Chapter 5
FIVE
Ruin
“I get you’re the Prez, Wolf. And you’ll have to make difficult decisions all the time,” my dad grits out, jerking a finger toward the infirmary. “But that’s your fucking sister.”
Wolf doesn’t move, doesn’t flinch. He stares at the desk like it holds the answers he doesn’t have. His eyes are hollowed out with so much goddamn guilt, it’s leaking out of his skin.
“I thought…” His voice cracks. He clears his throat. “Torch, I was—I was wrong. I should’ve…”
I glance at my dad, the club’s former VP. Pacing in the office he once ran with Savage, our last Prez. Wolf and Charlie’s father.
No one speaks for a while and the silence is brutal.
“We should’ve dug deeper,” I say quietly. “We saw the patterns. Cash disappearing and reappearing in Glory’s and Charlie’s accounts. Same frequency. Same range.”
Torch stops dead. “And? What else? You found Glory guilty. So Charlie’s guilty by association?”
“Torch—” Wolf’s voice is rough, pleading. But it’s cut off by the door slamming open.
Mama storms in, her voice sharp as a slap.
“I’ll keep saying it until it gets through your thick skulls.
If that Glory says our Charlie’s guilty, you give her the benefit of the doubt.
And even if she did steal from the club, you don’t beat her like a dog in a cage.
She’s not some fucking criminal. She’s a club princess. ”
Her glare cuts into both of us. Wolf doesn’t look up. Still staring down like if he blinks, the whole world will shatter.
“Listen to me, son,” Torch says, softer now, hand heavy on Wolf’s shoulder.
“I know you took that gavel earlier than you should have. Your father—if we can even call him that—maybe he was a halfway decent Prez. You learned from him, I get it. But he’s gone now, and I’m still here.
You want to lead this club right? You come to me.
You ask. You think. Before jumping to something this goddamn stupid. ”
Wolf closes his eyes. For a moment, I see that seventeen-year-old kid again, the one who was handed a sister he didn’t know existed.
“My father,” he sneers. Then he laughs bitterly. Unhinged. “You’re right, Torch. I did learn from my father.”
He shoots up from his chair. “I learned everything from him. Especially when it came to Charlie. You remember, don’t you?
You handed a terrified fourteen-year-old girl over to a man like Savage.
Fresh off losing our mother. And you told me—me, a kid barely an adult—that she was my sister.
‘Surprise, here’s a family you didn’t know about. Now, deal with it.’”
He’s unraveling. “I didn’t know shit about her. Didn’t even know our mother was still alive until she was fucking dead.”
He turns on Torch now. “We dumped her on my father—who ignored her. And I took cues from the bastard. So I fucking ignored her. And now he’s—” His voice breaks. “Now he’s a drooling invalid who can’t even walk or talk or shit without assistance.”
Wolf laughs again, twisted and bitter. “You know what? That stroke was a blessing. At least he had an excuse for his last three years of ignorance. But what fucking excuse do I have?”
The room feels like it’s about to snap in half.
“Wolf, listen.” I step forward, but he jerks away.
Torch tries to calm him. “Son.”
No words come. No words can miraculously change the outcome.
Mama is crying silently in the corner.
Wolf runs a shaky hand through his hair, shoulders hunched like he’s trying to collapse in on himself. “What the fuck have I done to her?” he croaks, voice cracking at the edges. “How the hell can I call myself her brother?”
His lips keep moving—the same words over and over, like they’re some desperate chant meant to bring her back. “I… I’m no brother to her. Christ.”
“Dane,” I murmur, stepping closer. But he jerks away.
“No,” he snaps, eyes wild. “Don’t, Theo. I never treated her like a sister. I treated her like the burden my father thought she was. I—fuck. I-I… what the fuck have I done?”
The air in the room feels too thick, like guilt itself is pressing down on all of us. And the worst part? He’s not wrong. I ignored her too. We all did. The entire fucking club.
The only one who didn’t? Glory. We let that venomous bitch wrap around her, sink her teeth in while we turned the other way. Like it wasn’t our problem. Then we blamed her for the lifestyle our ignorance resulted in.
Fuck. We should’ve protected her from Glory.
“Alright,” Torch says, stepping in, voice low but firm. “Listen, son.”
Wolf doesn’t move. He’s shaking now. From rage, from regret. I’m not even sure he knows which.
“You’re right to feel it,” Torch continues. “You can’t change what’s been done. But you can fucking fix what’s left.”
“Fix it?” Wolf whispers. “How? I… saw her face. Her fucking face. She’s terrified of me.”
Torch sighs, running a hand down his beard. “Then start there. Own it. Make it right. Fucking apologize at least.”
An apology won’t fix this. I think even Wolf realizes that. His gaze is distant, unfocused, like he’s lost in the wreckage of the last two hours.
Hell, five fucking years.
He takes a step toward the door, probably to go see her, then falters, eyes landing on my mom. He walks over and drops to his knees beside her.
“Mama Deb,” he chokes out. “Will she talk to me, you think?”
The moment she sees his face, she cups his cheeks. “I don’t know, son. But you can try.”
Torch looks away. I don’t. I stand there, watching this mess we’ve made. This mess I helped make. I watch as Wolf lets out a defeated, shuddered breath.
I put a hand on his shoulder. “Listen. We… we didn’t see her. None of us did. But we do now. Let’s go try and make this right, Dane.”
I give him another nudge when he doesn’t get up and then we step out. We all walk back to the infirmary, heads bowed. No one speaks. None of us are prepared for what comes next.
How the hell do you begin to fix this?
The second I push open the door, my stomach drops at the sight of her empty bed.
“Shit,” I mutter, eyes scanning the room like I missed her somehow. “She shouldn’t have left. What if she had a concussion?”
I quickly confirm from Healer, our resident doc and counsel brother, that she indeed left against his advice.
Wolf sighs, defeated. “I need to go find her.”
“Yeah,” I say, placing a hand on his back. “Or maybe… let her rest. Talk to her properly at home.”
His head snaps up, frowning. “She… she doesn’t live with me. I thought she lived here when she moved out at eighteen. At the clubhouse.”
I blink. “She… doesn’t, Wolf.”
Does she not?
A long pause stretches before Dad speaks, his voice low and disgusted. “So neither of you ever bothered to find out where she actually lives now?”
Then Mama says softly, “She boards with one of the girls who works at our strip club. Candy or something.”
All of us turn to her.
“But…” She trails off, holding up something we’d all missed, a piece of paper.
“I guess you won’t find her there either.
” Her voice cracks. She sniffs, eyes locked on the letter, her head shaking.
She slowly walks forward and slaps it against Wolf’s chest before burying her face into dad’s neck. Her body wracks silently, sobbing.
What the fuck?
Wolf stands there, frozen. The paper clutched in both hands.
When he finishes reading it, I take it from him. His fingers stay in the air like he’s still holding it. His whole frame trembling intensely.
Then I read it. And my whole fucking world blurs.
I’m sorry for causing trouble. For making the club look bad when you’ve all already got enough to deal with.
Mama Deb, I’m sorry I drifted away. You were the only one who ever made me feel like I belonged anywhere, and I still pushed you away.
Wolf, I’m sorry for being less of a sister and more of a problem you had to manage. I know I made things harder for you when you were already trying to lead the club.
And Ruin, I’m sorry for everything. For crossing lines you clearly drew. For walking into your room that night. I swear I didn’t know you had a girlfriend, but that doesn’t make it right.
I won’t cause any of you any more trouble.
- Charlotte