Trent
Gretchen won’t wait until the morning.
“This ends tonight,” she insists.
I don’t argue with her.
Parts of the audio recording made by Jules were muffled but we were able to hear enough.
Enough for our hearts to break for Jules.
Enough to bury that son of a bitch who calls himself my brother.
Gretchen sobbed in my arms after listening to the entirety of her sister’s anguish. Her tears dried quickly and now she wants vengeance. For Jules, for the girls, for me, for whoever else has suffered at the hands of Liam Cassini.
I stand back and listen as Gretch phones Barbara Bianco to ask if she’s available to babysit for the girls tonight.
“No, it’s not a family emergency. Nothing to worry about. I just have something to take care of. Thank you, Barbara. We’ll be there soon.”
Gretchen sets her phone down, her expression calm.
“Ready?” I ask her.
She nods. “Absolutely.”
The girls are sleepily confused as to why we are leaving the house so late. We wrap them in their quilts to keep them warm in the cool night air. Caitlin is carried in my arms while Gretch holds Mara.
“You girls can sleep at Barbara’s,” Gretchen promises while ensuring they are properly secured in their booster seats. “We’ll be back to get you before long.”
Caitlin yawns and gives me a sleepy smile. “Barbara has a black cat named Buttons.”
I smile back at my niece. “That’s good to know.”
Gretchen hands over the keys to the minivan and sits tensely in the passenger seat as I steer us three short blocks away. Barbara Bianco waits at the door and she clearly doesn’t mind the late visit at all. She already has the sofa bed pulled out and cozily made up for the girls. They nestle together with Buttons the black cat purring at their feet. Barbara’s eyes are full of questions but she assures us there is no need to hurry. The girls will be safe here.
As we pass by the lake, I remind Gretchen of something. “We’re walking into his party. His crowd, his territory.”
Instinct tells me that it would be wiser to confront him alone. A man of Liam’s nature becomes a rabid dog when backed into a corner. But I can’t deny Gretchen the chance to see the fear register on his face when Liam understands that he has lost.
She gazes out the window at the peaceful water. “I know.”
Cassini Brewery is decked out in absurd finery tonight. String lights are wrapped around every light pole and layered across the roof. Tall potted topiaries stand at attention across the length of the building. There’s even a narrow red carpet, unfurled like a tongue and already trampled by a hundred of Liam’s closest friends, most of them likely visiting from the city to pay homage to Lake Stuart royalty.
Well, King Liam, here we come.
Ready to storm the ever loving shit out of your castle.
Gretchen laces her fingers through mine and we walk through the open doors into a sea of well dressed backs. Nobody spares us a glance. All heads are turned to Liam as he stands atop the bar in the middle of a speech.
“Enjoy the food, friends. Enjoy the drinks. Be jealous that the stunning creature standing at my feet is going home with me. I love you, Whit, and thanks for making this night happen. You are my queen. Cheers and good health to all.”
Murmurs and muted clapping ripple across the crowd. Liam hops off the bar and his wife captures him in a laughing embrace. They kiss with grotesque passion and he wraps a possessive arm around her slim waist. He’s wearing the sloppy, slightly out of focus look of a man whose brain is already soaked in too much alcohol.
Gretchen grips my hand harder and starts pulling me toward the bar. She’s impatient, unwilling to wait for Liam to get around to noticing our arrival.
“I need to talk to you, Liam!”
Her loud demand pauses some conversations. She’s repeating Jules’s words on purpose.
Whitney shoots Gretchen a rather sour look that changes to confusion when she notices me at Gretchen’s side.
Liam stares at us, annoyed at the interruption, but only slightly. After all, we are no threat to him.
“Didn’t think you were coming,” he says and then louder, to no one in particular, “This is my kid brother, folks.”
Whitney’s eyes linger on me. “Good to see you again, Trent. I was just telling Liam we should invite you to join us when we visit the Hamptons next weekend.” She doesn’t give Gretchen a second glance.
I don’t feel compelled to play nice right now. “Lady, I’d rather drink a puddle of acid than spend thirty seconds being entertained by the two of you.”
Whitney ’s mouth falls open. She’s not to blame for her husband but I’ve exhausted my ration of politeness so fuck it.
Liam sobers up a little and his irritation kicks up a notch. “Know what, Trent? Maybe this is not the night for you to start playing with the grown ups.”
I step up and meet him face to face. I’m taller and I enjoy the way he needs to look up to me. “We’re going to have a chat in Dad’s office. Unless you’d prefer to be eviscerated in front of all your A-list buddies.”
He’s not alarmed, not yet. But he’s also not quite sure if I’m bluffing or not.
With Gretchen’s hand still in mine, we scale the staircase. I’m sure she’s thinking of Jules, young and pregnant, here in the same place, making the same climb. So am I.
By now Liam is in a hurry to find out what kind of trouble we intend to cause. He’s breathless when he joins us a minute later.
“What the hell?” He angrily shuts the door, his mask of civility already gone.
Gretchen seethes, ready to get to the point. “Let him hear it, Trent.”
I pull up the file on my phone and press play.
“Hello. It’s me, Julianne Aaronson…”
Liam parks himself on the corner of his desk and laughs. “You came barging in here just to deliver a voice from the grave?”
Gretchen circles him and my muscles tense, ready to jump into action and knock him down if he makes the slightest threatening move.
In the background, Jules keeps telling her story.
“You’re coming along for the ride so buckle up.”
Gretchen moves to the window. The town lights wink back, the lake lost somewhere in the inky blackness, out of sight from this distance once the sun goes down. The moon hangs low and full in the sky.
“My sister was the most incredible person,” Gretchen says to the moon. “She had so much love that she gave up her own dreams for what was left of her family. And the three of us – me and Jules and Danny - remained a family because of her. Then I saw her become a mother and it was like she’d stepped into the role she was born for. I wish so badly that she could have found someone to love her the way she deserved but Jules had no regrets. The twins became the loves of her life.”
“The baby is yours and I’m having it.”
If Liam possessed a heart, he would be on the floor right now, sobbing, pleading to be forgiven as the sound of his self serving cruelty fills the room.
“No one will know you’re the father.”
Instead of cowering with deep shame, he appears to be only vaguely nervous. He looks down at his hands as he twists his wedding ring.