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I’m just so damn mad at him. How could he hurt her like this? How could he hurt us? He was my brother. It’s his fault that our family is broken.
Every emotion I’ve held back for two years bubbles to the surface.
I see Carter skate closer out of the corner of my eye as our teammates begin to take notice of our impending confrontation. They have no idea what’s at stake here. A hush falls over the crowd as they too start to notice something unusual happening on the ice.
“Me? I’m hurting her?” He reels back as if I’ve punched him. Him? He’s got to be fucking kidding me. As if he has a right to feel wronged in this situation. He lost that right years ago when he threw it away like it meant nothing to him.
“Damn right, you’re hurting her. You abandoned her when she needed you the most.” I move closer to him, getting into his space. He needs to hear this, and if I don’t get this off my chest I just might explode.
I stood back and let Gia handle this when we were on her turf. I let her call the shots. But tonight, we’re on my turf. We’re on the ice, and all bets are off.
“You’re one to talk. She’s the one that cut me off. She’s the one that won’t return my phone calls. And she’s the one that turned to you when things went sideways.” His gloved hand hits the front of his jersey as he annunciates every word.
Sideways…that’s a classy way to talk about your sister and niece, asshole.
“You know why she turned to me, Tyler.” I try to keep my voice even, but it’s nearly impossible to keep the emotion from bleeding into every word I say.
He knows good and damn well that he’d have done the same thing in my position. He should be thanking me for stepping up and handling my responsibilities like a man, not pushing me away because he thinks I stole what belonged to him.
I broke the fucking cycle. I am not my father, and that’s something I will never not be proud of. He can take that trash talk somewhere else.
“She was never yours to touch. She was a fucking baby. She was your sister.” Fire lights his eyes, a direct match to my own.
Maybe he’s right, maybe I shouldn’t have touched her, but she was a legal fucking adult. Sometimes things happen, and we can’t change the consequences of those actions. I wouldn’t change a damn thing about that night. And I sure as fuck wouldn’t change the outcome.
He doesn’t even realize what he’s missing out on. He doesn’t realize that my daughter has his nose. He doesn’t know that she giggles when you tickle her toes or that she loves avocado and blueberries, just not mixed together.
“Your sister. Not mine. She was never yours to keep. Get off your damn high horse. She was eighteen. We were all kids.”
I won’t touch him. I won’t throw a punch because I know it’s important to Gia. I’m already crossing a line here, and I hope I don’t screw up all of the progress we’ve made in the last forty-eight hours just by having this confrontation.
I can feel her watching us.
“It’s a good damn thing we’re not in a fucking court of law because you’d be convicted of perjury for that bullshit lie.” He seethes.
Now he’s goading me. He wants me to react. I need to calm the fuck down. We both need to calm down.
One of Tyler’s teammates tries to step in, but he shakes him off.
“She was eighteen, Tyler. Gia was old enough to make her own fucking decisions.” I reiterate the facts. No crime was committed. We were both legal adults. Sure, maybe I broke bro code, but I stood by her. I didn’t abandon her like he did. I didn’t walk the fuck away.
I am not my father. The words thunder in my head and squeeze the air from my lungs.
“You lied to me. You told me you didn’t get into Chambliss. But you didn’t even apply, did you? You stayed back. Why? So, you could rob the damn cradle while I was away at school?” He’s talking about things he doesn’t know anything about.
“It’s not what you think,” I emphasize.
“Then what is it?” His words are filled with venom. He’s too far gone.
“This isn’t the place.” I try to de-escalate a situation that’s already gone too far. We need to take this somewhere private. Tyler is spiraling. I see it in his eyes. He’s past losing control. He’s lost it, and I’m right behind him.
“You stole my family.”
My family. Gia might be his sister by blood, but she chose me. She chose Astria. She chose our future together. My blood pumps right next to his through Astria’s veins. He doesn’t have a claim over her. That’s my daughter, and I’ll be damn if anyone tries to say otherwise.
I should walk away. I should be the bigger man.
“No, Gia gets to choose. She’s a fucking grown-ass woman, trust me.” I know what I’m implying as the words leave my lips, but I don’t stop. “News flash, she chose me.”
