Page 18 of Sutton and the CEO Forever

I supposed that I just didn’t have the emotional attachment to it that he did. I had enjoyed getting to know my birth father better through Mark’s eyes. He would get very animated when speaking of Hollingsworth. It was obvious that Mark adored the man. I also was very much aware that Hollingsworth had been a father figure to Mark when his own had been cold and cruel.

So why couldn’t I just let them have that? Why did I feel betrayed or left out somehow? I knew it was silly and immature, but I couldn’t help the feelings that existed.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Brian said. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah,” I answered quietly. “Just worried about Evie.”

“She’s going to be okay,” he said.

I looked over at him. “How do you know?”

“Because she has to be,” he said firmly.

I nodded. But it didn’t make me feel any better. I knew that bad things sometimes happened to good people.

Once in the emergency room, we were lucky enough that Dr. Young happened to be doing his rotation in the ER. He took us back and immediately began checking Evie out.

“She’s breathing really fast,” I mentioned.

Dr. Young smiled down at me. “I know it seems that way. She is congested, and it looks like she has an ear infection on the right side. How long has she had trouble with the congestion?”

“A few days,” I answered. “What do we do?”

Dr. Young went over his instructions and sent prescriptions for some antibiotic drops. Once we were released, I turned to Brian. “Thanks for being an amazing brother-in-law and bringing us here. I really appreciate it.”

Brian blushed a little. “It’s not a problem. You know, I never thought Mark and I would ever have a relationship. I don’t know if you know this, but when he first reached out to me, he said it was because of something you had said.”

“Me?” I floundered. “What did I say?”

“He said that you were talking about your mom.”

“My mom? I can’t imagine what I could have said.”

Brian smiled. “You know, Mark’s changed a lot since meeting you. Of course, I had met him once or twice growing up. But we were never close, not by a long shot. I thought Mark was a cold bastard like his father. When Mark first reached out, I wasn’t sure I wanted to get to know him better. But he kept going on and on about this amazing woman he had met.”

I felt a lump of emotion building in my throat. “He talked about me?”

Brian rolled his eyes. “He couldn’t stop talking about you. Shit, I just thought that he wanted in your pants.”

That made me laugh. “Nice, what does that have to do with my mom?”

“Nothing,” Brian returned with a wide smile. “I will tell you what he said, though. Mark was telling me how you felt like you had lived with your mom your whole life and never really knew her at all.”

I felt a pang of regret. “It’s true. I would give anything just to have another moment with her. To tell her how much I love her, how much all of her sacrifices have meant to me. The chance to say that I forgive her for the drugs and the men. I didn’t know, not really.”

“That’s what Mark said. It got me thinking about my relationship with Mark. I work a dangerous job where tomorrow isn’t always guaranteed. If I wanted to truly know what having a brother was like, I had to push aside all of the shitty things that don’t matter. I want to thank you and Mark, for letting me into your lives. I always knew about him. But I never figured on having a sister.”

My eyes welled up with tears. “I never thought I would have a brother. But I am so glad that I do.”

Brian tapped my shoulder awkwardly and then took the car seat from my hands. “Let’s get the princess home. I can swing back to the pharmacy and pick up her prescription.”

I nodded. “That sounds just about perfect.”

It was just then that my phone rang again.

Answering the call, I said, “Hello?”

“Hey, beautiful.”

---