Chapter 26
Denny
And the gentleness that comes
not from the absence of violence,
but despite the abundance of it.
― Richard Siken, Crush
Micah’s vibes were nothing like his sister’s.
Where Eris was cold and thorny on the surface, he was warm and gentle, genial, even.
They didn’t look strikingly alike despite their similar colouring.
He had a square, angular face that bore zero resemblance to Eris’ perfect oval, eyes smaller and sharper than hers, and a nose crooked to one side, as if it’d been broken and hadn’t healed properly.
He was handsome in a way that was obvious even to Denny.
Unlike Eris, when he smiled a fan of laugh lines appeared at the sides of his eyes and mouth, but he, too, had scars that testified to the rough past he had escaped.
Since the moment his eyes set on her, Micah had been watching Eris as though he couldn’t quite believe she was there.
Denny was an only child, she didn’t know what a bond between brother and sister might be like, but she could feel that a decade and a half apart hadn’t been enough to dampen the affection the Keane siblings had for each other.
It moved her to the very bottom of her soul to see someone else look at Eris with a love as great and deep as her own.
Now that Micah was here, she was confident things would be looking up, one way or another.
“I need a lawyer,” said Eris, cheek pressed into Deny’s arm, after a long silence. “Well, I have the lawyer. What I don’t have is the money to pay him.”
Two deep creases formed across Micah’s forehead. Like Eris, he looked younger than his age. Thirty-three, but by his looks he could’ve been in his mid-twenties.
“Are you in trouble?”
“I choked her crazy ex-girlfriend,” Eris grumbled into Denny’s arm.
“Of course you did.”
“She put her fucking hands on me!”
Micah’s expression morphed to sympathetic awareness.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I did a bit of research and I think you might be—”
“Autistic,” Denny blurted. She bit her tongue right after, but Micah seemed pleasantly surprised.
“Yes.”
Eris frowned. “You’ve been shrinking me behind my back?”
“You can do it to me but I can’t do it to you?”
“Whatever. The point is her ex is trying to get me locked up.”
“Is that likely?” Micah gaped at Denny, who could only shrug.
“I haven’t exactly been an exemplary citizen, either,” said Eris. “This is just the cherry on the cake.”
“Can’t say I’m surprised. The apple never falls too far from the tree, eh?”
“Like we had a choice.”
Micah sighed. “So what happened with this ex?”
“She took it out on Eris to punish me for not wanting her back.”
“Sounds like a real winner.”
“She’s a notorious stalker, but Eris is a registered offender, so the situation is… tricky.”
“It was a slip,” Eris stressed. “I’m straight now.”
“Kind of,” Denny quipped.
“Legally straight.”
The smirk they shared put a soft smile on Micah’s face.
“So are you gay or…?”
“Bi.”
Micah grinned. “What did you do,” he asked, “before you two met?”
“Survived,” said Eris in that matter-of-fact manner of hers that never quite matched the gravity of the topic. “Shitty jobs, shitty life. But I was free.”
“No friends?”
“I’ve always been better off on my own.”
“Your current situation says otherwise.”
Denny put hand on top of Eris’. An achingly soft gaze brushed over her.
“She sneaked up on me.”
Micah smiled.
Serendipity was what Denny had always thought.
Not that she believed in destiny, divine providence, or anything like that; she just thought it was a peculiar coincidence that two people like herself and Eris, who had nothing in common and whose lives and backgrounds were so drastically different, would meet on such a random night in such a random place in such a delicate moment.
Maybe it wasn’t destiny or providence, but it had to be something.
“What about you?” asked Eris, almost shyly. “You seem… accomplished.”
“Ah, can’t complain.” Micah’s answer was just as shy, if a smidgen self-complacent. “I have a shockingly ordinary life in Luxembourg. Brilliant job, gym subscription, therapy once a week…”
“Luxembourg.”
“Yeah.”
“How did you end up in bloody Luxembourg?”
Micah stared down at his feet. Denny sensed uneasiness.
Luxembourg was distant, but not so distant that you couldn’t jump on a plane and be in London as fast and for cheaper than you could get to Birmingham by train.
She’d visited Luxembourg City with her parents as a child and she still fondly remembered the antique beauty of its streets, the abundance of greenery, how clean and tidy and peaceful it was. Eris would’ve loved it.
“I worked for a Singaporean company here in London. I was offered to manage a new office they were opening abroad.” Micah was fidgeting with the crumpled kitchen paper, rolling the border in and out. “When I saw the pay, I signed without a second thought.”
“You moved to a different country just like that.”
“There was nothing for me here, no one to stay for.” His shrug wasn’t wholly nonchalant. “I’m kind of a lone wolf, too.” A small smile curved Eris’ lip. “All that mattered was that I’d finally have the funds to look for you.”
Denny’s heart shrank. She wiped the crumpled kitchen paper under her nose. Everything this man had done since walking out of prison, he’d done to find his little sister. He’d been out there all along, thinking about Eris, working for her, fighting for her…
“I was lucky,” Micah continued. “Met the right people. I’m trying to give back by hosting online IT courses for YOIs here in the UK.”
