Page 66 of The Lies I've Told
“How long have you been working on it?”
“A few months.”
My eyes nearly bugged out of my head. “A few months? No offense, but I don’t think it’s working.”
He shrugged. “I’ll get there eventually. Patience, remember? Let me teach you, Aiden.”
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my most precious possession. The stone bird my brother had carved.
It had taken him months, and I’d watched him with skeptical eyes, convinced he was half-crazy. But then, slowly, I’d become enamored by the process.
And so, I’d finally taken him up on his offer and learned.
It hadn’t been easy.
We hadn’t exactly been blessed with the correct tools or equipment, but Ben had been resourceful. He’d created tools out of household items our foster parents had thrown out and used rocks from the garden.
It had been his talent, but it’d soon become my passion.
Placing the tiny stone bird on the ledge in front of us, I held out my glass and saluted it in a silent nod to my brother, the dreamer.
“We need to talk about your diagnosis,” James finally said, cutting through the silence like a knife.
“No,” I answered, a note of finality in my tone.
He ignored it and pressed on, “Aiden, I told you, this doesn’t have to be the end. There are dozens of things we can try. Please don’t shut me out. I’m not the bad guy here.”
I let out a dark laugh.
“Did you ever think that maybe I went into this field, so I could one day help you? My own brother? That maybe this isn’t a cruel twist of fate but actually a good thing?”
“There is nothing about this that is good,” I growled.
He leaned forward in his chair, his eyes level with mine. “How would you even know? You checked out the moment I broke the news to you.”
“Because you ruined my life!” I roared. “And what’s worse is, less than twenty-four hours later, fate handed me the perfect woman! And I can’t have her because what kind of life can I offer her now that I…” I couldn’t even finish the sentence.
“A few days ago, it was just my career I was losing, which, at that moment, was my whole life, but then I met Millie, and suddenly, this whole other world of possibilities was shown to me. I could get married, have children.”
“You could still have all that,” he said.
Ignoring him, I went on, “It was like a knife to the gut. I wasn’t only losing my livelihood as an artist. I was losing an entire future.”
“Have you even told her?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
“No.”
“Why? Don’t you think she deserves to know? To have the choice?”
I let out a deep sigh as I leaned back in my seat, the empty shot glass still in my hand. “She’ll stay,” I said. “She’s good and sweet and kind. She’ll stay, James, and then what? Maybe it will be great for a while. Really great. But, eventually, I’ll just become that mistake she made, and I can’t be the reason she ruined her life. She’s ambitious, James. She has dreams—some she hasn’t even realized herself. I can’t stand in the way of that.”
“Then, why do this at all? Why bring her here? Why prolong the agony?”
Running my hand through my hair, I avoided his gaze and finally settled on the little stone bird. “Because I’m the selfish one, remember?”
I heard him sigh. “No, I don’t remember that at all.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “Ben taught you to carve because he loved you.”
“And look who’s famous for it,” I snidely replied.
