Page 91 of Freckles

Ezra snorts, then looks vaguely shocked. “You’re kidding, right? You think the reason I don’t get sent on all the jobs you do is because he cares about rugby?”

I press my lips together, trying to work out his angle. “No. I thought it was because he cared about you.”

“Sure,” he scoffs. “With the golden child around, showing me up at every opportunity.”

I squint at him quizzically. The phrase doesn’t make sense.

If anything,he’sthe golden child. The sole heir to an immense fortune while I’ll only ever qualify for scraps.

I open my mouth to rebut him, then glance around. This isn’t the place for a family heart-to-heart. I grab his arm and walk him upstairs, finding a quiet room. “What’re you talking about? You’re the one who’s set to inherit everything. After what Mum did, I’m a footnote at best.”

“What your mum did?” Now he’s the one looking puzzled. “You mean, let her brother pay her millions to move overseas.”

An icy chill runs down my spine. “She stole.”

“The fuck she did.” He bursts into laughter, genuinely entertained. “If she touched a cent without authorisation, he would’ve dumped her in the slurry and who cares if they share DNA and grew up together. After finding out she left you alone with Pops, he nearly killed her there and then.”

I can’t speak.

Every memory in my head is suddenly in disarray, trying to juggle this new piece of information. “No, he would’ve—”

“He took you out on jobs with him, and you were… what? Eleven? Twelve? You think he ever let me near a meeting between the area crime bosses? Even now, I’m not allowed to go on collection jobs on my own.”

“That’s because you don’t try.”

“It’s because even when we performed the same, you’d get feedback and a detailed breakdown of how you did, what you could try in future, praise for every detail you got right. I’d get a nod if I were lucky. I don’t try because there’s nothing to try for. This business was only ever going to you.”

The ground no longer seems stable beneath my feet. All the days I’ve spent wondering what I did wrong to drive away the person meant to love me most, and I had the entire incident backwards. “He paid off my mother?”

“Don’t pull that face. He killed mine.”

Another shock. I’ve always been told she died giving birth. “I never knew that.”

Ezra studies me more carefully. “A talk with my dad might be well overdue.”

“You reckon?”

He laughs and after a few moments, I join him, the release better than screaming, which is the other likely option.

Once I fall silent again, a few pieces begin to fall into place. I remember Tyson saying how I fuck girls but don’t date them, while Ezra was the opposite. It went over my head at the time, but now… “Does he favour me because of your sexuality?”

Ezra’s eyes grow so wide and panicked; I have a tug of pity. “What makes you say that?” he asks in a strangled voice. Then with urgency, “Have you been asking Aidan these questions? Is that why he’s been acting weird, lately.”

“Weird as in not spending all his time with you?” I arch my eyebrow, and he nods.

For all that we’re competitive slash antagonistic, Ezra is family, and I strongly suspect Aidan is a narcissist. Love bombing people with support and friendship until he gets what he wants from the relationship.

That’s the reason he let go of Francesca so easily. Not caring about my threat to cut her as much as my threat to have him cut from the team. All credit to him, he hides the defects in his personality well.

If I hadn’t been close enough to see the small signs of falsity in his reactions, I would never have guessed.

If Aidan has what he needs from Ezra, ahead lies nothing but gaslighting and pain.

“You’re fucking him, yeah? Aidan?”

The wide-eyed shock is understandable. Organisations like ours aren’t known for their progressive ideas, even if his birthright will shelter him from the worst.

I find the video file I recorded on Wednesday, cueing it ready to forward to Ezra’s phone, not yet pressing send. “I don’t personally give a shit, but if you are, he’s using you.”

---