I can’t stop crying. My heart is shredded into pieces, and I don’t know what to do, where to go from here. I don’t do this. This isn’t me. “I’m sorry,” I sob as Demi and Abby console me on the couch. Drew has been gone for hours. Charlie and Kai are with him, and I’m glad he has their support because he clearly needs it. Watching him fall apart like that destroyed me. His pain is my pain, and I’m in agony for him. For me. For Arlo. For Jane.
“Don’t apologize,” Abby says, handing me another tissue. I must have nearly used up the box by now. “You are entitled to your feelings just like Drew is entitled to his.”
“This is just as hard on you,” Demi says.
I blot the moisture at my eyes and blow my nose. “No. It’s way harder for Drew. I’ve had the privilege of growing up with Arlo, of loving him. He might not be my flesh-and-blood brother, but he’s my brother in all the ways that count. Drew lost the girl he loved and the first fifteen years of his son’s life at the hands of my father and his conniving wife. I want to riddle their manipulative asses with bullets and then resurrect them so I can do it all over again.”
“What has Ares said?” Abby asks. “Is this enough to go after your father?”
“Yes and no.” I pull a hair tie off my wrist and yank my hair up into a messy bun. “Dad never fathered an heir; it’s clearly why he stole Arlo. The one thing our society is still anal about is the purity of our familial connections. Our family is a master’s family and masters are part of the upper echelons. Having a pure-blooded heir is important. That prick has been fabricating medical reports and tests for years. That’s an offense in itself. Arlo was training at HQ, so we were able to get a sample from him directly, rather than using one of the DNA samples on file. It was done covertly so Arlo isn’t aware of anything yet.”
Tears gather in my eyes again, and it feels like my tear ducts are broken. “I haven’t cried over anything since I was a little girl, and now it’s like the dam is broke.”
“It’s understandable given the circumstances,” Demi says, squeezing my shoulder.
“And you can’t trap emotion forever. It will always find a way out,” Abby says.
“So why not arrest Amos now and force the truth out of him?” Demi asks.
“He could be arrested for this, but it’s not enough to hold him for long. If we show our hand too early, he’ll go to ground and take any remaining evidence with him.”
“Great.” Abby sighs. “So, we still have to sit tight. That won’t be easy for Drew.”
“He’ll do it for Arlo,” Demi says. Her indisputable confidence in him is heartwarming. Why doesn’t he see himself the way others do?
“How do we tell Arlo this?” I scrub my hands down my tired face. “This will devastate him. He hates Cadance, so he won’t care about her, but he’s going to feel so betrayed. The man he believes is his father trafficked his birth mom, which led to her death, plotted to kill his birth dad, and was keeping him in the dark for years. The only good thing is he is now free from Luminary responsibility because he’s not blood.”
“He’ll have elite responsibilities,” Demi says.
“But they’re minor unless he wants more active involvement,” Abby says.
“What do we do next?” I ask as Abby’s cell pings.
“Hold tight, I guess.” She frowns as she reads her cell. “Drew is staying at Mom’s tonight, but he wants you to stay here.”
“I don’t see how that’s possible. I think my presence will hinder rather than help.”
“Athena.” Abby takes my hands. “Your father’s sins are not yours. You have been deceived too. Drew won’t blame you for this.”
“I could be a constant reminder of all he’s lost.”
“You won’t be.” Determination radiates from her eyes. “I know this is asking a lot, but please don’t leave him. If you leave and something happens to you, he won’t come back from it this time. I know my twin, and he wants you to be safe. Needs you to be protected. Your father believes you are playing your part, and you can’t give him any indication it’s not true because it’ll all come out then, and everyone will be in danger.”
“Okay. You’re right.”
“You can tell me to butt out, but I know what I saw earlier. I know you have feelings for one another, and this will have thrown Drew, but please don’t give up on him.” Abby wears her heart on her sleeve as she pleads with me. “His walls will go back up, but if you’ve shattered them one time, you can do it again.”
“I don’t know if that’s true, but I care about him a lot, and I won’t abandon him even if things aren’t the same between us again. Drew and Arlo need me, and I won’t let them down.”
ChapterThirty-Seven
Athena
Drew has withdrawn into his shell, and he won’t speak with anyone. He’s throwing himself into work, and he spends hours every night in the gym working himself into a state of exhaustion before going to bed alone. He has completely shut me out, and after the first couple times I tried to get him to open up, I stopped trying. I can’t push him. He needs to deal with it in his own time in his own way, but it hurts.
We are tiptoeing around the house, trying to avoid one another, and I have cried myself to sleep more than one night this week. It’s a world away from how things were when I first moved in, and I’m lamenting the loss like a death.
That’s how it feels to me.
