Page 116 of Entangled

“Please take me home,” Cara told the driver.

“When is enough going to be enough for you?”

Cara bristled at her brother’s tone, and avoided looking at the laptop screen. Skype was a wonderful thing, for the most part, but not today. “Tommas, you don’t—”

“I don’t what, Cara? Know, understand, relate? Which one is it?”

“All of them!”

“I know you’ve lost your job. A job you worked incredibly hard for, and loved with every fiber of your being.”

Cara tried not to show how much that comment stung. “I did lose a job I loved but I don’t blame that on Gian. He wasn’t the person who purposely distributed naked pictures of me, causing my boss to have to consider the ethical and moral ramifications of those images and my personal connections outside of the shelter. Gian didn’t want that to happen, Tommas. Why would he hurt me like that or send people those photos? They were his private photos.”

She had—at first—felt as though Gian could have done more to protect the images. She hadn’t felt that he had done anything to help get those images out into the world to hurt her.

“Fine, move on from the photos,” her brother said with a shake of his head, “because shit, Cara, they’re just one thing in pile of things.”

“Tommas, I didn’t call you tonight to fight. I just thought you would like to see how I’m doing a couple of weeks after the accident.”

“Accident?” He scoffed. “Say what it was. An attack. Something else that was—”

“If you say someone shooting me was Gian’s fault, I am hanging up this fucking call.”

“Did you do something to provoke someone into shooting you, or am I missing a whole bunch of shit?”

“He didn’t pull the trigger, Tommas.”

“He doesn’t have to, where responsibility is concerned!”

Cara’s fingers twitched to close the laptop screen. She didn’t want to end the conversation this way with her brother. She knew Tommas was only expressing his concerns in the one way he currently could, and clearly, he was not doing it well.

Then, her brother said quietly, “I only want you to be happy, Cara. Safe, happy, and loved. By a man who deserves to love you, and who can keep you safe while making you happy. I’m worried that you’re so accustomed to coming second in his life now, that you don’t even see that you do.”

“Tommas, I love you.”

Tommas nodded. “Yeah, I know.”

“But you have no idea what you’re talking about. On this, you’re wrong. You’re so wrong, it’s sad. And sure, I know you don’t have much to go on, but let me make one thing perfectly clear here. Gian puts Marcus and I first much more than anyone realizes, and those who do realize it, don’t like it a whole lot. Because he shouldn’t do what he does with us—he shouldn’t be with us so much, or provide for us as much as he does. He shouldn’t love us in public, or give us presence in his family. We’re the secrets, Tommas, the dirty words in his life. His bastard son born to a goomah woman. He has every single reason to push us aside for his own respect and image, but he doesn’t. And he doesn’t care. We come first, even if it is to his detriment.”

Tommas frowned, but said nothing.

“Frankly, I don’t think even Gian realizes how often he puts us first to his own detriment. I don’t think he cares either way, because this is what is right for him. He’s a wonderful man, and I love him. So let’s be clear here, okay.”

“Okay.”

“He’s mine. I’m fine. I’m not leaving. Not him, this city, or this life. My son is healthy and happy, with his mother and father. I no longer give a shit who thinks what about me, Gian, our situation, or the rest. What I care about, is that I’m happy and my son is, too. That goes for you, too, so learn it fast. I love you but I don’t have to like you if you’re going to make it hard on me.”

For a long while, her brother said nothing.

Cara expected that. She had always been the quiet one. Steadfastly strong, sure, but silent all the same. She didn’t speak up unless necessary, and this had just been one of those things she left alone. Not anymore.

“I’m just worried about you,” Tommas finally said.

“Don’t be, Tommy. I am fine. I am going to keep being fine. It’s what I do.”

That was that.

Shortly after, Cara hung up the Skype call with her brother. Marcus was fed, fast asleep, and safe in his bed, she reminded herself. She had time to relax, and that was what she had intended to do. Instead, she had gotten into a verbal sparring match with her brother.