Page 27 of Hidden Heir

“No! Why would you think that?”

“Because it’s what you do! It’s all you freaking think about!”

“I’m anaddict, Brooke,” Ant sniffles. “You don’t yell at a cancer patient for wanting pain meds. I have a disease!”

“A disease called selfish stupidity! I needed you last night! I was out there trying to saveyourass, and I came home after going through hell to find you passed out from shooting up while my daughter was in the next room!” I slap him again and he cowers away from me. “I put my life on the line for you, and you couldn’t last one night, one freaking night, without humping a needle!”

“Brooke, please!” Ant cowers down on the couch and begins to sob, pulling at his clothes. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m so sorry! I wasscared about what you were doing, and Tiff was crying, and I just lost it, okay? You don’t know what it’s like. Something inside of me takes over and I can’t fight it, no matter how hard I try.”

My anger stalls. He looks pathetic, crying into his hands. Slowly, a bubble of guilt rises.

“I try so hard,” he weeps. “I wanted to be like you because you trusted me. I wanted to be strong enough to fight it like you were strong enough to face those men. But I have no control over it. I try to fight it but I always lose. I’m scared it will kill me and I don’t want to leave you all alone! I don’t want to be an addict. I want to be better, you know I do.”

Despair rises in my chest and I approach him slowly. That part of me that aches for my brother comes to pieces in sympathy for his pain. In some ways, he’s right. I have no idea what it’s like to live each day as he does. No idea what it’s like to fight that hunger every second of every day. I pity him, and I miss the brother he once was.

But that doesn’t negate how terrified I was last night. I could have died. Tiff could have died, or worse. As usual, all he cared about was drugs.

“You’re an asshole,” I say, though it lacks some of the previous fire. “You keep doing this. You keep letting me down. I could have died, Ant. You have no idea what I had to endure.”

“I know, and I’m sorry.” He lifts his tear-stained face. “But you did it, right?”

There’s a sudden note of hope in his voice as he clasps my hand between his cold fingers.

“What?”

“You did what they expected of you, you slept with them, right? Is our debt—?” He says in a lowered voice as he lifts his brow.

The anger comes back like a tornado and I cut him off. “Ourdebt? Are you fucking kidding me? This isyourfucking debt!No, I didn’t do it! They weren’t looking for just sex, they wanted to torture and hurt me. The only reason you’re here right now is because you’re my only family. Otherwise, I would have just handed you over to them. While I was doing everything I could to protect you, you left my daughter to?—”

I glance toward the other room to check on her and freeze.

She’s gone.

“Tiff?” No answer. I scream her name and sprint from the room. Just as terror grips me like coils of barbed wire, relief pours through me in the same instant. At the end of the hall stands Tiff, Rik and the woman who rushed past us earlier next to her. The woman is crouched down observing a drawing in Tiff’s hands.

“Mommy?” she says as she spins around.

“Tiffany!” I sprint toward her and immediately scoop her up into my arms. “Oh my god, honey, you can’t do that, okay? You can’t just leave without letting Mommy know!”

“I’m sorry.” Tiff says. “I wanted to show my drawing and Mr. Rik said we could go.”

“Given what I heard,” Rik begins, “I thought it best that we leave the area.”

“And I completely agree with Rik’s decision,” the woman adds.

I narrow my eyes at her. “Who are you?”

“I’m Selina.” She holds out her hand. “I’m one of the guards here, well, sort of.”

“Oh.” I shake her hand while balancing Tiff. “Brooke.”

“I know who you are.” She smiles warmly and tucks a strand of black hair behind her ear. “You look like you need some fresh air. Want to walk with me?”

I glance back at Ant’s room, but I can’t stomach facing him again so I nod and turn back to Selina. “Sure.”

Somehow, Selina knows exactly what I need. She leads me downstairs and through a corridor, then through a conservatory that leads out into a beautiful back garden. I hadn’t had a chance to see any of this last night in the storm and it’s stunning. Blossoming trees nestle amongst colorful flowers, all glistening from the leftover rain. The grass is a deep, dark green, and when I breathe in, the most delicious scent of floral and earth fills my senses.

“Wow,” I say, setting Tiff down next to me and taking her hand. “This place is beautiful.”

---