Page 93 of Love Me Not

I was taken aback both by his honesty and by what he had decided on as a career.

“Okay,” I said after a moment, my voice trailing off.“You don'thaveto go to college.I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to.If this is what you want and you're serious about it… I’m more than willing to pay for everything.”

For the first time in a while, his face lit up with a smile, and suddenly everything else faded into the background.

This is what I really wanted when I offered to pay for his college tuition.For him to be happy.

It was never really about college at all.Yes, I thought it would give him an advantage in life and make it so he could get a high-paying job and never worry about money.

But at the end of the day, all I wanted was to see him happy.

I squeezed his hand.

“I don't want to fight with you.”My tone was soft.“You're my brother, and I love you.”

“I love you too,” he said, holding my smile, but then just as quickly as it came, it disappeared.“So you're positive it wasn't you?The money, I mean.It was in your name.”

“No,” I said, and took a sip from my matcha.

But what I didn't tell him was that I knew exactly who it had come from, and I was not going to let it slide.

Chapter24

Lux

Ilooked at Bella as she took heavy gulps of her sugary drink.

The drink was on the table in front of her, and her hands were filled with bags.She refused to let them go even as we sat down.I had a few by my feet as well.

All of them contained clothes, accessories, jewelry, and honestly anything that caught her eye.I wasn’t going to tell her no today.

Or any day, if I was being honest.

It was the first time I'd actually seen her enjoy shopping.When she came under my care, I’d brought her here because I didn’t have anything in my house that was suitable for her.But she didn't seem very interested, which left me having to pick a lot of the things myself, and I had no idea what to buy for a little girl her age.

But now she happily looked through all the clothing and trinkets, carefully picking out everything she wanted.She would even stop and tell me which she saw people wearing at school.How they wore it.Who wore it better.

She was a completely different girl, and I kicked myself for not doing this sooner with her.Though I'm not sure if any time before this would've been right.

Back then, her mother and father had just died, and I wasn't any better to be around since I was deep in my grief as well.Neither of us knew how to be around each other.

While I had spent time with her now and then every time I visited my sister or we met up somewhere, those had been short amounts of time.Nothing like being forced together for hours or living together.

Nothing like becoming her new person.

But now, and because of Juliette, I could see us slowly healing.She was opening up.Enjoying school and life more.She smiled more than she frowned now.She didn't have any of those explosive tantrums anymore.

The pain would never go away, I knew that.Losing my sister was a trauma that would be forever scarred onto our psyche.

But we could take our lives back.We could be happy.All three of us.

And that brought me back to the conversation I needed to have.All the worry came back with a vengeance.

I was obsessed with Juliette.I loved her, and there was no denying it now.And it wasn't fair to her to hide our relationship or what I felt for her.She deserved someone who would love her out in the open and freely, not to be hidden away like some dirty little secret.

I wanted to do the right thing for both my girls.I wanted to give them the life they deserved in every way.And that meant not hiding Juliette but not keeping secrets from Bella either.

But I didn’t want Bella to feel like she was being left behind in any way.She never would be.So I had to get this right.

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