My Family Faked Mom's Death to Stop My Wedding—My Adopted Sister Had My Fiancé's Baby novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Six Keys

Lorenzo came to my grandmother's door at one in the morning, soaked to the skin.

He didn't knock.

I heard a heavy weight sit down on the stoop, and then a sound I had never heard from my eldest brother.

I went to the window.

He had his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands, and his whole back was shaking.

Bruce stood behind me in the dark.

"Do you want me to send him away?"

"No," I said. "I want to see what he does."

I put on my coat and opened the door.

The rain had turned to sleet.

"Livia," Lorenzo said, without looking up. "I don't have anywhere to go."

"You have a house in Garden City with a pool."

"Dad has the deed. He had the locks changed at ten tonight."

I stood in the doorway with my arms folded.

"Why?"

"Because I wouldn't sign." He lifted his face, and it was wet and red. "He wanted me to witness your signature at the closing. Your scan, Livia. He wanted me to stand in the room and swear I saw you sign."

"And you said no."

"I said no." He laughed, ugly. "Twenty-five years I said yes to everything. The one time I said no, he looked at me and didn't know my face."

"You aren't a stranger. You signed the casket receipt."

"I know."

"You stood in a doorway and kept me from my own mother."

"I know."

He bent over his knees again.

"I told myself it was one year," he said into the sleet. "I told myself you'd be happier with a better wedding. I watched you cry and I thought, she'll be fine, she's strong."

"Everyone said that."

"Because it was convenient." His voice broke. "Do you know what I did the night after the funeral? I sat in my car outside the chapel and ate a sandwich. Mom was alive and you were sitting beside a box of sandbags, and I ate a sandwich."

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