Page 75 of The Forever Rule

“I don’t know. I can’t talk to my mom about it, because she’s mourning a man that I apparently didn’t know. It’s not like I haven’t met our father. He ate dinner with us, he was there on Christmas morning.”

“Busy day since he was also there at our Christmas mornings,” I said dryly.

“Because he always had to work and would leave early. So I don’t know the man that you know. And I didn’t know my mother this whole time.”

“Sadly my mother knowing about a secret family and being icy cold about it doesn’t really change my view about her.”

Isabella grimaced as the waitress set down our food. We said our thanks, and we each picked up a fry, playing with the edge of it. I didn’t even think Isabella realized that we were doing the same movement, and I had to wonder exactly how genetics worked.

“I’m sorry that you had to deal with that woman. Because I had an amazing mom.”

“I’m sorry that this broke your view of her.”

“And I think that’s what I hate the most. I never liked Dad. And that’s a horrible thing to say about a dead man who happens to be your father.”

“Dad was an asshole. I don’t like him very much either.”

“But we all had our certain relationships with him. I went into accounting with large corporations because my dad helped me with numbers when I was little, and everything just clicked. And it was all a lie.”

“Not all of it. We have to believe that. If it’s all of it, then nothing makes sense.”

“And that’s the problem. Nothing does make sense. But then again, this is a very weird situation.”

“I can’t believe that I didn’t really know it was Phoebe that was hurt that whole time,” I said, bringing me back to the beginning of our conversation.

“And the fact that Ford, a man that I met, happens to be my brother as well? I always thought he looked familiar, but I didn’t realize that it was because all of you guys have Kyler’s eyes.”

I sighed, and bit into the fry. “You know what’s weird, I really like his music.”

Isabella beamed. “He’s brilliant. I can’t believe that he’s going on tour and has albums. He’s really making something of himself, and it’s so strange because he’s my baby brother.”

“Has the scandal broken in his circles yet?” I asked, honestly worried.

She shook her head. “Not really. I think there were a couple of articles, but now they’ve moved on to a new thing. Kyler doesn’t share most things. He puts on a smile, pretends he’s a lazy musician, but I don’t know everything. I wish I did.”

“Well, maybe he’ll confide in a brother.”

She scowled at me, and I just laughed.

“I was kidding, but you never know. I grew up in a house of just boys. So I feel like Kyler’s situation is probably completely different than the rest of ours.”

“Oh no I didn’t even think about that. He was stuck with all of us girls, and now you guys outnumber us.”

“Pretty much,” I said with a laugh, and we continued to eat, discussing each of our siblings in turn. It felt like something had changed, as if maybe we weren’t adversaries, but allies in this war against history and family.

“Back to your job. So Phoebe getting hurt made you not look?” I asked, trying to get the image of Phoebe hurt out of my mind.

“I missed a big interview, and then it set me back for a bit. And even before that, I was ready to start the process, and then Sophia retired from ballet, and wanted to open a dance studio. And I ended up having to stay on so that way I could help her co-sign.”

My eyes widened. “That was selfless.”

“It is what family does. And in the end, I didn’t even have to truly co-sign because Sophia did really well for herself, but it’s what family does. And then Kyler got alittle bit bigger, and I wanted to be able to have the time off to travel, and starting over would’ve been hard, and then Emily was looking for jobs, and happened to get an interview at the same place that I was, and I knew that they weren’t going to be able to hire both of us, so I stepped back.”

“And you still work in a job you hate,” I said softly.

“Pretty much.”

“You’ll work with us,” I said, finally blurting what I had been trying to put into words this entire time.

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