Love, Ally by Hannah Gray

thirty-five

Cole

Reaching her hand over, Ally runs it up my arm. “You okay, babe?”

“I’m good.” I nod. “I’ve got you with me, so it’ll all be fine.”

“You freaking know it,” she deadpans. “I’ll knock them out if I need to.” She hits her fist against her tiny palm.

I laugh. “No doubt, angel. No doubt.”

I know she would in a heartbeat, if shit got out of hand. She’d do just about anything for me.

“But for real, what is the plan here?” She seems concerned. “Are we going in there, guns blazing? Or are we going to first eat some of the dope-ass food you say Jenn cooks? You know I love a good home-cooked meal. Lord knows we haven’t had many of those to enjoy.”

“I don’t really know. I feel like I won’t form a plan until I’m actually there. Should we have a signal?” I wink.

Her face lights up, and some of the worry leaves it as a laugh bubbles out of her. “Ca-caw, like a crow, could be bad news bears. And the words gummy bears could be, Let’s take it nice and easy.”

“Gummy bears?”

She nods. “I mean, yeah. That seems like the nicer approach, the more likable one. And I mean, come on, who doesn’t love gummy bears?”

“You’ve got a point, ghost rider. You’ve got a point.”

She nods, looking forward out the front window. “Let’s just take it as it comes. Whatever happens, I’m here.”

Thank fuck for that.

 

“It’s probably no secret we didn’t come here to bond over lasagna,” I say, glancing between Matt and Jenn. “I want answers. And I want them now.”

Even though I must admit, this lasagna is fucking delicious. Which is why I waited until we were almost done with dinner to drop my bomb that I know what’s going on.

Ally basically moaned with every bite she took of the fucking stuff, so I couldn’t not let her finish her food. Growing up, we never had home-cooked meals like this. I didn’t want to cut her experience short. Nobody loves their food as much as Ally.

Jenn looks at Ally. “You told him?”

Ally nods. “Damn straight I did. I should have told him much sooner. As in right when I found out.”

Jenn nods slowly. “It’s okay. I know we put you in a hard spot.”

Matt takes his wife’s hand into his and looks at her.

Giving him a small nod, she smiles sadly. “Go on. He deserves to know.”

Fucking right I do.

He pushes his chair back, and it scrapes against the expensive tiles. He stands and disappears down the hallway briefly before returning with a picture. Once he sits back down, he slides it across to me.

I feel Ally’s hand tighten on mine, reminding me she’s here. In this moment, everything seems like I’m in a damn tunnel. One I am stuck inside of and want to get out of.

Looking down at the picture, I feel my heart pounding in my chest so loud that I wonder if everyone else can hear it.

A boy, likely age eight or nine, stares back at me. The boy looks vaguely familiar, but what is really familiar is the run-down trailer that sits behind him.

“I don’t understand,” I say out loud, not to anyone in particular, more to myself. “I don’t get it.”

The room is eerily quiet for a beat before Matt finally clears his throat.

“I lived in that trailer for the first ten years of my life,” Matt says, looking down at the table. “With the same monster you grew up with.”

I jerk my head up at his confession. His head lifts, and his eyes meet mine.

“Wh-what?” I ask, feeling Ally’s grip tighten and her thumb moving up and down along my hand.

“Cole, there’s no easy way to tell you this.” He looks at Ally and Jenn before his eyes land back on me. “Your dad … was my dad. I’m your … brother.”

The only word I can think of right now for how I’m feeling in this moment is numb.

I have no idea how to feel or what to think. So, I just sit here. Completely emotionless and unable to form a thought, much less a sentence.

“Cole?” Ally’s sweet voice pulls me from my trance. “Baby?”

Turning toward her, I’m greeted by worried eyes. “Huh?”

“I asked if you were all right.” Her eyes dance between mine, no doubt searching for something, anything, to let her know I’m okay. “Are you?”

“I, uh …” I drag my free hand over my face before pushing the picture away. “I don’t … I don’t know what the fuck I am right now.”

