Four Brothers and a Bride-Chapter 107

ASHTON

I can’t believe how many times I have lost to the new record holder today. My gloved fingers tighten around my steering wheel as I finish second place yet again. Racing is supposed to calm my nerves, not kindle the flames of my anger. I think I feel worse than I felt before getting behind this wheel. While the new guy jumps out of his car basking in the euphoria of finishing in first place, I remain inside mine to take deep breaths and calm myself.

Ashley isn’t moving out anymore and while that is a relief, I am still royally pissed at his habit of pinning the blame of his faulty marriage on me every time he gets bored or frustrated with Demi. I have to talk to him about that. We have to iron out our issues.

If he is still doing this while I am engaged to Mila, nothing’s going to stop him from throwing those accusations even after I get married and with Mila’s level of crazy, Demi will only suffer more. I can’t allow his erratic behavior to cause any more damage than it already has.

Liam starts walking up to check on me. I get down from my car and begin to walk away.

"Hey." He calls, jogging to fall in step with me. "Your driving skills are amazing, champ. We were almost neck and neck."

I turn to him. "I finished second. It’s just a car race and I am an adult. Give it a rest, new guy."

"The name’s Liam."

"Don’t care."

"I heard you used to be the reigning champ around here." Now, I halt at his words. "I understand if you’re feeling a bit slighted over the losses today. I’ve been there. It doesn’t mean you’re not as good as you thought. You might just be distracted today. I know distraction is the biggest reason why I come in second. I Just wanted to put it out there." When I turn to him, he is walking back to his car.

"Liam!"

"Yes?"

"You’re a hell of a driver." I admit to him. "Distracted or not, topping you wouldn’t be a walk in the park even for me."

"Thanks. Still, I’ll love to race you once you have a clear head."

"You bet."

I leave him and while I walk away, a ghost of a smile seeps into my face. Maybe the new guy isn’t a proud prick like I was during my time as the new guy. Mila offers me a bottle of water and helps me with my gloves.

"You’ll get it next time."

Again with the sugarcoated words. I am not down with this today. I guzzle the water.

"Losses aren’t unnatural. Besides, I do this for fun not for sport. There’s no need to get too upset with losing."

"Says the guy who was royally pissed when I beat him thrice in a row." She laughs at the look on my face. "Who’s the new guy?"

"Why? You want to race him too so you can gloat?" freewebnøvel.coɱ

"Wow, so much for not being pissed."

I grab her when she turns away with an angry face. "I’m sorry. My head is aching. I have a lot on my mind. I don’t mean to be an ass." I kiss her neck. "Forgive me. I am not fun to be around right now. That’s why I told you not to come. I didn’t want you to see me like this." She whirls to cup my face with her hands.

"We are going to be married soon. Whether I like it or not, I’m going to see all the different versions of you. There’s no need to hide the ugly parts from me." She kisses my lips. "Besides, I’ve barely seen you since our engagement party. You’re always busy. I knew I would grow grey hairs if I continued to wait for you to come to me so I decided to track you down and spend the day together."

"The day?"

"Yeah, too small?"

Too much, too soon. I remember the two weeks she spent at the mansion and how it was equal parts fun and draining. Beyond that, I have a lot of things to do and appointments to keep which she can’t be present for.

"I can’t promise the day. Maybe we can raincheck. I have a lot of things to get done and honestly, you can’t be present for my meetings. Why don’t we reschedule. I promise I’ll treat you to a fun date, wherever you want and whatever you want to do. Please?" She scowls at me. "Come on, you know I wouldn’t bail on you if it wasn’t unavoidable."

"Fine but I won’t take no for an answer next time though."

"Thank you." I pull her close to me and take her lower lip between my teeth as a tease before ravishing her lips.

"It’s all good. I have to meet a wedding planner anyway."

"A what?"

She looks up at my startled expression and chuckles. "Why do you look so ashen? What do you expect to follow an engagement party? Wedding prep of course. We have to start making the arrangements super early if we want to have a spectacular wedding as early as three months from now. We have to book our venues, place our orders before our favorite vendors would be fully booked and busy."

I tune out the rest of her babblings. What the fuck is she even saying? Father said we didn’t have to have the wedding immediately. That’s the only reason I was down with the early engagement.

"Slow down, hon, you’re giving me a migraine." I pull her down on a seat. "What’s with the hurry? We just got engaged days ago and now you’re talking wedding planners and vendors. Don’t you think it’s too early?" I watch the smile fade from her face.

"What are you saying? How is it too early?"

She’s getting upset. I join her to sit down. "Don’t get me wrong, Mila. I don’t want to hurry this. You know the circumstances under which we started dating, right? We were forced to jump on that train by our parents. It sucked the fun out of our friendship and made every date seem like a chore. I always felt like we missed out on building our friendship and gradually transitioning to our dating era because of everyone’s influence in the dynamic of her relationship. I don’t want that to happen with our wedding."

"Then why did you want to get engaged?"

