Tell Me You're Mine (The British Billionaires #1) - J. S. Scott Page 0,53
sacrifice your entire life for your brother, Damian. In his right mind, you know he wouldn’t want that, and the choice to come back into the family has to be his, not yours. I’ve talked to him on the phone. I think you could be right. He might be coming around, finally. He apologized for putting me into this media storm. I think you may have gotten through to him when you tossed him into the swimming pool, and forced his hand. I’m proud of you because you’re finally putting your foot down. But that has to come with letting him take responsibility for his own mistakes, too.”
I rubbed a hand over the muscles in my neck in an effort to stop my damn head from hurting. “I don’t know if he’s ready for that yet.”
I might be disgusted with Dylan, but my desire to protect him was still way too strong. What if he just needed a little more time…
“You’re never going to know that until you let go,” Mum said sternly. “You’re a good brother and a good son, Damian. You always have been. You’ve always been driven by your sense of responsibility to everything and everyone—except yourself. If you like this woman, give her a chance to get to know the real you. Don’t screw this up by making her believe Dylan’s actions are yours. How can she ever trust you?”
“Don’t you think I’ve asked myself that a million times?” I rasped. “It’s not like I want her to think that I don’t take anything seriously. But Dylan is my brother, my twin, and until a couple of years ago, my best mate. I can’t just turn my back on him.”
“Of course not. We’ll be there for him, Damian. All of us will support him. But is it so wrong for me to want my eldest son to find his own happiness, too?”
I wanted to tell her that I wasn’t all that sure what happiness looked like anymore, and probably hadn’t experienced it since my father had died.
“I’ll be happy when Dylan gets his ass back into his real life and his head on straight again,” I told her.
“When he does, I think you’re going to regret not being honest with Nicole,” she mused.
“If he does, Mum, not when.”
“Oh, Damian,” she said, sounding disturbed. “It’s always been a matter of when, not if. Regardless of everything he’s been through, Dylan is strong. I’ve never had a single doubt that my wayward son would find his way back home. He’s stubborn, and it’s taking him a long time to pull himself together again, but the situation has never been hopeless. Even though the two of you are identical twins, your personalities are very different. Don’t you remember how long one of Dylan’s pouts could last when you were children?”
My brow furrowed as I thought about my childhood. “Like the time that you and Father didn’t let him have a scooter because he was way too young to drive one?”
My mum chuckled. “That, and so many other occasions when Dylan didn’t get his way. I think he punished everyone with his sour attitude for an entire year over that scooter. But that was never your way, son. You took no for an answer and carried on.”
I frowned. “I never saw the sense in wasting time. Once you and Father said no, you weren’t known to change your mind.”
“Exactly. But it took your brother a long time to realize that being sullen wasn’t going to change a single thing. That boy was always obstinate, but he wasn’t disrespectful, so your father and I simply waited him out. So right now, I’m doing what I always did with Dylan. I’m waiting him out. But I’ve never thought for a single moment that he’s lost. He’s too intelligent not to eventually pull himself out of his own head.”
“But he’s not a kid anymore, Mum.”
“However, he’s just as stubborn,” she said calmly. “This isn’t the first time he’s walked away from Lancaster International.”
She was right. I took a gulp of my tea as I thought about the two years that Dylan had gone to work for our competition right out of university.
He’d been insistent about getting into riskier businesses because he could see the potential for huge income.
My father had refused.
Dylan had bucked the constraint and went to work for our biggest competitor for a couple of years before he decided that his family loyalty was stronger than his desire to be right.