Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 89074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
“Why do you want to talk about him, anyway?” Hunter protests, eating another strawberry. “Swear you guys used to call each other to figure out what to eat for breakfast each morning. Maybe it’s good that you’re a little more distant now—”
“We aren’t distant. What did you do to him?”
He narrows his eyes at me. “Why do you assume it was me who did something to him?”
“Because I know Weston doesn’t hurt the people around him. And I know you do.”
He looks me up and down. “It wasn’t either of us. It was our father. Is that enough truth for you, Colson? Or are you going to interrogate me more?”
I’m silent for a moment.
My heart’s already pounding, like I’m in a physical fight with him even though we’re just talking.
Their father hurt them?
Barrett Knox always seemed like a stern but kind person, welcoming me into his home as a kid, offering me food that was cooked by their live-in nanny.
I never knew my own father, and having glimpses into what it was like to have a dad around always felt…
Like a fairytale.
Too good to be true.
“Your father did something to you guys?”
“He didn’t touch us, Rayne. If you’re looking for a sob story, it’s not that type of horrifying.”
I kick off my shoes and hop in my bed, sitting so that my back is up against the wall and I’m facing Hunter’s bed.
He does the same, looking over at me, and finally he pulls in a long breath.
“You don’t have to talk about it,” I tell him.
“Too late. You wanted the truth, didn’t you? I’ll tell you everything, even if Weston won’t.”
14
Hunter
“People always expect brothers to be treated the same,” I tell Rayne as he sits back on his bed. “Especially when you’re only a year apart. But the truth is that our father always had a favorite. And that favorite was me.”
Rayne furrows his brow. “But…”
“I know. It sounds weird, because Wes is the obvious favorite now. But when we were young, really young, my father hadn’t started hating me yet. Weston was a surprise baby, coming so quick after I was born. And he was a difficult baby, apparently, and even worse as a toddler. Wailing every night, never happy, never calm. But I was an angel.”
“So your dad liked you better as a baby, and that’s why you were a dick to Weston for the rest of your life? I’m not buying it.”
“When I was six and he was five, Weston accidentally knocked another kid off a platform at the playground. The kid broke an arm, and Weston went home and told our father that I did it.”
Rayne narrows his eyes, like he can’t decide if he believes me or not.
“Weston doesn’t tend to lie,” he says.
“Not usually. But he did that day.”
“Why?”
“Because if Dad knew Weston did that, he’d have hit him with a leather belt, many times.”
Rayne’s face suddenly morphs from anger to shock. “Your father hit you when you were children?”
I bite the inside of my cheek. “He hit Weston. Never me.”
Rayne already looks like he wants to cry.
Big-hearted Rayne.
You have no idea, do you?
“Fuck. Wes never said anything about that,” he says softly.
“And I shouldn’t be telling you, either, because Weston’s story isn’t mine to tell. Do you see why I don’t go around blabbing about why we’ve never gotten along? Because it’s not just about us.”
“How bad was the abuse? From your father?”
“It happened anytime Weston pissed him off, pretty much. It all stopped when Dad married Heidi. He wouldn’t dream of hitting one of us in front of his beautiful new German wife.”
Rayne knew our stepmom just about as well as we did.
Our mother ditched us when we were barely toddlers, and my stepmom had come in relatively soon after that. She’d married my dad right around the time that Weston and Rayne started their friendship, at the start of middle school.
Everything changed after that.
“I can’t believe Weston went through all of that and never told me. I feel awful.”
I nod. “As a kid, I was rageful at him every time he lied to our dad. Every time he fucked something up, he tried to pin it on me.”
“But he was only trying to protect himself from your father.”
“Yes. But after Lune died… I thought things would change. I thought Weston would accept the fact that I was all he had left in the family. But instead, he was colder than ever.”
Rayne really does look like he’s about to cry, now, but he doesn’t let himself.
“I was so fucked up after Lune’s death that it only made me hate Wes more. She was my best friend in the goddamn world, and all I had left was Weston, but he still wouldn’t speak to me at home.”
“He thought you hated him, Hunter.”
“That’s what he wanted you to believe. I don’t even know if it was ever true.”