Dante
Once Oliver's car drove out of the driveway, I slowly shut the front door before walking back into the dining room. Everyone was talking and laughing with each other as I sat back down, feeling pretty awkward. At least when Oliver was here he helped to calm me down but now I was on my own. Millie and Nathan were cool but I had only been with them one other time. And I had just met his parents and was now eating dinner with them. All of this didn't feel real.
"So you said you were a boxer right?" His mom was suddenly asking me. When I nodded she said, "That sounds pretty interesting. How often do you fight?"
I finished my wine before saying, "Well I used to fight pretty much all the time. I had gotten hurt and needed surgery, not from fighting though, so that slowed me down. And now I honestly haven't fought in awhile." My fingers were then nervously starting to play with my napkin. "I know I'm not a doctor like Oliver or engineer like Nathan. I'm just trying to figure things out now."
When I felt a hand on mine I looked up to see Millie smiling at me. "Dante, not everyone has to be a doctor or engineer. You've been doing something you enjoy your whole life. It really only matters that you're happy."
I noticed his parents and Nathan were nodding as well. "You sound just like Oliver," I said with a small laugh.
"It's pretty obvious that he cares about you, and we do too. Anything you ever need just tell me." Millie was smiling at me again as I scrunched my eyebrows together.
"I just don't get that. You don't even know me, why are you being so nice to me?"
"Why would we be mean?" Nathan suddenly asked. "You make my brother happy, something he hasn't truly been in a while. And also you're a nice person Dante."
I could feel a warm tingling in my chest as I smiled down at the plate in front of me. The rest of the night was actually pretty enjoyable and by the time Nathan drove me home I was really comfortable with Oliver's family. The ride back to Oliver's was quiet but nice, Nathan giving me a friendly hug once he dropped me off.
The house was quiet and dark by the time I entered it, a yawn escaping my lips. As I entered the bedroom I yawned again before taking my shirt off and putting one of Oliver's on. Since it was still a little early, I decided to try and bake something to occupy my time.
It took longer than usual to make some simple cookies, but I finally had some cookies that didn't look like shit. Feeling happy, I drove over to the hospital and walked inside.
"Hi Paul."
The security guard smiled at me as he set his newspaper down. "Evening Dante, here to see Oliver?"
"I am. I just have some things to drop off to him. Do you want some cookies? I can't promise they're good though."
He happily took a zip lock bag of cookies with a smile. "Thanks Dante, they look great."
After giving him a small wave, I held the cookies closer to my chest before walking up the stairs. The path to his office was so familiar by now that I was basically on autopilot. Once I came up to his office I knocked, the door slowly opening once my palm touched it. It must not have been latched all the way when it was shut.
I took a look inside while asking, "Oliver?"
The small light on his desk was on, multiple papers sprawled everywhere. It definitely looked like he rushed out of here in a hurry, maybe to an emergency. Deciding just to wait I plopped down in his comfy chair while taking out one of the cookies.
As I bit off a large chunk, my eyes traveled down to his desk. I didn't want to snoop but my eyes zeroed in on a name that was way too familiar. Kate Ambrosia was labeled at the top of a large stack of documents, making me put the cookie down. I immediately picked the papers up and watched as a picture fell out.
The picture looked like an older Kate, but I knew that was impossible. Once I turned it around I saw someone had written Kate's high school graduation. I flipped the picture back around while feeling a cold sweat break out over my body. The dark hair and dark eyes were so similar, but it was impossible.
When I looked down at the papers again I noticed it was a transcript of a private high school. There were lists of accomplishments such as debate team captain, diver on the school's dive team, habitat for humanity volunteer and member of the student council. There were pictures of her on horseback, laughing with friends on the beach and holding a puppy.
Big fat tears were rolling down my cheeks as I looked at pictures photocopied from a yearbook. She was smiling with a guy at prom when she was crowned prom queen. She was holding up a medal at a dive competition. Her senior picture showed her smiling happily at the camera, her name under her picture. Kate Ambrosia.
"No," I whispered while looking through more documents and pictures of my dead little sister.
When the office door opened I looked up to see Oliver freeze when he saw me. He was holding a large cup of coffee in one hand, a folder in the other. I angrily stood up as he gently shut the door behind him and put the cup down onto a nearby table.
"Are those more documents about Kate? The only sister I had that died? Have anymore secrets you're keeping about my life?" I yelled while he put his hands up in surrender.
"Dante-"
"Don't you dare Dante me! Why the fuck do you have these documents? And why is my sister's dead face plastered all over them?" My hands were shaking again as I wiped more tears off my cheeks. "You better tell me what the fuck is going on or so help me I'm going to kill you."
