Present
It’s funny how things work out. Just a few months ago, I was sitting here drinking whiskey with my brothers and Alec, trying to distract my oldest brother from the pain of his suffering marriage. Now here I am, with the same men, because they seem to think I’m the one who needs a distraction this time around.
They wouldn’t be wrong, but I’d rather they didn’t just invite themselves over into my space without warning, and them being here—in a space filled with memories of Sloane—is not a fucking distraction.
“Why are you here again?” I ask dryly as I pour them a drink to match my own.
They just turned up out of the blue five minutes ago and made themselves at home.
Assholes.
Luca and Enzo share a glance, while Alec looks almost as put out as me.
“And what the fuck is your problem?” I ask him.
He glares at my brothers before grumbling something under his breath. Fucking child.
“He’s pissed because he got caught attending girls’ night, so me and Enzo have now declared Friday nights guys’ night and he,” he scowls at his best friend, “has to attend guys’ night. He’s a guy, he shouldn’t be at girls’ night if we can’t be there.”
Alec snorts. “It’s not my fault the three of them like me better.”
I shake my head. We’re two of the most prominent and powerful families in the city, and they’re arguing like fucking high schoolers. Though it doesn’t surprise me that Izzy and Robyn need a break from their husbands, considering how suffocating my brothers can be and—
Wait.
“What do you mean the three of them?”
Alec tenses before darting his gaze between my brothers. All three of them seem to be having some sort of unspoken conversation.
“Alec,” I warn.
He sighs. “Fuck, okay. Sloane has been coming to girls’ night for the last few weeks, though I’m not sure if she’ll be there tonight.”
I doubt it. My guess is that Sloane has already packed up and is in another part of the damn country by now.
“She’s there,” Luca says as he glances at his phone. My gaze snaps to him.
“I thought she was leaving?”
“Aaaand we’re getting to the root of our brother’s problem,” Enzo chimes in. “What did you do? Things seemed fine last weekend, so how did you fuck it up?”
I look up to the ceiling in exasperation, pinching the bridge of my nose between my fingers. I love my brothers, but sometimes I’d really love to shoot them.
“None of your business,” I grunt. “How did you even know I was home?”
“We knew you’d be here pining,” Enzo says with a laugh. “You’ve been downright intolerable all week, and we knew it could only be for one reason. We figured something happened between you two, and it wasn’t until Luca ran into his apartment to grab his phone and found Alec and the girls discussing whether Sloane would show up or not that we realized things had gone to complete shit. So we’re here for you like we were for Luca when he fucked up with Izzy. Let us help you. I can’t speak from experience because I’m the best damn husband to ever exist, and Alec can’t either because he’s terrified of spending more than one night with a woman, even though if he just—”
“Enzo,” Luca sighs, cutting off Enzo’s ramblings.
Enzo clears his throat. “Anyhow, we’re here to help, so tell us what you did so we can figure out how to fix it.”
“There’s nothing to fix,” I sigh. “She finally knows everything, and—”
The elevator opening cuts me off and I glare at the three of them. Who the fuck else is here?
Just as I’m about to call them out for inviting even more people to my apartment, the last damn person I expected to see in my apartment strolls into the living room.
Finn walks in casually with his hands in his pockets as though he doesn’t have a care in the world. Within seconds, me, Luca and Enzo are on our feet and sharing glances, panicked to whatever it is that’s brought him here while Alec stays seated, his brows furrowed as he looks between us all.
“What the fuck are you doing here? What happened?” I ask.
“Well, this is quite the welcome,” Finn quips as he sees the three of us standing.
“How did you get up here?” I grunt as the tension starts to drop from my shoulders at his cheerful tone. Clearly, there isn’t an emergency that brought him here if he’s full of jokes.
The asshole smirks at me. “Your security is good, but I’m better.”
“Why are you here, O’Brien?” Luca asks.
Finn pops one shoulder in a half shrug before taking a seat in one of the armchairs. “I’m here because my twin is avoiding me. She’s been sketchy as fuck and I have a feeling she’s about to run,” he says with a pointed look towards me. “So, I’m here so we can work out a plan to get her to stay.”
Both me and my brothers resume our seats and stare at the newcomer.
“What makes you think it has anything to do with Marco?” Enzo asks and Finn laughs.
“Because it always has been.”
“And you’re just suddenly okay with our brother being with your sister?” Luca chimes in. At this point, I honestly might just leave the room since they’re all speaking as though I’m not even here.
I lounge back on the couch and take a sip of my drink, not taking my eyes off of Sloane’s brother.
“I’ve always been good with them being together,” he states, and I can’t stop my brows from rising.
