Page 214

“Did you talk to the police?” I ask.

He crosses to the bed, the only place to sit, and sinks into the bedspread uninvited. “Yes.”

I clench the box harder. He shouldn’t be keeping secrets from me. I’m his damned brother.

“When did I let you down, Sebastian?”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t ask me for anything.”

“I’ve asked you for money. You helped put me through school?—“

“I mean anything that’s going on in your life. You call me when you get drafted, but when your season goes off the rails... I didn’t hear from you once.”

He flops back on the bed, insolent as a teenager. “You’re the infallible older brother with all the answers. If anyone had a different approach, they were wrong. Our parents thought the sun rose out of your arse whether you gave a shit or not.”

My chest tightens. “I told them to leave the business, and when they did, it cost them their lives.”

He throws his hands wide. “That’s not why I’m angry! I’m angry because I didn’t lose two pieces of my family that day—I lost three.”

His meaning sinks in, prickles lifting the hairs on my neck.

“I took custody of you, Sebastian. Made sure you had what you needed. Not only food and shelter, but the best schools, the top football coaches.” I refused to let him grow up with less than I had.

“I didn’t need private school or football coaches. I needed my brother. But he was too busy picking up where they left off.”

He shoves himself off the bed and stalks toward the window, avoiding my gaze.

I can feel his anger, but it’s the hurt in his voice that shakes me. “I had to provide what they couldn’t any longer.”

“I grew up without a family, Harry. Being a teenager, figuring out what I wanted to do, who I was… it fucking sucked. Not because they were gone, but because I was alone and I didn’t need to be.”

Fuck. Maybe in trying to protect my brother, I isolated him. I think of Raegan, how her parents made their choices about what was best for her and only hurt her more.

I rub the box between my hands.

I hope to hell I didn’t screw up my brother like that. Or if I did, that he ends up a resilient person like she is.

“I’m glad you kept going,” I say at last.

He cuts a look over his shoulder at me. “The other option is worse.”

Raegan’s words about me thinking I don’t deserve love echo in my head.

When I tried to protect her last year, convincing myself it was for the best to leave, I destroyed what was left of our relationship.

Perhaps she’s not the only one I’ve done that with.

My next breath is shallow.

“I need to tell you something. Last year, in the course of trying to win La Mer from Christian, I learned something about our parents. Information I wish I could forget.”

He’s across to me in a heartbeat. “What?”

The sunlight streaming in the window is at odds with how I’m feeling, but I force out the words that have lain heavy on my shoulders for the past year.

“They were liars.” My voice is tight, and I swallow. “I thought they wanted to get out of Mischa’s family business, and I told you as much. But they had no intention of leaving. Everything I did to build this business was for them. To avenge them, to make them… It’s meaningless. Perhaps I should get rid of the villa too.”