Page 222 of Broken Brothers

The mother I had grown up with not only smiled and hugged me, displaying more emotion than she had the entire wedding, she dropped a bombshell on me.

“I’ve actually spoken with her almost monthly since the day we got you,” she said. “Your father, too, up until the day he died.”

My eyes went wide. My parents… they had wanted to stay in touch with me that much? They’d wanted to know what I was doing this whole time?

“I can have something arranged as soon as tomorrow,” she said, smiling and looking as if I’d just told her the greatest thing she’d ever heard. “Oh, Beth is going to be so excited to see you! She hasn’t seen you since you were but a little boy. I think it was three years old when we adopted you—poor Beth and Parker were so sad to see you go, but—”

“Mom,” I said.

I was having to fight the fact that tears were welling in my eyes. I’d held a grudge against my parents for so long; I’d thought they’d just abandoned me… but they were so sad to see me go? And they spoke with Melanie this whole time?

I couldn’t fight it much longer. I hugged Mom, shed tears into her shoulders, and let it all out. Two decades worth of false assumptions fell off of me like a heavy weight sliding off of my shoulders. It had come too late for me to know my real father, but at least I was going to meet my real mother. At least I was beginning to take the right steps toward making another healthy relationship in my life.

“One thing,” I said as I pulled back and Mom rubbed my arm. “Can we do Tuesday? I have things to do tomorrow.”

“Oh, of course,” Mom said. “Why, she’d be happy to see you anytime. Just don’t cancel on her; if I tell her you’re coming and then you decide to change your mind, that would devastate her. Heaven knows I would—”

“Mom, mom,” I said, smiling. “The past few days have shown me what it means to hurt someone. I’m not going to be another Edwin Hunt. There is no way short of an emergency that I am going to cancel on my birth mother. And if I have something happen here, I’ll fly her to New York City.”

Mom beamed, kissed me on the cheek, and hugged me.

“I’m so glad you and Morgan turned out the way you both did,” she said. “You both are turning into fine, young men.”

Almost.

I have just a couple of things to take care of.

But I’m almost there.

89

When I woke up the next morning, I felt hungover.

But it wasn’t a physical hangover; it wasn’t the kind of hangover that comes as a result of drinking too much or partying too hard. It was the hangover that came from experiencing too much emotional weight in the previous few days.

It wasn’t helped, either, by the fact that Layla had texted me at about half an hour before eight.

“Can you come over? Got job offer. Want to talk to you about it.”

I sighed when I saw the text. At least Layla was giving me the chance to have the conversation with her. But did it really have to happen the day after Edwin’s funeral?

At least, as far as I was concerned, that was the last remains of Edwin’s effect on my life. His decision to leave me out of the will would take some time to resolve, but it was done. His funeral was done. The only connection I still had to him was that I was on the board at Hunt Industries, and honestly, the more time that went by, the more I figured it was better to just resign that position. I had requested that more as a fuck you to Edwin; itwasn’t something that I now needed. Certainly, from a financial perspective, I wouldn’t be needing it anytime soon.

“Yeah, I can head over whenever,” I wrote back to Layla.

She responded immediately, saying that I could come over anytime, but sooner was better. That was all I needed to hear. I quickly went about my morning routine, put my jeans and button-down shirt on, and left before I even ate breakfast. I’d probably crave a bagel or two later in the day, but for right now, I just craved resolution with Layla even more.

I hurried over to her apartment, taking an Uber, and meeting her downstairs. When I saw her, she had a smile on her face, but it was difficult to read which direction she was leaning. She could have been smiling because she saw me, or because she knew this was the end of the line for us—much as she had said on Thursday.

And let’s not forget that she was smiling pretty well with someone else. Maybe she’s about to fuck me over again. Maybe she’s about to reveal some bombshell and have a man appear beside her.

Chance… calm down. That’s your paranoid side speaking. Fight it. Don’t let it win. Keep calm.

“Hey you,” she said, embracing me tightly, holding the hug.

“Hey Layla,” I said.

I pulled back, expecting to kiss her, but her motion back to the elevator made it so I couldn’t pull that off. I wasn’t too worried about it—I had met her before without the initial kiss, but it obviously would have made things a little bit better if I had actually kissed her.