Page 222 of For the Fans
“No shit,” I grunt. “Butwhydoes he feel like that?? It makes no fucking sense.”
She pours more booze into her cup, whipping it back. “Because our asshole father made him feel like it was.”
What…?
My gaze at her narrows. “Why?Whywould Tom do that to a twelve-year-old kid?”
Bridget goes quiet for a moment, the suspense and angst building a thickness in the air. “It’s not my place to tell you about it… You should hear it from Kyran.”
Raking my fingers through my hair, I yank it. “You and I both know he won’t. And Ineedto know. Bridget, I’m really starting to freak out here. You’re making me think it’s like… something bad.”
When her gaze slides back up to mine, there are tears glistening her eyes. “Itisbad, Avi. It was the worst thing that’s ever happened to anyone I know… And it happened to mybaby brother.”
Oh God… This is too much. Jesus, I’m freaking the fuck out.
My gut is churning so hard I feel nauseous. I know it’s not right for me to demand answers… Iknowthat. I should wait for Kyran to confide in me when he’s ready.
But I also know that if he’s suffering, stuffing down something awful from his past and pretending it doesn’t exist, that’s really not healthy. I want to be able to help him. Tolove him, no matter what.
“Just promise you won’t leave him…” Bridget whispers.
“I won’t fucking leave him unless he wants me to…” I shiver out the words. “Because I’ll doanythingfor him, even if it kills me,” I tell her with my fullest sincerity.
After all, it’s true. Kyran Harbor is the love of my life. That’s it.
I’ve fallen. Hook, line, and sinker, he has my whole heart.
Bridget slinks off her chair, padding across the room to her purse. She plucks her phone out of it, tapping away while I’m just staring at her, my heart beating its way up my esophagus.
She glares at something on the screen before sighing and sliding her phone over to me.
Picking it up, my eyes travel, reading the words. At first, I have no idea what I’m looking at… A legal document, or a settlement of some kind?
But the more I read, my heart proceeds to snap in half in my chest.
And with each word that follows, it cracks and slits and crumbles, my fingers shaking with rage and despair as I scroll down to the end.
There’s a picture.
“Is…” My voice will barely creep from my throat, I’m so shocked and appalled. So disgusted and angry andhorrified. “Is this real? This is… him?”
Bridget sniffles, and I know she’s crying. But I can’t pry my eyes away from the phone in front of me. Every single fiber of my being is thrumming with wrath, woven around strands of aching empathy for my stepbrother.
The man I love. Myfamily.
No matter what he is to me, even if he was a stranger, this would make me sick to my stomach. I feel myself retch as I shove the phone away, covering my face with my hands.
“Oh my God…” I’m quaking.
Sick and sad and more enraged than I’ve ever felt before.
“That’s Father McAdams,” Bridget whimpers, then snarls with the same fury I’m feeling in my veins. “The fucking monster who raped my brother when he was twelve.”
No… No, no, no, this isn’t true.
It can’t be.
Kyran…A soft sound escapes me as I rip my hair out of my head.
