“Why were we not told this shit?” Royce shouts, angrily.
“At the end of the day, it’s irrelevant. He was Graven, his son Graven, just as you three are Brayshaw. We live by the name, the name is who we are.”
“What happened with Ravina and the marriage, did she not want it?” Cap gets us back on track.
“Oh, Ravina wanted the marriage,” Dad scoffs. “She wanted to be waited on and showered with gifts and praised for her beauty. She didn’t get that at home, she had unlimited income, but was invisible to her grandfather, and our love for her, mine and both your fathers” —he nods toward my brothers— “wasn’t enough for her. She didn’t believe in our feelings, thought we cared because we were forced to being, we were men of Brayshaw, but that was so far from the case. She wouldn’t hear it though.
“Felix Graven, however, was desperate to have her, and he let her know it at every turn. He was a few years older, so he used that appeal to win her over. I said he didn’t hesitate to take the offer once he had her heart, and he didn’t, even left his pregnant fiancée to be with her and without a second thought.”
“Collins’ mom?”
“Yes. He didn’t hesitate to decide, was willing to throw his unborn son away if it meant he got to marry Ravina.”
“He was obsessed with her.” Royce frowns.
“He was in love with her.” Our dad’s eyes cloud with memories. “She was as captivating as her daughter. People fell at her feet from a simple smile. Only it wasn’t just her beauty. She was kind, forgiving. Good. Untouched by greed.” He looks to me briefly. “Untouched by a man.”
A virgin Brayshaw.
He continues. “Ravina had an innocent soul once, very much a contrast of her daughter in that sense. Raven was born jaded, but Ravina, she was turned that way.”
“You have to know Raven isn’t a virgin.”
He nods. “Collins wants her regardless.”
“Is that his call? That’s not what they were promised.”
“A fact Donley doesn’t seem concerned with this time around.”
“So what happened?” Royce asks, irritated, getting us back on track. “Ravina changed her mind last minute?”
With a deep sigh, he says, “The wedding was planned for her eighteenth birthday. In the time leading up to it, Ravina spent much time with the Graven family, felt she loved Felix deeply, but, as I mentioned, he was a little older, so their schedules would clash. He had Graven business and she had school. Felix hated leaving her behind, so much so he arranged for someone to keep her company. There was only one person in his life who he trusted with his untouched bride, someone who was still a student like her.” His eyes move between ours. “A Brayshaw High student.”
“Who?”
He stands, sliding his hands in his pocket as he meets our eyes. “His brother.”I hit the little button on Cap’s keys to unlock his SUV and quietly slip out the front door, making my way to it. I dig around in the back seat, not finding Perkins’ damn business card I took from the limo, but only a second empty envelope identical to the one that was left for me.
That’s how they found out, Donley went to them too.
Asshole.
I tiptoe back into the house and up the stairs, going straight for Cap’s room.
I rummage through dirty jeans pockets and come up short, but the second I pull open his bedside drawer, I spot the edge of it, sticking out of the side of his notebook.
I freeze.
Cap’s been writing in this thing a lot.
Maybe their secret is in there?
I reach for it, but the second my fingertips brush over the cool leather covering, guilt slices through me.
They don’t allow people into this home because they can’t trust their intentions. This is their safe place, hence the journal sitting right there for anyone to find.
I can’t destroy their only place of peace.
I hurry back to my room, only then pausing in thought.
Why would Captain hold onto that card?
He has to know it was dropped there by me, his brothers would have shared their reasoning for having it if it were theirs.
Maybe he plans to ask me about it?
It would be one thing if it were in his discarded pants pockets, like he picked it up to throw it out or something, but secured in his bedside drawer and settled between the pages of what might be his deepest thoughts... or dirtiest desires, who knows. Still. Why?
He’s been so on edge lately, and Perkins has been one of the many root causes for it. I mean, shit, he beat on him just yesterday!
Cap knows something, and I’m going to find out what it is.She’s in bed by the time I make it upstairs, but she isn’t sleeping. She’s drawing circles with her flashlight against the ceiling, not bothering to look my way when she hears me come in.