“You don’t know?”
I shake my head.
“No,” I say, and every instinct in me warns I shouldn’t be asking.
But my whole world has been turned upside down because of the actions of everyone around me. I need to know. “How was Elana involved?”
“She was seeing Tony,” Vee says quietly.
“You weren’t close with your brothers, then?” Megan asks.
“No. I wasn’t useful to them, and in my family that’s the same as being invisible.”
Megan’s mouth softens. “So complete bastards?”
“All of them,” I say quietly. “When Marco finally moved here, my friends and I had a party.”
“It wasn’t like that with Elana. They adore her. Kaz more than the other two, probably because they’re closer in age. I think he’s taking it harder because of that. Her having a secret relationship with Tony probably feels like a betrayal to him.”
“How long was she seeing Tony?” These women, this family, seems to know more about my brothers than I ever did.
“Almost a year,” Megan answers, her brows knit.
“We think he was using her to get to the guys. After everything ended, she went through his phone and found a lot of messages between him and your other brothers about information he was trying to get. She never gave him anything, and he was getting frustrated.” Vee explains.
“He wanted my sister to turn against us,” Kaz’s dark voice surprises me from behind.
The frame slips from my hands and hits the floor as I twist toward the doorway. He stands there with his brothers looming behind him.
The air thickens with his presence—heavy, magnetic. My heartbeat runs wild with each step he takes toward me.
He crouches to pick up the broken frame, his thumb brushing over the cracked glass as he turns it over. Anguish flickers across his face before his expression hardens.
“After Tony was killed, she blamed herself. She’d been a pawn. She thought we blamed her too and wouldn’t listen when we tried to tell her otherwise. She left to get away from us.”
“You didn’t know about any of that.” Ivan comes forward, standing beside Kaz. “You had no idea what your brothers were doing out here?”
I keep my eyes steady on Kaz, because somehow it feels like our entire future depends on him believing me.
“No. I was nothing to them. When their bodies were brought home for the funeral, all I was told was they were killed by some Russians in Chicago.” I pause a moment, recounting how little I felt that morning when I was told.
My uncle gave me the news of my brothers’ deaths like it was a headline in the paper. He didn’t offer any details, and I didn’t ask.
“None of my brothers had the capacity to love anything more than themselves. The only decent thing Tony ever did was bring Tommy into the world. And even then, he wasn’t even a father tohim. Tony was most likely using your sister, and there’s nothing I can do or say that will make up for the hurt he caused her.”
“Their guilt is not yours to carry.” Megan stands from the couch. “You aren’t them. Isn’t that right, Kaz?”
Before he can answer me, my phone pings. Once, twice, three times. With Tommy at school, I check immediately. A photo fills the screen. Tommy on the swings, another of him running across the playground.
And icy chill runs down my back. My mouth dries.
“Kaz.” My voice cracks. “He’s watching Tommy.”
Kaz takes my phone and swipes through the rest of the photos. All of Tommy at recess this morning.
“What’s wrong?” Alexander comes forward. Everyone huddles around us, wanting to know the problem.
“They’re from Dante,” I say, pointing to the sender at the top of the screen.
