Page 7 of Stolen Fate

“What the fuck is this?” I asked loudly. Both men stopped talking and turned to me.

Ethan lost his angry expression and opened his mouth just as I interrupted him.

“When did Dad add your name to the title of the house?” I asked, trying to keep calm when all I really wanted to do was cry.

Ethan’s shoulders sagged. “Five years ago,” he said quietly.

“Yeah? And why did he do it?”

My brother looked down in shame. At least he knew what he did was wrong, but I was too fucking pissed off to let it go.

I couldn’t believe my dad would be so careless to transfer the deed of the house to Ethan, when we all knew what a fuck-up he was. The papers shook in my hand, and my vision blurred slightly from the anger.

“We needed to take out another mortgage to cover the expenses of Mom’s funeral. Things were bad, Evelyn, you just didn’t notice because you were too busy grieving. Dad was too busy grieving. I got him to add me to the deed so we could take out the loan in my name. I needed to take care of everything because you all just checked out on me!”

My eyes flashed and I took a step toward him. “Of course I did. Of course I was fucking grieving. Mom had just died.”

He looked back at me, and I could see life coming back into his eyes. What a brave action, coming from a man who had just screwed us up so thoroughly. “Yeah, well, I wanted to grieve, too, but I couldn’t. I had to take care of us, and Emilia was too young to understand. Do you have any idea how hard it is to shoulder on a broken family?”

I looked him dead in the eyes and, without blinking, replied, “Yes. I do know.”

At least he had the decency to look away from me then. He knew all that I had taken on these past years, after I finally came out of my grief-stricken state and he decided to not care anymore.

Not care about the family, not care about our situation, and not care about his future either.

We were doing a hell a lot better than we were back then, but it was all my doing. He may have had to take care of Mom’s funeral and the financial burden we found ourselves in at the beginning, but I was the one who took our dad to the hospital when he had fallen off a three-story building at the construction site he was working on. I was the one who heard the doctors tell our dad he might not be able to walk again and watched his painful recovery, despite all the odds.

He was able to support himself with a cane, but Ethan wasn’t there while we were celebrating that achievement, just as he wasn’t there to witness our father’s heartbreak over losing both the love of his life and the loss of his full mobility in such a short time.

Ethan had distanced himself so far from his own family that I scarcely recognized him anymore.

“What did you think was going to happen if the bank came for us and kicked us out of the house?” I asked, getting more and more angry with each word I spoke.

“I’m taking care of it,” he mumbled, and I could do nothing more than laugh at that. Laugh at either his naivety or his stupidity—I didn’t know which, because nothing about the situation was even funny.

“You’re so fucking stupid, and so fucking irresponsible. You had to take out a loan on the house to cover Mom’s funeral and her medical bills, right?”

I assumed that was the case because I didn’t even remember having to worry about it at the time. The issue was just resolved, and I thought it was because of my dad. I never bothered to ask.

I waited for his nod before I continued. “That was over five years ago. I assumed we were able to pay it off by now.”

His eyes flashed with something I couldn’t name, but then he nodded. “When did you take out a second loan on the house?” I asked quietly.

His big shoulders sagged, and he looked off to the side, unable to meet my eyes. “Seven months ago.”

I didn’t bother asking what he used that money for. It sure as hell wasn’t for a much-needed renovation, considering the porch swing still needed repair, after one particularly bad storm, the outside needed to be repainted more than a decade ago, and most of the appliances were overdue for an update.

“How long before they kick us out?” I asked.

“A month.”

I nodded and walked away. I didn’t need to hear any more, and I ignored him when he shouted my name. I was going to go back to my car to see if there was anything I could do to resolve this.

Someone tapped me on my shoulder, stopping me. I turned, a scowl already on my face, thinking it was Ethan. But it was Katie instead, her dark brown eyes taking me in and filled with sympathy.

“Yes?”

“Come on. I don’t think you should be driving anywhere with the way you’re feeling. I had Liam and Henry take Ethan out, so we have the apartment to ourselves.

I opened my mouth to argue, to tell her I didn’t feel like having company then, especially since all I wanted to do was put my head in the sand and pretend all was well, but she didn’t give me a choice. She grabbed my hand and turned me around, and I was just too goddamn tired to argue with her.

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