Page 102 of Break My Heart

“Someone who actually cares whether he’s okay,” she fires back.

A hand settles on my shoulder, supporting me. I glance to the side to see Lewis Porter step up, flanking my right side. His presence is solid in a way that feels completely different from Christin’s. It’s almost paternal.

“I think you’ve said enough. It’s time for you to leave. Leo will be in touch,” Lewis grits out.

My father’s expression tightens before he snarls, “This doesn’t concern you.”

“It does now since you’ve threatened my family.”

It’s in the silence that I see and hear them. Cameras. The never-ending sound of shots being taken somewhere around one thousand times per minute. The paparazzi.

Of course this would become something brutally public before I can even assess it privately.

My father glances past us briefly, noticing it as well. Then his attention returns to me. “You will come home and assume your duties. This is not optional.”

I stare at him, really assess him. And I realize I don’t want what he’s trying to hand me. I have the only thing in the whole world that matters staring my father down, doing everything possible to protect me.

“No,” I say more forcefully.

Something in his expression twists. “We’ll see about that,” he says menacingly.

He turns and storms off.

The second he departs, I turn to Christin to say we should leave, but suddenly we’re surrounded by cameras. Reporters call out questions. Questions I don’t have answers to because I can’t breathe.

Because my brother has died.

We weren’t even in touch, but finding out from my father like it’s nothing? Like his death is a small inconvenience?

I’m shattered.

Christin spins before moving to my left side. Her arm slides around my waist. She ushers me back to the lift as her father follows. “I’m here. I’ll call Dario and tell him to get back to the hotel. We’ll figure this out together. Okay, Leo?”

My head turns in her direction, my mouth opens, but the words die before they escape my lips. The look of love and concern on her face breaks through to me. My head drops forward slightly, a sound erupting from me that’s rough and uneven. “I can’t believe Albert’s gone.”

Christin’s grip tightens. “I know,” she says quietly.

I let someone else hold the weight of that announcement with me. The fact that, by this afternoon, the confrontation with my father will be everywhere. That my world has turned from the best night of my life to this.

I can’t escape this. This is truly happening.

And it hurts like hell.

37

OUT LAP: LAP AFTER LEAVING THE PITS

One second, we’re in the lobby with cameras flashing and voices rising, Leo barely holding himself together, and the next, we’re moving. I pull him into the private lift by sheer instinct.

I try to soothe Leo with a plan, but I’m not really certain what to do. Behind us, I hear my father on my phone.

“Dario. It’s Porter. Get back to the hotel. Now.”

I’m so grateful for his presence because I don’t have the capacity to manage anything except Leo.

The doors close, cutting off the noise, but it doesn’t fix what just happened. It doesn’t erase the words thrown like they didn’t matter. “You don’t seem to understand. Your brother is dead. Your sister-in-law and nephew, as well.”

Like it was nothing. Like Leo was nothing.