by Ruby Vincent
Landon heaved a sigh. “Derek again. Alright, I know how this goes.” He brushed his thumb along my cheek. “Settle things with him and, if you need me, find me.”
“Thank you.”
I took off across the hall, fire lighting my nerves. Derek was not going to write me off before letting me explain. The irritating dummy thought he had me all figured out but I was the one who knew him. He was protecting himself from getting hurt again, but I wasn’t those disgusting bastards who betrayed his trust and violated his mother. I’d make him see that.
The party was wonderful. Soft music played in the background to polite conversation and hushed laughter. Servers flitted through the space carrying trays of food that smelled heavenly. I veered around one as I zeroed in on Derek.
I was in arm’s reach when another server appeared out of nowhere. “Would you like one, Master Derek?”
“Thanks” He turned away from the junior girl he was talking to, saw me, and promptly walked off—cucumber canape forgotten.
Huffing, I went after him and so began our game of cat-and-mouse. I stalked Derek all over the room until Naomi announced dinner was ready.
The group streamed out and I was two steps behind Derek. The tight lines in his neck and shoulder told me he sensed my presence.
Derek claimed a seat next to Michael and I pulled out the empty chair on his right.
Someone blew past me. The junior girl Derek was chatting up earlier boldly sat in my seat and pulled it out of my hand as she scooted up.
I gaped at her as she twisted around and smirked. “Fs sit at the bottom of the table.”
I was not a violent person, but I seriously considered wringing her neck. Someone grabbed me as I opened my mouth.
“Zee, sit with me.”
Adam dragged me off to the opposite end away from Jonathan—away from Derek.
“What’s up with you?” Adam asked softly as he pushed me down on the chair.
“I need to talk to Derek.”
“Talk to him or kill him? You’ve been chasing him around the party with crazy eyes.”
“I have not,” I snapped.
Adam gave me a look. “Play it cooler, or you’ll have security on you.”
“I have to get him alone.”
“Again... to talk or commit homicide?”
I shoved a laughing Adam away. Although, he did have a point. I didn’t want to draw the wrong kind of attention. I was going to talk to him and I didn’t need anyone interrupting.
Jonathan, Naomi, Argyle, and Whittaker kept up a steady stream of conversation throughout dinner. They went around the table encouraging us to talk more about what we wanted out of the coming year, and our plans for the future.
My classmates’ answers were irritating noise until he spoke.
“And you, Mr. Manning,” said Jonathan. “What do you want to do?”
It was the first time since they put the bowl of cucumber soup in front of me that I took my eyes off Derek.
Jonathan smiled—open and curious for my reply—and I sensed he wasn’t the only one. Derek was watching me too.
“I... want to be a mathematician,” I began. My hands began to shake so I moved them to my lap. “And then one day, a professor. I’m looking forward to this year and taking Calc II.”
His eyes warmed with his chuckle. “Not something you hear many students say.”
I found myself laughing too. “I get that a lot, but I’ve always loved math.”
“People made fun of me as well and said I had as much chance of directing a blockbuster as I did of marrying a movie star.” He held out his hands. “Look at me now.”
The room erupted into laughter. Naomi used the same hand to swat him as she did to pull him in for a kiss. They broke apart and Jonathan moved on to Adam.
Dinner was delicious. Our dessert of baked apple rose tarts was even better, but that wasn’t why I inhaled it. I wanted to finish first and then get to Derek before he got up from the table.
I swallowed the last bite and stood. Derek was on his feet before I pushed in my seat.
“May I be excused?”
“Of course, sweetie,” said Naomi.
He ducked out of the room, slipping past security.
I followed at a slower pace. The guards watched me openly as I stepped into the opulent grand foyer and walked over to French doors just off the sitting area. I caught the white of his pant leg as Derek went into the bathroom I had been crying in earlier.
Pushing aside the white gossamer curtains, I ducked into the corner between the wall and the door and gazed outside. Nothing moved out there. This tiny corner of space was still and frozen in time. I felt for the handle and cracked open the door, letting a wisp of cool air wash over my face. Behind me, I heard a creak, and then footsteps.
The guards were no longer in the doorway. They must have trailed the rest of the party out of the dining room.
I pressed tighter into the corner. Derek walked past me unaware until I whispered his name.
He spun on me. “What the fuck?! What are you— Why are you following me?!”
My response was to grab his sleeve and shove him out the door. I slammed it shut behind me, encasing us in the privacy of the empty estate.
“What the fuck are you doing?!” he raged. “You’re—”
“No!” I screamed. “For once, you’re going to listen to me!” I advanced on him so fast Derek backed up and stumbled over the patio chair. “I did not use you to get close to your father! I would never do something like that and, to be honest, it pisses me off that you don’t know that!”
Derek’s surprise morphed into anger in a blink. His lips peeled back. “You’re pissed at me? Me?! You want to pretend I’m the one who did wrong!”
“You did!” I shoved the chair aside. It crashed to the ground in an ear-piercing clang that should have brought security down on us, but no one came. “You should have listened to me! Let me explain instead of inventing your own version of the truth so you could push me away!”
