Page 38 of Morsel

“To be alone? Yeah. To have a stepparent that hates me? Also yes.”

“My stepmom sent us to boarding school.”

“You and Ryan, right?”

“Phoenix was too old,” he says.

“Phoenix got lucky.”

“He didn’t. There were no winners,” he says. “We all lost.”

“And now you had to go and find out about your dad’s indiscretions.”

“That’s such a nice way to describe it.”

“Oscar, your dad was a rich guy.”

“What?”

“He was a rich boy.”

He stares at me, blinking.

“Your dad was so fucking rich that it’s amazing he didn’t have more scandals.”

“I don’t think that’s much of a comfort.”

“Maybe not,” I say. “Still, he took kids, and he gave them homes. There are worse things.”

“We don’t know what happened to all of the kids,” Oscar says.

“Then you need to find out,” I say. “You need to track them down, and you need to make sure they’re okay. Then maybe you’ll find out what my brother was really after.”

And maybe we’ll find out why my brother was so quick to be willing to throw me under the bus.

20

Oscar

After work, we return to my home. Dolly traipses inside of the apartment, drops her purse on the floor, and sits down beside it.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m tired.”

“Baby.” I reach for her hands. I tug her back to her feet and into my arms. “Talk to me.”

“You?”

“Me.”

“I’m just…”

And then Dolly does something I don’t expect.

Dolly starts to laugh.

This isn’t some gentle snicker, either. She’s full-on rage laughing. Her head goes back, and when she comes back up, she wraps her arms around me, and she kisses me.

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