’m sure.” Nora shakes her head. “I can’t even imagine what the two of you are feeling right now, but you have Antony and Threes. I’m taking Twos and going to see Cherry.”
Without another word, they leave the room. I can hear them talking to each other up until the time the front door closes. Andrea mumbles something about preparing dinner, and Kate quietly follows her out of the room, looking shaken. Antony and Threes look at each other and then back to me. As soon as Antony makes eye contact with me, he drops his gaze to the floor.
“Shit, man.” He shakes his head.
“Yeah.” Threes lets out a long, audible breath. “Whiskey all around?”
“Make them doubles,” Antony says with a hollow laugh.
I don’t even want a drink and barely touch mine after Threes pours them.
“Dude,” Threes says, “I don’t even know where to start.”
“So, Cherry is really your sister?” Antony says, as if I actually need to clarify that bit.
“Do I have to say it again?” I glare at him.
“So, she’s my cousin, too.” Antony leans back and takes a big gulp from his glass. “I guess that’s about as fucked up as it could be. Is she going to move in?”
“I don’t think she wants anything to do with us.” The thought tears at my heart.
I understand why she plans on staying in Accident and forgetting I ever lived. Maybe it’s in everyone’s best interest, but I’ve gone from thinking we were finally okay—finally going to spend our lives together—to the biggest “Holy shit!” moment of my life. Should I be happy to know I have another sibling? Under any other circumstances, maybe, but not now. At some point, she could demand a portion of the business, and I wouldn’t even think of denying it to her, but every account transfer would be another punch to the gut.
“If she’s really an Orso, why do the Ramsays want anything to do with her?” Threes asks.
“They might not know,” Antony says. “Janna seems to think Cherry is one of her own.”
“Does she?” Threes raises an eyebrow. “Maybe she knew all along.”
“If she did, wouldn’t she be rubbing it in our faces now?”
“She doesn’t know that we know.”
“It’s doesn’t matter,” I say, interrupting their conversation. “I don’t fucking care anymore.”
“Care about what?” Antony asks.
“Any of it,”
I reply but don’t elaborate.
“Maybe this is why the other birth certificate was such an obvious forgery,” Threes says. “Maybe we were supposed to figure it all out at some point.”