Chapter Twenty-Five
TWENTY-FIVE
Phoebe
Now
I wiggle my toes in the darkened sand and look out at the murky black ocean water. Moonlight is scarce, and I hear the waves lap more than I see them in the night.
Wind pierces my pink strawberry sweater, and I squeeze my arms against my body as I trek closer to the meetup spot. I quickly realize I’m not the first one to the beach.
Trevor.
Ugh. He wouldn’t be at the top of my list to spend one-on-one time with, but I’m hoping everyone else shows up soon.
He tosses wood into a firepit. The hood of his dark maroon windbreaker shadows his angular face. My toes sink deeper in the soft sand, and I hold a pair of black Louis Vuitton heels by the straps. They were an “I love you” gift from Jake that I opened in front of his family during a Waterford brunch.
Claudia nearly choked on her mimosa. Trent told me that Jake hardly ever gave his past girlfriends presents, so I must be different. The implied wink and smirk let me know he meant different in a sexual way. A shiver of revulsion skates down my back.
Regardless, I like the heels. I think after we make Jake heir, I’ll keep them.
Trevor groans when he sees me land on the opposite side of the unlit firepit. “You’re early,” he says with edge. “Hailey said to be here at three.” Three in the morning. A fact that Rocky disliked since it’s considered the witching hour.
“It’s fifteen till, and you’re early, too,” I shoot back.
“So I could sit with my thoughts.” He takes out a box of matches from his jacket and strikes one. “Alone.” He tosses the matchstick into the pit. There must already be kerosene on the wood, because it lights in a fiery plume.
“Did things go that poorly with Sidney?” He won her earlier at the auction, and I’m wondering if some of his angst is from spending the afternoon with Victoria’s Sweetheart .
He says nothing.
Fine.
But I frown more, finding the silence too disconcerting, so I try again. “I thought you were tired of being the loner,” I say. “Haven’t you been begging to be a part of the team since you were ten?”
He glares into the flames. “Yeah, and you’re the reason I’m not.”
“What?” I shift my weight, confused.
He pulls a flask out of his windbreaker. “Don’t act surprised. You’re not dumb.”
I rock back a little. It’s a strange compliment from him. Because Trevor is certifiably a genius like Hailey, and I am not the brainiac. I’ve felt leagues behind in that way.
My face falls more. He is right, though—I had an itching feeling he blamed me when we were growing up, but hearing him confirm it out loud gnaws at my insides.
My grip tightens on my heels. “I’m not barring you from being on the team. You’re here, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, I’m here,” he says flatly. “Background character in this play.” He takes a long swig from his flask.
“No one thinks of you like that. Everyone has their roles.”
His nose flares, and he drops his hand with the flask, letting it hang loosely at his side. “Yeah, well, you’re in my role. If it weren’t for you, I would’ve been paired with Rocky during jobs. I would’ve mattered.”
The casual honesty from him catches me off guard. I’m used to the snarky jabs and caustic, immature banter.
“Trevor.” I walk around the firepit to his side. Nineteen. He’s nineteen. Which isn’t that young anymore—but he will always be the youngest. There’s a part of each of us that feels a responsibility toward protecting him. Maybe we butt heads and annoy each other like a brother and sister would, but I never thought he didn’t matter. Not to me. “You matter—”
“Stop,” he deadpans. “See, this is why we don’t have heart-to-hearts, PG. As soon as you see a problem with any of us, you jump in front of a train, thinking you can fix it.”
My stomach coils. “So I’m not a person who stands by and watches the people I love sulk in their own misery. Is that so bad?”
“It is when you’re the problem. Your existence is the fucking problem. And unfortunately, you’re one of five people on my Do Not Kill list.”
The fact that he even has a list…ooh, scary . I swear he tries to be tough—maybe to live up to his moniker.
“Thank you?” I say half-heartedly.
Heat has been extinguished from his gaze. “It’s only by association to Rocky. Otherwise…”
“You’d off me?”
“Maybe.”
Gremlins are more terrifying than him, and I think those balls of fur are pretty fucking cute. I try not to poke fun at his weak sinister demeanor when he’s being serious with me.
“So I’m in the spot you want,” I say, testing out this heart-to-heart thing. Maybe I can’t fix it, but I can understand him better.
He kicks an exposed log with his sneaker. “I just want to work with my brother.” Okay, that’s actually sweet, and seeing as how I love working with Rocky, I do relate to that feeling.
“I don’t choose the roles, Trevor. And even if I did get offed, you realize that Oliver would most likely replace me?”
He nods slowly. “Yeah, I know. But that’ll change, right? When it’s just us six? We can decide our roles ourselves.” His darkened gaze meets mine with a glimmer in it. It’s hope.
I see what Victoria means for him. A chance to obtain what he’s always really wanted without the control of our parents.
“Yeah, that’s the idea,” I whisper softly, letting that hope reside in the air. A tether between us.
