And Rose wanted that for Wynonna because she obviously had been very close to her brother.
When Rose was done with her retelling of the events she had gone through, the younger Harrison was drying her eyes with a tissue she had pulled from her pocket.
Rose was going to give her some time before starting in with some of the questions she had and was thinking of offering to go get the younger woman something to drink or eat, when Wynonna shook her head.
“This doesn’t make sense. None of this makes sense.”
Rose’s attention snapped back to her like a rubber band.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
Wynonna put her tissue down and angled her body to face Rose more directly. Her brow knitted together as she spoke.
“They said that they think Lloyd killed himself because Damon was threatening him with something but then Lloyd was able to get the upper hand last minute. But Damon would never do that. Not to Lloyd. Just like Lloyd would never do that. Not to Damon.”
Rose’s confusion must have shown on her expression.
Wynonna stopped.
“I’m sorry but why wouldn’t Damon hurt Lloyd?” Rose asked. “You make it sound like they were close.”
The other woman responded with no space between.
“They were.”
Wynonna looked as bewildered by the question as Rose felt about the answer.
“Damon and Lloyd were close?” Rose had to clarify.
Wynonna nodded.
“Since they were kids, or teenagers, really. You didn’t know?”
Rose didn’t. After Derrick had passed, she had only ever seen Damon and once Damon had started to attack her, the only information they had found about him had been basic. He lived alone, not married, no kids. He was a consultant for a business that Rose had never really paid attention to.
Why would she have?
It had been so cut-and-dried.
Damon blamed her for Derrick’s death, and he wanted revenge.
Lloyd had seemed like a simple addition to that plan.
“I had no idea.”
Wynonna looked down at her phone. She let out a breath.
“There’s actually a pretty big age gap between me and Lloyd,” she started. “We weren’t actually that close because of it until our mom died. Our dad was a truck driver and never really home, so Lloyd kind of took over as my parent. Then one day our dad just never came home. If that wasn’t enough kicks to the teeth, I got really sick when I was twelve. That’s the first time I met Damon.”
Wynonna ran her thumb over her phone screen. She kept staring down at it, but Rose suspected she was seeing a memory instead.
“They had just graduated high school and instead of going off to college and doing normal things eighteen-year-olds would do, they got jobs at a local restaurant and paid for my treatment. One would work day shift and the other nights and the same went for staying with me.” A smile briefly passed over her lips. “A nurse complained once that it always smelled like fried chicken and alcohol in my room.”
Wynonna looked up as a couple walked across the end of their hallway. The reality of where they were must have sobered her.
Her head lowered again.
“That’s how I grew up, though. From twelve until eighteen I had two brothers, two best friends, two parents. Whatever you want to call them, they were always there. Day in and day out. The big stuff and the little stuff. For seven years I saw Lloyd and Damon every day, and after that, I saw them during breaks from school. Holidays, special events. My college graduation. And if one of them couldn’t make it because of work, the other always showed. I wasneveralone because of them. Never. Not once. Their love for me? For each other? For our little family? Has been the best part of my life. And now? Now I’m being told that Damon was betrayed by Lloyd? That Lloyd tried to kill Damon? Then himself because of some unknown reason?”
