“Because Kaleb still hasn’t returned any of my calls. I need to talk to him first. I need to make him understand that everything that happened was supposed to happen. I need to shove some sense into that stubborn head of his, because right now, I feel rudderless without my brother.”
Vivian shakes her head slowly. “Listen, Kaleb is really old school about these things. He just needs time to process everything. It doesn’t mean you have to put your own life on hold in order to accommodate his pouting, because that’s what this is, pouting.”
“He punched Alex.”
“That’s how boys pout,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “He’ll get over it, Raina. You’re the only family he’s got. You’re his sister and his best friend.”
“Alex was his best friend,” I say and sigh deeply. “And I heard from one of the other guys at the shop that Kaleb quit his job.”
Vivian’s eyes grow wide with astonishment. “No way.”
“It’s that bad, Viv. He’s actually left the shop. Putting some distance between the guys and me feels like the right thing to do, at least until I can get Kaleb to sit down and talk to me, without the yelling and the judging ideally.”
“That’ll be a challenge,” she says and scoffs lightly. “Mr. Judgy McJudgerson.”
“He’s always been that way. He’s the traditional family guy. We didn’t have our parents growing up, and the little we could remember about them… it all pointed to the traditional model: the mom and pop, the dinner table, the righteous family, the kids growing up in a healthy, God-loving environment, knowing right and wrong and all the social norms. They all fit a familiar pattern for him—which is the complete opposite of what we ended up growing up with.”
“Right, because the foster system failed you both for so long.” My best friend sighs deeply. “I get it. I suppose it’s Kaleb’s coping mechanism.”
“Or his way of keeping our real family alive somehow.”
“But they’re not,” she says. “Your parents are gone, and they’ve been gone for a very long time. Kaleb needs to accept that. He needs to stop projecting all of it on you. You deserve a life and a happiness of your own, regardless of whether it fits his so-called traditional pattern or not.”
“He just doesn’t fully understand,” I reply. “I just need to explain it to him when he’s more willing to listen.”
“What if he’ll never be willing to listen?”
I frown. “I don’t know.”
“Will you end it with the guys for good just to make Kaleb happy?”
The question is hard to answer, even though I want to say no. My lips won’t let me. My heart aches, and the nausea makes it hard even to focus. The mere thought of ending it forever with the three men makes me physically sick, just as the thought of losing my brother because of this makes me equally sick. I will lose something precious whichever way I go.
“I guess time will tell,” I reply, but even Vivian isn’t buying it.
“The only thing time will tell is that nobody lives your life for you, except you,” she bluntly states, waving the concern away with the flick of her wrist. She takes a slow sip of her tea before changing the subject. “Oh, I almost forgot. The firm has been under a bit of a cloud lately.”
“Bancroft & Associates?”
“Mm. They’ve been holding senior partner meetings almost every day, and Jeremy’s been asked to participate in each and every one of them,” Vivian replies.
“Isn’t that supposed to be a good thing for him?”
She shakes her head. “I’m not sure. Every time he comes out of one of those meetings, he looks angrier and angrier. I don’t know what the bosses are cooking up, but I think Jeremy’s been on the receiving end of some terribly unpleasant things.”
“He lost a case for the firm, didn’t he?”
“Yes, and he compromised two more,” Vivian says. “One of the other senior partners said they were going to put me in charge of an upcoming case and that Jeremy would have the second chair. He’d have to defer to me.”
I can’t help but chuckle dryly. “Oh, he’s got to hate that, considering he has seniority over you.”
“Maybe, but I’ve won more cases recently. I’m actually one settlement away from beating his first winning streak, the streak that got him the senior associate position, mind you.”
I love seeing Vivian win, especially over a sad and frustrated little man like Jeremy. She’s a brilliant lawyer with excellentknowledge of corporate law. For as long as I can remember, Vivian rocked every single negotiation she’s had to take part in—from lemonade stands and prom budgets in school to multibillion-dollar agreements behind glass doors and lighter sentences for some of her firm’s white-collar criminal clients.
Victory looks good on her.
And failure suits Jeremy better than ever, especially since I’m pretty sure he’s the one who sent Kaleb looking for me at Haus of Sin.
