Page 96 of Thanking Her Brother's Best Friends

Before he could say anything more, Aiden let out a sound that resembled the cry of an angry ostrich, turned, and broke into a run.

Dom and Niall shouted after him, but man, Aiden could have given Usain Bolt a run for his money. In another context, I'd have found this faintly amusing.

If only my stupid heart would give me a break and stop shattering. By this time, I was surprised it was even keeping up.

He turned a corner and disappeared within two minutes.

I felt a lot of things. I said only one of them.

"Seems like I got my answer."

31

AIDEN

As I headed to the office, I already knew Dom and Niall would be waiting for me. It had been about twenty hours since Selene had told us she was pregnant with triplets.

I didn't know who the father was. It did not matter.

All that did matter was that in the span of these twenty hours, I revisited my childhood home, now derelict and abandoned. Dom and Niall left a truckload of messages and voice notes. I did not listen to any of them.

I stayed in that moldy little row house where I grew up. I spent the night there, going back and forth on the sum total of every decision that had ever brought me to this point, where I had made the biggest fucking mistake of my life.

"Aiden!" Dom's furious voice greeted me the second I crossed the threshold into the office. Niall stood beside him. Both of them looked just about ready to kill me.

"Are you out of your mind?" Niall hissed. "We had a chance to make things right yesterday, and you bailed on all of us."

"You don't need to be involved," Dom said, his tone raw and on edge. "Just stop doing this, Aiden. Stop putting her heart on the line and let her down easily.Westill want to be with her. We don't know if she'll be okay with that because she's always seen us as a team. But we're willing to let her make that choice. But you gotta stop playing, man. She doesn't deserve this."

I jerked my head slightly and looked at him with haunted eyes and the ghost of a smile. "You're right, guys. She doesn't deserve this."

* * *

"Selene,the three assholes are here to see you."

I looked up from the book I was reading and at Biscuit's placid face. I liked how he managed to call them assholes and behave like it was just the most natural description for them.

"Did they say why?"

Biscuit shrugged. "Naw. But I can shoot them or send them away if you'd like."

I sighed. "Thanks, Biscuit. I can't say these are not unwelcome options, but let them in for the time being. If I give you a signal, feel free to shoot."

He nodded and went to let them in. I wondered if I'd done the right thing for a second. Giving a license to Biscuit to shoot someone probably meant telling him he couldactuallydo it. I cursed under my breath. I'd deal with this later.

Dom and Niall had tried their best to convince me they wanted to be around for me, Oliver, and my pregnancy.

I loved them and wanted them to be part of it too. But it was doubly hard knowing they'd go back to their restaurant and hang with Aiden.

Maybe even talk about my pregnancy like it was the most casual thing. It wasn't about my being with one or two of them.

It had always been about me and thethree.

I couldn't get out of that bind, and I'd told them to give me some time to think things over. Of course, they could be involved in the pregnancy. As for the rest... my heart was at war.

I stood up from the lounge and walked over to the balcony.

To the east,an endless body of water stretched out before me, shifting between shades of cobalt and emerald.

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