Her

Chapter 5 (Part 2)

~Rachel's P.O.V.~

"You went through my phone?" I ask him, feeling all the heat of my anger race through my body.

"Damn right I did." He snaps back like he had every reason to. "Are you cheating on me?"

"No Marshall." I answer with the most sincere authority that I have.

"Then why are you texting and meeting up with some random guy huh?" He asks me. "How long has this been going on? Does he come here?"

"Marshall-"

"There better not have been another man in this house while I was on tour Rachel." He barks at me.

"I never went to meet him, he's never been here, and if you would just shut up for a minute I could explain it to you-"

"Well your boyfriend said otherwise in his texts." He can't look at me, which is how I know he's hurting.

I feel every muscle in my body jump at that word. Boyfriend. I stand there for a minute. I clench my jaw so hard I think my teeth may break. In an act of anger I pick my phone off of the bed and walk around to his side. I shove it against his chest so hard he stumbles back a few steps.

"Clearly you didn't read all the texts." I hiss at him, starting to cry.

"I don't need to I've seen enough." He says, shaking his head.

"Read them Marshall." I demand. "Finish what you started and afterwards when you feel like an idiot we can talk."

I turn around and walk towards the door.

"Where the hell are you going?" He calls after me.

"Taking Lola to school. You better be done with those by the time I get back."

***

I tried to prolong dropping Lola off as long as I could. I even drove around the block a couple extra times just to burn time. And now I'm standing in front of our front door so scared to face him after walking out like that. I take a minute to compose myself. This has been a long time coming. I knew that this would come out eventually I just never thought it would be like this. After another deep breath I push open the front door. My initial scan of the living room clears it of his presence which I'm grateful for. But it's when I look again that I see him walking out of the kitchen holding my phone.
My heart stops when I see him. I can't even begin to decipher the expression on his face. I close my eyes, feeling my breath shake on my exhales. After a minute or two I open them again and see he's much closer to me. There's a weird silence between us and I don't know if I'll be able to speak.

"So it turns out..." He says quietly to me, setting my phone down on the coffee table. "I'm an asshole."

"You're not." I shake my head.

"Rachel, how come you never told me you have a brother?" He asks.

"He's not my brother." I say involuntarily. "Well he is. I mean, he's my half brother. At least he says he is. I didn't know about him until recently."

"I'm sorry about everything I said." He shakes his head once. "I wish I knew."

"It's okay." I say. "Marshall, I've never even told Thatcher. I haven't spoken to Vic since I was ten. I don't know how he found me."

"I thought you didn't know him?"

"I do. But, not as my brother. I knew him as a kid kind of but not that we were related."

"He's been with your dad all this time?" He asks.

"No. Well, I don't know. My dad got Vic's mom pregnant before I was born. My mom knew he was cheating which is why they ended things but I don't think she ever knew about him. And when I would go see my dad Vic was there, but my dad told me he was his friend." I explain.