He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, hands fisting and flexing at his sides like he didn’t know what to do with them. He couldn’t quite meet her eyes. When he did, it lasted less than a second before his gaze dropped to the floor again.
He was ashamed, and the realization made her stomach twist.
“Do you hate me?” he asked, as if the words cost him something.
The question undid her more than any memory had. “I could never hate you, Andy. You’re my brother—I love you, and nothing will ever change that.”
She pushed herself upright and let the blanket fall the rest of the way to her lap, needing to be closer to him. “Come here.”
He hesitated, then crossed the room, stopping just out of her reach.
Up close, she could see the faint puffiness beneath his eyes.
She couldn’t avoid the conversation they needed to have anymore. Lifting her hand, she patted the cushion beside her. “Sit down.”
He lowered himself onto the couch, like the air hadgone out of him—shoulders slumped, elbows braced on his knees, and his head hanging. He still wouldn’t look at her.
“Andy.”
His eyes flicked up, glassy and rimmed red, then dropped again.
“We need to go over what happened.”
His jaw tightened immediately. “I know.”
“No,” she said gently. “I don’t think you do.”
Silence stretched between them.
The air conditioner clicked off, and the sudden stillness made her skin prickle.
Brian had told her everything the night before. Every detail. What Andy had done. The hacking job for money. The reckless assumption he could dip into something dangerous and walk away clean. She’d lain awake beside him, replaying it all until exhaustion finally dragged her under.
“You did something foolish,” she said quietly. “You got involved with gang members and thought you could handle it.”
His shoulders hunched even more.
“I didn’t think it would go that far,” he muttered.
“That’s the point.” Her voice stayed calm, even though a part of her wanted to shake him. Yelling would only make him shut down. “You thought you could control it. You thought you could make a little money, prove you weren’t some kid they could push around?—”
“I wasn’t—” He stopped, jaw tightening. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Brian told me about the first job,” she said evenly. “The cash. How easy it was.”
His silence confirmed it.
“You took the money,” she continued. “And when nothing bad happened, you convinced yourself it wasn’t a big deal.”
He scrubbed both hands over his face. “I don’t know. I just—he said it was nothing. Just information. Just a small thing.”
“But it wasn’t nothing, Andy. What you did was illegal.”
“No, it isn’t,” he snapped, then winced as if he hated himself for raising his voice. “Even Brian said it’s a gray area that I wouldn’t get in trouble for. Nobody gets arrested for rerouting an IP address. And Diego made it sound like he was just messing with someone. I didn’t think he’d come back and want me to do anything serious—something that really was illegal.”
“That’s how they draw people in,” she said quietly. “They find what you’re good at. They make it sound small. Harmless. Technical. Like a puzzle—something fun.”
He stared at the floor.
