“It won’t be that bad,” Rory said softly instead. “We can’t lose Grandpa’s house.”
“Please, Rory,” Evangeline begged. “Please don’t do this.”
“It’s just for a little while,” he told her. “Just to get them off my back and keep the taxes paid on the house.”
“That’s how it starts,” Evangeline said. “Look at Eddie and Larry Grasso. Look at Layla Albertson. This is what Grandpa worked so hard to stop us from doing.”
“Don’t worry, baby sis,” Rory said, sounding distracted. “Listen, I’ve gotta go. Somebody’s here.”
There was silence and Grayson put the monitor down, feeling guilty about listening in to her whole conversation, and furious that her brother would throw away his life just to hold onto the past.
Then he heard the soft sound of her weeping.
The fury in his chest bubbled over and he found himself storming back down the hall and grabbing his coat again. Conflicting thoughts crowded his mind.
She’s got trouble all around. I can’t have someone whose family is involved in a gang taking care of my son, for however long he’s my son…
He headed out the front door, slamming it behind him as he stalked back to the SUV and got in.
20
EVANGELINE
Evangeline tried her best to stop her crying. She didn’t want Leo to sense that something was wrong. But her sadness over her brother made her feel like her heart was being carved out of her body.
Why do the best of men have to suffer?
Between Grayson’s story last night, her brother’s plight, and even the knowledge that Grandpa had been faced with a choice between operating a business without a license or losing his grandchildren, she felt like the world as she had always pictured it was falling to pieces.
Don’t good things ever happen to good people? Isn’t hard work and sacrifice enough to at least earn survival?
But it didn’t matter how much those thoughts swirled in her mind. She knew that wasn’t how the world really worked. And the only reason she might have ever thought it did was because Rory had sheltered her from so much ugliness all her life.
Maybe it was wrong for her to judge him for doing what he had to do now.
But not if you end up hurt or in jail, my sweet big brother. No house is worth that, nothing is…
The sound of a door slamming downstairs got her attention. She hopped up from the chair where she was sitting with Leo and took him to the front window to see if Grayson’s SUV was there.
“I think your daddy might be home,” she told the baby softly, hating that her voice was rusty from crying.
But when she got to the window, his SUV was pullingoutof the driveway, jolting away from the house at an alarming speed.
She moved down the stairs on instinct, wondering what emergency would have him tearing out of here without even telling her he was home.
But when she reached the kitchen with Leo and saw the monitor on the counter, her heart sank.
He overheard me talking to Rory. He overheard everything.
She had no idea where he was rushing off to, or what he was doing, but now that he knew her family story, there was no way he was going to let her stay.
Leo wiggled against her chest and she took him to the windows that spanned the back of the house. The baby usually loved all the light and the contrasting shadows.
Sure enough, he smacked his lips and smiled at the sight of the sunlight filtering through the window and leaving shapes of sun and shadow wherever it landed.
She nuzzled Leo’s thatch of soft hair, trying to memorize his scent and the feeling of holding him in her arms.
Evangeline had watched over many children, but shehad never had this feeling before, like she couldn’t bear the thought of letting go.