“Explain,” I grunt.
He sighs and leans back in the chair. “I knew early on that something was going on between the two of you. At first, I thought you were just using her to hurt my father, but when I saw the way you looked at her, I knew that wasn’t the case,” he says conversationally.
“Where did you see us?”
“I first saw you talking on the terrace on the night of a gala. I didn’t say anything at the time because I wasn’t sure how long you were even out there with her. The second time I saw you lurking around her was in a club one night. I was ready to fucking shoot you since it looked as though you were stalking her. It wasn’t until you threatened some asshole for getting too close to her and I saw how comfortable she was with you and that I knew I had it all wrong. And the way you looked at her? Fuck, I’d never seen anyone look at another person like that,” he mutters the last phrase with a shake of his head.
“Sloane was happier than she’d been in a long time, and I knew that was because of you, so I covered for her whenever I needed to. She eventually admitted to me that she was seeing you. The only reason I warned her to be careful with you was not because I thought you’d hurt her, but because I worried what my father would do if he found out.”
I didn’t even know Sloane had told him about us, or that he’d warned her away from me. Though I don’t blame her for not telling me, things were different back then.
“Things seemed to be okay, and it wasn’t until I overheard my father bragging about hurting the Romanos that I knew something was up.”
He takes a deep breath, his throat working on a swallow before he continues. “Then the next morning, I found Sloane crying in her room. She was fucking heartbroken. She told me that you had cut things off between the two of you and I knew it was because my father threatened you with something, but I couldn’t tell her that.” He pauses to look between me and my brothers. “She’s my little sister. My twin. She’s a part of me, and I couldn’t just let her stay when my father knew she’d been sleeping with the enemy.”
I go to open my mouth to tell him that we were so much more than that, but he raises a hand that has me halting.
“I know. I know you loved her, but my father didn’t give a shit about that. Yeah, he didn’t want a war with the Italians, but he knew that if it came out that his daughter and Salvatore Romano’s son had been seeing each other, he’d be expected to retaliate. I also knew that he would have made my sister’s life hell for what he would have seen as a betrayal.”
“So you found a way to get her away from here,” I murmur.
He nods wordlessly. “I was only nineteen. I didn’t have the backing of men I needed to take over at that time, and it was the only thing I could think of to keep her safe. I persuaded my father to send her to live with my aunt—my mom’s sister—and that we should cut off all communication with her. I told him that she should be cut off from our family and that she didn’t deserve the name O’Brien.”
“You just cut your sister off? Just like that?” Alec asks, speaking for the first time since Finn’s arrival.
Finn shakes his head. “We still spoke on the phone and I visited whenever I was able to without my father knowing. I had my own money that wasn’t connected to my dad, and my aunt was well off, too, so Sloane never struggled in that sense. It took a few years before I had the backing I needed to take down dear old Dad and take over the business, but by the time I did, Sloane was happy with my aunt. It took me years to get her back home,” he grunts before pinning me with his gaze. “And now she wants to leave again.”
“I won’t force her to stay. Sloane is her own woman and I will not take that choice away from her. She’ll leave, and we just need to hope that she comes back.”
Finn nods reluctantly, knowing he needs to give his sister the choice.
I understand where he’s coming from. The last thing I want is for Sloane to leave, but she’s already had so much ripped away from her. She deserves to have everything she wants, and if that is a life away from this city and away from me, then I’ll just have to survive on the memories I have with her.
Luca’s phone rings and he quickly swipes to answer it. It must be Izzy, since he’s never so quick to answer anyone else’s calls. He’s quiet as he speaks to her before he ends the call. His eyes flit over everyone in the room before they land on me. An unknown emotion flickers behind his eyes before he quickly masks it.
“I think Marco has had enough of our company for one evening,” he announces to the room. “As enlightening as this has been,” he says with an appreciative nod towards Finn, “I think it’s time for all of us to leave.”
We all look at him in confusion, but he’s already standing up and gesturing for the others to do the same.
“Come on. Marco has probably had enough of us already.”
“I’d had enough of you the second you walked through the door,” I grumble, and he nods enthusiastically.
“Yep, I figured. So, I’m gonna go home to my wife and leave you to your own company.”
“They’re done?” Enzo exclaims and Luca nods. Enzo jumps from the chair and makes his way towards the elevator, not looking back to see if the others are following or bothering to say goodbye to me, too focused on the knowledge that he can go home to Robyn.
It’d be fucking sickening, but I know that feeling well and I honestly can’t blame him for it.
Alec gives me a pat on the shoulder as Finn and Luca both nod to me, following behind them.
And then I’m left alone once more.