He offers me his flask, and when I take a sip, our siblings approach the rising flames.
Hailey has a thick manila envelope in her fingers. Dark crescent moons still shadow her eyes, but she raises the envelope of DNA results like it’s a gold medal, bounding closer to me. Her excited energy makes me smile.
I meet her halfway, then we trek back to the firepit together, and Oliver isn’t far behind Hails. He sneaks up on her and bear-hugs her from behind like they’re fifteen again. She holds his arm, maybe so she doesn’t trip and fall. Then he steals the flask from my grip. “Midnight beverage for the wicked,” he says and tips it into his mouth. “What about you, Hailstorm? You’ve been bad or good?”
“Good, mostly.”
Oliver pouts.
Hailey doesn’t even look, but it’s like she knows he’s teasing her. She smiles at the sand, and his smile stretches wider and wider at her.
“And you, Phoebe?” Oliver asks. “Good or bad?”
“It’s a matter of perspective,” I point out.
“Ah, yes. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.”
Oliver squeezes between me and her, then he slings his arms over our shoulders, pulling us against his sides like we’re at college again, or boarding school. Secret societies. Clandestine meetups in cemeteries. Our mysteries.
Our codes.
Our truths.
Hailey laughs at a joke Oliver makes, and my smile brightens from within. For a moment, it does feel nostalgic. Happiness isn’t in short supply when we’re all together. It’s one of the few times where it feels abundant.
Nova is already at the firepit. He tosses another piece of wood in the circle. Flames spark and crackle. He holds out a hand to Oliver, who silently passes him the flask.
I peel away from my brothers, just as Rocky emerges from the darkness of the dune grass. He immediately joins me. And he slips his hand in mine.
His lip tics upward. “Hi,” he says. I’m not pulled into our messy past, as much as I’m relishing this moment— us together .
“Hi,” I reply, falling into the depths of his gray eyes.
Trevor has gray eyes.
Hailey has gray eyes.
And the envelope in her hand will finally bear the truth with real, concrete proof. I intake a deep breath of anticipation.
We all face the fire.
Rocky appraises each of us in a slow sweep. “Before we read the results, I have something to say.”
“Say it fast,” Nova says, tightening his utility jacket around his body. “It’s fucking cold out here.”
Light flickers from the bonfire, and I stare at the glowing embers while Rocky speaks.
“They raised us,” he says. “For better or worse, they’ve molded our lives into what they are, and there’s no going back from what we’ve done. But who we are—a piece of paper isn’t going to tell me that. I already know who I am. I’ve always known who I am.” Flames flicker against the darkness of his eyes. He touches a hand to his chest. “Spider.” He points to Trevor. “I’m your brother.” Then he looks to Hailey. “I’m your brother.” Then to Oliver. “I’m your family.” Then Nova. “I’m your family.” His gaze lands on me and the intensity tunnels through me in a long beat. “I’m yours,” he says in a sheltered breath. The unsaid words cling to the air: I’ve always been yours.
Rocky unfixes his gaze to stare at each of us, emotion circling around like a spinning coin. “My purpose in life isn’t to bag millions. It’s not to tear down miscreants or fuck over rich pricks. It has been, and always will be, to protect the five of you. So I don’t care what that paper says. It’s not going to change this . Us.” He takes a deep, readying breath. “That’s it.”
Nova sways on the balls of his feet. “I’d clap but my hands are too cold to take out of my fucking coat.”
Oliver wears a lopsided smile. “What Nova is trying to say is you’re our family, too, Rock.”
“Same,” I agree.
He glances down at me, the heat of his gaze warming me more than the bonfire.
“Let’s just hope this isn’t a Luke and Leia situation,” Trevor pipes in from the other side of the firepit.
My head whips to him. Ew. The Star Wars reference is not lost on me, and I can’t even imagine Rocky being my actual brother. We’re one hundred percent not related. I’d know.
I scowl. “That’s impossible.”
“Not impossible,” Hailey mentions next to me, and my heart shoots out of my rib cage. “Improbable.”
“Highly improbable,” Rocky clarifies. “Elizabeth, Addison, and Everett have been pushing us together since puberty. They’re fucked-up, sure, but that’d be on a different, disgusting level of fucked.”
“Agreed,” I say.
Oliver sets a hand on Trevor’s head. “Demented.”
Trevor whacks his hand off. “I’m just putting it out there so you all aren’t shocked if the highly improbable comes to fruition.”
“It’s out there, all right,” Nova grumbles with a harsher swig from the flask.
“Hailey,” Rocky says, rubbing at his eyes. “Please get this over with.”
“Okay…” She rips open the envelope with shaking hands. “There’ll be many different results in here. All of our DNA has been tested against Elizabeth, Addison, Everett, and also each other.” She leans closer to the firelight, her widened eyes skimming the results quickly. “Trevor…”
“First up,” he says and swipes his flask back from Nova.
