Chapter 10 - Walking Away from the Poison
Jason lifted his head from Mom's shoulder, his eyes bloodshot and swollen, wild with desperation. He scrambled to his feet, lunging toward me, though he stopped three feet away when he saw the cold, unyielding look in my eyes.
"Brian... Brian, please," Jason begged, his arrogance completely shattered, reduced to the whining child he had always been beneath his swagger. "You have to talk to Marcus. Just ask him to let me resign quietly! If I get hit with grand larceny charges, I’ll go to prison! I won't survive inside, Brian! You know I won't! We're brothers! Blood is thicker than water!"
"The full quote, Jason," Emily said, her voice clear and cutting through the night air, "is 'the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.' The bonds you choose to honor through respect and love are stronger than the accident of shared DNA."
Jason ignored her, falling to his knees again in front of me, grabbing the hem of my coat. "Please, Brian! I'll pay it back! You have money—you own that firm, you have that house—lend me the forty-two grand! I'll pay Vanguard back before Monday morning, and they won't file charges! Please! I’m begging you!"
I looked down at my older brother. The boy who used to break my toys and laugh while Mom blamed me for being careless. The teenager who took credit for my science projects. The man who sat across the table an hour ago and mocked me for being unloved and unsuccessful.
I slowly reached down and pried his fingers off my coat.
"No, Jason," I said firmly.
"Brian, how can you be so heartless?!" Mom wailed, rocking back and forth on the gravel. "He’s your brother! You're going to let him go to prison over forty thousand dollars when you're swimming in luxury?!"
"Yes, Mom, I am," I answered, looking directly into her tear-streaked face. "Because if I bail him out today, he will steal eighty thousand next year. And you will still sit there and blame me for not giving him more. I spent thirty years trying to buy your love with obedience and silence, and it cost me my self-respect. I'm not spending a single cent of my family's future to buy Jason out of the cage he built for himself."
I turned to my father. "Goodbye, Dad. Take care of yourself."
Dad swallowed hard, a solitary tear tracing down his cheek. He gave a single, slow nod of understanding. "Goodbye, Brian. Give that little boy a good life. Don't... don't be like me."
"I won't," I promised.
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I unlocked the Defender. Emily climbed into the passenger seat, carefully securing Nathan into his rear-facing infant car seat. I climbed into the driver's seat, closing the heavy door behind me, sealing out the freezing wind, the hysterical screams of my mother, and the pathetic begging of my ruined brother.
I started the engine. The powerful V8 roared to life with a deep, resonant hum. I shifted into reverse, backing out of the gravel driveway, turning the wheels toward the highway that would take us home to our sanctuary in the mountains.
