The Photograph

Gabe

“Thank you, Erica.” I stand to shake the hand of the woman soon to be my assistant.

The last of the two candidates Ann has introduced me to as her replacement exits my office while Ann sits across from me with her legs crossed. “So, what do you think?”

I don’t care.I swipe my hand over my face. “She’s fine. Pick the one you think is best, Ann.”

She shifts to the edge of her seat and tilts her head to the side. “Gabe, what’s wrong?”

When I plant my elbows on my desk and pinch the bridge of my nose, she frowns.

“Anything I can help with?”

I shake my head and sit back. “I’m good, Ann. Thanks.”

As she closes the door behind her, I stare blindly at the clear skies above the city.

I’d bled enough that day.

I haven’t slept since that day. Every time I close my eyes, I see Aelin’s face awash in pain and guilt chokes me.I am not and will never be your little whore.

My cell vibrates and tension fills my entire body.

“Cal?”

“How soon can you get over here?”

Already on my feet, I yank the door open. “Be there in fifteen.”

Eleven minutes later, I knock on Caleb’s door.

After we back-slap-hug, I follow Cal to the main room where he aims straight for the bar and pours two full tumblers of whisky.

When he offers one to me, I shake my head “I’m good.”

Cal pushes the glass in my hand. “Trust me, brother, you’re gonna need it.”

I settle in one of the two brown leather armchairs while Cal opens his safe concealed behind a black and white framed picture of the Sahara Desert to retrieve a folder he gives to me.

“This is classified, and she was a minor at the time, so the files are sealed.”

More tension seizes my shoulders as I open the file. There’s a picture of Aelin as a child. I turn the page slowly and frown. Three out of four words are redacted, hidden behind a black, thick line.

I whip my eyes to my friend’s. “Tell me.”

Cal unclenches his jaw. Half seated on the windowsill, he leans his back against the only wide window of the room.

“Aelin was adopted in a sealed adoption at the age of two by Richard and Martha Lockwoods from Leslieville”

The name is familiar.“Lockwoods?”

Cal grunts. “Yes, as in Judge Lockwoods married to food supplies heiress Martha Zeph. The Lockwoods had one daughter, Cara, but Mrs. Lockwoods couldn’t have more children. But before I continue…”

Cal pulls a picture from the file and hands it to me.

“This is Cara.” He hands me another picture. “This is Aelin.”

The two girls look so similar they could pass as twins. “Fuck.”

Cal sits in the armchair across from me with his legs braced apart. “The girls grew up with the best money can buy and were part of the picture-perfect family Lockwoods needed for his introduction into politics. Cracks into the perfect family started to show when Cara left at the age of seventeen after a huge fight with Mother Lockwoods and never returned. Drugs were mentioned, but there wasn’t any real evidence.”

I clench the glass hard as Cal resumes. “Everything went on as normal as any family until Aelin, aged twelve, came back to school after spending nearly three weeks at home for an undisclosed illness. She went to the nurse complaining her belly hurt after her dad put his hand and hurt her ‘there’.”

He pinned me down to my bed and raped me with his fist.

My heart races while my chest tightens. Cal clears his throat. “The school nurse, who like most people in the town, didn’t want to ruffle any feathers, didn’t report it, as is the law. Instead, she called the mother to pick up Aelin, who didn’t return to school for another week. Boys, older boys started telling whoever would listen that Aelin was promiscuous and always wanted it bad. A few of them claimed she often performed sexual acts on them, and some said they slept with her. By the time she reintegrated school, she had a reputation as the town’s little whore.”

At the age of twelve?

Barely registering the file dropping on the floor, I set the glass on the coffee table and fist my hands tight. “Go ahead.”

“A few weeks later, her class went to visit the Hammersmith hospital where Aelin asked a female doctor why her belly hurt so much all the time. Dr. Nareen Ahmed, resident OB GYN, examined her and alerted the authorities for suspected sexual abuse. They interrogated Aelin with her parents present even after she clearly named her father as her abuser which is against procedure. A case was opened by Child Protective Services. The local police, the doctors, and the investigators, all from Leslieville, concluded Aelin was troubled and recommended a psychological assessment.”

Cal empties his glass before he sets it on the coffee table next to mine. “What nobody saw coming was the young lawyer, Christopher Wend, who got hired by an association for victims of sexual abuse to defend Aelin and actually fought for her. The Lockwoods wanted a judgement behind closed doors, which was granted by the judge, a close friend of Papa Lockwood’s. The Lockwoods wanted to put Aelin back in the system. Wend talked to Dr. Nareen Ahmed who agreed to testify.”

The motherfucker raped her and…

I can’t help the growl that escapes my chest and fills the room as Cal clenches his jaw.

My friend resumes. “Wend requested an early emancipation for Aelin which was granted on the basis she would be in the care of an adult. He found Cara, who just turned nineteen at the time, and took her sister in. As part of the settlement, the Lockwoods were ordered to cover both girls’ life expenses until Aelin turned twenty-one if all parties’ identities stay protected.”

