because I was a paraplegic and I broke my back. Or have you forgotten that?”
“How could I forget, when it’s all anyone ever talks about?” he spits.
Beckett shakes his head, and an ugliness in him shines through. My throat tightens as I look at my brother, my fists clenching once again. I just want him to leave. My emotions are too charged with everything that’s going on with Ivy. I need some time to myself to decompress and figure out what to do.
But I’m not going to get it.
Beckett takes another step, and I see a plastic bag of pills on the bedside table. Frowning, I take a step toward them. My half-brother scoffs, grabbing the bag and stuffing it in his breast pocket.
“What are those?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter, Beckett. What the fuck are you doing in here? Are you fucking with my medication?”
“You’re just an addict, Luca. The sooner you admit it, the better off you’ll be.”
Leaning down to pick up one of the pills on the floor, I bring it close to my face. Noticing a T-shaped mark on one side of it, realization hits me like a sledgehammer to the gut.
These are the same pills that were in my room in Farcliff. The same ones I flushed down the toilet.
They’re not my painkillers.
Horror churns in my gut as I lift my eyes to my brother. He lets out a bark of a laugh, shaking his head.
“The look on your face is priceless, Luca. Did you finally figure things out?”
“What is this? Are you trying to poison me? Did you poison Margot?”
“I had nothing to do with Margot LeBlanc,” he spits.
I stare at the man in front of me, not recognizing any part of him. This is the boy I grew up with. The guy who would tag along when I played, the one who was by my side at every turn, the one that actually spoke to me when I left Argyle to get my surgery.
My brother.
And he tried to kill me?
It’s too horrific to accept, so I just stare at Beckett. My mind is completely blank. I can’t process any feelings or thoughts. A ringing sound pierces my ears, and I blink two or three times, swaying on my feet.
Finally, mustering all my courage, I croak out the one word that screams through my head:
“Why?”
Beckett’s eyes turn black. His lips twist, and his gaze pierces through me like a hot knife. “Why? You’re really asking me that? You’re wondering why I’m jealous of the golden boy who learned to walk again? The man who had women falling all over him? The man who overshadowed me every single fucking day of my life?”
Beckett shakes his head, kicking at the scattered pills on the ground.
“You drove yourself to a fucking pill addiction, and people still welcomed you back into the family with open arms. Me? I’m the perfect son, and I’m ostracized. I’m never good enough. I’m just the bastard son of a cheating mother, hated by every one of you fake fucks.”
“You know that’s not true.”
“Stop bullshitting me, Luca. The only way I would ever step out of your shadow is if your shadow didn’t exist.”
“I should have you arrested.”
“Do it,” he spits. “It won’t change what’s happening in Farcliff with your little girlfriend.”
My blood chills as Beckett’s lips curl into a smile. He arches his eyebrows, and all I can do in response is open my mouth. Nothing comes out.
“You never deserved Cara, or Margot, and you don’t even deserve her ugly little sister.”
The sound that rips through my throat is inhuman. It tears my vocal cords to shreds as I lunge at Beckett. He snaps his teeth as I crash into him, pummeling my sides with punches as we fall to the ground. Flipping me over, Beckett reaches back and brings his fist down onto my face.
I snap my head away at the last moment, and his blow glances off my cheekbone. Pain explodes across my face, but I grit my teeth and grab his wrist. Bucking him off me, I shield myself against a flurry of blows.
I can’t bring myself to hit him. Even as he punches my face, kicks me in the shin, knees me in the gut. Even as his dead eyes look into mine, I can’t hit my brother.
All these years, he felt inadequate. All these years, he thought of himself as less than us.
I never saw it.
Maybe I never cared. I was too invested in my own life—and then, my