“Did you really think the two of us were just going to go off revenge hunting?” he asked, putting the gun down beside him and getting up off the floor. He reached for one of the shopping bags and took out the small one. “Why would I do that? Killing them isn’t going to bring her back, is it?”
He took out the diamond-studded watch and placed it in the watch display before picking up another box.
No. This wasn’t him. “Ethan, don’t you want to know who did this? Who dared to—”
“Why would I want to know that?” He glanced up from the box of shoes, walking over to me. “It will only serve to make me more upset. Either a nobody, someone not even worthy of whipping my ass, murdered my wife, got the better of me. Or I was so blind that I missed a threat large enough to endanger the people I cared about…making me an idiot. I dislike both options. So I don’t want to know, and you can show yourself out,” he stated, placing the beige heels on the shelf beside me.
“You have to make them pay—”
“You have no right to tell me what the fuck I have to do. You do what you think you should fucking do. Nothing has stopped you before. Now get the fuck out before I truly do murder you. The only reason you are alive isn’t because you’re my brother. It’s because I have invested twenty-six of twenty-eight years of my life watching out for you, sacrificing for you…and refuse to let all of my effort end up being ironically worth nothing. That is the good reason, that is the only reason, stopping me from breaking my promise to Father.”
I stood there for a moment before nodding, backing out. “I’m sorry—”
“You know what Father said about apologies.”
Accept them and then shove it back up their asses.
I walked out of his room like I had some out-of-body experience my mind hadn’t fully grasped yet. He was the one who had lost his wife, and I could see and hear his anger. But because I was, as he said, selfish, I couldn’t grasp how badly he was hurting over how gutted I currently felt.
“Wyatt?”
Blinking a few times, I saw Helen standing right across from me, her brown face bunched together as she tried to figure out what was happening…what had happened.
“Are you alrig—,” she paused mid-word, mid-step, when I lifted my hand, telling her not to come any closer. Her gaze widened when she looked at my hand. I didn’t know why until I looked and saw my own hand trembling.
“I’m fine.” I cut her off before she could even finish opening her mouth. “I wouldn’t recommend going to see him now, though. He’s a little…”
I didn’t finish. Instead, I offered her a forced smiled before walking back to my room. With each step, it felt like my mind was trying to split apart. My ears rang, and my vision blurred. When I made it into my bathroom, I turned on the faucet as fast as I could, just to splash the cold water on my face.
I stood there for a moment before looking to my own reflection. Water dripping from my nose, hunched over the sink, staring into my own brown eyes. The more I stared, the more annoyed I became.
“How much longer are you going to be such a little bitch?” The words came from my mouth, but all I could hear was my father’s voice.
Just like I’d done when I was sixteen, I balled my fist and swung forward, the glass fracturing under my fist. When I pulled back, blood coated the broken pieces and my hands. Inhaling through my nose, I squeezed my blood-covered fist, feeling the small shards of mirror cut and dig into my skin, before exhaling and rolling my neck out.
Reaching up, blood still covering my hand, I pulled down my tie. Again, I met my eyes in the mirror.
Enough of this. Forget this. Focus, Wyatt. Focus.
I cannot change the past.
; I cannot know the future.
Right now, all I can do is work on this present moment.
What do I want in this present moment?
“Revenge,” I said softly at first and then once again more clearly, my eyes unshaken and undeterred, and determined. I felt it rise, my anger, my rage, my desire, everything was awake now. My mind was finally clear. I knew what I wanted. If Ethan wasn’t going to do it, I was. Ethan is not your concern. Ethan will take care of Ethan. Now, what do you want? What does this family need? I knew without hesitation. “Revenge. We need revenge. We need to make them pay, make them remember who we are. They will bleed for what they’ve done to us.”
They will remember who it is that sits at the center of the pyramid.
Taking out my phone, I dialed, and it barely rang before he answered. “Well, if it isn’t Wyatt Callahan. I’ve been meaning to call you.”
“But you didn’t,” I replied.
“It’s been—”