My heart was breaking, shattering right in front of them.
They were all I could see, all I could feel.
“Julius, please don’t do this…” I begged with tears streaming down my face.
“Out of all the women you could’ve fucked,” Julius spat, “why her? Huh? The one thing that’s mine, and you have to steal her from me?”
I shook my head, glaring over at him. “You know that’s not what happened!”
I stayed firm on the ground, except Julius was too far gone.
JULIUS
Witnessing the love he had for her was the hardest pill to swallow.
I didn’t realize how close they’d gotten since I was gone. I wasn’t going to lose control completely until this second, when the air between us felt so fucking tight, ready to snap in half at any moment. When he said he’d do anything for her, I knew that I could relate, and that was the last thing I wanted to feel.
I didn’t want to justify his actions. I barely wanted to believe them.
I hated that I understood where he was coming from, and if the roles were reversed, I’d have done the same. Something inside me recoiled at the thought, recognizing that we were the same.
“You want me to lie?” Kraven countered, stepping toward me.
He closed the last inch of space until we were chest to chest, until we were nothing but truth or violence.
It could go either way.
“Is that what you want? You want me to pretend you wouldn’t have done the same thing when it came to her? Would that make you feel better? To paint me as the villain so you can be the fucking hero? The man who left her the morning after he fucks her for the first time, that’s who you are, Julius!”
My fists tightened at my sides.
“Yeah, the truth hurts, doesn’t it, asshole? You’re not the hero either. If anything, you’re the fucking executioner because you abandoned us. You didn’t just leave her behind, you left me too. I didn’t even get a fucking note! That was for her!”
“Kraven—”
“No!” He shoved me. “Fuck you! I’m sick and tired of your ‘I did everything for you’ narrative. You think you’re this perfect person, this perfect brother, perfect boyfriend, but in reality, you’re just like Mom and Dad. Actually, you’re worse. At least they know they’re pieces of shit. You pretend you’re not, like you’re better than me, and that’s the furthest thing from the truth.” He sternly pointed at Isla. “I didn’t steal her from you… I saved her from you.”
I jerked back, my chest rising and falling. “I did leave,” I agreed, standing tall. “But if you ever compare me to Joe or Melody again, it will be the last thing you ever say. Do you understand, Little Brother?”
He ignored me. “Why don’t we call a spade a spade? You’re just pissed that I was able to claim her after you fucked up! Isla became fair game after you left her, after you left me! You think that’s okay? To leave the same fucking note our mother did? What the hell kind of bullshit was that, Julius? That doesn’t sound like a fucking hero to me. It sounds like a fucking coward, you pussy.” He pushed me harder that time. He didn’t waver, adding, “You’re just pissed that I’m right.”
His truths landed harder than anything else he’d said.
Kraven was relentless now. If I gave him an inch, he’d take a mile, and he could see it in my face and feel it in his skin that he had the upper hand.
“You don’t get to stand there and act like you wouldn’t burn the whole fucking world down for her if it meant she was safe.”
“You’re right,” I admitted. “But you know what else…” I let my statement linger. “I’ve already burned the whole fucking world down, and that was when I did it for you.”
Kraven
Julius was right, and that made it worse. It was what turned this from a fight into something else entirely, something heavier, something we were trying to escape. There was no clean ending for the three of us anymore. The clear line between right and wrong no longer existed.
Maybe it was never there to begin with, but I didn’t back down, and I didn’t soften. I couldn’t. I wanted to scream at Isla to choose between us, though I couldn’t do that either.
If she made a choice, could she live with it…
“They would have eventually come for her, Julius,” I repeated, slower this time, forcing him to truly hear me.
