Page 116 of Forgive You

Thank fuck, I got out.

I cock my head. “You don’t give a shit about me, or my dad, or Bradford Real Estate. I came to that conclusion a long time ago. But why your brother? Why Jason? What did he ever do to you?”

“Simple. He was born.”

My eyes almost fall out of their sockets, because it can’t be that simple. “That’s it?”

I’m sure sibling rivalry is a common thing. I’m not lucky enough to have experienced it, and I’m sure it can go pretty deep with two boys, but isn’t it also something that you should grow out of? Get over?

“You wouldn’t know, Jules,” he says, as if he can read my mind. “You’re an only child.”

Considering everything I know now, I’m so fucking relieved I never told him about my brother.

“Enlighten me,” I suggest.

“Do you know what it’s like to have a mom and a dad, and you’re their world, then all of the sudden, you get shoved aside for a new shiny toy?”

I huff. “He’s not a shiny toy. He’s your brother.”

“He’s in my way.” He slams his palm on the wooden surface, leaning in.

He’s going for shock effect, getting me startled, but the more he yells, the smaller he gets in my head.

“So, you’re jealous?”

“Fuck yeah, I’m jealous!” He leans back in his chair. “Everything he ever got was mine first! Everyone always loved Jason. My parents suddenly only saw Jason. He got picked first when we’d play outside with the neighborhood kids. He got better grades in math. Girls noticed him before he finished the eighth grade. I started working out and it took me years to get into shape. He starts working out at sixteen and suddenly he looks like an athlete. And you!” Blue eyes turn two shades darker with vigor, a piercing finger shooting my way. “I saw you first! But he couldn’t stop himself. No, he had to keep butting his head in.”

The man is crazy.

“He’s my friend! He has been since freshman year!”

It wasn’t love at first sight for Jason and me, but I still met him before I met Jacob.

“Still saw you first.”

He sounds like a goddamn toddler.

“Did it ever occur to you that he didn’t ask to be born? That he just wanted you to be his brother?”

He gets up, slamming his glass on the desk, then crosses the room until he’s standing in front of me. Whiskey breath breezes over my face, and I hold in the urge to wrinkle my nose.

I’m not scared of him. But my racing pulse is fully aware that he has at least a foot on me. That his strength will outmatch mine if it comes to it. He tilts his head, his eyes staring down at me from the bridge of his nose.

“Did it ever occur to you that I never wanted to be his brother in the first place?” He reaches in his pocket while our gazes stay linked, then pushes a piece of paper to my chest. “Here is the number of your dad’s lawyer.”

I pull the paper from his grasp with a shaky breath. Lowering his lips right beside my ear, he says, “You have seven days to make it happen.”

And then he disappears through the front door with a loud click.

Fuck.

32

Ifeel disgusted.

Once again, Jacob manages to push me into a corner, and I don’t know what to do. I can’t let him get away with it this time. I can’t just let it happen. But what am I going to do in seven days?

I need that video.

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