Chapter 35
WREN
T here’s a knock on my bedroom door, but I already know it’s Remy coming to check on me. Again.
I haven’t gotten out of bed in three days, and I don’t even want to.
What’s the point?
My door slowly opens, and Remy asks, “Are you going to work today?”
“Nope. Need to have a job to go to work.” It’s the first full sentence I’ve spoken to him in days, so that’s progress.
“Your brothers fired you? Is that why you’re a sulky mess?”
“Nope.”
“They … didn’t fire you, or that’s not why you’re a mopey mess?”
“Both.” I roll over to face him. “I quit MediaCorp and then, on my way home, called Jake to come back to construction, and he said he can only throw me side gigs at the moment when someone doesn’t turn up because he has a full staff.”
“So, you’ve decided to become a hermit who doesn’t shower or get out of bed all day?”
“Yep.”
“What happened?” Remy asks. He goes to step inside the door, but then he thinks better of it and puts his shirt over his nose.
“I don’t smell that bad. You’re being a drama queen.”
“Says the dude who hasn’t showered in three days. Why did you quit? I thought you were getting along with your brothers now.”
“I was.” I really was. And now …
Toby has tried to call me a couple of times. Junior hasn’t, but he has his own shit to deal with, and while we might be on civil terms, I don’t think Junior and I will ever bond. Which I understand. As long as he doesn’t blame me for being born, we’ll be cool.
“Are you going to be okay?”
Nope. “Eventually.”
“I’m here if you need to talk or whatever.”
“I know. We’ve always had each other’s backs, but I’m fine. I just need to wallow for a bit.”
“Over your job?” There’s suspicion in his tone, and he’s the only other person in this world who knows that Darcy isn’t really my brother and that something happened between us. But there’s no point in telling him the rest because he’ll just call me an idiot.
And I was an idiot. Both Darcy and I were.
The worst part is I already miss him.
It’s only been a couple of days, and I’m itching to see him. To touch him. I hate this.
At some point during the day, I fall asleep like I have every day since being home. I’m going to be screwed when I get back on the jobsite because I’ll be used to having naps.
I’m eventually woken by murmurs outside my door.
Oh goodie, Remy is back.
“I’m worried about him,” he says.
“And he won’t say what happened?”
I can’t believe he called my mom .
I groan and call out, “I’m fine!” which they take as an invitation to enter my room.
“You’re not fine,” Remy says.
When I glance at Mom, she has the same worry line in her forehead as she did when I was a teenager and came home from school with a fat lip.
“Thank you for calling me, Remington,” Mom says and then all but kicks him out of the room. She comes over to me, and even though I smell like dude, she pretends she can’t smell it. That’s true, unconditional love right there. “Which brother of yours am I going to have to hunt down and kill?”
“How did you know it was about one of them?”
She cocks her head. “Because if you had quit MediaCorp for yourself, because you didn’t like it, you wouldn’t be the wreck you are now. Therefore, you quit for another reason, and I’m going with the most likely scenario here.”
My eyes sting, and my nose tingles, letting me know I’m close to tears.
Mom has always been there for me. She was my mother and father growing up, and I will always be a momma’s boy. But this is …
This is too big.
Too scandalous.
“Wren?” she asks softly.
“You were right, okay?” I blubber.
“What about this time?”
I suck in a sharp breath. Telling her is betraying Darcy, but if I tell her I don’t want to go after the company, she will respect it. I know she will. She won’t force me to go in there rambling about birthright and outing Darcy as the wrongful heir. “About Darcy. He isn’t … Warren wasn’t …”
“He’s not your brother,” she says, sounding more relieved than shocked.
I nod.
“And that upsets you because you feel you need to step in and take over the company? You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.” See? I knew she’d be supportive of that part. But it’s this next part I’m worried about.
“I don’t want to take over the company. I don’t want to be there at all. It’s too …” A tear drops onto my cheek. “It’s too difficult to be near Darcy.”
“Because he had the life you were supposed to have?”
I shake my head. “Because I’ve known he isn’t my brother for months, and …”
Realization dawns on her face. “Oh, honey. You didn’t.”
My breath is shaky, along with my voice. “I went and fell in love with him, and now he’s gonna marry someone else, and how did you go through this and not fucking crumble? I get it now, okay? I understand how you never moved on from him .”
Mom reaches for me, and I sit up. She wraps her arms around me, and it's like I’m a kid again.
Like whenever I’d scrape my knee or have a boo-boo.
She always made it better. But this time, it’s not helping mend my broken heart.
There aren’t enough Band-Aids or hugs in the world to put that back together.
“What do I do?” I ask.
“May I suggest you wallow for a while, and then you get back out there? You could date anyone you wanted to.”
“I wouldn’t go that far, and that’s just it. There’s no one else I want to date.”
Mom shakes her head. “Don’t do what I did and close yourself off to new possibilities.
I waited my whole life for that man to come to his senses, and he never did.
And while Darcy might not share any DNA with your father, he was raised by him.
You think stubbornness is genetic? It’s a learned behavior.
Darcy saw how your father was, and now he’s being the same way.
And maybe, just maybe, I was a little stubborn too.
I should’ve fought for him. As messy as it would’ve been, if I hadn’t let him go, maybe both our lives would’ve been different. ”
“This isn’t the same. I can’t fight for him. There’s no way. Could you imagine if it got out?”
“So you tell the world the truth. He’s not a Ritcherson.”
“I could never do that to Darcy. He’s worked so hard to be where he is, and I don’t want to take that from him.”
“You have such a big heart.” She pats my cheek. “I hate that history is repeating itself with you.”
“It might be the universe’s way of teaching me to let go of any residual anger I had over you keeping my father from me for so long. Perspective is a bitch, isn’t it?”
“That it is.” She stands and claps her hands. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to get out of bed. You’re going to shower because you stink. And then you’re going to take your mother out to dinner where we can both drink away our Ritcherson man troubles.”
I lean up on my elbow. “Do you mean to tell me you still have Ritcherson issues when the man has been dead for months? Is that how long it’s going to be for me?”
“It won’t be if you don’t let it. Don’t let it eat at you. You’re allowed to take your time to get over it, but you can’t let it consume you. It will derail your whole life if you let it.”
It all seems so daunting. Moving on. Forgetting about Darcy. Cutting off a relationship with my brothers because of how I feel about him. Missing out on being there for them because I can’t face it.
I can’t face the Ritcherson fortune.
It’s like the last couple of months never happened, and I’m right back at the beginning, refusing to accept any involvement with them. Only this time, it’s not hatred that’s holding me back. It’s heartache.
“Come on,” Mom complains. “Hurry up and get out of bed so you can take me to dinner.”
Slowly, I climb out of bed and stretch. “From dating my brother to now taking my mom out on a date, I think it’s safe to say I need fucking therapy.”