Page 83 of Unraveled

“Helen.” Dad and Uncle Stef said in unison.

She looked between them, her expression infuriatingly calm, like she was telling them it would be okay.

“Trust me. Please. It’s time. There’s no reason for this misunderstanding. Besides…” She looked around at their friends, her gaze landing on Bridgette last. “I think it may help y’all understand why I insisted you stop.”

“Helen, what could this possibly have to do with us?” Chuck asked.

“Oh, I promise you, it relates,” Uncle Stef replied. “Come on, why don’t we all step inside so our families can continue while we talk? I’m sorry, everyone. Please, excuse us for a while.”

“Drew, do you mind?” Chuck gestured to the party.

“Of course.” He waved his brother on.

I just glared at my aunt’s back as I followed everyone inside.

Chapter 26

JET

“Jet.” Harper ran up as Annie and I rounded out the last of the group heading inside. With only a look, she was asking,beggingto be included. I debated, popping my knuckles with my thumb against my leg. I didn’t know what we were about to learn. Did I protect her from it or own the fact that she was getting older? Annie squeezed my arm, and with a slight nod, I was gowling and jerking my head for my little sister to come in. The younger siblings were left outside in the aftermath.

I shut the door behind us, and we followed the rest of our families down the back hall into the room I’d just snuck out of with Annie. She sent me a look as we all found chairs or pulled up seats, settling onto different parts of the furniture. She and I shared an armchair next to Izzy and Tucker, the girls in our laps, and I tried not to wince when my parents and uncle took a seat directly on the couch we’d just violated.

Nic sent us a strange look and perched against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, but I wasn’t in the mood for any of his cryptic looks or attitude. They wayhe’d gone off outside? Everything he’d been hiding? I was reserving my judgment for when we got the full story. Something he should have done.

While tempers were no longer flaring in every direction, tension could still be felt around the room, dense and palpable as we waited for my parents to begin.

Mom leaned forward in her seat and ran a slightly trembling hand over Harper’s hair at her knees as she looked around at the rest of us. Taking a deep breath, a nervous laugh escaped as she exhaled.

“I’m sorry, everyone. It’s just strange to talk about this. It’s been over twenty years since Stef and I really discussed it before going to Greece back in March. Well, perhaps a few times in between when old demons became too much, but I’ve gotten better at holding those in.”

The glance she sent me with that comment was like a cattle prod to my memory of last summer with all of their fighting. How Dad had finally relented and explained it related to their past in Greece but also how strongly they’d tried to hide whatever it was.

“Helen…” Uncle Dimitris leaned forward on the sofa to see past my dad. “If it’s going to be too much for you, I can explain.”

“No.” Nic’s cold voice rang out. “It needs to come from her.”

My jaw set, protectiveness building up inside me for my mom, even though I really had no idea if it should. Nic could actually be right. Annie’s fingers brushed along my arm, helping to ease my tension and nerves, and I squeezed her waist, pressing my nose to the back of her shoulder to drink her in. Instantly relaxing.

“It’s okay. I’ll do it,” Mom finally answered my uncle. He studied her face for several moments before giving her a nod and sitting back.

“Back in Greece,” she started. “Back when Stef and I were still children in many ways and Dimitris was new to married life and adulthood. Very close to your age.” She paused to look at Nic. “Well, that’s when things got confusing, but it’s not when it all began. It was generations before ours that started the torch of hatred between our families. Our great grandpas grew up as best friends, even standing up for one another at their weddings, but things fell apart quickly after that. We’re not entirely sure of the real story. It varied from both sides, but it was dark and ugly, and it doesn’t really matter here.

“What matters is that a feud broke out between two very close families, and over time and generations, anger turned to hatred, the resentment ran so deep. It festered and spread for a long time. Until I met Stefano.” She smiled lovingly at my dad.

“My father, while hehatedthe Thanos family just as much as his own father and brothers, thankfully, didn’t want his own children to grow up near the feud, so he moved us away to another island even before I was born. I spent the first sixteen years of my life knowing about this horrible family but never actually meeting any of them, until my grandpa got sick and my father decided to return home.

“It was right after the funeral that we met.” She squeezed Dad’s hand he held against her leg. “My family was still at the burial site, talking and planning who’s home we’d go to feast at first, as the Greeks do, but Ineeded space and took a walk along a path I found to clear my head.

“It wasn’t long before I was nearly trampled by some stupid boy running out from the trees. We collided, and he toppled over me, sending us both to the ground. I was just about to yell at him when I looked into the most handsome face I’d ever seen. When he held his hand out to help me up, I couldn’t think. There he was, apologizing and telling me his name was Stefano, but his friends called him Stef, while I stood there stammering and forgetting my own name. He smiled at me, and I’d swear to this day that my heart skipped a beat. It was several seconds before I finally blurted out my name. It was an awful first impression.” Her expression pulled in a grimace.

“No.” Dad shook his head, smiling. “I remember thinking I was lucky that I rememberedminewhen I’d just fallen over an angel.”

Mom blushed. “Anyway. After our clumsy start, we found some rocks to sit on nearby and ended up talking for a while. He explained to me that he’d been visiting his older brother with his new wife and had decided to see how fast he could make it home if he took a direct path instead of using the roads. I’d thought it was strange, but I was fascinated, and I explained that I was trying to clear my head. He asked me if it had worked. I’d smiled and told him, ‘Not until you came along.’

“That was when I heard my father calling for me. Stef jumped up, helped me down from the rock, and said, ‘I guess that’s our cue for this to end.’ I’d looked at him, my heart falling in my chest, and asked if it had to be anend. He’d smiled that heart-stopping smile and said, ‘We’ll see,’ before he took off the way he came.

“I didn’t understand it then, but I do now.”

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