Page 50 of An Unexpected Home

She scoffed. “I have never and would never do such a thing.”

“Lie and lie,” he said matter-of-factly. “You always get ahead of yourself and then things go up in flames.”

“Hmfph,” she said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Mom,” he said softly, “I want you to get to know Leah, I do. But can you let me get to know her first?” His voice was pleading.

Her face softened. “She’s that important to you?”

“She is,” he acknowledged.

“Then I’ll leave you be but, and you just need to be aware, your dad knows too.”

He sighed. He’d deal with him later. “Where is dad?” He looked around to see if he could spot him.

“He’s coming later with Mike. We thought coming at separate times was better.”

Mike was his dad's brother and Carly’s dad. “That was smart.”

“Hey Bran,” Logan said, walking up to him and their mom. He kissed their mom on her cheek before saying, “Carly is looking for Melanie. Have you seen her?”

“She went home to grab something real quick.” He looked at his watch, concerned. “But that was over twenty minutes ago.”

“She’s not answering her phone either,” Logan said. “And it’s not like her to not answer Carly.”

“Why don’t I run by the house and see if she is still there? Maybe she needs some help?”

“I’ll go.” Logan stopped him. “You’re needed here.”

“I better go back inside then,” he told his mom. “The place looks really great,” he said to her at the last minute.

Entering the building again, he refilled stacks of pamphlets and picked up garbage. He was just going to check bathrooms to make sure they were fully stocked when his phone rang.

“Logan,” he said, holding it to his ear after seeing who it was.

“Bran, you have to come now!” He was breathless and frantic.

“What’s wrong, what happened?” He maneuvered through the people to make his way out of the studio. Logan was not a cry wolf kind of guy. So Brandon was on full alert at his crazed voice.

“Mel, she’s hurt and the house was broken into. Hurry please!” he pleaded.

He had never heard his brother sound so frightened. And hearing that Mel was hurt – Mel who was like a sister to him – had him running through the parking lot to his car.

The three-minute drive was torture. Pulling up to the house, he barely had the car in park before jumping out.

“Logan!” he shouted.

“In here!” Logan yelled back from inside the house.

The front door was open and when he stepped in the house, fear that he’d held at bay for the drive, was now front and center. The whole place looked tossed. Furniture was tossed, thrown about the room, and anything that had ever been on a table or shelf was now on the floor.

Looking around he finally spotted Logan kneeling over Mel on the floor in the corner.

“What the fuck happened?” he rushed to their sides.

“I don’t know, I came in and found it and her like this.”

“I’m fine,” she said, trying to sit up with Logan practically holding her down.

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