I told him in no uncertain terms that all I wanted was to see Sawyer. I had no desire to play the prodigal son. I didn’t need his help or his money for anything else in my life. I was pretty sure the hard stance shocked him. Annoyingly, he agreed to help me, but only if I acquiesced to one of his requests as well. He demanded that I change my last name from Snyder to Richman. I was now the only child he had whom he could be semi-proud of, even with the accident still on my juvenile record. I was the only one who hadn’t been declared legally insane. He told me that even if I didn’t want what was rightfully mine now, that might change down the road. He no longer wanted me to be seen as his bastard. He promised he wouldn’t publicly claim me as his son if I agreed, but for all intents and purposes, I was his legacy now. The house where I grew up and hated with every fiber of my being would be mine one day. I told him I didn’t want it.
My last name was really the only thing my mother gave me. I never once thought about changing it. But speaking with Sawyer and protecting Ollie was more important than hanging on to something that never amounted to much anyway.
I made the deal with my old man, but I didn’t tell Ollie about it. I knew she was going to have a fit I was keeping something that big from her. But this time, it couldn’t be helped. I didn’t want her to know I was going to see Sawyer. I didn’t want her to know I was once again playing games with my stupidly rich father. I didn’t want her to know I had so much as dipped a toe back into our old life.
She was hellbent on making amends and taking accountability for the past. I knew there was no way to stop her once she had her mind set on it. She’d already made plans to go back to our hometown so she could clear my name and confess to being the one behind the wheel the night of the accident.
I would lie, cheat, and steal to make sure she didn’t have to do that for me. Legally, I wasn’t sure there were any major repercussions she would face since the accident had been so long ago and I’d already done the penance for it. But I wouldn’t put it past Sawyer’s mother to sue her for damages and medical fees once she confessed, even from behind bars. I just wanted the whole situation put to bed and Ollie in the clear.
Which is why I was sitting across from Sawyer right now.
My brother made a face and shifted in his chair. “Aren’t you getting ready to head to law school? Shouldn’t bribing the authorities to get what you want be against your moral code or something? Didn’t you always pretend to be better than that because you didn’t want anyone to think you were like your money-hungry mother?”
I shrugged a shoulder and fought to keep my face still, even though I was taken aback that he knew anything about my life. It was unnerving to hear that he’d kept tabs on me all this time.
“I’m going to be the kind of lawyer who gets the job done no matter what.” I tapped my fingers on the table, separating us. “I don’t survive in that house with you and your mom without learning when the rules are meant to be broken. So, I guess I can thank you for making me the kind of guy who thrives in the world’s vast amounts of imperfection. Because of you, I can lean into the darkness when necessary, but I know better than to get lost in it. I’m smart enough to move toward the light when I get in too deep. As you know, Ollie has been shining since forever. As long as I move toward her, I’ll be fine.
He tried to drag Ollie into the shadows with him instead of letting her glow the way she was always meant to.
Sawyer flinched, but it was barely noticeable. “Why are you here, Huck?”
I tapped my fingers hard enough on the table that they started to hurt. Maybe it was foolish to think I could reason with a mad man, but I had to try.
“Fall break is coming up. When it does, Ollie is heading back to our hometown, and she is going to tell anyone who will listen that she was driving that night, not me. She was underage, and five years have gone by. I don’t know that anyone will care, but you have to know that your mother will not let her slide once she openly admits her guilt. Your mom pointed a gun at Ollie. She demanded that she come and tell you that she loves you, that she wants to be with you. She blames Ollie for you being in here and in this condition. I’m hoping you have a shred of humanity left and realize the only person who put you away is you. Your obsession made you sick, and it made you do some pretty dangerous things. I can’t prove it, but I know you grabbed the wheel and jerked it out of her control when Ollie was driving.” Sawyer made a strangled sound, but his stark face showed no reaction. “Now, maybe you saw the deer and were just trying to help her since she was an inexperienced driver.” I doubted that, but I needed to cover all the bases. “Whatever the reason, you were as much at fault for the accident as she was, especially because you forced her to drive that night. That was a choice you made. And at the end of the day, I’m the one who called her to come to get me. I was the one drinking and partying without a care in the world. I put her in as much danger as you did. She was just a kid trying to do the right thing. You punished her endlessly for nothing more than that.”
He shifted weight, but his face still showed no signs of remorse or understanding.
I sighed and leaned forward. “You’ve put her through hell and back, Sawyer. She’s been alone and miserable for years because of you. She doesn’t trust anyone, and she lives her life like she’s ready to run at any moment. You thought you could force her to stay by your side, but your actions drove her back into my arms. I was always her favorite. Nothing you did ever changed that. I lost her once. I won’t lose her again.” I gave him a very pointed look. “No matter what it takes, I’m keeping her, and I will protect her. You need to let her go. You need to set her free. It’s the least you can do for her after how you tortured her, how you used her mother against her for so long.”
Finally, his stony face twisted into a bitter smile. He looked deranged—like the Joker when he fully embraced his insanity.
It gave me the creeps, but I’d come too far to back down.
“I could never figure out why she could only see you.” His wiry eyebrows dipped low on his forehead. “Back then, you were so loud and annoying. You were fat and always filthy. Even when you got older and started to get interested in other girls and made new friends, Ollie sought you out for everything. You were the only person she would talk about. She revolved around you like you were the sun. All I wanted her to do was look at me, just once, the way she looked at you. I tried to tell her over and over again that you didn’t need her the way I did, that you would never want her the way I did. She wouldn’t listen.” My brother’s expression was downright sinister. “I begged her not to go get you that night. I pleaded with her to let you fend for yourself. Nothing I said mattered. When you called, she was always going to come running. I knew as we got older that infatuation was going to turn into something more. She was in love with you long before she knew what love was. I hated it. I hated you. And she made me hate her. As cliché as it is, I really thought that if I couldn’t have her, no one should. I had no idea that the end I had planned for all of us would be the beginning of me and her. It took this chair for Olivia Adams to finally see me. Once I was hurt, I was all she could see. It was perfect… while it lasted.”