Page 35 of Fade (Fighting Fate)

“Seth,” I said, a hint of warning in my voice as I stepped forward to offer my hand.

Seth inhaled deeply before huffing out a breath and taking my hand to shake. “No offense, Daniel, but I really need to talk to my sister privately.”

Amy’s hand tightened in mine. “It’s okay, Seth. Whatever you want to say, you can say in front of Daniel. He knows everything.”

Seth raised his eyebrow, but his shoulders seemed to relax a bit.

“Just tell me what’s going on, Amy. I come home for a quick visit to find you’ve moved out and Mom and Dad talking like you don’t exist. And what the hell happened to Ryan?” he said, throwing his hands up in the air.

Amy tensed a little, but she seemed calm enough. “Look, long story, short, Ryan didn’t treat me very well—we’ve more or less dealt with that now, but he hurt me a lot. Mom and Dad didn’t see it that way. They only cared about their reputation and demanded I do whatever it took to get him back. I met Daniel and fell in love, but, apparently, a marine isn’t good enough for Mom and Dad, so they told me to choose. Him or them. I made my choice, and I don’t regret it for a second.”

I stood, frozen. My mind was still stuck back in the middle of her speech. ‘ . . . and fell in love . . . ’. Those words were doing something strange to me. I couldn’t pinpoint it exactly, but I thought it might’ve been an overload of happiness.

Seth looked between the two of us before holding his gaze on Amy. He looked suddenly unimpressed. The expression made my senses quickly sharpen. I knew he was her brother and that so far, she had only spoken good things about him, but if he was going to say anything to make her upset, he would regret it.

“Are you serious?” he said, anger seeping into his tone. “What did Ryan do?”

Amy glanced my way before she softly shook her head. “It doesn’t matter . . . ”

I growled. I didn’t want her to sugarcoat it because Ryan was my brother. “He broke up with her because she wouldn’t sleep with him,” I said, leveling my gaze right on Seth’s.

I watched him process it before he turned his gaze on Amy. “There are two scenarios running through my head right now, and neither of them are sitting well with me. Either Mom and Dad knew what he’d done and they still demanded you go make amends with him, or they didn’t bother to even ask why you were so upset and just demanded you go make amends with him. I’m hoping you’re going to tell me there’s a third scenario I’m missing.”

Amy’s shoulders slumped a little. “No. And it was the second.”

Seth nodded, but his jaw was clenched so hard I thought I could hear teeth cracking under the pressure. “Right,” he said. “Are David and Kathryn okay with you staying here? I’ve got some money put aside. I can probably get you a place to stay until college starts again, and then—”

He paused when he saw Amy suddenly glance away. I looked away too, unable to hide my disappointment on Amy’s behalf. I mean, I knew she didn’t want to continue on the path to study law like her parents wanted, but she deserved to continue to go and find out what made her happy.

“Fuck.”

We both looked back at Seth’s suddenly pissed off face.

“They’re cutting off your college fund?” At Amy’s sad expression, Seth spun and ran his hands through his hair. “Motherfuckers!”

Letting go of my hand, Amy stepped forward and touched Seth’s arm. “It’s okay, Seth. You know I didn’t really want to be a lawyer anyway. They’ve put a stop to almost everything I ever liked, so I honestly don’t know what I want to do anymore.”

“Jesus, Amy. That’s ninety percent of all college freshmen. That’s the point. You go. You check shit out. You decide on a major. That should be you! You should be excited as all fuck to be getting out of that fucking house and living your own life. I mean, I know people do it on their own all the time, but they’ve usually known it will be that way for a while and can plan it. Those people we call parents have just taken that away from you just because they couldn’t control you!”

“Seth, I’ve had time to think about this. I’ve had every minute of my life planned for me since before I can even remember. I’m still going to finish college. I’ll just do it later. I’m going to take some time to figure out who I am and what I actually like. I’ll get a job and save for it. It’ll be fine. I’ll be fine.”

He stared at her for a long time, just taking her in, before he pulled her into a hard embrace. “I’m sorry, kiddo. They just make me so fucking mad I can’t think straight sometimes. Of course you’ll be all right. And I’ll be working by then, so I’ll be able to help you out with it.”

Amy shook her head, but she didn’t say anything. She just gave him a warm smile.

After a while, Seth draped his arm over Amy’s shoulder and turned his full attention on me. “So, what’s up with your brother, man? I have to say, I’m not very fucking happy.”

I grunted. “I can’t say I’m happy either. He acted like a self-righteous asshole.”

He studied me for a while longer before narrowing his eyes slightly. “You’re a marine?”

I lifted my chin with a hint of defiance. “Yep.”

The corners of his lips twitched. “Good. You make sure that sense of loyalty and honor extends to my baby sister and we’ll be good. Got it?”

I glanced at Amy and felt my expression warm. I didn’t think it’d ever be possible, but I was pretty sure when it came to my loyalty, she now came before the marine corp. It was a sobering thought, but one I felt completely okay with. “I can guarantee it.”

Chapter 15

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