Chapter 19
Spending most of her days at the TSI office and most of her evenings having dinner with Adam and the kids had become an easy, comforting habit for Josie.
Adam seemed as happy to have her around as she was to be there.
Their extended time together moved their relationship along more quickly than it might have otherwise, but nothing seemed forced.
Being with Adam felt as natural as breathing.
The side effects of spending so much time away from home, however, included a layer of dust on nearly every surface of Josie’s living room, an overflowing pile of laundry in the bathroom, and an empty refrigerator.
So, this Saturday afternoon, she’d opted to deal with her household chores rather than join Adam and the kids at the latest Disney movie matinee.
She hadn’t wanted to miss it, but Fiona and Jake were hosting a family barbecue on Sunday, and Josie had been so busy with work that this seemed like her only opportunity to catch up.
Hair wound in a messy bun and clad in a ripped t-shirt and old yoga pants, Josie vigorously wielded her mop over the kitchen tile when the doorbell rang.
She turned down the music, stuffed the mop into the bucket, and went to the door.
Her hand hesitated over the knob as she heard Adam’s voice in her ear, warning her to be just a little extra careful.
“Who is it?” Josie asked as she peered out the window nearest the front door.
Her breath caught in her throat when she glimpsed the man from the cemetery standing on her steps.
“Josie Callahan, right?” he asked in a voice that felt somehow familiar.
“Yes,” she answered, and a shiver of alarm crept up her spine. She shook her head and straightened her shoulders. The door was locked, she could get to her phone quickly, and Adam had upgraded her security system. She was fine, just fine.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“My name is Kevin Murray, but my father was Lenny Callahan.”
Josie stood frozen in place. Her heart raced and her vision tunneled.
“Josie?”
She blinked and let out the breath she’d been holding.
Without thinking, she flung the door open.
On her stoop, the man from the cemetery stood with his baseball cap in hand and sunglasses pushed atop his head.
Blue eyes, the exact same shape and color as Charlie’s, stared back at her.
Josie had her mother’s dark brown eyes, but Charlie’s eyes were their father’s startling blue.
Josie’s mouth dropped open as they stood taking the measure of one another.
Kevin spoke first. “Can I come in? You probably have a lot of questions.”
He spoke with a thick Boston accent, one Josie had lost completely during her school years but which had occasionally slipped into Charlie’s speech.
Josie was slightly put off by his bold tone, but maybe he’d had to work up the courage to ring her bell, and he was overcompensating. Despite her flicker of unease, Josie stepped back and held the door open, gesturing for him to enter.
“Nice place,” he said, looking around.
Josie cleared her throat. “Thank you. Can I get you anything? A glass of water? Coffee?”
He shook his head, and she nodded toward the sofa. “Please, have a seat.”
Josie’s manners had been deeply ingrained, first by her mother and then by the older aunt and uncle she and Charlie had gone to live with after her parents’ deaths. The more uncomfortable she was, the more she defaulted to this overly polite, slightly distant version of herself.
Kevin unceremoniously sat, eyes still wandering around Josie’s home.
It was modest in comparison to her aunt and uncle’s massive compound, but the Beacon Hill address definitely made it a pricey piece of real estate.
Kevin’s assessing gaze put Josie slightly on edge.
When he didn’t seem eager to start the conversation, Josie did.
“Lenny Callahan is dead. He’s been dead for nearly twenty-five years.”
“Yeah, I know,” Kevin said.
“So, why are you here now?”
Kevin didn’t answer her question. Instead, he said, “My mom would never answer questions about my dad when I was a kid, but last year, she got sick. Cancer.”
“I’m sorry,” Josie said automatically.
Kevin shrugged. “Before she died, she finally told me my father’s name. Then I had to do some homework.”
Josie clasped her hands on her lap. Shock had her mind struggling to come to terms with the idea that the man sitting in her living room was her brother, but in her gut, she knew it was true. The family resemblance was uncanny.
“My father…” Josie paused, cleared her throat, and corrected herself. “Our father wasn’t a good man.”
“I figured as much when I read the newspaper articles. You and Charlie weren’t mentioned by name because you were just kids, so it took me a while to figure out who you were.”
