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“I didn’t let Aris do anything. He sorta stormed in and didn’t give me any choice in the matter,” I say, defending myself.
“Because things got messier than they’d previously been. Your inheritance was closer to being released to you two which made him relentless and more ruthless in his pursuit to get his grubby mitts on your money,” Aris asserts, giving me a reproving look. “Marcus went from mere verbal threats to acting aggressive. When yours and Berk’s life was on the line, I stepped in. I won’t apologize for that.”
Clearing her throat, Addison asks, “So does this mean I can come see you now? There’s so much I need to tell you about, Berly.”
“Girl talk?” Aris inquires around a chuckle. “You’ll have to give me and Berk a heads up when that happens so he and I can be far away from the two of you. Especially if there’s going to be drinking and tears involved.”
“Oh, brother of mine, I can guarantee you there’s going to be copious amounts of alcohol consumed and tons of tears released.” Addison snickers, teasing him. “We’re girls who’ve been kept apart, it’s going to be a blubber fest.”
“Shit,” Aris hisses, but he can’t hide the lift of his lips from me as he strives to keep the smile from popping free.
Aris can try to contain it, but I know his signs and ticks. It’s evident to me that this reunion makes him ecstatic.
He’s delighted.
He wants this.
Us all back together again like it used to be before tragedy struck.
The four musketeers.
We may have been at separate schools, on different paths, but no matter what, we stayed in daily contact. It makes me feel guiltyfor keeping them away for as long as I have. I know they’re our biggest supporters and I’ve treated them like adversaries.
“Wait. If Aris is heading to the office, why are you with him, Berly?” Addison probes, “Shouldn’t you be at the gym, coaching our next Olympian?” I’m astounded that she knows that. I haven’t been active on social media—I’ve kept my personal life on the down low in attempts to keep my father from finding out too much about me and Berk.
“How do you know what I’ve been doing?” I ask, my heart pounding in my chest.
“Avoidance. I see you still do that when you don’t want to answer a question,” Addison harrumphs. “The gym advertised you as working with them when you accepted the position. You were our hometown hopeful, Berl, you know that. You became the town's sweetheart when you took custody of Berk. Everyone follows you that way, backing you and encouraging you, even if you never responded on the website to all of the remarks and comments.”
“I didn’t know about it,” I justify my non reaction to any posts about me or my coaching. “I didn’t put my life out there on blast because I was protecting Berk.”
She hums before stating, “That’s understandable, and from what I saw on the forum, nobody was upset by your lack of contact because they were replied to, just not by you. It was a blanket response by the gym. Now, back to my original question, why are you heading to the office with Aris?”
I don’t immediately answer her as my brain digests the fact that my life has been made public by my former employer and who I thought was my friend. He knew, they all knew that I waskeeping things quiet so that my dad didn’t have any ammunition to twist and twine to use against me. He has the capability to take the simplest thing and make it into something devious and make me look incapable of caring for my brother.
I feel betrayed.
I’m hurt and it’s like my inner fire has been doused by water, sizzling out. I deflate. How could they do that to me? I was loyal to them so why didn’t they return that in kind? I never made it a secret that I was sheltering my personal life from anyone outside of my inner circle. Then that burst of depression is overridden by a sudden flare of anger. My fists clench on my lap as I let the abrupt rage zing through me.
“How could they?” I cry out. “We had a deal, my life stayed out of the limelight. I’m so mad!”
“Sis, we’ll call you back,” Aris announces as he hits the red button on the dashboard and disconnects the call. He gives me a few minutes to stew as he glances over at me periodically, reading my emotions. I don’t have a poker face, whatever I’m feeling, you’re going to know. “Berlynn, what can I do to help?”
“I’d say,” I grit through my teeth before I continue speaking, “take everything down about me and Berk that’s online. But the damage has already been done so what good would that do us now? I don’t know what will make this feel better because right now, I feel like I have a black hole in my heart.”
“I’m sorry,” Aris states. “If I had a time machine I’d go back into the past and fix this for you, but I don’t and I can’t. But what we can do going forward, is do some damage control by going on the internet and making our own generalized statement. Something that may force your dad to retreat and lick his wounds. It’s worththinking about. Everyone is already aware that he’s not a good man, but what they don’t know is that he’s coming for you and Berk.”
Tapping my finger against my chin, I hum. He has a good idea. If I were to make myself vulnerable to the masses and call my dad and my mom out for what they’ve been up to, it may have them backpedaling. It’s election year, and no judge in his or her right mind would be willing to stand beside a man with the reputation my dad’s earned for himself. It’d make them look bad in the public eye and nobody would be willing to vote them into office. Then by the time they were in their robes, the timeline for my parents to argue against Berk and me gaining our inheritance and me being his guardian would’ve passed.
“That could work,” I acknowledge.
“Then that’ll be one of the first things we work on today,” he encourages.
“Thank you, Aris,” I whisper.
“Anything for you, Berlynn. Anything.”
CHAPTER
