Page 92 of Owen

“I feel?—”

“Numb,” I finish for him.

“Like my entire world just turned upside down.”

“I know how that feels. Hour by hour and day by day, it will slowly sink in,” I say.

“I feel nothing forthemat all,” he confesses. “Is that wrong?” His question is barely a whisper. “They never cared about me,” he states, then adds, “I don’t understand why they would be out that late at night.”

I run my fingers through the hair on the back of his head. “Maybe your dad was trying to work out with Richard how he was going to pay him back.”

“Possibly.”

“We may never know why,” I tell him honestly. I pull out of our embrace and gaze into his saddened eyes. “Perhaps what you said to him in Cyprus made an impression.” I wait a moment. “I’m sorry for your loss.” Those words don’t feel enough.

“They’re gone.” His tone is almost disbelieving.

“You are not alone. You have me, Poppy, my mom, your friends, Gregor, and Camilla sounds okay.”

He shakes his head. “We’ve never been close, and that’s the first time I’ve spoken to her in months. Lincoln and Jacob used to call her a princess when she was younger.” He snorts softly at the memory. “She was always so defensive around them.” He moves his hand up and pinches the bridge of his nose. “But sometimes, when I was just a kid, and I’d had a bad dream, she would let me sleep in her bed.”

I give him a gentle smile. “People change, and you have the rest of your life to make amends with her. All is not lost.”

“She’s a good person. I know she is, and she’s as heavily embroiled in a marriage she didn’t want as I would have been. Maybe I should have stopped it, but I was just a kid.”

“What could you have done?”

He scowls. “Helped her run away, spoken to my grandfather or Gregor’s parents. Maybe. I don’t know.” Worriedly, he shakes his head with a stuttered breath.

I smile. “Owen Brodie, the solution finder. You need to focus on one thing at a time. Just one. That’s all. And speak to Camilla when the time is right. First, though, we have to go to your sister, Owen. She will be waiting for you to arrive.”

A faint smile twitches around the edges of his mouth. “What would I do without you?”

“You’d be living with Gregor, having to listen to him and his latest hook up moaning through the bedroom walls.” My efforts to bring light into his darkest moment works when he snorts a laugh. He kisses my bare shoulder and looks up at me through a fan of blond lashes.

“I’ll be there for you.” I reinforce my support. “I will stand byyour side and help you through this. We will do this together. As a united duo.”

“A trio,” he says confidently, adding Poppy into the mix.

I repeat, “A trio.”

“My family,” he says.

That’s exactly what we are, and I won’t let anyone break us.

Ever.

27

OWEN

I’ve shaken at least one hundred sets of hands.

Hugged people I’ve never met before.

All with a somber look on my face.

The one you’re expected to have: drawn face, down-turned mouth. Sad.

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