Vibrating with a rage that chokes me, I push on my knees and lurch to the window. I want to break something, starting with every bone in Lockwoods’ body.

Cal grabs my shoulder. “You good?”

No.I nod. “The girls changed their names. Cara took her maternal grandmother’s maiden name and Aelin legally chose her new last name when she turned eighteen. Sweets and Thorne, respectively. After the judgement, they left Leslieville, kept their head down, and worked hard to be able to pay for college for Cara while Aelin got a scholarship—”

I snap my eyes to Cal. “Why? You said—”

Cal sighs and swipes his hand over his face. “They never touched a cent of the money and paid for everything themselves. As of today, the balance on the account is nearly nineteen million dollars after their mother left them a living inheritance before passing away five years ago. They moved around a lot, for Cara’s job who’s making her name as a chef while Aelin became an interior designer after finishing arts school. They came here about seven years ago, then bought two old houses they redid themselves and never defaulted on a payment.”

Cal buries his fists in his pockets. And I brace myself. “Now here’s the kicker. Lockwoods remarried and tried to adopt another little girl. Luckily, an anonymous somebody notified Chris Wend. So, four months ago, he and Aelin went to family court to prevent the adoption. They presented Aelin’s file as evidence of the abuse which might be perpetrated on the little girl. They also introduced a pattern of behavior because the girl was a dead ringer for Cara and Aelin.”

Evil motherfucker. I drop my head and shut my eyes.I am not and never will be your little whore.The fear in her eyes when I reached for her…You both seem to agree on who I am.

Cal’s voice brings me back in the room. “My sources told me that against Wend’s advice, Aelin agreed to waive her right to anonymity if the case went to criminal court. The judge sided with her and Lockwoods wasn’t charged, but he won’t ever be able to adopt again. The new Mrs. Lockwoods filed and was granted divorce within a month.”

The day she came back from court, fighting the motherfucker who raped her, so another kid wouldn’t go through the same hell, I took her against a wall. Without a rubber.

Can you stay with me tonight? Just for tonight, please.She needed me to hold her, and I fled. Ran like a coward thinking she was…

‘I’ll tell you what I told him. I’m not and will never be your little whore.’

Shame splinters my chest and I brace my hand on the window. “Cal, the things I said to her…” I look at my friend. “I paid her… I shoved money in her hand and told her to leave.”Exactly like the motherfucker did.

Cal exhales sharply. “But that can be undone. Talk to—”

“She got pregnant.”

Caleb’s brows shoot up, and he shakes his head slowly. “Mike’s going to kill you,”

My breath saws out. “And I’d fucking deserve it.”

He grabs my shoulder. “G, sit down.”

Dropping heavily onto the couch, I set my forearms on my thighs as Cal settles next to me. “I went to see her yesterday and when she told me she wasn’t pregnant anymore… I…”

I hang my head low while my chest burns. “She lost it. She had a miscarriage, and I went at her like a fucking savage while she—”

Crushed under the guilt and the rage that choke me, I drop my head in my hands while tears run down my cheeks.

When Caleb wraps his arm around me, I grip his shoulder and weep.

****

The next day, I call Smithson to my office. She may never want to talk to me again, but I have to make this right. I grit my teeth at the flood of shame and guilt that tighten my chest.

When the lawyer knocks on the door, I answer without lifting my head from the screen of my laptop.

“Come in.”

“Surprise!” I whip my eyes up at Mike who walks in and opens his arms with a big grin. “How’s my great big brother?”

Fuck.

****

As we step out of the elevator, I greet my new assistant who stares up at Mike with a blushing smile.

“Catch you later, Mike.”

My baby brother nods, and winks at Erica before walking to his office one door down from mine.

It’s been three days since his return, and already half of the staff has fallen for Mike’s charms. Even as a kid, Mike never seemed to get angry at anything, and women have been flocking to him wanting to bask in his charming attentions.But the one he fell for … what happened between him and Aelin?

Once in my office, I make my way to the window. Mike’s been staying at my house for the last two days, and we’ve been catching up on his work as the brilliant architect my brother is.

Looking at the sky for answers, I stretch my neck side to side.

How am I going to tell him?

How I took her virginity, the thought makes me hard because I’m an asshole. How I got her pregnant, and… Fuck.

A knock on the door provides the distraction I need. I turn as Erica’s head peeks past the doorjamb.

“Gabe, there’s uh … someone’s h—”

She stumbles through the door in an uncoordinated flurry of limbs before regaining her footing.

What the f…?I reach for her. “Are you all right?”

Erica barely nods before a slim brunette with wild curls tamed into a high ponytail and her glare pointed at me, stomps her combat boots into the room. I freeze for a second and stare at the woman, a dead ringer for Aelin.Cara.

