Page 5 of Deceit

"I've been anassholeto Scarlett." He looks over at his daughter. "I just…I can't do this. She deserves—shit, man, her mother is gone. What the hell do I tell her? How do I explain this to a five-year-old? What if—"

"What did the doctors say?"

Hardy begins to rub at his temple. "They have her on medication to bring the swelling in her brain down. She has bruising, obviously a broken arm. They'll be watching her for the next forty-eight to seventy-two hours."

"Her mother was driving?"

"Yeah, was hit by a bunch of teenage boys fucking around. She...called before she died. Told me where she was, that's how I knew where to find them. Almost sent their car over—" He stops, his body beginning to shake again. "We broke up after Maddy turned two, but we co-parented well together. She and I just didn't work out. It was mutual."

"We'll get her out of the hospital and take her home," I tell him as he settles himself down. "Shit's going to be fine as long as you don't break half the place on your way out."

My brother remains silent, alluding to more thoughts sprinting through his head.

My eyes fall back onto the little bundle of curls, sleeping peacefully without a care in the world. That doesn't know she'll never see her mother again.

"Madelyn, right?"

"Yeah."

"You staying in my shitty trailer when she visits?" Hardy squints his nose. He stays there most of the time, from my understanding, saving money up to buy a house.

"Nah, we stay in a nice hotel, and she gets to swim in the pool. We order room service and watch Disney movies. She enjoys it."

"You guys can stay at my house, it's outside of Pittsburgh. She'll have her own room."

"Don't you…I'm not looking to intrude, man. It's—"

"It's like the trailer," I retort. "I'm barely there."

And she's not staying in that fucking nightmare of a shithole.

"But, I—"

"Listen, I know we don't have the strongest relationship, you barely fucking know me. I’m a dick, and I work a lot but know that I'm not one to argue. Just agree.” I fix him with an already exasperated look. "Cool?"

Hardy nods. "Yeah, man…cool. Thanks."

"Don't mention it." My cell buzzes in my back pocket, and out of habit, I pull it out while Hardy steers back to his daughter.

"I'm sure you mean that figuratively and literally?" he asks.

"You got it." Powering on my screen, all the air that was just filling my chest deflates and disappears.

EMMY: Hey, are you okay?

"You staying at the trailer tonight?" Hardy's voice seeps through my vision of Emmy and her blondish-white locks. The way her honey-brown eyes, when they lift to look up at me, make me want to fuck her until I can't see anymore.

Then I want to strangle her.

"Yeah," I reply offhandedly as if I'm talking through a fog.

My brother leans back in his seat and clasps his hands together. "Then you should know…Bubba is back."

"Touch my ass again, Mills, and I swear to God, I'm going to fuck up those boyish good looks of yours."

"I'm not trying to," he whispers sharply, immediately moving his meaty palms to my upper thighs. "It's in the fucking way, J-Lo."

He pushes me upward again, giving me enough height to grab onto the gutters of the house, but I'm too freaking short to grip anything but the steel gutters.

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