Sinner #2
I allowed him entry. I would allow him to hang himself.
This time would be the last. Instead of saying anything, I waved my hand toward the living room.
He traipsed over and dropped onto my favorite chair.
I closed and locked the door before steering Anastasia over to the sofa to take a seat with me.
“She’s not invited,” Ro snapped.
“This is my fucking home, not yours, Ro. Anastasia stays, or you can just turn around and walk your bitch ass right out that door. She has more right to be here than you do. Try me,” I threatened.
His face flushed redder, but he didn’t push.
“Reign, we need to talk. I’ve waited to allow you time to cool off and realize that you made a mistake. I’m worried about you. You’re making wild decisions professionally and personally. You had me fired, Reign. I’m your brother. Family before all else, man.”
He paused to glance at Anastasia before he continued.
“Since you met her, your attitude has changed. I don’t know what she’s saying or doing, but she’s destroying our family.
The old Reign wouldn’t fire me, kick me out of his life, and declare he was leaving his business and other wealth to some woman he barely knows.
Please, brother, get rid of her before she ruins everything,” he pleaded.
Before I could respond, Rowan kept speaking.
“Reign, rehire me. Give me more responsibility so I can prove to you I can handle it. Regardless of whether you ever settle down with someone for good, they’ll need guidance. It should be me. Family helps family.”
The audacity of Rowan still struck me. I swear, he lived in his own world. Before I could respond, Anastasia snorted and spoke.
“Wow, we both sure have winners when it comes to family, don’t we?” She directed it at me.
Rowan’s face darkened, and he scowled before he snapped at her.
“No one asked for your opinion. Just because my brother is allowing you to ride his dick at the moment doesn’t make you special. He has women do that all the time. You’ll be gone by next week.” He ran his gaze up and down her body, half-leering.
I started to rise but halted when she placed her hand on my arm and tugged. I eased back, but made sure I shot daggers at Rowan.
“Wow, I guess then moving in with you is off the table next week. Good thing I didn’t pack.” Anastasia said to me.
She pretended Rowan wasn’t here. Her statement made my brother sit up and pay attention.
“Tell me she’s joking. You’re not moving her in here, are you? Come on, Reign, you’ll never get rid of her if you do that.” He said, sounding almost hysterical.
“Yes, she’s moving in. As for never getting rid of her, that’s the plan. She’s my future wife, Ro.” I informed him.
His astonishment made him sputter, then half-yell, “You can’t do that!”
“Oh, Rowan, why can’t he? Is it because now that you have no job and haven’t found another, you’re hoping to move in with Reign? I wouldn’t recommend asking. Even if I weren’t a part of your brother’s life, he’s over your entitled brattiness,” Anastasia told him calmly.
Rowan jumped to his feet. “Bitch, shut your mouth!” he shouted.
This time, there was no holding me back. I rose and, in two large steps, was in his face. Rowan tried to back up, but there was nowhere for him to escape me. His hands came up in a placating gesture, but I wasn’t about to be placated. I latched onto his wrinkled shirt and shook him.
“Don’t you ever swear at her or say anything against her again!
If you do, you’ll never be my brother again.
She’s moving in, and soon, she’ll be a Caldwell.
It will be our children who’ll inherit my company and everything else I deem theirs, not you.
Stop trying to do things the easy way. You need to put in the hard work to make something of yourself in this world, Ro. ”
I gave him another shake, hoping to drive the point home. I’d never hit him, other than roughhousing as kids. However, I was on the edge of my control. The urge to give him a beatdown beckoned.
“But I’m your blood. She’s not. Kids only share half your DNA.
I share a hundred percent. You can’t leave me without anything.
You’d allow your only family to become homeless and to die on the streets when you have so much?
That’s not how family works, Reign. You’re supposed to watch out for me.
Dad and Mom always said so. Why are you allowing her to change that? I came here to talk sense into you.”
The whine in Ro’s voice made my teeth ache. I had them clamped together hard, and the urge to shake, yell, and then smack him was overwhelming.
“You are an adult with the ability to work. There is no reason for you to be living homeless on the streets. You may not have the home you do now, but you can survive. While I waited to open my own practice, I lived in a studio apartment in a bad part of town. I ate ramen four nights a week. I never ate out, watched every nickel I made, and drove an old beater of a car. I sacrificed. It took two years of working for another chiropractor while saving to get enough to open my clinic. I remained in the same studio, driving that same car for the first year after I opened. The eating was a little better, but the rest wasn’t.
It’s doable, Rowan. Your brother wants to show you that it is,” Anastasia explained to him.
She hadn’t shared the bad neighborhood or eating ramen with me. I glanced over to find her giving me an empathetic look.
“I don’t want to live like a bum! And why should I, when Reign has more money than he needs?
He’s going to waste it on you, and if you have kids, on them.
It’s unfair. You can talk all day, but it won’t change the fact that you’re screwing me out of my inheritance. Let go. I’m leaving,” Ro growled at me.
I pulled my hands away from him and watched as he shook his shoulders, then inched away from me. He stomped to the front door. I followed him at a distance. When he reached it, Rowan looked over his shoulder at me. His scowl was still in place.
“You’ll regret choosing a stranger over your brother,” Rowan spat.
He unlocked the door and yanked it open as he said those words.
As he finished and stepped into the hallway, I said to him, “No, I won’t.
Goodbye, Ro. I hope you wake up and see me one day.
I still love you and would like to have a relationship with you, but not when all you’re doing is making demands and wasting your life. ”
His derisive snort told me all I needed to hear. I stood there with the door open until he was on the elevator. Then, I closed and locked it. Anastasia had moved over to stand next to me. Her arms encircled me, and her head landed on my chest.
“I’m sorry, honey. I know it hurts,” she whispered.
“It does, but he has to learn. As long as I have you, I’m good.”
We stood there holding and comforting each other for the terrible families we’d been given. Luckily, we’d found each other and could create our own circle of friends and family, whether they were blood or not.