Page 65 of The Stepbrother 2: Noah

Somebody gasped behind me. I looked back to find the nurse, her eyes wide. I caught her gaze, ensuring my message was clear. “Yes, I’m threatening their lives. Make sure you remind them, just in case they didn’t hear what I said.”

As I turned to leave, I realized my threat would probably end up public. I didn't care. They needed to understand the seriousness of the situation.

Tears slipped down my cheeks, surprising me when I felt the dampness on my chin. I let out a shaky breath, trying to steady my hands as I wiped my face with the back of my sleeve. The ache in my chest was heavy. I gripped the steering wheel, leaning forward, taking deep, slow breaths. For a long moment, I just sat there, staring at nothing, watching my reflection in the rearview mirror as I tried to pull myself together. Something was goingto have to give because I refused to give up. I composed myself, then started the engine.

The drive to the airport was a blur, my mind racing with thoughts of Scarlett, Jason, Creed, and Noah. When I arrived, I parked and made my way to the arrivals gate, my eyes scanning the crowd for my wife and son.

Finally, I saw them. Scarlett, looking exhausted but relieved to see me, and Jason, who didn’t look at me at all.

I was going to murder Vincent with my own two hands. Scarlett believed that Jason was too strong to be groomed, but he had been, and there was no way around it.

We walked to the car in silence. The ride to the address was done in silence. Jason and Scarlett were asleep when Noah and Creed came in.

I was sitting on the sofa, watchingNaked and Afraid, wondering why they even had a second house when they walked in.

As soon as the door opened, I started speaking before they were even inside. "Why were you two in Alas—" my words trailed off mid-sentence as a dead man walked in behind Noah. "Wolfgang Engel!!?"

Creed-

My momma told me what happened with Vincent. Said he was in the hospital after he'd been beaten until he begged Uncle Clay to let him go.

His daughter had the nerve to be talking about suing us. I told her I'd pursue charges against her father for what he did to Jason. She shut up.

I thought Jason would be happy. He wasn’t.

Jason only cried. He cried and slept, and something in me knew that if he didn't find a way to cope, to process his grief, he might never recover.

What he had with Vince was proof. He was strong. He fought. He was my big brother who'd never let anyone harm me or Maine or himself. This wasn’t him.

The weight of his sadness made me want to cry.

I purposely waited until everybody was occupied with Wolfgang to go knock on the door of the room Jason had been staying in for the past three days. I knocked once, then twice. When he didn't answer, I let myself in. He was lying in the fetal position on the bed, just like we'd left him. I eased onto the bed with him. At least he wasn't crying, I thought as he turned over and buried his head in my chest.

"Jason," I said softly, "let's go for a walk. Just around the block. Some fresh air might do us good, and I need to get some exercise for this baby."

I felt him nod. I knew using the baby would get him out of bed. I waited for him to put on shoes and ignored the fact that hewas in his pajamas. I was wearing an oversized T-shirt and gym shorts. We would look raggedy together.

We walked in silence, the cool night air calming my nerves. So much was going on. Wolfgang was back, and we'd talked to tons of lawyers to make sure he wouldn't face any legal repercussions. Pseudocide wasn’t exactly illegal, but people usually committed illegal acts when planning it. It seemed Wolfgang was in the clear, but we wanted to make sure. He and Noah were so weird. Neither knew exactly how to deal with being in each other's presence, so there were tons of awkward platitudes.

A block away was a park. We walked to it, and I took a seat on the bench to rest my swollen feet and stared up at the moon. I felt Jason take a spot next to me. I turned and looked at the side of his face before asking, "Is this grief or guilt?"

"Both," he responded, barely above a whisper. "I was closest to Maine. I saw signs that she wasn't alright, and all I did was chastise her and leave her by herself."

I reached out and wrapped my arm around him. "It's not your fault," I whispered. "We all missed the signs. We were all caught up in our own lives."

He leaned into me, his breath shaky. "But I should've been there for her. We were special together. You remember I used to be so afraid when we'd go anywhere, Maine, not even a year older, wore that dirty cape daddy gave her everywhere for like two years and called herself my hero and would keep everybody ten feet away from me." He chuckled, and I did too.

"I'm going to say this and leave it alone, Jason. Holding onto guilt won't bring Maine back. It'll only eat away at you. I want to curl up in bed right along with you and cry, but I can't." I rubbed my belly. "Your niece won't let me, and I need you to get yourselftogether so Daddy won’t wallow. Quiet as kept, he's the weakest amongst us all. He loves so fiercely," I finished, my voice steady despite the emotion welling up inside me. "And right now, he needs us to be strong for him, or he's going to die of a broken heart." I felt myself succumbing to grief just at the thought of a life without my daddy. Life with a bitter Scarlett. Troy leaving her, in life or in death, would be met with hostility.

Jason and I sat in silence for a long time.

"Hey, I wondered where you all went," Noah took a spot next to me on the bench. He was dressed in a suit, having dealt with lawyers all day with his father. He looked good. Taking my chin in his hand, he made me face him, then used his handkerchief to clear away tears on my face that I hadn't even realized were falling. He gave me a soft smile, then he turned his attention to Jason. Jason still had his head down, looking like he was lost in his thoughts.

"I want my turn on the swings," Noah gently knocked into me so I'd bump into Jason.

"Huh?" Jason finally looked up from the ground.

"The swings. I want you to push me, and I want to soar." He chuckled. "You used being smaller and younger than me as an excuse for me to push you on them for what felt like forever. You're as big as me now." He clapped his hands. "Let's go." Before Jason could protest or say no, Noah stood and grabbed him by the shoulders, hefting him up, then shoved him in the direction of the swings.

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