Finding Home in Redemption

Chapter Twenty-Six

I felt like I was processing too much at once. I was drinking sweet tea with my older brother in his kitchen while he was waiting for me to start talking. I hadn't said a word since we'd sat at the table. Brennan being one of the people in the accident that killed my sister was almost too vast to believe. I didn't hold it against him, I hadn't lied, but it was still a strange thing to grasp. Now, I had to explain to Jackson that I'd fallen in love with Brennan.

The thing that was so hard for me to move beyond was the fact that Aaron wasn't real. The man I'd fallen in love with had been created in the imagination of a team of law enforcement officers. I didn't hate Brennan for doing his duty as an officer and finishing his job without telling me the truth. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I guess I just wished I hadn't met him until after he'd finished his job.

On top of everything, my heart was hurting. I'd gone six months without the piece of my heart I'd given to Aaron. Was I supposed to let him back in?

I couldn't do that. I was too scared.

Even if he had an explanation for everything over the past year, I couldn't hand my heart back over to him. I didn't even know Brennan. Maybe I knew pieces of him, but I didn't know for sure.

"The man you met today, Brennan," I started.

"Brennan Murphy. Do you know who he is?" I whipped my head toward Jackson.

"Do you?" I asked.

"He looked so familiar. He has a different last name, but I know who he is. How do you know him?"

I told him about how I'd met Brennan and quickly went through the course of the last year of my life. He sat patiently, listening to every detail and held my hand when I cried my way through watching the only guy I'd fallen in love with leave me. Then, I told him what Brennan had been doing the last three years.

"That's insane," he said. He sat back in his chair and shook his head. "What are the chances that he'd show up in your life?"

"From what I understand, he was only fifteen when the whole thing happened. He wasn't at fault for any of it." Olivia said from the doorway.

"I have to agree with her," Jackson said. "It's so weird, but he wasn't the one at fault. Even the police officer that testified at his trial said the boy he was with threw him under the bus to try to get off easier."

"That guy was his foster brother," I said.

"Can you imagine what he's gone through though?" Olivia asked. "I don't mean to dismiss what you guys have lost because I can't imagine losing my sister, but he was a little boy and probably carries a lot of guilt."

"I don't know what to tell you, Bentley. It's a crazy situation, but I don't think Brennan should be blamed for Erica's death." Jackson said.

"Why aren't you bitter?" The question came out before I'd thought about why I was asking. Jackson and I were fine. I'd grown up thinking he and Amelia didn't want anything to do with me because they were bitter about Erica's death and while that was true for Amelia, the same couldn't be said for my brother.

"I struggled a lot through my teen years. I hated the entire world. When I was three, my dad decided the family life wasn't for him. Then a few years later my older sister died, and my baby sister was forced to stay behind while I got to watch my mom suffer depression. By the time I got to high school, I was awful."

"He was our school's bad boy," Olivia smiled at him.

"Who knew spray paint could be so powerful?" he laughed. "So, my sophomore year we got a new student. Little miss goodie two shoes, she even wore her hair in braids. For some reason, my English teacher thought I needed help in her class, so I got paired with the little brat."