We are the Answer {boyxboy} ✔ (Dogs, Bats & Monkeys series, Book I | Rhys)

Chapter 31

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to @bookmunchies.

Thank you for all the amazing comments you leave on this story!

They really make me think where my characters and the book in general are headed.

*****

I approached my brother and hugged him from behind. He turned in my embrace, burying his face into my t-shirt, dampening the fabric as he sobbed.

"He is right." His muffled words were mixed with a sniff. "I abandoned him."

I blinked away my own tears, my heart breaking at my sibling's pain.

"There was nothing you could do," I told him quietly as I rubbed his back. "The Maksimoff are rich enough to hire the best lawyers or bribe the judge. You did what you could, but they are powerful and you were only sixteen."

His grip on my t-shirt tightened and he pulled back to look at me with reddened eyes.

"I should've done something."

"What?" I asked him. "What more could you have done, Everett?"

"I don't know." He let go of me and ran a hand through his short hair. "Something."

I opened my mouth, but he shook his head.

"I know what you are going to say, Rhys, and..." He sighed. "I suppose you are right. Nothing short of the Great Spirits intervening would've gotten me my son, but I... I feel as if I should've somehow let him know that I wanted to be there for him."

"You were there for him," I tried to convince my sibling. "You were there early every time the judge allowed you to visit and left as late as you possibly could." I stepped towards him and placed a hand over his shoulder. "It's not that Alec hasn't seen you try to be with him; he just refuses to acknowledge it."

"And whose fault is that?" He asked through a whisper. The tears had stopped falling and he looked tired... Aged... Older than our dad.

"Anastasiya's," I replied without hesitation.

"But I let her raise him, Rhys."

"How many times do I have to tell you, brother?" I squeezed his shoulder, "There was nothing..."

"I could've done," he finished with another heavy exhale.

"And you considered a lot of options." I shook my head. "You even though about kidnapping him and running away."

"Yeah..." He looked at me with guilt in his eyes. "Thanks for stopping me then. And sorry I got angry at you."

"I was just a kid, but even I understood what you were going through. I was never crossed about you shouting at me back then."

He nodded without saying a word and my arm dropped from his shoulder.

"What now?" I asked.

"I go home and pretend that nothing happened." He looked down and kicked a pebble. "I hate hiding things from Lisa, but there's no reason for her to get upset as well."

"She'll know something is wrong," I stated.

"She'll think it has to do with the new murder. And Rhys?"
"Yes?"

"Don't tell mom and dad about it. Please."

I nodded.

This was something our parents would want to know about. Something they would want to help with.