I laughed.
And then I kept fucking laughing, until my throat hurt.
“He’s lost his fucking mind,” Charles said.
“It’s just people who say that to me tend to be fuckheads.”
“Told you he wouldn’t believe us,” Jo said. “Show him the thing.”
Silently, Keller reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, handing it to me.
When the time comes, Grayson Crowne will help you. He’s not the boy you think he is, not the boy his grandfather is trying to make him be.
Sincerely,
Woodson Hale
I slowly sat up, eyeing them. “What the fuck is this?”
“You tell us,” Jo snapped. “For our entire lives, we lived with a shitty stepbrother who never spoke to us, then right before the Holidays, our mother gives us this note, tells us not to come, and then she fucking dies. We loved Woodsy. So…reluctantly…we are inclined to listen to him.”
I shifted. “He was like a father to me.”
“Us too.”
Silence spread. We stared at one another, and I could almost see the walls we’d built crumble.
They’re your competition now, Grayson. Thank your father for that.
I saw beyond that moment that had shaped the course of our lives. I never even knew they had a relationship with Woodsy. I knew nothing about them, really.
How much longer was I going to let my grandfather’s insidious thorns dictate my decisions?
“Then why the fuck were you with my grandfather?” I asked.
“We know he killed our mother. We’ve known he killed our father for years. So for years we just…” Jo trailed off, exhaled. “We waited.”
“And what are you waiting for?”
“We want justice,” Jo said. “We want his ass in jail.”
I laughed. “Beryl Crowne in jail? It would be easier to catch a falling star.”
“So what’s your plan then?” Jo asked. “Audition for the world’s mopiest Heathcliff? Cuz sorry, bruh, but my brother’s already got you beat.” She threw a thumb behind her, to her brother with the shoulder-length hair hiding everything but his eye, leaning against the window—Keller.
Keller kicked Jo behind the knee and she stumbled forward.
I worked my jaw. “My plan was to kill him.”
Keller raised his hands. “Thank you. I’ve been saying this for months.”
Charles and Jo shared a look, then Jo continued. “Mother deserves justice. Our father deserves justice. Your baby mama—”
“My wife.”
“Your wife—doesn’t she deserve justice? Your baby? Killing him is too kind. I want him strung up. I want everyone to know what he did. I want the world to see the ugly. Right now if you search his name, only his charity works come up. People think he’s good. If you kill him now, he’ll die a martyr.”
I slowly sat up, resting my throbbing head against the cool window.