“Because she deserved it!” he screamed, the words echoing across the park. “Because you deserve it in her place!” He was panting now as he glared at me.
“What could she have done to you that’s so bad?” Tears filled my eyes now, ones I couldn’t have held back if I wanted to as I pictured my mom. The mom I knew was a woman full of love and light and laughter. Someone who would go out of her way to help anyone. She could be stubborn as hell and thought her way was right to a fault, but how could she have hurt her own brother so badly that he hated her this much? That he’d hate me this much?
It’s okay, kitten, Ian soothed, giving a mental stroke over my mind, a sentiment which was echoed by the others. We’re here.
Your mom rescued me, remember? Alarick reassured me. I know how good of a person she was. Hell, when I transformed, she jumped right between me and the others in the room, protecting me because she was afraid they would hurt me when they saw what I was. Yeah, that sounded like my mom. I squared my shoulders, facing off with Lyle as I pushed to my feet.
“Like you don’t know. You and Candice.” He spat her name, and his lips curled in a snarl that my wolf emulated as she paced inside me. Prey. Threat, she growled in my head.
I shook my head, keeping my hands open at my sides, knowing Ian would still be recording. “I don’t,” I admitted. “She never talked about you.”
He barked out a laugh, though there was no amusement in the sound, only scorn. “Oh, why should she? I was only her little brother. Her only living family. Why should she mention me?” He whirled and kicked the car again, the motion making his hair stick up in spikes. So much for calm, collected Lyle. Shannon had been right about him. He returned his glare to me. “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is she owed me, and you’re going to be the one to pay up. You’re still my ward. I told you before, if you didn’t sell the jewelry and the stuff from the house, I’d have you declared a danger to yourself.” His eyes ran over me as he shook his head.
“I’m not going to sell anything, and you’re not going to have me declared a danger to myself.” I kept my voice firm and even. His head reared back in shock as he stared at me. “Those things belong to me. You already sold them, against what I believe a court would have ordered, mind you, and collected on them. Technically, any money you received for that should be held in trust for me.” His eyes turned sly as he studied me.
“What makes you think it’s not?” He reached up to loosen the gray tie he wore, letting it hang limply against his shirt.
I shrugged. “Considering you’re asking me for money after you’ve already sold everything once? Common sense. My guess is you’ve already spent it and you’re going to claim it was on my upkeep.”
“Well, I had to make sure you were doing well at that school,” he blustered, shaking his head. “You’ve been known to lie and manipulate before, it was only right I took extra measures.”
I had to breathe deeply, the moonlight on my skin acting as a catalyst, trying to force my wolf forward. “Just tell me why. That’s all I want to know. My mom trusted you. She thought you would at least look out for me until I turned eighteen.” My heart broke at that. She thought he was manipulative and figured he might not love me, which was why she reached out to Raff—I could see that now. She wanted his pack to give me a family where she knew Lyle wouldn’t. But she had still trusted Lyle to handle the human part of things. She had always been trusting.
“Candice was always a goody-two-shoes,” he growled, pacing as he thrust his hands into his hair. I considered those words as I thought of my mom. I didn’t know about a good-two-shoes… She always had a really strong moral compass, if he wanted to put it that way. She’d taught me there was never a reason to cheat, even as a child. She hated it when I lied, even a small fib, but I’d always known she was in my corner. “When we were growing up, she was the golden child, hardly ever in trouble. Perfect Candice.” His words were mocking as he rolled his eyes. “My parents adored her, their golden child. Barely had time for me.”
Considering I hadn’t known my grandparents—they had died before I was born—I couldn’t really say one way or the other, so I merely shrugged. “Okay, so you were like most siblings.” I couldn’t see how that had anything to do with this.
He scoffed. “You don’t understand. Siblings are supposed to help each other. But no, not perfect Candice. When she found out I had some debts to people, she gave me a little money at first. That’s what siblings are supposed to do. Parents too. Help a kid out.” His hands were waving now as he ranted. “But what were gifts at first became loans. Then they stopped. They said that they wouldn’t enable me,” he sneered, slamming his hand down onto the hood of his car.
Oh, shit, Zev spat.
Makes sense, Chann growled. Gambling debts.
“So you gambled,” I surmised. “Or are still gambling.”
“It’s not gambling if you win,” he hissed at me, tugging on his collar.
Yeah, but I don’t think he’s winning, Shannon muttered. Careful, Pixie. His emotions are frantic.
“She told our parents it was tough love. That the therapists they kept sending me to were right. If they kept enabling me, I wouldn’t get better. The drinking and gambling wouldn’t go away. So they left me to the people I owed. They beat me, Penelope,” he snarled. “I was in the hospital for a damn month.” I winced at that but nodded along. “Candice came to see me then, asked if I was willing to get help. I told her to fuck off.” Growls sounded in my head, and I ignored them, focusing on the man pacing in front of me as if he’d lost all ability to control himself. “She told me our parents had passed away. Car accident, she said.” He shrugged as if it meant nothing to him. “I think she thought I was behind it.”
“Were you?” I asked. I didn’t have Zev’s power active to tell, but it didn’t seem like he even cared enough for it to matter.
“I wasn’t, I didn’t ask if they were,” he admitted, and I swallowed hard against the nausea rolling in my stomach. “I cried, though, in front of her. She couldn’t tell it was because I was in pain, she just saw her baby brother crying over his parents.”
The fuck is wrong with this guy? Zev growled in horror.
Watch him, Ian cautioned. I don’t like this.
Me either, I agreed, shifting slightly to balance better on my feet, the grass sliding beneath my sneakers.
“I thought I’d finally be able to get ahead. Our parents were wealthy, did you know that? A nice house, retirement accounts, savings accounts, plenty of spending money, useless fucking knickknacks cluttering up their stupid hallways and cabinets.” He grimaced at some memory. “Always shelling out for something or other. Not your mother though. She never knew what to do with money, always squirreling it away for later.” He snorted in disgust, shrugging out of his suit jacket and hurling it against the windshield of his car. “Satisfied to leave me in outdated clothing or old furniture. Never wanting to give up what was mine.” He was panting now as he glared. “It was my money. My share. But she’d had it put in her name. I could use it for rehab, she told me. She’d pay off the debts I had left, but that was it. She’d pay for me to go to rehab, get an education, start a real job. A fresh start.” He hissed the words at me. “That’s how she put it. A fresh start. She sat there with a baby in her belly, no husband in her life, and told me about a fresh start.”