“Cole,” Jenn speaks now. “We are so sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. We just didn’t want to compromise anything.”

“Compromise what?!” I stand abruptly, causing my chair to topple over backward. Finally able to feel something as the reality of what I just heard hits me. “What the fuck are you even saying? Because nothing is adding up. You apparently paid to adopt me, but now, Matt is my fucking brother? Are you serious?”

“Just listen, would you? Damn it, Cole, hear us out,” Matt says through gritted teeth. A handful of his own hair in his hand as he tries to explain this shitshow to me.

And as I look at Matt, I see something that I never noticed before. He has my dad’s eyes. Actually, he looks a lot like my dad. I don’t know how I missed it before.

“Okay, he will listen,” Ally says, leveling them with a look only she can give. “But you will not—and I repeat, not—swear or raise your voice at him again, or we will leave this house so damn fast that your head will spin. You two are the ones who created this situation, not Cole. Understood?”

They both look at each other and nod.

“Yeah, fair enough,” Matt mumbles.

“Why offer money for me if I was your family? Why not just say so? The payment seems unnecessary,” I say, looking at Matt.

Matt’s forehead creases. “First off, I didn’t even know I had a little brother until a few years ago. My mother, she slipped up about it, and I had to find you.”

“How did I not know about you?” I ask him.

“Because our dad was a very dark part of my mother’s life. Mine too. Our time there was hell on earth. Both of us fell victim to his disgusting ways, the physical and emotional abuse. When I was ten, we left. She changed my last name and never spoke of the man again. To anyone. And our dad, well, he hated me, so it’s not surprising that he never spoke of me either.”

He pauses, nervously fidgeting with the napkin in front of him.

“Our dad had me when he was young. I’m thirty-eight; you’re eighteen. By the time you came along, he had probably done so many drugs that he didn’t even remember he had another son. Besides, he’d spent most of his time pretending I didn’t exist when I did live there.” I can hear the pain behind Matt’s voice. “That man, our father, was a piece of shit. I hated him with every cell in my being.”

“How’d you know where to find me?” I question him.

“That wasn’t hard to do. My wife is a private investigator.” He jerks his thumb toward Jenn. “She found out everything we needed to know within an hour.”

“I thought you were a schoolteacher?” I ask Jenn.

She sadly shakes her head. “No, I’m not. But we had to spin a perfect story for Dave and Marion. A private investigator wouldn’t have exactly worked.”

“So, why offer money for him then? It doesn’t make sense,” Ally states the obvious. “I mean, you are brothers, for Christ’s sake.”

“Because Dave and Marion had been under investigation for a while, without even realizing it. Once we found that out, we knew we could be a final piece to locking them up,” Jenn says, her eyes moving between Ally and mine before locking on Ally. “You being thrown out to live in Sisters Safe Place was just another red flag.”

“How so?” Ally continues to ask what I want to, and I’m so thankful she’s here right now. Dealing with this bullshit with me.

“Because you were their responsibility and they failed you along with many other children they’d once fostered. We’d been watching over the two of you after finding out about Cole. We knew you wouldn’t leave Cole, not unless you were forced out.” She reaches across the table, patting Ally’s hand. “We are going to take them down.”

“How can you be so sure?” I question her.

“Because I have connections. I was able to show proof that they were doing shady things. I turned my evidence over a while back. The investigators are just closing some loose ends, and they’ll be getting arrested.”

My eyes find Ally’s. Jail will never be enough for that scumbag. I want his blood on my hands.

She nods once, her eyes filled with fear before she looks at Jenn. “What if I have something else on them?” She flicks a tear that escapes from her eye. “Something … really bad.”

“Well then, I’ll pass that along as well. These two are crappy people. They need to go down.”

“I agree,” Ally whispers before looking at me. “And this way, Dave can be punished without you getting involved.”

I don’t say anything. Instead, I just hold her hand and let her believe I’ll stay out of it. As much as I want to respect her wishes, I also still really want to kill that piece of shit.

Nobody hurts my angel.