Page 138 of The Story of You

All of us panicked.

“Baba,” Oliver said. “I want to go home.”

“I know, Eaglet. Soon.”

I considered our options. We were on the second story of the hospital. We wouldn’t be leaving out the window. And now we were under watch.

It didn’t matter anyway; we were too late. In he strode. Blond Randall hair suave atop his head. Green eyes flashing. Hand resting in his pocket.

It wasn’t Aleksander.

“Uncle Pax?”

I don’t know how I always knew the difference. They were identical.

He nodded. “Hello, Silas. We have a lot to talk about.”

ChapterThirty-Nine

Darius July 1989

Dad was dead. Hung himself.

Virginia bitch fell over backward for Uncle Pax. He’s not even into women, but she was into him. Silas was all “She was just doing her job” but I saw the look in his eyes. He would have feasted on her flesh if she took another step toward Oliver.

Once Uncle Pax was satisfied with our living situation, he handed over Dad’s death certificate. I was never so glad to see one—I could say that with confidence even though it was the first one I’d seen and haven’t seen one since.

“You’ll need this to adopt your brothers,” he told a frozen Silas. “Do you want me to handle it?”

“N-No,” Silas said. “I know someone who’s going to help me.”

I knew Uncle Pax wasn’t going to take Oliver. He liked his lifestyle. A five-year-old would cramp that.

“There’s something else,” he said. “I’m in charge of making sure you get the Randall trust. It was all left to you, Silas. You’ll receive it when you turn twenty-five.”

“Why twenty-five?” he asked.

“I don’t know. It was your father’s stipulation in the will.”

Silas started fucking his boss … or would it be bosses? The husband didn’t work in the office, but he still counted as a boss in my head somehow. I was a mix of pissed and congratulatory. If I had done that, being our major breadwinner, Silas would have gutted me. But Silas poured his heart out to me about it, something he’s not prone to. Alfie made him feel safe. Silas didn’t have much of that in his life. He still doesn’t. I wanted that for him, so I shut up about it.

It could have gone a lot of wrong, but Alfie turned out to be a good friend and valuable ally.

AndSilas’s “Daddy”, but I won’t talk about that. I’ll leave that for Silas to chronicle.

Silas had major reservations about the trust, but he wasn’t going to turn it down when he knew it would give Oliver everything. “Do you disagree, Darius?” he asked me when he was processing it.

“No. Take the bastard’s money.”

I knew not to expect my name in that will, but it still fucking stung.

“Once I have it, I’ll make sure it’s our money, Darius. We’re in this together in all ways,” he promised.

I love money, what it can buy, the ease of lifestyle it can afford—I won’t lie about that—but while I did care about being rich, the together-y shit was what gripped me most. He remembered the promise I made him make all those years ago and he was keeping it.

I eventually forgave him for getting a hot office daddy.

Alfie’s business partner Tracey was a lawyer. She helped us with the adoptions. Otherwise, it would have been much harder.