Page 85 of Broken

I thought back to when I dated her, the only real girlfriend I had during high school. I only dated her because Adam pushed me to. He said I would be crazy not to.

"Girls that good-looking are hard to find in small towns, man. You need to go for it. Sin will never see you as anything but a brother." Adam told me once. It made sense now. The night I started dating Katie, Adam raped Sin.

"She told me about the rape, Noah. Sin told me everything." My voice came out low, solemn. I thought about the secret my brother kept with him all these years. "You saved her, you always saved her. I just hurt her."

"Kai, that's not the point. And no. You didn't hurt her, Mia didn't either"

I was confused by what he said. Mia was the last person who'd ever hurt Sin.

"Kai, how many friends did Sin have growing up?" I was pretty sure Noah recognized the confusion on my face because his question had to be the dumbest one my brother could ask me. "Think about it. How many parties did she get invited to? I can tell you the answer and I graduated a year before you guys."

I sat there, quietly thinking about everything my brother said. Noah was our voice of reason growing up. He would talk sense into us when we had some of our worst ideas, or when we would fight over asinine things. He would reason with us and settle whatever argument we had.

"None, Kai. You and Mia always got invited. You, Mia, and me. We refused to leave Sin out. We would all drag her along to all these things with other people. People who didn't know her. She would sit alone and leave out because her best friends were living their lives and didn't want to leave her. But none of us noticed how out of place she felt."

Fuck. Were we really those kinds of assholes growing up? "Fuck,

Noah."

"Sin knew, Kai. She saw you guys growing apart, and one day you and Mia would choose a life without her." Noah looked sad. Sin would've thought all of this.

I hated that she always thought of herself as a burden to us. "We

loved her. We would have chosen her."

"You guys loved her, yes. But she became the third wheel. So, she left before you felt forced to commit to her and your baby. She thought she would ruin your life by staying."

"Did she tell you about the pregnancy?" I swear, if my brother kept this secret from me for twelve years, I didn't know what I would do.

"No. If I had, I would have encouraged her to tell you. But I would have supported her no matter what. She was alone Kai. She didn't know love, not until she had that baby."

I fought the urge to cry. I knew he was right, and that no matter how much I tried to keep her from feeling alone in the world, she was always out of place. She saw herself as the person on the outside looking in.

"When she came home to settle Layla's estate, she wasn't the same girl that ran away. The girl who broke your heart and left you grew up. She was a woman who gave up more than we will ever comprehend for the boy she loved. She was a woman who found love for herself through the little girl that she raised alone, the child that she sacrificed so much to break the chains of abuse."

Fucking ironic. Sinclair was in love with me all those years ago, and she broke my heart and pushed me away because she loved me. She found herself because of Aine. No wonder she panicked like she did when she assumed I wanted to take Aine away.

I was pissed off at myself. How had Noah seen all this? Why had I been so blind and selfish back then?

"Fucking hell. I fucked up." I ran my fingers through my hair. "I love her, Noah. I’ve never stopped loving her. But I need to let her go, don't I?"

"That depends, little brother. Are you willing to make her your whole world? Are that little girl and her mother worth giving all this up for? Because I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want to live here."

"Fuck yeah, she is. I already told her as much in Palm Springs."

"Good. Then you need to go tell her. She showed up at Mom this morning with Aine." Noah was practically laughing when he told me. I was pretty sure I looked like I'd been punched in the gut. "That's what took so long. I was visiting with my niece before Callum found out she was there and corrupted the kid."

fifty

Kai

"Sin"Icalledwalkingthrough my mother's front door. I couldn't believe she was here. Aine was here. My heart raced as I went from room to room looking for the woman I loved. I searched every room downstairs, even my father's study, but I found no signs of anyone.

I walked toward the kitchen; I recognized the faint sound of my mom's laughter. I hadn't heard her laugh like that in years, not since dad was alive. It hurt to think that she hadn't been this happy in years, but the sounds made me proud that Sinclair and Aine gave her back that joy.

I smiled as I slowly walked through the kitchen. I wouldn't get this moment again, and I wanted to cherish every second. My daughter played in the same backyard that I played in with her uncles and her mom when we were her age.

"I can't believe you kept that thing." Sin laughed from the back porch. They didn't notice me. The dark screen of the old wooden door offered me a bit of privacy to observe this sweet moment between

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