Derek wasn’t blank now. Fury burned in his eyes with the heat that made his cheeks flush red and beads of sweat collect on his forehead.
“Let you explain?” he repeated. “Explain that my dad cheated on my mom and knocked up another woman? Explain that he’s a deadbeat who abandoned them instead of owning up to what he did? Explain that the man I thought I knew is a complete fucking stranger! Do you have any idea what your little revelation did to me?! What it will do to my family?! Do you care?!”
“I—”
“Of course, you don’t, because this is all about you!” Derek’s hand flashed out and I jerked back, but he wasn’t coming for me. He yanked his phone out of his pocket and waved it in my face. “‘Derek, I had no choice.’ ‘Derek, this was the only way.’ ‘Derek, this is hard for me too.’ Me, me, me!”
He flung the phone. I let out a scream as it shattered against the wall, one of the pieces striking the back of my neck. “You only care about your fucking self, and that’s why you didn’t give a shit about lying to me for two years!”
“That’s not true! I hated keeping the truth from you, but I thought you’d act exactly like this if I told you.”
A harsh bark of a sound mimicking a laugh came out of his mouth. “So this is my fault?”
“No!” I fisted my hands in my hair and almost pulled off my wig. Derek was maddening! Why wouldn’t he listen to me? Why was he twisting everything? “That’s not what I meant.”
“It is what you meant, Zela. You didn’t tell me because you knew it would wreck me and how I’d feel didn’t matter as much as what you wanted.” He stuck his face in mine. “I fell in love with you,” he whispered, “but you were never real.”
I trembled. I was right before. Derek came as an angel tonight, filled with avenging fury that poured inside of me and burned away my defenses.
“I had to do it,” I said once more, voice thickening with unshed tears.
“No, you didn’t.”
&nbs
p; “Yes.”
“No,” he snarled. “There is no good reason for you fucking up my life because of what my dad did! You shouldn’t have brought me into this.”
“Getting close to you wasn’t about him.” I blinked and wetness stained my cheeks. “I didn’t use you.”
“Liar.” His voice was soft, and it was worse than his shouts. “You’re done with me, Zela. Stop following me—”
“No.”
“Stop texting me.”
“No!” I surged forward, arms out, but I crashed into a wall that wasn’t there. He was right in front of me but I couldn’t touch him. I felt him ruthlessly cutting me out of his life and the chasm opened between us. If I didn’t do something, he’d get too far away, and I’d lose him for good.
“After tonight, you and I are—”
“I did it because you’re mine!” I screamed, and I leaped across the gulf and grabbed him. His white suit crumpled in my fist. “I’ve been alone my whole life wishing for you. For someone I could talk to. Someone who knew what I was going through. Someone who had been denied what I had... family.”
I shook him. I wasn’t strong enough to hurt him, but the pain of the last few months burst out of me in a torrent that I couldn’t control.
“I wanted you and then, one day, I found my birth certificate and you were real. You’ve been there all along and all I had to do was get into one stupid fucking school, wear these stupid fucking clothes, and lie to my mother and aunt and everyone I know, but I didn’t think twice about doing it because of you! Because going another minute without knowing my brother made me want to scream! So don’t tell me I don’t care about you!”
I threw him away from me as hard as I could. We stumbled away from each other, eyes huge, chest heaving.
Derek said nothing for a long time. His cheeks were still stained, his hands were still balled, but the fire behind his eyes was changing into something else.
“What does that mean?” he rasped. “You lied to your mom and aunt. About what?”
I swiped across my eyes, collecting tears on my sleeve. “About why I wanted to be at Breakbattle. She doesn’t know it’s about you. She still thinks it’s a grand experiment.”
His brows shot up his forehead. “Hold on. You were serious about that?”
Derek’s surprise confused me. “Yes,” I croaked. “She hates the gender separation and lost her mind when I said the name Breakbattle. She only agreed to let me go when I told her Zeke would be fodder for her book. I told you all of this last year.”
“Yeah, but after the tournament I figured that must have been a load of bullshit like everything else you’ve told me since we met.”
I bristled. “Everything I’ve told you was true.”
“Right.” Derek was putting himself back together before my eyes. He straightened his suit, fixed his hair, and cleared his face. He leaned against the banister, all trace of his explosion gone. “If you’re so honest, tell me what your mother said when you asked her about the birth certificate.”
Frowning, I fixed myself up too. I replied as I set my wig to rights. “I never told her I saw it. She still doesn’t know that I found you or Jonathan Grayson.”
“Why?”
Derek’s gaze bore a hole in my skull, as if daring me to lie, but there was no reason for me to.
“I was afraid of what she’d do. She might’ve pulled me out of Breakbattle and put me in Chesterfield. Or taken me to another country. I’d never see you again.”
“And you couldn’t have that.”
“No,” I snapped. “We shouldn’t have been kept apart in the first place. I wasn’t going to risk her doing it again.”
He bobbed his head like he agreed. “So what you’re saying is... your mother never confirmed that my father is yours.”
I blinked. Of all the things I thought he’d say, that was not on the list. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you saw that name, looked it up, and decided he was your father. It doesn’t mean he is. The name Jonathan Grayson isn’t very unique.”