"Same reason we started dating; because it was required of me but this time, I didn’t abhor the idea. I want to be with you Mila. I was going to propose eventually even though my father hurried the process. However, I don’t want our actual wedding to be hurried. I want us to take our time to revel in this phase of our relationship. Let me enjoy you as my fiancée and vice versa. Let’s take this time to learn more about each other that we didn’t get the chance to while dating. Does that make sense?"

Mila dips her eyes to her Jimmy Choo shoes. "It does but I don’t know if I believe you, Ashton. I’m worried that the longer we wait, the easier it will be for you to slip off my fingers."

"Not if we’re too busy rediscovering and falling head over heels in love with each other. I don’t want to walk you down the aisle because our families want me to. I want to do it because I can’t imagine anyone else walking towards me. Please Mila, this is how you’ll get the best of me in this relationship. If we get married three or six months from now, you’ll be getting a man who isn’t obsessed with you yet. Would you prefer that?"

She shakes her head. "Promise me you’ll work with me to get there."

"I promise me."

I kiss her again, this time slowly, savoring her lips. When I pull away, she’s smiling.

"I’ll get going. Stay close to your phone at all times. You know how much I overthink when you don’t take my calls."

"I will." I kiss her forehead and pass her bag to her. "Tell your father I said hi." I don’t mean it but it means something to Mila whenever I remember to be cordial to her dad. She blows me kisses before leaving.

The smile remains on my face as I watch her strut her stuff. My eyes wheel to my right where someone stands a few bleachers away watching me everything that just happened between Mila and I; Liam. He forces a smile when our eyes meet and waves creepily at me. I ignore him and grab my phone to check the text message I just got. Relief floods my chest as I realize it’s from Keith. He drops an address and the time for our meeting today.

I get there ten minutes earlier and find a comfortable booth in the café. Though it’s a little packed for my liking, I rely on my dark sunglasses to help me blend in. Keith comes in at exactly two pm, finds me and slides into the booth next to me.

"You averse to people or something?" He jokes, pointing to my glasses.

"Haha, very funny. You could have chosen somewhere a bit more..."

"Private? Scanty? Yeah, I could have but I don’t trust you yet, Mr. Rollins. Besides, we agreed to do this on my terms."

"So, what answers would you be giving me today?"

"That depends on the questions you ask but before you begin, you should know I intend to ask questions of my own too."

"That seems fair."

A waiter brings some burgers and drinks to our table. Keith dives into burger with a big bite. I am not hungry. I just want to learn as much as I can about my sister.

"I’ll start. How did you come to learn that your lost sister could be my foster sister, Zoe?" He keeps his eyes trained on me even as he eats. He wants to gauge my reaction to better decipher the truth of my response.

"I got a tip from a trusted friend who knows about my lost sister and the tip led me to your family." I lean on the table. "My turn. "Do you know where Zoe is right now?"

He shakes his head. "I don’t."

"Why do I find that hard to believe?"

"That sounds like a you problem." He sips his drink. "I never know where Zoe is at any given time but that doesn’t mean I can’t reach out to her if I wanted to see her." He notes how my facial muscles relax at the explanation. "You just asked two questions in a row. Here’s my second question. How did you lose Zoe in the first place?"

I hesitate. His questions are calculated, like he is trying to test my truthfulness. Keith continues to watch me. I have a hunch that he knows the answer to this question.

"Cat got you tongue?"

"We got separated as kids. She was only a baby. That’s the much I can tell you."

This time, he pauses his food and watches me silently.

"My turn. Do you really plan on helping me reunite with Zoe or is this just a waste of my time?"

"Those are two questions..."

"Just answer me, Keith. I don’t enjoy games. Finding Zoe is very important to me. If you aren’t going to help me, you might as well say it. Don’t waste my time."

"I’m still thinking about it. I want to be sure that I am not making a mistake or falling for lies. In the end, it all depends on what Zoe thinks. She hasn’t gotten back to me. If she wants to see you, I’ll arrange a meeting. If she doesn’t, there’s nothing more I can do to help you."

"You told Zoe about me?"

"I did."

If he knows what I think he knows about Zoe’s past, then he also knows that telling her that one of her brothers came asking questions will only serve as alerting her to hide even better. She wouldn’t want to see me. She has every reason to be scared of me. Keith must indeed be out to waste my time. I rein in my temper and feign indifference.

"There’s something you can still do to help me while you await Zoe’s response. I need her documents from the orphanage where she stayed before moving in with your family. Your parents must have those."

"No, they don’t."

"Why? Did you also burn those too."

He smirks at me. "They don’t have them but I do. The papers are carefully stowed away."

"Are you going to give them to me? I just want to know what her real name was before your parents named her Zoe."

"You’ll be wasting your time. The orphanage also called her a name because she wouldn’t speak when she was brought in. Trust me, Zoe sounds better than Gertrude."

"Who brought her in?"

Keith finishes his burger and downs his drink. "That’ll be all for today, Mr. Rollins." My hand shoots out and clamps down on his wrist before he can move. His eyes dilate in shock at the sight of mine with my shades off. "What is this? Have you lost it?"

