“Let me do this. I need to do this,” I say to him.
“Why? To prove you can? You won’t last two minutes in prison,” he snarls, looking very much his old self despite the machines hooked up to him.
“I might not go to prison. They might send me to a detention centre.”
“And do what? Make quilts until release day? Get your head kicked in daily by Griffin’s guys? It’s too late. Jude went with his legal guardian this morning. His grandfather already pulled strings and made arrangements for him to go to St Michael’s.”
What the actual fuck?
I stare at Lor like he’s just lost his fucking head. “Jude went just like that? He didn’t even speak to me about it?” I’m suddenly so fucking angry I want to punch something, or someone. I grip the armchair arm instead, anchoring myself to sanity. Lorcan is lucky he’s in a hospital bed, that’s all I’m saying.
“Jude knows what sacrifices to make.”
“And I don’t?” I snap.
Lor’s eyes glaze over. He’s pissed off too but I don’t fucking know why. “No, because all you’ve done is feel sorry for yourself. Now fuck off, I’m tired,” he says in that arrogant tone of his.
Both girls are staring at me when I come out of Lorcan’s room. Saskia huffs and stalks past me, straight to her brother’s bedside.
I walk outside to where the hospital gardens are, hands stuffed in my pockets to keep from punching something. I’m pissed at Lorcan for being a cunt. I’m pissed at Jude for doing what I fucking can’t. My past would mean prison for a very long time. Jude’s parents would never let that happen to him.
Neither would your brother.
I need a fag but I’m out, so I make do with a quick vape. Viola is standing at the garden entrance when I turn around.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“Nothing,” I say between drags.
Her eyes narrow. “Liar. You boys have been hiding things from me from day fucking one.”
“You don’t want to know,” I sigh.
“Try me,”
I indicate to the garden path. It’s cold but we’ve both got jackets on. “Let’s walk.”
“Well?” Viola asks after a few paces.
“After mother dearest went into the nut house. I stole a car and drove it into a wall trying to kill myself. After that, I wasn’t well. I was on whatever drugs I could lay my hands on.”
“Sounds like a fun time,” she shrugs.
“It wasn’t. I was a mess. My brother was worried I was going the same way as the bitch who didn’t lift a finger to raise us, so whenever Kristian wanted to beat some sense into me, he got Razor’s guys to do it. It’s what our father did to him. Jude and Lorcan were there every fucking time.” I smirk. “You know Jude loves a fucking fight.” When she nods, I carry on. “When that didn’t work, my brother try to fuck me over in other ways, trying to get me involved in the family business. Lorcan would always step in with his father’s name to make Kristian back off.”
Viola’s eyes narrow. “So what’s this got to do with St Michaels and running Lorcan off the road?”
“You know there are two heirs to the Duke fortune—Lorcan and Byron?” I ask her.
“Byron Marques? Aurora’s brother? I thought he was dead? It’s what Aurora wrote in her diary.”
I shake my head. “He and Aurora tried to kill themselves because of the abuse. She survived and got shipped to Germany. Later she tried again, or got Lorcan to do it. Byron also survived, but barely. Their grandfather shipped him off St Michael’s to keep him away from Aurora.” I look at Viola. “Rather than live with the scandal, or the dark shit coming out, they buried him in an institute.”
“Where Jude’s being sent?” Viola asks.
I raise a brow. “And you know that how?”
“Lorcan filled me in.”