“What’s wrong?” I asked.
When he still didn’t answer me, I reached out to feel his forehead, wondering if he was sick, but his skin felt cool, clammy.
I sat across from him. “Say something. You’re starting to freak me out.”
“I fucked up,” he croaked.
“Fucked up, how? We talking you accidentally ruined a pair of Mom’s heels, or you broke one of Dad’s golf clubs?”
I figured it had to be something like that because Blakenevergot into trouble. That had been my role, and I’d taken it very seriously right up until I’d gotten into the sort of trouble you couldn’t come back from. Blake had been young enough during my experience that it had scarred him for life, turned him risk-averse. He became the good kid, the smart kid. Where I’d been a constant headache, he was a straight-A student. Our parents trusted him to leave the house without worrying they’d get a phone call from the police by the end of the night.
Blake finally lifted his head, expression bleak, and said the absolute last thing I could have predicted. “I gambled away my inheritance.”
“Ha ha,” I said, relief sweeping through me. Blake might have been arrow-straight, but he was also a prankster, constantly pulling my leg or setting up ridiculous scenarios that would end in my own embarrassment. This was obviously another grift, him showing up here looking devastated so he could laugh at me for falling for his dumb act.
“I’m not kidding,” he said, his voice hoarse.
Fine. If he wanted to take it too far, we’d take it too far. “Okay then, while we’re making confessions, I should tell you, I’ve recently been introduced to the world of dendrophilia, and it has really broadened my horizons.”
He blinked. “Dendrophilia? What is that?”
I grinned. “Tree humping.”
Instead of finally cracking a grin and giving up the bit, he shot out of his seat, fingers fisting his hair as he started to pace. “I’m serious,Stel. Last week, I got this mysterious invitation to some kind of party. I didn’t know what it was, so I wasn’t going to accept it, but Henry and Grant caught sight of it and insisted we all go.”
I frowned. Henry and Grant were two of his frat buddies, and some of the most annoying rich kids I had ever met, which was saying something because I’d grown up surrounded by nepo babies. I had no idea why my brother tolerated them. Blake had tried to tell me they weren’t that bad when you got them on their own, that most of their assholery was just for show, but I wasn’t convinced.
Blake paced back toward me. “It was an illegal gambling party or something. We all had to dress up and wear masks. I don’t know how it happened, but I lost track of Henry and Grant while I was talking to the guy hosting the event, and then he led me over to the poker tables. We’d pregamed before going, and the waitstaff kept serving me drinks I didn’t ask for. By the time I started playing, I was already drunk.” He paused to shoot me a guilty look, like it was inconceivable that an underage kid might be drinking illegally.
“Then what?” I asked, my mind spinning. Was he actually serious right now?
“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s all a blur. I gotreallydrunk. Most of it I only remember in pieces. Running out of cash. The dealer telling me the house could front me money for the next bet. And then the next one. I kept accepting because I was so out of it that I don’t think I really understood that it wasrealmoney I was losing, and...” His sharp inhale sounded pained. “I lost Grandpa’s watch.”
He pulled up his sleeve to reveal his empty wrist, and my stomach dropped. That watch had been his most cherished possession; he wouldneverjoke about losing it. As a little kid, he’d been obsessed with the vintage Patek Philippe timepiece, and Grandpa had regularly taken it off so Blake could watch the back gears move as the seconds ticked by. It was the beginning of Blake’s mechanical obsession, his need to know how things worked. When Grandpa passed, he’d left Blake the watch, and I’d never seen my brother without it.
Shit. He was telling the truth.
I sat forward in my seat. “Do you remember who you lost it to? Maybe we can get it back.”
Blake shook his head, looking like he was about to cry. “No. Everyone was wearing masks, and my memories are so hazy that I don’t think I’d remember anyway.”
“How...”Oh, god. “How much did you lose?”
He stopped pacing and closed his eyes. “Three million.”
I stopped breathing.
Three million dollars.
His entire inheritance.
Gone in one night.
Our parents might be swimming in money, but they’d made it clear to us that they only planned to leave us a comparatively small amount, the rest going to charity when they passed.
Blake didn’t even have access to his yet, which would make paying off his debt impossible.
“You were drunk,” I said, latching onto a small but hopeful thought. “And you’re underage. There’s no way they can hold you to your losses.”