Denny blinked. “What’s a YOI?”
“Young Offender Institution,” explained Eris.
“It’s where you get dumped when you’re too young to be convicted like a real criminal.
” She’d been forced to visit one of those places after a particularly gruesome fistfight with a schoolmate at sixteen, which had seemed unfair, since the boy had returned from the hospital in just three weeks with a new and very improved nose he should’ve thanked her for.
“Is Luxembourg a nice place to live?”
Eris was picking at her nails. Denny had never seen her looking so lost and so determined not to show it.
“Bit pricey, but yeah. I have a flat in a nice area. Two bedrooms, lovely view of the park and the river… When I got it, I kept telling myself: ‘I’m going to bring Eris here, give her the good life she always deserved’... I reckon Denny beat me to it.”
There was no recrimination in the glance Micah cast Denny—gratitude, if anything—, so she didn’t know why her arms held Eris a little bit tighter, why she leaned a little bit closer. Micah nodded as if responding to something unspoken.
Eris’ head settled under Denny’s chin, lips brushing upon her collarbone. It was her way of saying: ‘It’s okay, Sunshine. I’m not going anywhere.’ Then she turned to Micah to ask: “When do you have to go back?”
“I took a week off. Should be enough to get in touch with your lawyer and assess the situation.”
“I meant how long we have left to spend together.”
Denny was ashamed of her own relief. She knew Eris wouldn’t have left her just like that, but her anxious attachment appreciated hearing it spelled out loud.
“Don’t worry about time.” Micah reached for his cup to take a sip of tea. “It’s an easy commute, I can come back at the weekends.” He faltered as he set the cup back down. “As long as you girls don’t m—”
“We have a spare bedroom!” exclaimed Denny. “It’s crammed with rubbish now, but we can—”
“No, no.” Micah amiably waved the offer off.
“I don’t want to impose. I can get a hotel.
That’s not the point.” He glanced at Eris.
“You were a kid the last time I saw you and now you’re an adult…
We need to get to know each other again.
” His eyes crinkled as they shifted to Denny.
“And, of course, I need to get to know my lovely sister-in-law.”
Denny could already picture Christmas lunch at Grandma’s cottage in the Cotswolds: Mum and Dad and Aunt Aunika, Iya Iya Adunni and Grandpa George flying over from Lagos, and Grandma Tansy being a proud host as usual.
Eris was going to spend her first holidays with a real family, and she’d have her brother by her side.
“The sister-in-law shares the sentiment. Oh, and we can come to Luxembourg, too!”
Eris would need a new suitcase. A passport, too. If they hurried with the application, in three weeks they might be sitting in a cosy café in Boulevard Royal.
“The plane tickets will be spenny,” Eris mumbled.
“We can use my dad’s pilot discounts! We might even be able to fly for free if—” Denny pulled a break on her own enthusiasm. She could feel Eris’ head spin from how fast everything was happening. “It’s a piece of cake.”
Novelty distressed Eris as much as it thrilled Denny: they definitely wouldn’t be able to just hop on a plane on a whim. Not Denny’s whim, anyway.
Micah finished his tea, rubbing his lips together over the last few drops.
He looks so much like her when he’s pensive.
The deep dent in this chin was sharp and clean, very different from the jagged lines that slanted across Eris’ mouth. Denny loved that Eris didn’t hate those scars, that she didn’t feel self-conscious about them, because they were an inherent part of her beauty that Denny was deeply fond of.
Micah cleared his throat. “If you have a couple of hours to spare tomorrow, we can go to the bank and open a joint account.”
Eris frowned. “What for?”
“To pay for the lawyer, for starters. And anything else you need.”
“The lawyer’s enough.”
Micah looked hurt. Denny gave Eris’ shoulder a warning squeeze.
“She has a slight hyperindependence problem,” she said. “We’re working on it.”
“Can you at least… I don’t know, take Denny out for dinner? Or get tickets to a gig. Anything stupid that you would’ve bugged me for when you were growing up.”
He must have been dwelling on it for years—since the day he’d left, probably. Denny smoothed the hair down Eris’ back, imploring her to loosen up a bit on her self-sufficiency for her brother’s sake.
“Alright.” Eris straightened up. “We’ll be getting a tattoo in your honour. Good enough?”
“Perfect.”
Denny squeezed Eris’ shoulder again, this time as a praise. Eris made a big show of rolling her eyes.
“Give her some time. She’s tough as nails, but she turns into cookie dough if you know how to handle her.”
“Handle me?” scoffed Eris. “What am I, a tiger cub?”
“If someone hits you, you hit them harder. But if someone is gentle with you…” Denny pressed a kiss to Eris’ cheekbone. Eris melted against her. “This happens.”
Eris’ response was burying her face into Denny’s neck for a vengeful bite that prompted a giggle rather than a protest.
‘Sorry,’ Denny mouthed to Micah, who shook his head forgivingly.
“What are you apologising for? Making her happy?”
The jab had a core of gratitude that wasn’t lost on Denny.
Everything was this close to being perfect.
They only had one last obstacle to overcome.
Only…