HEAT in New Orleans || Marcel Gerard

Chapter 7: A Nightcap Instead

Chapter Seven

"You're late," I said, lips pursed as Cami stumbled into Rousseau's half an hour past the start of her shift. She gave me an apologetic smile, rushing past me at the bar, doing her job, into the back to clock in and put down her belongings.

I waited until she joined me behind the bar. "I'm sorry," she told me. "I got caught up with Klaus and his memoirs and monologues about his paranoia."

I scoffed, "paranoid about what?"

"His siblings betraying him."

"You ever think maybe he's not paranoid?" I retorted. She opened her mouth to argue then closed it and shook her head at me. "What?"

"I went from thinking he's hot to thinking he's a total nuisance," she said. "I just... have all this anger directed at him and like I can barely remember why."

I frowned, "You're mad at him but don't know why?"

"I feel like I've been missing gaps of time. So I know he's done something wrong I just can't remember what but I'm frustrated," she sighed.

I stared at her worriedly. I wasn't a scientist, but our family had a slight history of mental disorders. My mom was bipolar and suffered from depression. She committed suicide when I was 12 and the twins were 6. Dad struggled with three kids for awhile, my dad's sister, aunt Laoise and her son Declan came from Ireland to stay with us for months after, through the whole summer. But then dad was on his own and he survived. Kieran, my father's brother, helped of course. It was easier cause he lived in the same state. Back then we weren't in the city until after mom's death. Dad moved us, he didn't want us in the family home she had hung herself in. And my dad was my hero. My heart broke when he passed away from a heart attack four years ago. I thought about moving back home then but Cami and Sean convinced me they were adults, they didn't need me to take care of them. Besides Cami was off in college at the time and Sean was under Kieran's wing leading the church. And that's when fate struck ill. Sean snapped. It was the craziest thing. He was a sweet boy. But he murdered so many others before slicing his own throat to take his life as well.

Cami, Kieran, and my kids were all I had left. I didn't want to lose anyone else. When my ex husband and I decided to divorce, we took the kids to a therapist. We had family therapy once a week for the last year, to help them process, adjust, and feel safe to communicate to us how they really felt about everything. From mommy and daddy love you but don't love each other anymore, daddy was moving out, daddy started dating, and mommy wants to move across the country.

Here I was worried about my little sister's sanity. Hell, she was a few months from getting her master's degree in psychology. But that didn't mean therapist didn't need therapist. Especially with our family history of depression. If not mom being enough to worry us, but Sean as well? They were twins. Fraternal but still. I was concerned eight months ago when Sean died. I wanted to move but my divorce wasn't finalized and Cami insisted I didn't have to. And Kieran said he had left the city, so he wouldn't be around. In fact my uncle got back only a couple weeks before I moved here. He needed time to process. That was fair. But cami? She didn't process. She obsessed over Sean. She was trying to find an explanation for something none of us could explain. Not that it would undo the damage either. And honestly, the idea of knowing the truth scared me more than the unknown.

"You ever think of talking to someone?" I asked my sister gently, placing a hand over her arm. She scoffed, shaking her head at me.

"Get a shrink?" She questioned. "I am a shrink."

"Doesn't mean someone can't help you," I quipped, voice hardening as I tried to talk sense into her. "You're missing gaps of time. I don't know what happened to make Sean... do what he did. But I don't want the same thing to happen to you. So please, get help."