“Great-Grandmother loves children so they were hoping that another baby would be enough to make her forget about Aunt Haley. So, after a lot of arguing, they decided that my mother would have to make the sacrifice for the greater good and had me, but the problem was that a new baby wasn’t enough to make Great-Grandmother forget how they’d treated Aunt Haley.”
“What happened?” Sebastian asked.
“What normally happens to kids in my family as soon they lose interest. They hired a nanny to raise me until it was time to go off to boarding school and that’s where I would have stayed except, they found out about Hunter. They’d hoped that a new baby would be enough to soften Great-Grandmother, but the problem was that my mother and aunts were apparently too old to get pregnant again. They considered adoption but didn’t think that would be enough to earn Great Grandmother’s forgiveness, so they decided that they had a use for me after all. They pulled me out of boarding school, enrolled me in a local private school, and decided that it was time that I spent more time with Great-Grandmother.”
“And that’s why they suddenly wanted Aunt Haley back in their lives,” Sebastian said, feeling sick to his stomach.
“They hate you,” Braxton said with a humorless laugh. “You should have heard my grandfather when he saw you at that board meeting. They ended up pulling me out of school early just so that they could scream at me.”
“That’s why you threw my iPad,” Sebastian said as everything slowly started to make sense.
Nodding, Braxton said, “I’m sorry about that. I tried to give you mine, but they wouldn’t let me. They were hoping that the black eye you gave me would be enough to make Great-Grandmother discard you, but–”
“They clearly don’t know her very well. She doesn’t give up on people easily,” Sebastian said absently as he thought about the day that Mrs. Blaine showed up at his house, demanding to know what happened. When he’d told her, she’d nodded and said something about needing to try harder.
At the time, he hadn’t known what she was talking about, but now…
“What happens now?” Sebastian asked as he watched Braxton rub the back of his neck.
“I don’t know. I just know that I don’t want to fix this,” Braxton said, slowly exhaling as he considered Sebastian. “Do you have any idea how lucky you are?”
“I’m beginning to see that,” he said hollowly as he realized just how much his parents had put up with and just how easily they could have given up on him only…
They never did.
“I’m not going to do it,” Braxton said with a firm nod.
“Do what?” Sebastian asked, watching as Braxton picked up a brick from Aunt Haley’s small tulip garden.
“He can go to hell. I don’t care anymore,” Braxton said as he threw the brick at his dad’s car.
“Christ!” Sebastian said, jumping back when the windshield cracked.
“What the hell are you doing?” Sebastian asked, watching as Braxton grabbed another brick, and this time, it shattered the windshield.
“Making sure that he leaves Aunt Haley alone,” Braxton said with a determined nod as he grabbed the baseball bat that one of his cousins left outside and–
“Braxton, stop!” Sebastian said as he put Hunter’s blankie down and moved to stop him only to jump out of the way when Braxton took out one of the headlights.
“Why should I?” Braxton demanded
as he took out the other headlight and then the passenger side rear-view mirror.
“Because he isn’t worth it!”
“No, but if I get sent back to boarding school then maybe they’ll leave everyone alone. They won’t be able to do this to Great-Grandmother or Aunt Haley anymore,” Braxton said as he took out the passenger-side window before Sebastian could grab the bat from him.
“He isn’t worth this,” Sebastian repeated as he pulled the bat away.
“What the hell are you doing?” Mr. Taylor shouted as he quickly made his way over to them.
Before Sebastian could move, Mr. Taylor had Sebastian by the shirt and was slamming him back against the car, knocking the wind out of him. When he went to do it again, a terrifyingly cold voice said, “Get your hands off my son.”
Mr. Taylor immediately released him and stepped back.
Wincing in pain, Sebastian pushed away from the car only to forget how to breathe when he saw the look on his father’s face. He’d never seen his father this angry before and apparently, Mr. Taylor realized just how close Sebastian’s father was to tearing him apart, because he quickly stumbled back.
“Look what your delinquent son did to my car!” Mr. Taylor snapped.