FALLEN (NOW PUBLISHED ON AMAZON)

65.

"What did he do, Simon?"  I ask him calmly, but extremely worried to learn about the gravity of the situation.  

I look over at Ronnie, but I don't get an answer.  She keeps her eyes on Si as if they've been through hell together.  I pinch my lips and hold back my tears. What has our lives come to?  I can't believe I've put my brothers and my best friend through that, whatever it might have been.   

He doesn't answer me, and that scares me even more, because I see another way to look at things.  Blood freezes in my veins when I lean more towards him, demanding his sight to cross mine.

"Si?  What did you do?"  I ask again calmly, but being terrified inside because I know just how impulsive my brother can be.

His eyes don't leave mine an instant, until he shakes his head and looks down.  He only looks up to find Ronnie. Still not answering me, I'm losing my patience, anxiety is killing right now. I want to know what happened, what can we do to fix the situation and when can we fix it.

"Can somebody please answer me!?  What happened!?"

"Ronnie called me the night of the argument when Steeve happened to see if I could come over.  She told me that Steeve had stormed in the restaurant looking for her to talk trash about you."  He finally explains, Ronnie quickly adds something.

"George threw him out of the restaurant and banned him for life."

William and I both look at her and listen to them without saying anything.  I don't even know how to feel about that. I've known about it for a while, but I was dealing with so much that I had pushed it aside without ever really dealing with it.

"When I got to Nando's, she was crying.  The restaurant had fired her and her car had been vandalised."

"They fired you?!"  I react instantly, looking now at Ronnie, but Simon continues.  I don't know if it's for the better or for worse...

"They did.  It appears that he had done the same thing in the past and the boss didn't want it to happen again.  And it happened.  So they fired her because it had upset and scared the clients. I let the dust settled and handled it with the manager.  I made sure a picture of him was put on the door to keep him from entering. I've also gotten her the job back, she had no right to be a victim twice, and certainly since she hadn't done anything wrong.  I contacted the owner of the building and told him to throw Steeve out. I told him he was banned from the Nando's and was seen harassing and abusing an employee. The owner didn't need much more encouragement.  It appears he didn't pay last month's rent on time."

"Good riddance."  William lets out, smiling to his brother.  But I don't know if we can smile just yet.

"Are you saying we are done with him?"

"He has until the end of the month to leave, but after that I don't think we'll hear from him again.  Thankfully we have the law on our side, and we have footage of him keying Ronnie's car. If he ever comes back to haunt us, I've told him that he was going to jail.  Maybe I exaggerated a little, but he doesn't know that." Simon smiles to his twin, and then to Ronnie, taking her hand on the table to give it a little squeeze.

I will not lie, I'm extremely thankful to my brother to have handled this situation both for my sake and Ronnie's sake, but thinking of throwing Steeve out on the streets isn't an idea that pleases me.  Maybe it's because there's a part of me still manipulated by him, or a better and kinder part of me that finds it a little extreme. I don't let this thought bother me so much, I'm happy we can finally move on from him and move forward.