Hailey’s bugged, unblinking eyes reveal the answer before her words do, so I’m not surprised when she says, “You’re not related to any of us.”
“Shocker.” Trevor lifts his flask up to the sky in cheers. Then downs the alcohol for longer than a couple seconds.
“Whoa, save some for the thirsty.” Oliver captures the flask before Trevor can chug it all, and as Oliver takes a casual sip, he exchanges a brief, protective look with Rocky.
Hailey rapidly, frantically sifts through the next three pages. Her eyes dance a mile a minute.
“What is it?” I ask, worry seizing my lungs.
“I-I…” Her eyes grow wider with confusion and another emotion as they ping from me, to Nova, and then stay on Oliver. It takes me a second before I realize she’s happy. “You’re triplets—fraternal triplets. It’s real.”
“What?” I squeak out. My hand flies to my mouth, and a rush of relief surges through me in a tidal wave. Not just siblings. Triplets.
Oliver and Nova come to my side in a quick flash and scoop me up into a brotherly hug. “I knew,” Oliver declares. “I fucking knew it. What’d I say, Nov?”
“You knew it.” Nova grins and lets Oliver skate a hand over his head in affection. I cry into Oliver’s preppy trench coat, and Nova hugs me tighter. I didn’t know how much this would mean to me until right now. My brothers.
My brothers.
“Phoebe,” Hailey says quietly, breaking me from my reverie. “Y-you’re her daughter.”
My ears ring. “Wait…?” I whisper, and Oliver’s and Nova’s arms slowly drop off me as Hailey delivers the news.
She gives me a sad, pained smile. “Elizabeth is your mom, and that makes her Nova and Oliver’s mom, too.”
The world rotates around me. She didn’t lie. She hasn’t lied. I twist to Rocky, and his jaw is set in a hardened line. I’ve hated her for the deception, but has she even deceived me?
Hailey flips another page, and her chin trembles before the papers slip from her fingers. “Shit,” she curses. “Shitshitshit.” Rocky drops to his knees, and I follow suit, quick to gather up the pages from the sand before the wind carries them into the fire.
I pause on the paper that Hailey must’ve just read. It’s her results. “Hails,” I breathe out, my insides kneading. Rocky leans into my shoulder to read it.
“What does it say?” Trevor asks.
Hailey swipes the tears under her eyes. “I’m not related to anyone.”
Oliver squints in confusion. “Not even Addison?”
Hailey shakes her head. “No one.” The way she says it sounds so tortured, like she appeared out of thin air.
“You’re related to someone ,” Rocky tells her, his voice edged. “You’re not an immaculate conception, Hails.”
“She is pretty divine, though,” I offer with a friendly nudge to her shoulder as I rise to my feet. It doesn’t draw a smile. Her gaze is lost in the fire. We’ve all known the only way to break her obsession over this is to find answers, and I wish our positions were reversed. I wish Addison was her mom—if only to splinter her hyperfixation.
“What about you?” Trevor asks Rocky.
I shuffle through the papers in my hand, but I don’t have Rocky’s results. They must be on one that he pried off the sand. Sure enough, when I turn to him, he’s reading a page. His eyes carry nothing. No pain. No lament. No happiness.
They’re just void.
“It seems like us Tinrocks are all the same,” Rocky says and hands it off to Nova.
My brother reads it with furrowed brows. “You’re not related to anyone,” he confirms. “So what does this mean?”
“It means Elizabeth lied to my face,” Rocky says, then looks to me. “To yours. She told us that Hailey and I were biologically Addison and Everett’s.”
“Why would she do that?” I say, pained again. “She knew we were already questioning Trevor’s paternity.”
“She thought we wouldn’t go this far,” Rocky says, scratching at the tag at the back collar of his shirt. He rips it off.
Nova crumples up the paper into a ball. “I don’t think any of them thought we’d ever go this far.”
“The triplets,” Hailey whispers in a haunted daze. “The perfect shills.”
Her words hang in the air agonizingly. She’s right. Why would we question Rocky’s and Hailey’s identities if Nova, Oliver, and I are so clearly related?
“So are we all adopted?” Trevor asks.
Rocky raises and lowers his shoulders. “Who the hell knows? But if we ask them, they’re going to feed us another round of bullshit.”
“I can dig harder for answers,” Hailey says with a determined, anxious nod.
We all share a collective worry. “I think you’ve been digging hard enough, Hails,” I tell her. “Maybe let go of the reins a little on this one?”
She slips a blonde hair behind her ear, the lobe and cartilage covered in studs. “No,” she says. “I’m in charge of being five steps ahead. My role. My responsibility.” She spins around on her boots and heads back for the street.
“Hailey!” Rocky calls out. “Fuck.” He’s the first one who chases after her, and Trevor follows behind, careful not to stumble in the sand. The Tinrocks disappear in the night together.
Nova balls up all the results and chucks the papers in the fire. My brothers and I watch them burn.