This is life. My life. The life that chewed me up, spat me out, and discarded me without a second thought.
“Sean Michael? Is that you? What are you doing here? And what the hell are you doing with my wife?”
I don’t say a word. I can’t. I just stay tight-lipped, as cameras flash and whir in front of us, our audience holding their breath in anticipation. My joints and limbs are frozen where I stand, until I feel Ally’s soft, delicate hand grasp my forearm. She steps into view beside Evan, her confused expression rivaling his.
“Justice, what is he talking-”
Evan nearly pushes her aside to take a step closer to me. “Wait a minute. Wait one goddamn minute… You’re Justice Drake? You’re him?” He barks out a sardonic laugh and throws his hands up dramatically. “You’ve got to be kidding me! Sean Michael is Justice-f*ck
ing-Drake. And apparently, he wants to steal my wife from me. This is rich.”
Every muscle feels so tightly bound in aggravation that I can barely move. I don’t even realize how long I’ve been standing there, staring murderous daggers at Evan’s theatrics, until Ally forces her way into my line of vision.
“Justice, what’s going on? Please, talk to me.” Concern mars that beautifully flawed face, and I instantly feel guilty because I’m the cause.
I open and close my mouth, trying to find the words to explain, but Evan, being the selfish prick that he’s always been, steals it away from me. One hand on Ally’s back, he waves a hand in my direction. “Ally Cat, darling, meet Sean Michael. My father’s bastard, and my half-brother.”
And all the fear, the shame, it all comes bubbling to surface, overflowing with my secrets and lies. I can see the repulsion in her face as she looks at me, hurt and betrayal in her eyes, highlighted by the flash of half a dozen cameras. She doesn’t feel wronged by Evan, her husband, for keeping such a massive secret, she feels wronged by me. As if all of this is my doing. As if I forced his father– my father –to cheat on his wife with the young, naive maid and birth a son, just two months after Evan was born.
“You’re his brother?” she whispers in a broken voice. “You’re a Carr?”
“Half-brother,” I say, finding my voice, as if it makes my omission any better. “And, f*ck
no, I’m not a Carr.”
There’s fire in the water of her eyes. “So you knew about me? You knew who I was from the beginning?” She shakes her head, her lips twisted in disgust. “Oh my God. You knew all along. You just wanted to use me as a pawn-”
I try to reach for her, but she steps away. “No! Don’t you dare even think that. Yes, I knew about you, but-”
“But what? How will you explain this one, little brother?” Evan interjects smugly. “You know what? I can’t decide what makes you a bigger ass*ole
—the fact that you preyed on my wife, or that you’re trying to weasel your way back in where you obviously don’t belong. You and your mother were paid handsomely to stay away from us. You think changing your name somehow voids the contract? Father’s attorneys will have a field day with your ass!” He pulls his cell phone from his pocket.
“Father’s attorneys? Don’t you mean your mother’s attorneys? Since you’re so fond of hiding behind her skirt, you should know good and well that her conniving ass orchestrated that.”
Evan shrugs. “True enough. But you see, the thing about marriage is that they’re united. They are one. And we’re a family. You and your whore of a mother will forever be on the outside looking in.”
There are no thoughts. No intervention from Jiminy or any coaxing from that little narcissistic devil pressing at my temples. Just red fury and a blur of movement, as I snatch Evan by the throat and slam him against the wall. I don’t hear the women shrieking with fear as they watch on, or the clicking of cameras freezing this moment in time. I don’t feel Ally tugging at my arm, begging me to stop, or even Riku trying to pull me back before I do what I’ve wanted to do for decades. There’s only blind rage numbing my hand, as I apply more pressure to his strained throat and watch those denim-blue eyes, so much like mine, widen with fear.
I’m going to kill him.
I’m going to f*ck
ing kill him.
My childhood was stolen from me because Evan’s mother refused to allow my father to accept me. And when he arranged for me to attend the best prep school in the city, even that was taken away because Evan felt “uncomfortable” with my presence. And now he’s stolen my happiness. I don’t give a f*ck
if Ally is his by law. She’s mine, right down to my bones. She was always meant to be a part of me. And Evan wants to take that too.
So I’m going to take his life, like he and his bitch of a mother tried to take mine.
“Please, Justice, don’t do this! Please, you don’t want to do this!”