A cool breeze blew through the summer night. It passed over my damp, heated cheeks and played with my fringe as we gazed at each other. It was too nice a night for this. The thunder and storms that passed through the day would have better suited the fight coming.
“I’m not stupid, Derek,” I said tightly. “I did my homework. Somerset University. Eighteen years ago. Your father taught a guest lecture on screenwriting. My mother was an English major with a minor in film studies. It wasn’t hard to put those pieces together.”
He shook his head. “It still doesn’t prove we’re related. Did you find a DNA test with those important papers?”
I stalked closer. “Stop it, Derek. I’m your sister and you know it. We look alike.”
He barked a laugh. “No, we don’t.”
“We have the same hair.”
Amusement shone in his eyes and it annoyed the hell out of me. What was so funny?
“Millions of people have dirty blond hair, Zee.”
“This isn’t about those people!” My voice rose, spurred by his smirk. “We have the same ears too.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Derek grasped my shoulders. “Zela Rae Manning, you and I look nothing alike.”
I knocked his hands away. “Okay, so you look like your mother, but—”
“—and you must look like yours because you sure as fuck don’t look like my dad.”
Lifting my chin, I met his smile with a hard set to my jaw. “Don’t do this. You’re not going to push me away, and definitely not going to logic me away. They met while she was in college and his name is on my birth certificate. You’re my brother.”
“I am, am I?” Derek was still smiling and it made me angrier by the second. “You sound ridiculously possessive.”
“Because you’re mine,” I repeated as though it was the single thing in this world that was true. Why should I feel weird about saying it? I didn’t have any other siblings and I most likely never would. There was only him. “My brother. My Derek. Get used to it.”
He chuckled. “What if I don’t want to?”
“That’s not an option.”
“Hmm.” Derek lifted his hand. His fingers were gentle on my cheeks, wiping the traces of my tears away. “Okay.”
I froze. “What?”
“Okay,” he repeated. “I’ll get used to it.”
I didn’t move. Was this a trick? He couldn’t be saying...
“What do you mean?” I pressed.
“I’m not pushing you away anymore, Zee, and I’m sorry I did. I’m mad you kept this from me, but I should have let you explain a long time ago.” He held open his hands. “I’m sorry.”
My breath lodged in my throat. Was this real? Could it be?
I took a step, then another, then I flew into his arms.
Tears sprang to my eyes again and stained his shirt as I burrowed my face in his chest. I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed, making him grunt.
“You forgive me?”
Derek rested his cheek on top of my head. “I do.”
“We can go back to how it was?”
“Yes.”
I bounced up and down—so happy I might have floated away if he wasn’t keeping me anchored. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Derek pressed a soft kiss to my forehead, and I knew everything was going to be okay.
“I should have told you sooner,” I admitted. “I did not want the truth to come out how it did, but years in the future, this could be a funny story we tell our kids.”
His chest rumbled with a laugh. “We’ll for sure tell our kids about this. Luckily, I can afford the therapy they’ll need afterward.”
Giggling, I leaned my head back to smile at him. “We survived our first real fight as brother and sister. I hope the next ones aren’t this bad.”
Derek rested his forehead on mine. “I’ll bet my inheritance we’ll have plenty of crazy fights ah
ead... but not as brother and sister.”
“No?”
His head moved on mine as he shook. “No. You’re not my sister, Zela.”
The smile froze on my face. “What?”
“You’re not and I would have known sooner if I had talked to you.”
I dropped my arms. “Derek—”
“Your mother never told you my dad was your father, and even if she backs it up, a name on a birth certificate isn’t proof. I know my dad and he loves my mom so much it’s nauseating sometimes. He’d never cheat on her, and if he did, he wouldn’t abandon his kid.”
I tried to pull away but his arms were secure. “Listen, I know this is hard but—”
“I’m not in denial,” he said firmly. “I know it’s not true, and deep down, you know it too.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re obsessed with me.”
He released me but I didn’t go far, too stunned to move.
“Obsessed. Possessive.” He waved a hand at my clothes. “And willing to do all of this to be close to me.”
I took a step back. This was not good. We had taken a crazy turn and I didn’t remember getting in the car.
“You don’t act this way over a sibling. You do it for someone you’re in love with—”
“Stop.”
“—and I know, because I’m in love with you too.”
“Derek!” My happiness burst and burned away in the acid of my writhing stomach. “You can’t say those things to me! You’re my brother whether you want to admit it or not.”
“No, I’m not.” Certainty laced his voice. “You came to Breakbattle looking for a brother but you found me instead. You want to believe the connection we have proves your beliefs true, because if they don’t, you’re back where you started without a brother and a father.”
“Derek, stop!”
“But it’s not true,” he plowed on relentlessly. “You know it’s not, because your obsession with me isn’t sisterly, baby. It’s love.”
I wanted to hit him. I wanted to rage and scream and pound every awful thought out of his head. My blood sibling could not be in love with me. I’d destroy myself before I let that be true.
Calm down, Zela. Talk to him. Get him to see sense.
