Chapter 26: 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟐𝟓

BREE

“What are you doing?” Rose asks as soon as she steps into my room and sees the mess I made.

I decided to deep clean my closet and ended up finding things I haven’t seen in years. Like albums, birthday cards, old drawings.

“I’ll clean it,” I say as Rose’s eyes keep widening seeing the mess.

“Are you sure? I can help,”

I nod, “I will. But look, I found so many things.”

Rose carefully makes her way to me and sits beside me as I show her all the cards she made for my birthday over the years.

“Oh my God, you have every one of those cards,”

“Of course, I do.”

Rose was my first genuine friend who actually wanted to be my friend and not because ‘I went through so much’. From day one, Rose started acting like my guardian, always holding my hand whenever we leave the class, buying me food and sharing hers, refusing to let me pay.

I’ve always been happy that I have two brothers. Two strong pillars whom I’ve leaned onto my whole life. But Rose was different. I could lean on her and talk to her about things I wasn’t comfortable talking to my brothers about and Rose always gave me her undivided attention.

“How did your talk with Ryan go?” Rose asks after a while.

“It was good.” I say, a smile taking over my lips, “it was nice.”

Rose smiles softly, “good,”

Our attention wavers when our apartment’s door bell rings.

“That’s probably your boyfriend,” Rose says, getting up, “he just likes to ruin our sweet time together,”

I let out a small laugh as Rose dramatically sighs and leaves the room to open the apartment door.

My eyes catch an old drawing that I drew when I was three.

The portrait isn’t perfect, not like the ones Arzo paints but it contains five stick figures, two tall- our parents- and three short- Ryan, Jack and I. Our parents' stick figures are holding hands while we stand in front of them. All of us are smiling. The scenery indicates a sunny day with clouds in the sky.

When I drew this, I showed it to mom and she was so happy. Jack said I’ll be a famous artist after that drawing- liar- and Ryan smiled too. When I showed it to dad, he gave me a big kiss, hugged me and told me how good the painting was and how he loves me.

I had never expected our beautiful, happy family to get broken the way it did.

My brothers and I coped with what happened in our way. Ryan decided to remember the parts of dad that ruined our family, Jack refused to remember anything about him, meanwhile I remember the moments we were happy. Where dad was the person we had always loved and adored.

“Amore?”

I look up at the sound of that nickname and find Finn standing in front of me, looking around the mess of the room.

I didn’t notice him walk in.

“Love with what you’ve done with the place,” he says, then looks at me with a smile.

I give him a small smile back, “thanks,”

Finn sits down next to me, “so, what is all this?”

“Some things I kept over the years,” I say and hand him the drawing I was holding.

“Oh, wow,” Finn says, “little Bree was an artist,”

I chuckle, “not exactly,”

“Little Bree is my favorite artist,”

“Shut up.”

“We both know that’s impossible,”

I roll my eyes, despite having a huge smile.

“Okay, give me your embarrassing pictures,” he says, looking over the photo cards spread around us.

“I told you, I don’t own any embarrassing pictures,”

“Fine- little Bree spotted!” Finn says and grabs a photo card.

I lean over to him and find him holding a picture of me on my first day of preschool, grinning at dad- who was taking my picture.

Finn stares at the picture then looks at me, “how could you look so happy for attending school? I threw a tantrum on my first day,”

I chuckle, “I was excited because Jack always told fun stories about his school and was adored by his friends and teachers. Ryan was the smart kid and always got good grades. I wanted to be like them.”

“Oh, makes sense,” he says.

“Ryan is too smart though, I am not like him,” I admit.

Finn hums, “yes, but,” he looks at me, “that’s what makes you special,”

He leans in and captures my lips in a soft kiss. I let my eyes close and kiss back. His hand gently wrap around my neck as he deepens the kiss.

When he pulls away, I’m breathless.

His eyes drop my lips and his lips curve into a satisfied smirk, his thumb traces my bottom lips, sending a shock of thrill through my body.

He lets go off my neck and pecks my lips, “you’re so pretty, amore,”

I blink at him, trying to process and hum. He chuckles and goes back to looking at my childhood pictures.

I stay quiet for a few minutes before I speak, “Finn?”

“Hm?”

“What happened yesterday?”

He freezes for a split second then continues his task, picking up another picture but doesn’t say anything.

“You left in a hurry and… I got worried..” I trail off.

Finn puts down the pictures he’s been holding and pulls out his phone. He doesn’t say anything as he works on his it.

I’m about to change the subject, thinking that maybe Finn doesn’t want to talk about it when Finn hands me his phone with an email opened on the screen.

The truth of your past is being hidden from you.

“I’ve been getting these emails every week for months,” Finn says, I look at him but he keeps his gaze on his phone, “I left yesterday because my mother came to my company,”

Oh.

“Did you.. Talk to her?” I carefully ask.

He shakes his head, “I told her to leave. She may be the best person to ask why I’m getting these emails but I swore to never speak to her when I left that house,” he says, his face showing not a hint of emotion, “she ruined my sister’s life. She means nothing to me.”

I stare at Finn with soft eyes, catching the little moisture starting to fill his eyes.

I put away his phone and hug him, wrapping my arms around his neck and climbing onto his lap.

His arms wrap around my waist in a tight but gentle grip and he buries his face in the crook of my neck.

I thread my fingers through his hair, gently stroking them.

“I didn’t know she was sick,” Finn quietly says, so quietly as if he doesn’t want to say it at all, “she was… she was just gone one day,” his voice trembles at the end of the sentence and I feel my heart clench.

“I didn’t get to say goodbye..” his voice cracks and I feel his hand shake, “I didn’t know…” I hug him tighter, hoping that I am able to comfort a part of him he always hid from everyone.

I’ve only ever seen Finn sound so vulnerable when he talks about his sister. No one could ever guess how much he’s been carrying behind the smile he wears everyday, trying his best to make everyone smile around him too.

He makes sure everyone around him is happy and that they know they can ask for help or talk about anything to him.

What he just told me may seem like very little but it was everything to me. I meant it when I said I’ll wait till he can talk about his past with me and I promised myself I wouldn’t leave him when he needs me the most.

We stay hugging like that for a while. Finn doesn’t speak or move and I don’t let go of him either.

No matter what happens, what he tells me or how much, I will always be there to hold him.

Just like he’s always been there for me.