When he started walking closer to me I started backing up, keeping all the documents against my chest. As my body ran into a bookshelf I realized I was trapped which only made me angrier. He stood a few steps away from me as I started crying harder.
"Something I didn't tell you was a conversation I had with your father when I was in Dallas. I saw him when I was at the airport and we were talking about a particular surgery. I noticed he was holding his phone in his hand and I saw it light up. I saw his lock screen was him and his wife smiling with a smaller version of you. I swear she looked so similar to you it was crazy.
When you told me about your sister's accident, I immediately thought back to the picture I saw. I know you told me she was seven when she had the accident. The girl in the picture was definitely a teenager, which made me feel uneasy. I hired a private investigator and I found out your sister, isn't dead."
I couldn't help but cry as my back dug further back into the bookshelf behind me. "You're joking. Kate isn't alive; I was at the hospital when I was told she died."
Oliver frowned before he said, "You were told yes, but she didn't. The accident caused her some trauma but they weren't life threatening. You were told she was dead to make you feel guilty. They hid her from you; they wanted you to leave Florida so they could continue their lives with her."
I continued to shake my head as more tears were running down my cheeks. "Fuck you Oliver! How dare you make up a story like that?"
"I'm not making this up," he calmly said as he raised his hands back up. "I swear to you."
"Oh you swear huh? How long were you going to keep this fucking secret from me?"
"I didn't want to say anything until I knew for sure. When the PI finally got everything back to me and I knew, I was going to tell you tomorrow. I'm sorry I kept this from you Dante."
"What else have you kept from me? Were you going to continue to get your fucks out of me before you background checked my life?"
I wiped more angry tears off my face as he took another step closer to me. "Dante,"
"Stay the fuck away from me."
Making sure to grab everything associated with Kate, I ran out of the room and down the stairs. I held my sobs in before I got in my car, then I was finally able to sob loudly. As I looked at Kate's picture again, more tears were rolling down my cheeks. This can't be real, I must be dreaming. I started pinching my skin and sobbed more. "Please be a dream, please be a dream." I had no idea what to think but right now, I felt like my entire life was a lie. And the one person I trusted and almost loved, lied to me.
Oliver
I know I fucked up. I know I did. But I didn't want to give him information that wasn't right. However seeing the horrified look on his face was making me realize he probably wasn't going to give me a chance to explain. When he ran out of my office I desperately wanted to follow him, but got called back to the emergency I was working on before. I had to clear my mind of everything, even if it killed me, and focus on one thing at a time. Hopefully Dante wouldn't be gone by the time I was done.
**
The emergency surgery took longer than I expected it would before I was finally running out of the hospital. Once in my truck my fingers started to nervously shake as I made the drive home. I felt somewhat better when I saw Taylor and Dante's cars still in the driveway. He hadn't run away. Yet.
Turning the truck off, my legs quickly took me to the front door before walking into an eerily quiet house. When I had started to go towards my room I saw it was empty. I didn't even stop all the way before pivoting on my feet and walking towards the guest bedroom. I knocked on it while breathing heavily.
When the door was slowly opening it felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest. Taylor's emotionless face stared back at me before he came out into the hallway and shut the door behind him.
"Oliver, he doesn't want to see you."
"You need to let me talk to him Taylor; he needs to know why I didn't tell him. Was I supposed to completely turn his world upside down before I had all the facts?" I frowned while shaking my head and looking around the quiet hallway. "Please. I would never purposefully hurt him."
Taylor looked up at me with sad eyes as he said, "I know you wouldn't hurt him on purpose. This is just a lot for him to take in at once. He just found out his sister is really alive and that you knew it. Granted you didn't know very long, but he feels betrayed. He's going to need some space until he figures this out. Just please, give him space until he comes to you."
I looked at the closed door before swallowing loudly. "Okay." I stared down at my feet while feeling my eyes sting with tears. When I looked back up at him his sad eyes were making me look back down at the ground. "I'll leave him alone. Just please tell him I'm sorry and I didn't mean to hurt him. I'll be here if he ever wants to talk to me again." Taking another shaky breath I looked up at him before looking at the door. I placed a gentle hand onto the door while whispering, "I love you."
Without saying anything else to Taylor I grabbed a bag full of clothes and drove to Nathan's house. He was surprised to see me but didn't ask any questions when I walked past him and ended up into their guest bedroom. My face buried into the fluffy pillows as I stared out the window, feeling pretty numb.
A/N: I'm not from Florida but I was down there for three months last year for an internship. The traffic there is no joke. I wanted to pull my hair out every single day. But I love it! Been there so many times I've lost count. I need snow though.