The Hart Game

Chapter Forty-One

LUKE

She loves me.

Cassie loves me. I've been on cloud nine since I left her room early the next day. I didn't want to leave, but she had told me that Teddy and Bryan were going to be home that morning and she didn't want to have to deal with an overprotective brother. So I reluctantly left and told her I was going to come back later that night.

I didn't want to go to school or home, so I texted Eleanor and asked if I could bring Kylie to the park or something. That's another thing that I've been doing. I've been visiting them and trying to get to know the other girl who has another part of my heart. My niece.

The niece I've just discovered not too long ago. A piece of Kyle that still lives on. The more I spend time with her, the more I see bits and pieces of my big brother. The more I see a mirror image of him in this little girl he would've called daughter.

Kylie even started calling me Creepy after I told her that I had a nickname her daddy gave me when I was just a baby. And now she's demanding that I give her a nickname too. I think I'm set on 'Her Majesty!' Every time I spend time with her, I fall and fall and fall more in love with the idea of being her uncle. Her knight in shining armor. Her someone in the place where my brother should've been.

I've even been coerced into taking her to a father daughter dance her pre-school she had just started that year, put on. That should've been Kyle beside her. Letting her dance on his toes. Every time I'm with Kylie, I think-This should've been Kyle's life. Kyle should be the one telling her stories of when we were kids.

I just got home from spending the day with Kylie. There were a lot of laughs that I didn't know I needed. A lot of smiles from her that partially returned the sun to my whole world and gave at least a lot more light to the darkness that still lurked. Now, I need a shower and a change of clothes after being outside for most of the day, but I wasn't ready for what greeted me in the house I've barely called a home in the last month.

Robert Garrick was sitting a few steps up the staircase. He looked more like his normal self than when I first walked out on him trying to explain about the truths he kept from me. His designer suit and tie pressed to the crisp, no wrinkle in sight. A Rolex shines in the light on his wrist. His hair combed to the side in perfection. Not a single strand astray. Now that I think about it, he was always so prim and proper. Wearing expensive and top of the line designer suits - him and my mom - I always thought it was because he was a doctor, but now I know that he's a part of a family that was the Mafia.

The only reason I came here today was because Wednesdays were always the busiest for the Garrick Household. Everybody is out of the house until before dinner. Dad is supposed to be at the hospital but here he is, sitting in the way, up to the place I knew I could escape to. His elbows on his knees, hands in fists in front of his mouth.

"I was hoping you would come home." He mumbles against his fists. His wedding ring on his left ring finger and his Notre Dame class ring on his right pinky. I don't say anything. I just stand there at the bottom of the stairs just staring at him.

"You ready to talk?" He asks calmly, knowing of the temper he passed down to both his sons. Only one knew how to control it better than the other. I don't answer, instead I step back and lean against the wall, daring not to look away from the eyes that are the same as the brother who also had secrets.

"My parents were junkies," Wait. My eyes widen a little bit in surprise. Junkies? No wonder he never talked about his parents. "Always high on anything they could get their hands on." He pauses. Makes sure I'm listening and then continues. "Sometimes we barely had enough to pay for rent, let alone food, because all the money would go straight to the drugs they were on. No money equals barely any food to live off of and clothes that barely even fit. I was lucky enough to have a next door neighbor who took pity on me and provided me with small things that helped me survive, Her name Mary. She was the parent I needed. Sneaking food and things that I needed, because she was scared of my mom and dad. She even enrolled me in a good school in secret, after she realized that I was smarter than anyone would've thought. Having junkie parents that don't pay you any attention, you learn to entertain yourself in quiet ways. Books were my escape, after teaching myself.