40. Blesk #2
Konnor leans back in his seat with a pleased sigh. “I’ve got some mad pranking skills.”
I giggle. “How old were you?”
“Twelve, right?” Ben asks.
I've missed so much. Never again. “How did you make the tap water green?”
Konnor looks so smug. “Well, Duchess, I’m so glad you asked. I put green jelly crystals in the faucet under the washer.”
“I remember that!” A soft voice calls out from behind us, followed by the sound of the alfresco door sliding on its tracks.
Cassidy appears and sits on her dad’s knee. “What up, Daddy-o?” She kisses him on the cheek.
Ben brightens, giving her an affectionate squeeze. I stare at them, my eyes moving from his smile to hers, to the loose position of his hand on her waist, to the way her body slumps into his.
“You’re too old to sit on Dad’s lap, Cassidy,” Konnor says, pinching her stomach through her shirt.
She sticks her tongue out. “Dad, Konnor pinched me.”
Ben laughs but feigns a paternal scowl. “Now, now, Konnor, let me keep my little girl for a while longer. God knows I lost Flick as soon as she came out of the womb.”
Konnor shakes his head at his little sister. “Such a bloody princess.” He turns to face Ben. “Where is Flick? Cassidy just said she was away for the weekend.”
“Isn’t she with her new lady love?” Ben asks Cassidy, as she steals a piece of waffle.
She talks around her food. “Yeah, but I don’t know where. Probably in Connolly somewhere.”
Konnor narrows his eyes. “Who? Why Connolly? Who’s she seeing in fucking Connolly?”
Cassidy chews the food in her mouth, then swallows. “You don’t wanna know.”
Konnor glares at her. “Who, Cassidy?”
“Stacey Grange.”
Oh—a name I recognise. “I know Stacey. She was friends with my brother for a while. She went to Connolly High, right?”
“Did you grow up in The District, too?” Ben asks, brows furrowing in surprise.
I nod. “Yeah—"
“Great!” Konnor grunts out. “So she’s been hanging out with that crowd.”
Ben chuckles, eyeing Konnor. “Don’t worry, Konnor. The boys know to behave themselves around here. They’ve grown up a lot since you left to study.”
The boys…
Ah… Do they mean…
“Are you talking about The Butcher Boys?” I ask, though I already know the answer. Stacey Grange is practically family to the Butchers—everyone knows that.
Cassidy opens her mouth, her eyes on me, then closes it over a word, then tries again. “You know them?”
“Not really, but doesn’t everyone in the District know of The Butcher Boys?
” I offer Konnor an apologetic smile, remembering how much he dislikes Max Butcher.
All the Butchers have a very bad reputation.
It’s part of growing up in The District.
A collective secret. We all know who runs this city—old money.
The Butcher Boys… they’re connected, but I don’t know how.
Konnor scoffs. “Yeah, alright. I’ll have a chat with Flick when I see her next, but you stay clear of them, Cassidy.”
“Yeah, yeah, big brother.” Cassidy rolls her eyes, wandering back inside the house.
“Glad you’re back, son, so you can do some of the fatherly duties for me.” Ben chuckles. “Makes my life easier when you’re around to watch the girls.”
“I hate those fuckers,” Konnor grumbles, cracking his fingers one at a time. He looks adorable when he pouts. I want to sit on his lap, smooth the lines forming between his brows, but as I consider doing it, my phone vibrates on the table.
We all look at it.
The word Dad flashes.
My eyes land on the name, but my hands don’t lift to retrieve the phone. Dad. Erik. “I should take this.” Smoothing down my clothes, I slowly stand, nod politely at Ben and Konnor, and walk around the corner of the house.
Out of earshot.
I lift my phone to my ear, my fingers trembling. “Dad.” I lean against a pillar and hug my stomach with my free arm, staring out at Cassidy’s studio. Past it. To nothing.
“How are you?” he asks, his voice muffled and bouncing off walls, interrupted by white noise.
“Why is it so echoey?” I plug my other ear and squint.
“I’m at the hospital.”
My pulse drums through my veins.
“Erik is awake. He’s been asking for you. You’re the only person he wants to see—” He continues to talk to me, but all the air leaves my lungs in an instant.
