Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
K ellen
My attempt at escape foiled by the giant and his minion, I march up to my bedroom and slam the door behind me. I can’t believe I thought Salem was someone I could be with. If I had known who she really was, I wouldn’t have bothered to walk up to her in that restaurant.
Women like her should wear a sign to let men know their real personality is nothing like what they pretend to be. Out of all the women at that resort, I had to pick the one who would make my life a living hell.
Someone tell me how she’s any different than Gina.
My stomach groans to let me know I’m hungry, but I’m too pissed to bother to head down to the kitchen to find out what smelled so good as I stormed through the house to get up here. I’m sure it’s something my dear brother sent Salem.
I’m probably supposed to have bread and water like a true prisoner.
So this is my life. Day one of a ninety day stint in jail courtesy of Matthias has gone fucking swimmingly. How nice of him to station that giant oaf to guard me. What’s next? Does he plan to chain me to the bed to make sure I don’t leave?
I better not mention that if I see him. I don’t want to give him any ideas.
Since I can’t leave this place, it seems the only thing I can do is lie around. I might as well sleep if that’s the case. It’s not like there’s anything else to do here.
Lying back on my bed, I stare up at the ceiling and wonder how my life turned into this. It’s not hard to find the answer. The death of my father is the direct cause of my current situation. If he was still alive, I wouldn’t have to deal with that tyrant Matthias dictating what I can and can’t do in every part of my existence.
I put my arm over my eyes and wish I could fall asleep so I could forget everything that’s happening. I just want to go back in time to when my father and Theo were still alive, Matthias was busy avoiding becoming part of King Industries, and everyone was happy.
Well, not my oldest brother. That son of a bitch was never happy.
A knock at my door wakes me, and I scrub the last of my nap from my head. Who the hell wants to bother me now? I don’t have to think hard to answer that question.
Salem. She likely wants to tell me she had no part in what happened outside earlier. Fuck her. She can take her explanations and shove them up her ass.
Not interested in hearing anything she has to say, I yell, “Go away!”
Of course, that doesn’t stop her from knocking again. Jesus, does this woman enjoy being told off? If so, then she must be as happy as a pig in shit here with me.
I walk over to the door and throw it open so it slams into the wall. “What?”
But it isn’t Salem staring back at me.
Ava stands there outside my room looking like she’s going to cry. Fucking swell. Just what I need tonight.
“So now my brother is sending you to do his dirty work? You go back and tell him I’m not interested in anything any of you have to say.”
She doesn’t leave, and when I go to close the door, she walks into my room uninvited. Quietly, she says, “I know things have been hard for you, Kellen. I miss him too.”
I level my gaze on her face in disbelief she has the nerve to bring up Theo. “Oh yeah. I can tell.”
A frown makes her look like she’s really going to cry, but she says, “I was going through some boxes and found this. I thought you might like to have it.”
She sets something on my bed and turns to leave. “I don’t believe who you are now is the real Kellen King. I remember that person, and you aren’t him. I hope he comes back, though. I miss him.”
Ava leaves without another word, and I close my door again, wanting to be alone. I walk over to the bed to see what she left, and when I pick it up and turn it over, I see a picture of Theo, Ava, and me back when we were in high school. I remember the night this was taken and how I had to give her a ride home because Theo left with some blonde and texted me to ask if I would handle getting Ava back to her house.
The memories come rushing back to me and make it feel like it was only yesterday all of us were together at that party. I remember when I apologized to Ava for Theo leaving her, but she was fine with it.
“Theo just likes to have fun.”
Truer words have never been spoken. Unlike the man she’s with now, Theo knew how to have a good time. He made it his life’s mission to find fun wherever he could. That’s what made him such a great person.
Shaking my head to rid myself of memories of that night, I stare at the picture and wish Theo was here now. He’d understand what happened wasn’t the crime everyone is making it out to be. He’d be on my side, unlike the rest of my brothers.
I sit down on the edge of the bed unable to stop the past from filling my brain. More nights like that one when we took the picture come back to me. More nights when Theo left Ava alone to go with someone else.
Every time, she never said a bad word against him for it. I even asked him one night after he was finished with some girl and came back to the house to hang out if he liked Ava why he never acted like it.
His words echo in my mind. Ava’s the type of girl you settle down with. I’m way too young to think about that. When I’m ready, though, I’ll find her and I’ll marry her. Until then, I’m all about enjoying life and having a good time.
I know he loved her. He just wasn’t ready to be tied down yet back then. Who could blame him?
Everyone knew how Theo felt about Ava. Including Matthias.
How he could betray the person he was closest to in this world still baffles me. Matthias will claim what he’s doing to me now is for my own good, but what’s his excuse for taking Ava away from his own brother?
I don’t know how Theo forgave him. When he called me that Sunday before he died and told me he was fine with them together, I couldn’t believe it. He’d loved Ava all his life, so how could he turn off those feelings now that he’d decided he wanted to settle down with her?
“She’s made her choice, Kellen. Matthias is the one she wants. I have to accept that. I can’t hate either one of them. How could I? He’s my brother, and she was my best friend for my whole life. Sometime in the future I’m going to show up at the house and we’ll all have a good laugh about it. Not now, but maybe for the holidays.”
The holidays never came for him. He was dead before the week was out, and all we had left with him was watching his casket descend into the cold ground.
I’ll never forget that day. I’d lived through it with my mother and then my father, but burying a brother was a whole new level of misery.
If only I could shake that feeling, but with very few moments of reprieve, I’ve felt angry at the world and at Matthias and Ava ever since Theo died.
Staring up at the white ceiling above my head, I realize this was the room where Ronan and I slept whenever we all came over to visit my grandparents. They’d put us to bed and go downstairs for the night, but Theo, Marius, and Matthias would sneak into the room to hang out with us. Sometimes they’d take us outside through the window and we’d climb down bed sheets tied together to the ground. Other times they’d bring candy for us to gorge ourselves on so we ended up with stomach aches. Our grandparents could never understand why we’d end up sick when we came to visit.
Ronan and I were lucky to have older brothers who included us in their mischief. Never once did they abandon us because we were so much younger.
How much has changed since those days when it was the five of us against the world.