Page 2 of When Hearts Unravel

Because itismy fault.

All of it.

My phone buzzes from an incoming text and I know it’s Ava again. She and her younger sister, Cora, rarely contact me. They aren’t supposed to after they escaped to Monaco two years ago, a journey which cost Raya her life.

It wasn’t supposed to end that way.

Ava

Those bastards will get what they deserve, mark my words.

Ava

Mom would’ve been fifty today. If she were here, she’d wish you a happy birthday. And she’d be grateful because if it weren’t for you, Cora and I wouldn’t be alive.

Guilt twists my insides. I shouldn’t have hung up on her. Ava meant well.She’s twenty-three, and she handles her emotions better than you. Instead of grieving her mom’s death, she called you because she knew you’d feel like shit.

Blowing out a breath, I send her a reply.

Rex

Thanks for the birthday wishes. Take care of your sister. Don’t do anything stupid. And don’t text me again. It’s too dangerous.

My phone clatters to the table, and a dull pain radiates inside my skull.Sleep,my mind screams at me.You need sleep. Maybe that’s why you have blackouts.

But if I sleep, the nightmares…memories come.

“You should listen to her, you know,” a sardonic voice murmurs from the doorway.

I close my eyes.Of course,he’s here to witness me at my rock bottom. Always getting a front-row seat to my dark moments. “What are you doing here, Casey? Eavesdropping?”

He chuckles. “You asked me to come. Here I am.”

“I must’ve been drunk. You can go now.”

“Nah. You look like shit. Aren’t you supposed to celebrate today? Your birthday on top of kicking off the cruise line? The imminent success of your genius brainchild, as you like to remind me?”

The Orchid’s inaugural cruise, a one month luxurious journey in the Mediterranean, and a three-billion-dollar venture, is the first large-scale enterprise my oldest brother and CEO, Maxwell, asked me to take on. Definitely not the run-of-the-mill campaign I usually lead in my chief marketing officer role. I’m supposed to be part of its maiden journey to make sure everything goes well.

My siblings have never trusted me with important tasks before. Like I’m worthy and dependable. Like I’m not just a jokester and the prince of pleasure.

Maybe if I pulled this off, this emptiness inside me would disappear and I wouldn’t feel so guilty about Mom and Raya’s deaths.

The thought is hollow. How can a cruise for rich pansies make up for two lost lives?

But I can’t disappoint Maxwell and the others.

Dejected, I slide my hand into my pocket and clench the red marble I always carry around. It reminds me of everything I’ve lost and my role in the family.

“Rex? Did you hear me?” Casey asks.

“What do you think I’m doing? Getting ready for the party, you dipshit.”

“The dipshit you invited.” He smirks.

Rolling my eyes, I ignore him. Casey would never know because I’d die before telling him, but he’s right. He keeps me afloat. He’s been by myside through thick and thin for most of my life. Whenever I’m drowning, he’d hoist me, slap my face, then tell me to start swimming.

Casey sighs. “You need me. Who else would put up with you for all these years?”