Say something.
Say something.
“Did you hear me?”
“Is he okay?” I manage.
He sighs with relief. “Yes. He is. His short-term memory is vague, the doctor said it’ll probably return. But at this stage, he doesn’t remember much about the day of the assault.”
Convenient.
“Does he look tall?” Super question.
“What do you mean? Where are you? I’ll come get you, and we can visit him together. I’m sure he’s sorry for fighting your date. I’m sure we can work this out.”
My eyes begin to well up.
“We can work this out,” Dad pleads, his voice desperate, tone almost too gentle.
One.
“Be a family again.”
Two.
“He loves you, Blesk.”
Three.
Don’t flinch.
Something suddenly brushes my arm. I jump. Clutching my heart, I whirl around wide-eyed to find Konnor with his hands held up in surrender.
“Woah, Duch.” He ducks his head, staring straight into my eyes. “What’s going on?”
My dad’s voice comes through the phone, which is now at my side. “Blesk?”
Konnor’s eyes drop to the phone in my fist, then lift to my face, then narrow on the phone. He grabs it. I gasp when he snatches it from me, but I don’t try to stop him. He ends the call, then holds down the power button until the screen goes black.
Konnor pulls me against him, kisses my temple, and rests his cheek against my forehead. “Tell me.”
I wrap my arms around his waist, scrunching his shirt in my fists behind his back, burying my face in the fabric. “That was my... my dad,” I stammer. “Erik is awake.”
I’m not sure why I’m tearing up. I’m not sure why my hands are shaking. I’m not sure why I don’t want to see my brother at all. The thought makes me feel frozen. Like I might… disappear. “I have to tell my dad.”
He pushes me out in front of him. “Tell him what?”
Pressing in, I rest my cheek on his chest again, hiding against his warm body. “All of it. Everything.”
He pushes me back once more, his hands gripping my arms, intent on holding my gaze through this. “What if he doesn’t believe you, Duch?”
I blink. “I think he will.”
“Are you going to see him?”
“My dad says he doesn’t remember much, but his memories may come back.”
“And then what?” Konnor’s tone drops, darkens.
“Do you try to work things out? Try to be siblings again? Accept his apologies. They’ll come; he’ll get in your head again.
What if your dad wants you to try being amiable for him?
You just forgive him, pretend it never happened?
Is that what you’re thinking? Please tell me that’s not what you’re fucking thinking. ”
I touch his face, and he sighs roughly, softening. “I don’t think I can see him,” I reassure him.
“Good.” He nods slowly. “Good. So, what are you going to tell your dad?”
“The truth.”
“Which is?”
I swallow over a lump of lies, of resistance, of emotional dissonance. “That. I. Didn’t. Want to…” The sharp words come out one by one like bullets from a wound. “To do it. But I need to go to the hospital and tell my dad to his face.”
“No. I’m not letting you go. A few seconds ago, when I touched you, you jumped.
You were scared. Not a flinch—a jump.” He shakes his head.
“That isn’t a normal reaction when your boyfriend touches you, Duch.
” Still shaking his head, he says, “You shouldn’t be near him.
You shouldn’t be in the same building as him. ”
“Come with me?” I beg.
He withdraws, looking like I just slapped him. “Are you fucking crazy? If I were in that hospital, I’d find that fucker and strangle him with his own IV line. Just call your dad back. Tell him over the phone. Be honest. You don’t need to go there. You don’t need to say yes to them.”
I stare at the ground, shuffling my shoes on the pretty deck, wondering whether Ben can hear us, or if Elise has sat down at the little ceramic table and is enjoying my fruit salad while looking out over the gardens. Oblivious.
“Look at me.”
I lift my eyes to Konnor.
“You don’t have to go there, Blesk. You don’t have to be the perfect daughter who doesn’t flinch.”
My eyes widen.
“You don’t have to make yourself uncomfortable to protect the comfort of others. Your dad’s feelings are not more important than yours. He should be here for you. You’re the damn kid.”
“I’m not his kid. Erik is.”
Konnor shakes his head slowly, a sadness stirring in his green gaze. “If that’s true, then you let them both go.”