Page 187 of Sinful Like Us

I come up behind and hold her around the waist.

It’s over.

Charlie wipes away a quick, fallen tear off his cheek. He broke her fucking heart, and I think he broke his own too.

Her legs buckle and she falls in my arms. “Jane, Jane,” I whisper in her ear. “It’s okay.”

She shakes her head.Guilt—God, I understand her guilt.

But I won’t let it drag her down. “It was gonna happen,” I whisper. “Sooner or later.” We can’t blame him.

We can’t blame anyone but ourselves, and then, at the end of day—I’m good at carrying the blame.

She takes a strong breath and straightens up in my hold around her waist. Her hands sliding along my arms.

Charlie leaves for the kitchen, and his twin brother sprints after him. Beckett glances back at me before he disappears, an apology in his eyes. And I know he’s trying to give oneforCharlie.

I’d do the same for Banks.

I recognize that Charlie didn’t announce that I’m Thatcher, but the damage is done. He said enough, and Tony knows.

He’s staring haunted at me. He deduces after some muttering with others that he was one of the few people tonotknow.

And then he lets out a breath of disbelief and rises off the rear couch. “You’ve got to be shitting me—all this time…” He shakes his head, emotion in his eyes that I didn’t expect to meet.

I thought he’d threaten my job. My brother’s job.

First.

Foremost.

He rubs his mouth and spits out, “The good sons. You know that’s what everyone calls you two in the family—the fuckinggoodsons.” He laughs. “What a crock of fuckingshit. If only they knew…maybe then I wouldn’t have to hear from my grandma ‘why can’t you be more like those twos, huh?’—or frommyuncles, askin’ why I didn’t go to war like the Moretti brothers. Tellin’ me I should be a soldier, a leader like Thatcher. Tellin’ me to go play football like you. And then my sister Nicola, tellin’ me to begoodlike you.”

I fixate on his jealousy.

I thought he was just insecure and punched down on me to make himself feel better. I didn’t know…

Honestly, I didn’t think anyonecouldbe jealous of me. I was poor. I was an identical twin who got mixed up with another fucking person constantly. I wasn’t popular in the traditional sense.

I felt like no one knew me.

No one saw me.

Except my brothers. My family.

My family.

Realization sinks deep. His family is my family. Ramellas, Morettis, Piscitellis.

He gestures to me. “How is it that you could lie to me for weeks about who you are?”

“You made it too easy,” I say honestly.

I must be the worst son on the planet, because I can’t apologize to him.

Tony sees my hate for him. More clearly than I think he ever has. He hangs his head, looks from side to side before looking at me. His eyes more reddened. “You really thought you could get away with it?”

“Yeah.”