AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t look at her. Look at me. Tell me why you bullied the girl I told you to watch out for.” I slapped my chest. “I told you to protect her when I went to college. I fucking trusted you.”
Miles staggered to his feet, leaning heavily against the back of a lounge chair. In my periphery, Elliot had his arms around Elise. Her other friends were crowded around her.
She was protected like she should have been all those years ago.
Miles’s gaze lifted, meeting mine before falling away. “Sometimes there isn’t a good reason. Sometimes people do bad shit they regret.”
“Not to Elise. You don’t just do bad shit to her and think I’lleverbe okay with you again. That ismygirl, and she is ten times more important to me than you will ever be, Miles.”
He swallowed hard. “I know that.”
Him not defending himself or making a joke of the situation only made me angrier. I needed to fight him. If I didn’t, I would have had to ask myself how I’d missed this. My own brother had taken part in hurting my beautiful Elise while I’d been off at college, relieved to be gone.
“You know that, yet you fucking bullied her? I didn’t think a lot of you before, but now—”
“Weston, stop,” Elise cried. “Don’t say something you can’t come back from.”
She wouldn’t be happy with me for speaking to him this way, but she was a far better person than I was.
Miles raised his head, his face flushed. “You think I didn’t know that? The second you met the Levys, I didn’t even exist to you. And guess what? I was jealous. In my warped child’s mind, they took my brother from me.” He threw his arms out, but they quickly flopped at his sides. “You left, and there was no one to protect me, but you told me to protecther. I wanted to hate her, and I tried to. I was fucking awful to her. There’s no excuse, and I can’t make it right or change what I did. So, you can write me off, fire me, never see me again. That’s what you want anyway.”
I shook my head. “No. You don’t get to be the victim here.”
Elliot broke away from his sister, taking Miles by the shoulders. Elliot’s control was like iron. He had to be homicidal but kept it locked down. He was doing it for Elise.
“You need to leave. This is my sister’s birthday, and now you’ve ruined yet another thing for her.”
He shoved Miles, not hard, but he was wobbly enough on his feet that he stumbled forward, ending up in front of Elise.
“Lisie…” he croaked.
She reached out, stroking his cheek. “I really wish you hadn’t done this.”
“I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.”
She nodded. “I know you are, but you should go now.”
He glanced around at everyone with wild eyes, like he didn’t really know what he should have been doing. That was when Saoirse took over. Wrapping an arm around Miles’s poor date and hooking her other arm in Miles’s elbow, she walked them both to the elevator.
Elliot rounded on me as soon as my brother was out of my sight.
“Care to tell me why you keep referring to my sister as yours?”
His arms were folded over his chest. Face blank. He knew.
“Elliot, stop.” Elise went to him, standing in front of him so she was between us, even though we were still feet apart. “We were going to tell you next week.”
He wouldn’t look at her. “Why is my sister saying ‘we’? You should have been the one to come to me.” His jaw rippled. “How long have you lied to me?”
That was a complicated question, and my mind was still half blacked out with rage. Tears rolled down Elise’s cheeks, and I was about to lose it.
I made eye contact with Rebecca. “Take her away,” I said through clenched teeth. “She doesn’t need to be here for this.”
Simon and Sam were still at my side. I nodded to them too. “Take her, please.”
“Weston, no, please—" Elise swiveled to her brother then me—“this doesn’t have to happen. We can all talk.”
Elliot’s gaze remained firmly on me. “He’s right. This is between Weston and me.”
