I made adon’t you love meface. “This face makes national news, not world news.”
“Nice.” She rolled her eyes. “But wouldn’t she have heard from a friend? From someone?”
She had a point. My mother’s social circle spanned all of Illinois, all over the nation, worldwide even.
I sighed heavily. “Yes, at some point, the news will get to her. I need to tell her soon.”
I’d been so preoccupied with my injuries that calling her had been on the back burner, but I needed to do it soon. She needed to hear this from me.
Sydney’s eyes flipped to the television again. “Maybe she just cares too much. My mother was like that.”
I scoffed. She didn’t know how my mother was, besides the facade she put on for other people. She used money to compensate for her unhappiness.
“She cares too much about people who feed her ego.” It was harsh. Real harsh, but the truth. “We’re not as different as you think,” I admitted quietly, revealing more of myself.
Her eyes were expectant, waiting for me to continue.
“Where your father checked out when your mother passed away, my mother checked out just because. Maybe it was when my father left. Who the hell knows?” My gaze teetered back to the screen, to anywhere but her understanding eyes. “All I know is that she was always like this, trying to climb the social ladder, and she barely made time for us. Maybe if she was there for us more, Brandy wouldn’t have turned out the way she did.”
I added, “When I got pulled up into the big league, it was as though my mom had made it. She was happier that she’d finally made it in the high life of society than she was about me getting signed.” I paused and let out a slow breath, thinking back to all the days when Brandy had been left alone at home to fend for herself. At one point, I’d hired a live-in maid because my mother was never home. I hadn’t felt right, having my younger sister sleeping in that house by herself, even in her teen years.
“That house? I bought that house for my mother. For Brandy too. They wanted it, so I bought it. Why? ’Cause I could afford it. And because I thought that would make them happy.”
Her lips pulled downward. “It didn’t?”
I let out a laugh without humor. “Nope. Material things are empty happiness.”
We were quiet for a beat. The only noise between us was the television playing loudly in the background.
“I guess we aren’t too different after all.” Her voice was light, almost as if she’d said the words to break up the seriousness of it all.
“We aren’t, not in how we grew up, taking care of our siblings. But the difference between me and you is that I’ve done all I’ve wanted to with work and my life. I’ve traveled the world. I live my life for me and you’re still giving yours up to be there for Alec and Addison, for your whole family really.”
I was just speaking from what I had seen, but from the hurt look on her face …
Shit.
CHAPTER22
SYDNEY
“That’s not true,”I snapped, sitting up straighter on the bed. All of the muscles in my body tightened. I knew he hadn’t meant anything by it, but what he’d said and how it matched up with what Serena had said the other day really pissed me off.
I wasn’t putting my life on hold for my siblings. I wasn’t.
Yeah, I remembered the days and nights when I’d given up my social life to help Alec and Addison with their homework, to bring Alec to his band practice, or to take them to the movies because they couldn’t drive.
“That was before. That was when they were younger. Of course they needed me more then. Not so much now.”
I hated that he thought heknewme. But then again, I had judged him originally, hadn’t I?
He quirked an eyebrow, as though me being upset was amusing him.
“I am not their babysitter, like I used to be,” I defended myself.How dare he!“And I know they have their own lives now. And insinuating that I live my life for them and not myself is false, and it’s just rude of you to make assumptions when you do not know my life.” My voice was harsh, speaking my truth.
“Really?” he said doubtfully.
My eyes narrowed dangerously.