They Gave My Cousin a Car, I Built an Empire novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Half of Nothing

I closed Tyler's fingers over the keys, one at a time.

"They're yours," I said. "He gave them to you, and you didn't know."

"I knew he was spending money. I didn't know whose."

"Neither did I, until Thursday."

"Then it's half yours." He pushed his hand toward me. "A car's not half of anything, but it's something."

"Tyler, if I drive that car, I've taken it from him."

"Good!"

"That's why I won't."

He stood on the porch in his socks and looked at the red Camaro in the driveway.

"I can't go back in there," he said. "My mom's in there. She knew."

"She's your mom."

"She's been sitting at that table every Sunday for two years watching me say thank you."

Ben had gotten out of the truck.

He stood at the bottom of the steps with his paperback in one hand.

"I've got a couch," he said.

Tyler looked at him, and then at me.

"He's the guy with the dog food truck."

"That's me," Ben said.

Tyler slept on that couch for a week.

On Tuesday, I stopped by Ben's apartment with coffee and found my cousin at the kitchen counter, in Ben's gray sweatpants, eating cereal out of a mixing bowl.

He hadn't posted anything in four days.

I knew because his followers had started asking.

"Everyone thinks I got kidnapped," he said, holding up his phone. "One guy thinks I'm dead."

"Are you going to say something?"

"What would I say?"

I pulled out a stool and sat.

"Uncle Gary came to every game I ever played," Tyler said, after a while. "Every one. Even the ones in Cincinnati, when it was snowing."

← Chapter 13 · All chapters · Chapter 15 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend