Page 30 of Almost Paradise

“My son is not a mess.”

“Of course, he’s not. Langley doesn’t mean that.” Hannah gestures at our brother to shut his mouth.

“Your life was a mess way before the kid came into it. The kid might just save you from a marriage you clearly aren’t interested in, but you’re too stubborn to admit it. Maybe this is why—" I shove at his chest. Again, he doesn’t fight back. He stumbles a few steps before leaning against the wall for support.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I tell him. I look at Hannah to see her reaction, but she’s looking away and not invalidating Langley’s bullshit like I want her to.

“And you think Mom’s in denial,” he says through more laughter. “I guess it’s obvious where you get it from.” I take another step toward him, but Hannah intercepts and puts a hand on my chest.

“Stop,” she says. “Langley, shut up.”

Langley straightens up and walks away. “I’m going to check on our mother,” he yells behind him.

I stare down at my sister, and she looks back at me.

“What the hell happened to this family?” I ask her. She sits at the table and covers her face with both hands.

Her shoulders sag, but then she takes a deep breath and straightens up. “Tell me about my nephew.” I pull out my phone and show her picture after picture of him. There are several of the two of us. There’s even one with his mom because he insisted she take a picture with us. I could tell that was the last thing she wanted to do, but she did.

Her smile looks so fake. I know what one of her real smiles looks like. I remember the sound of her laugh. It was rich and throaty. Sometimes she’d laugh so hard, she’d have to hold her stomach and tears would fall down her cheeks.

All of that is gone now. Erased by years of resentment toward me, even though I don’t deserve it.

“Now, tell me about his mom,” she says. “I had no idea.” She bumps her shoulder with mine.

“I’m not ready to talk about that now. There are a few things I need to figure out first, but she’s someone I cared for deeply.”

“How long were you two together?”

“About a year,” I tell her.

“And you never brought her around? Why didn’t you tell us about her? Is it because she’s black? I hope that’s not it.”

“Of course not. We were having fun, and being with her was an escape from being Drake Paradise. She worked for us in HR, and the one thing that Dad always said was off limits was dating an employee. He said the power dynamics were too vast and we would just be looking for a lawsuit when things didn’t work out. Truth is, I loved having her to myself. We were in our own little bubble. If I outed us, there would be so much crap to deal with.”

It all sounds so stupid now. We settle six-figure or higher lawsuits all the time. He met Mom at work. Employees are allowed to date each other. Dad always said consenting adults should be with whoever the hell they please, and that it’s nobody’s damn business.

“Like Dad?” Hannah says. She remains quiet while she flips through more pictures on my phone. Yeah, like our dad, who always made us his business, especially as we got older and started to date.

“I didn’t want him to scare her away with his intensity.”

“Or give one of his speeches on the responsibilities of being associated with a Paradise?”

Hannah flips back to a picture of me, Carter, and Nia. Nia’s looking at the camera, pretending to be happy. Carter has his mouth open because I caught him in a laugh.

“Hmm,” Hannah says.

“What?”

She flips to another picture. This one is just me and Nia. Carter wanted to take the picture. It’s blurry, but I’m clearly looking at Nia while she forces a fake smile.

“Things make so much sense now, Drakey,” Hannah says.

“What do you mean?” I take the phone and slide it into my pocket.

“Don’t get mad at me, okay?” I sit up straight, bracing myself for any criticism of my son or Nia. She looks into my eyes and bites her bottom lip. She always does that when she’s searching for her words. “This thing with you and Scarlett? It just came out of nowhere. I mean, we’ve known her all our lives, and you’ve never shown her any interest until you announced you were a couple. Then you give her a ring and a year later you still won’t set a wedding date, even though I know she wanted to get married right away. And last week Scarlett comes waltzing in here to tell us you finally agreed to set a date. It didn’t make sense then, but it makes sense now.”

Since I’m not sure where she’s going with this, I say, “And?”

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