Josie flinched at his mention of Charlie. For some reason, she didn’t like Kevin saying his name.
“You were at the cemetery?” she asked softly.
“Figured I should come say goodbye to my big brother, the war hero.”
Josie lifted her chin and squared her shoulders, biting back the sharp words that formed on her tongue.
Her instincts went on high alert. Kevin Murray, blood relative or not, rubbed Josie the wrong way.
Still, she’d try to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Clearly, he had a chip on his shoulder, one he probably came by honestly, given their shared parentage, so she could at least hear him out.
“Charlie was a good man and a great brother. I’m sorry you won’t get to know him,” she said.
“Well, I can get to know you,” Kevin said.
The words were benign, but something in his tone put Josie on edge.
“What would you like to know?” she asked.
“Your parents were rich,” Kevin said.
“Hmmm.” Josie’s tone was non-comital, the one she used to encourage a patient to keep talking.
“My mom worked in a nightclub. We lived in a dirty, one-bedroom apartment on the south side. No fancy prep schools for me.”
He said it with a hint of accusation in his voice, as if Josie should feel badly for him.
“Money doesn’t erase violence,” she said simply.
He narrowed his eyes at her, as if considering that fact for the first time. “No, I guess it doesn’t, but it sure solves a lot of other problems.”
“I’m sorry you and your mom struggled. It couldn’t have been easy for her to raise you alone,” Josie said, meaning the words.
“It wasn’t. I know now that Lenny died when I was only a year old, but I guess even before then, he didn’t help her out at all. Didn’t want much to do with me.”
When Josie was a child, she often wished her father would leave and never come back. It would have been a mercy if he’d wanted nothing to do with Josie, or Charlie, or their mother.
“He wasn’t a good father,” she said.
“Nah, I guess not, but at least you two had enough to eat and clothes that fit.”
Josie didn’t argue. Her childhood had been a nightmare.
The damage that Lenny Callahan inflicted on his wife and children had left terrible scars.
The fact that she and Charlie grew up without their mother, because their father had shot her in the head, was a trauma Josie would never fully recover from, but she didn’t say any of this to Kevin.
He was so focused on himself, on his own experiences, Josie didn’t think her truth would matter much.
“Why did you decide to introduce yourself to me now?” Josie asked.
She reworded her question from earlier in hopes she could move the conversation along. Her discomfort with Kevin grew the longer he sat across from her, assessing her.
He leveled his gaze at her. “I think I’m entitled to some of my father’s estate.”
Josie stiffened. The words sounded like they’d been planted. “Who told you that?”
Kevin shrugged. “Some lawyer I talked to.”
Folding her hands in her lap, Josie said, “All our wealth came from our mother. Her family had Lenny sign an ironclad prenuptial agreement before they married.” Josie stood and took a step toward the door before finishing.
“Even if Lenny hadn’t killed himself after he shot her, none of our mother’s estate would have passed to him.
It went directly into a trust for Charlie and me. ”
Kevin’s expression hardened and a muscle in his jaw twitched, but he stood and followed Josie to the door.
“I’m truly sorry you had the misfortune to be fathered by the same terrible man as us. If you came here to get to know me, and through me, Charlie, I’d be very happy to speak with you again, but if you’ve come here to take something that doesn’t belong to you, don’t come back.”
Josie’s voice held steady even though her thoughts were in turmoil.
When she opened the front door, thankfully, Kevin walked out.
Although he didn’t say another word, Josie caught sight of the expression on his face, and it chilled her to the bone.
Unfiltered rage quickly masked by indifference flashed in his eyes.
When he jogged across the street, she shut the door behind him and flipped the deadbolt.
Sagging against the doorframe, Josie’s hands shook.
In fact, her whole body trembled. The shot of adrenaline that coursed through her when she’d first peered out the window dissipated rapidly, and suddenly she needed to sit down.
She stumbled to her sofa and sank onto the cushions, wishing Adam were here.
She checked the time. He’d still be in the middle of the movie with the kids, and she didn’t want to interrupt them.
Stomach in knots, Josie forced herself to return to her chores.
She hoped busy hands would help the time pass while she got her emotions under control and calmed her racing mind, but she kept cycling through the same thought over and over again.
She had another brother, and he was only interested in her money.