I’ve seen the pictures, but I wasn’t ready for how similar they look. And how different they would be. Cara’s eyes are paler, her hair more an ashy blonde than the deep mahogany of Aelin’s.

She turns toward Erica. “Can you leave us, please?” When Erica glances up, I nod, and my assistant hurries out of the office.

Aelin’s sister marches further into the room. Her lips are pinched into a thin line.

“Who the hell do you think you are, you pathetic motherfucker?”

I notice too late the large canvas bag in her hand she hurls at me. It hits my shoulder before landing on the rug in a muted thump. The wide box falls open at my feet. The Chanel dress I sent Aelin. The one she was wearing the night, I…

I deserve everything you throw at me.When she reaches in her purse, I lock my body into place. The bangle clocks my jaw and lodges somewhere under my desk. And the contract is next.

“You miserable asshole. You think you can just throw your giant bully ass around and hurt my sister?”

Guilty. Of all of it.I keep still as she steps closer. Her voice pitches higher. “What kind of perverted asshole are you? She’s innocent and good…” Tears fill her eyes before hatred dries them out. “You got her pregnant—”

The door of my office bangs open. We both snap our eyes to Mike wearing a thunderous expression before his eyes widen as they set on her.

“What the… Cara?”

She spins toward my brother. “Mitch?”

Her breath hitches while Mike’s expression becomes proprietary. Fuck. It’sher.The woman who broke my brother is Cara. A renewed wave of guilt washes over me, and I lock my knees as Mike nears her.

As he gets close, she jumps back, and pain flickers in my brother’s eyes. “Do you hate me so much you’d send your brother, a brother you never talked about after my baby sister?”

Mike whips his eyes to mine then back to Cara. “Cara, I was out of the country until last week. I have no idea what you’re talking about, and—”

Aelin’s sister’s tone hardens. “No? Your asshole brother seduced Aelin, got her pregnant, then threatened to ruin her career and everyone she knows if she didn’t leave. Because apparently, she wanted your money and was after his.Is that what you tell people? That I wanted your money? I never took you for a liar.” She turns to me and scoffs. “But knowing what that asshole did, I can see it now. You were in on this.”

Mike blanches and glances at me before returning his attention back to Cara.

“Cara, what the fuck are you on about?”

Sheleans closer to my brother with her fists clenched. “He slept with her then paid her for services rendered.” Rage spills in her voice again as she locks her eyes to mine. “She was worth every cent? Men like you … you’re disgusting.” She cuts her eyes back to Mike. “He called my sister a whore before blackmailing her to leave our home. All this to avenge you.”

After Mike throws me a homicidal stare, he steps to Cara who jumps back.

“Aelin’s pregnant?”

Cara lets out a pained sigh as she shakes her bent head.

“No, she lost the baby … and it nearly killed her.” Her voice breaks on the last words.

My blood turns to ice as I lurch toward Cara. “What?”

If her eyes were guns, I’d be dead. Several times over.

“This is our home.” She hisses. “And we’re not going anywhere.” She inches closer. “You want revenge? Come after me, you slimy creep, because Aelin and I aren’t going anywhere. Go after our friends, our livelihood. Do your worst. We survived bigger evil than you.”

Guilt claws at my chest. This is the second time I’ve been lumped with that fucking incestuous pedophile rapist.

“Cara, my heart—”

He calls her ‘my heart.’

She whirls toward Mike whose hurt expression guts me as he watches his woman angry and in pain.

Cara lifts her face to his. “Why would you do this, Mitch?” Her voice breaks. “W-why?”

Mike rakes his fingers through his hair and closes the distance between them. “Cara, I’d cut my arm off before hurting you or Aelin. My heart, you must know that.”

Aelin’s sister’s breath hitches and she lets out a half sob. “Mitch, she nearly died. Aelin laid down in her own blood … all alone … and nearly died.”

What the fuck did I do?

“Cara, my heart…” Mike cups her face, but again she steps out of his reach.

“No.” She shakes her head, and her tone is cold. “No. You do not get to call me that. Ever again. You both stay the hell away from us.”

She strides to the door she slams behind her.

Michael exhales sharply before he turns slitted eyes to me. “What the fuck did you do?” My brother comes at me with his fists clenched, and I straighten up, ready for the hit I deserve.

“Why would you go after Aelin? Gabe, she’s a fucking kid.”

I’ve been called a lot of things, but coming from my brother…

“You want to hit me? Go ahead, you’d do me a favor. I fucked up. Big. But I was there the day the surgeons said you wouldn’t walk again. And I saw you look at that picture and drop it on the floor.” I wrap my hand around my baby brother’s nape. “And you gave up. You took one look at that picture, and you fucking stopped fighting, Mikey!”

We’re both breathing hard. Mike drops his head, and I exhale sharply.

“Fuck. Gabe. It wasn’t because of her. I was… Fuck”

Mike fastens his arms around me, and I hold onto my brother.