"I should be asking you that, Keith. Do I look like a joke to you? You brought me out here to munch on a burger and waste my time? How many more of these five question sessions are we supposed to have before I start getting some useful information from you, huh?"

He wrenches his wrist free. "You’re as insolent as they come. You should be grateful I am even entertaining you. Going by what I have heard, I should have kicked you out of my father’s land the first day we met but I chose to give you the benefit of doubt. I was wrong. You don’t deserve to know the gem that is my sister. She’s better off without you and your family." He lurches to his feet, glaring at me. "We’re done with this conversation, Mr. Rollin. Stay away from my home and my family."

"Too late." I jut a chin in the direction of the door where his parents have just entered. When their eyes scan the booths, I wave a hand to them.

"You invited them here?" Keith questions me.

"Can you blame me? I also gave you the benefit of doubt and assumed you were a decent adult that I could reason with but apparently, maturity doesn’t come with age. You’re just too distracted with playing the big, overprotective brother so you can score brownie points with my sister and convince her she doesn’t need me or her other three brothers. I thought I’d invite other adults to this conversation so we can make some progress."

Paul and Collette join us. Begrudgingly, Keith returns to his seat. I exchange pleasantries with the couple.

"Did you bring it?"

"Ah, yes." Paul responds cheerfully before digging into his satchel and unearthing a brown envelope. I accept it from him and flip through it. A smile tugs at my lips.

"It’s Gracie not Gertrude."

Keith’s eyes boggle in shock. "Why would you give that to him, dad? Where did you even find it?"

"Honey, you hide everything in the basement."

Keith runs a hand over his hair while I take note of the name of the guardian that brought Zoe to the orphanage. I shut the file and keep it by my side.

"Thank you, Paul and Collette. You’ve been very helpful." Turning to Keith, I add, "I just had to remind you that you’re not the only way to finding my sister and after everything I have noticed, I’d like to add that I am not a threat to you in whatever shape or form. You were there for my sister when I couldn’t be. I can sense how much you love and care for her. You’re the big brother she’ll always remember from her teens. No one can take your place in her life. With that being said, can we cut the bullshit and get on with helping me find my sister or would you like me to exclude you from this meeting altogether?"

Keith stares at his parents. Collette stretches a hand and squeezes his.

"He’s right, Keith. He means well. I can tell his heart is pure. Don’t stand in the way of Zoe getting reunited with her true family. You know she has never felt like she truly belonged with us. Give her this chance. If she doesn’t want to rejoin her family, she doesn’t have to but don’t take away the option of choosing from her."

Keith’s red rimmed eyes wheel to me. "Fine. I’ll help you for real this time but keep my parents out of this. Zoe is a very emotional subject for my family. I don’t want my parents reliving the pain of her absence again."

"That’s no problem at all."

I watch him kiss his parents before sending them off on their way.

"We don’t need your money. Stop throwing it in their faces." He mutters angrily.

"I didn’t give it to them to show off or because they can’t survive without it. It was my way of appreciating their hospitality and the help they offered before we met. They graciously accepted it like they would any other gift. Don’t read unnecessary meanings into it. Now, are we doing this or what?"

He leans back on his chair. "Adriana Hutton."

"What?"

"Zoe goes by Adriana Hutton now."

Something unfurls in my chest. "And you’re being completely honest right now?"

"I gave my word in front of my parents. I am telling the truth!"

When I return home, my chest is bubbling with excitement. Not only was Keith forthcoming with information about Zoe or Adriana, he even promised to draw me a recent picture of her.

I find my brothers in the game room. I contemplate telling them about our lost sister and the progress I am making so far but decide against it when Asher calls my attention.

"You’re late!"

"I didn’t know we were supposed to have a meeting." My mood changes at the sight of Ashley. He hasn’t even deigned to apologize to me even though I have no plans to forgive him easily. He is sulking as usual. Ashal also looks downcast. Am I missing something?

"You would know if you bothered to check your phone."

"I was held up in a meeting."

"Weren’t we all?" Asher rises to his feet. He has his serious business face on. "We haven’t had a meeting in a while and I have seen how badly things have been going wrong on different ends. We are all losing focus of the most important thing in our lives; our familial bond. Without that, everything we’ve built all our lives crumbles; our peace, prosperity, love for each other, happiness, every damn thing that even money can’t buy." He stares across all the faces in the room.

"I have come to discover a few disturbing facts about each of us in this room. I’ll let you all be men and handle your business but if you disappoint this family and allow anything or anyone to tarnish our image or shatter our bond, I will personally side with father and go to any length to preserve this family and her reputation."

Despite his cryptic warning, no one challenges him. Somehow, I suspect my brothers know what Asher is talking about. They bob their heads silently while I look perplexed.

After Asher drops the fatherly reprimand and settles back to his regular self, I decide against telling my brothers about Adriana just yet. I’ll wait till I meet her first. My phone beeps. When I open the message, it’s a picture of my sister, drawn by Keith. She’s a sight for sore eyes!

Another message pops in.

[Adriana reached back to me. She will like to meet with you]