“Maybe knowing the truth will allow her to forgive you.”
I looked at my little sister. “Who do you need to forgive, Sully?”
She shrugged and looked down, picking at the fray in the holes in her jeans. “My parents, maybe. My sister. Stephen.”
“Why Stephen?” I asked, using his first name, trying to keep my voice even. She said he was like a brother, but if he’d done something to her, he was a fucking dead man.
“He left. Just like Kerry did. And my parents did.”
“Come here, kid.” I pulled her back against me and said, “Kerry didn’t leave you, sweetheart. She was taken from you, too damn early. But she wasn’t given a choice.”
“Stephen was. He left after she died. And my parents may have well have for all the attention they gave me.”
“Losing a person you love is hard, Sully. Sometimes you have to distance yourself from the memories the only way you know how. He came back for you. When he knew you were in danger, he went back and protected you. The way a brother does. The way Justin and I will.”
She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed tight. “Thank you for coming for me.”
“I will always come for you, kid. Always.”
I sat with Sully until she fell asleep and then slipped from the room. When I entered the hall, Scorpion was standing there. He wasn’t a man I would have chosen to watch over my sister, but I trusted B.
I looked at my sister’s door and then Scorpion. “You don’t leave this post. If she wakes up and wants to go downstairs, you follow her. She doesn’t leave your sight, got it?”
“Yes, Prez.”
I hesitated for a moment before opening the door to my room. Morgan was lying in my bed, watching something on the television. When her eyes reached mine, she turned off the tv and stared at me.
“You know I love you, right?” I said, my voice cracking with emotion. She nodded but didn’t speak. “It’s not enough, is it?”
She shook her head and a tear slipped down her cheek. I climbed in bed beside her, but unlike with Sully, I didn’t pull her close. I didn’t force her to lean on me.
“Tell me what to do, baby. How do I make this right so you won’t leave me when this baby is born?” I knew what I was doing. I was putting the onus on her, and it wasn’t fair. It was my job to grovel. My job to make her feel safe so she trusted me again.
“I don’t know, Jude.”
“I can’t lose you, Morgan. Not again. I won’t fucking survive.”
She turned toward me, her eyes hard as steel as she hissed, “You won’t survive? I wasn’t the one who left, you son of a bitch!”
She stood up from the bed, and I knew I had to stop her. If she walked out that door, I’d never get her back.
“I didn’t have a choice!” I shouted. I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. “I didn’t have a fucking choice. They would have killed you. Killed our son.”
“I lost him anyway,” she cried. “And you weren’t fucking there!” As her voice echoed through the room, the door slammed open. Scorpion stood there, his hand on his weapon, and looked at Morgan.
“What the fuck are you doing storming in my room?” I growled.
He didn’t answer me. He didn’t even look at me. His eyes were on Morgan as he asked, “Are you okay?”
“Get the fuck out!” I snarled.
“No,” he answered, his chest puffing out. “Not until I hear from her.”
“I am your fucking president.”
Scorpion turned toward me and his eyes told me he didn’t give a fuck who I was. His only concern was for my old lady.
“I’m okay, Scorpion. We were just fighting.”
