Unravelling

Chapter 36 - Irresolvable Task

"Who is Will?" Finn asks innocently at the same time as I blurt out: "How do you know Will?"

The satisfied smirk that spreads across Greg's face when he realises that he has caught us is sickening.

Finn looks at me kind of desperately. He obviously doesn't think admitting that Will is one of my brothers was a very good idea.

Well, tough.

I want to know why Finn's creepy stepbrother knows Will. If my maths skills are not completely evading me right now, he is about eight years older than Will. So there is no way that they know each other from school.

Drugs.

The thought hits me like a ton of bricks and I physically flinch when the ice cream tub that I discovered weeks ago in the shed flashes before my inner eye.

This must be it. The only connection that makes sense must be a drug connection. And Greg does look like some kind of thug, so it would not surprise me if that is how they know each other.

"Well, well, well, Finny-Boy, you bloody waste of space, did you actually think you could lie to me?" Greg's creepy voice interrupts my train of thoughts.

"What are you on about?" Finn asks, acting all nonchalant.

I glance at him and the kind of look that he fixes on his stepbrother strikes me as very – odd?

"Y'all thought you could hide from me that she is a fucking Taylor, too?"

"We weren't trying to hide anything. But what does it even matter?" Finn's voice has adopted an almost pleading tone, which confuses me.

Is he trying to stop Greg from telling me something?

If so, why? What does Finn know about this?

"Oh, it matters quite a lot, loser. See, because even if I don't remember too much about certain other members of that brood, who may or may not have gone to high school with me, I certainly remember that fuckin' bastard Will Taylor. And you just confirmed the connection, although it was quite obvious to me, anyway," Greg grins and then zooms in on me again: "I know very well that you are his little darling sister."

He literally spits out the word "darling". I try to hold his stare, which is not an easy feat, seeing as my instinct would be to run and hide. Instead, I concentrate on breathing steadily and on keeping a neutral expression on my face. Finn steps a bit closer to me so that my shoulder is now touching his upper arm. It feels strangely comforting. Despite his acting rather fidgety and fishy right now, I am grateful for his showing me that I am not alone in this.

"H-how do you know my brother?" I press out, gathering all my courage to continue this weird exchange.

Although my plan is to not stick around much longer, since I will most likely not find out more about why and when my older brothers moved here, my curiosity about his connection to Will is greater than my urge to flee.

"Hmm...how shall we put this?" Greg puts on an over-exaggerated thinking face, forefinger on the chin and all, before he continues spitefully: "At some point, I was in a position where I needed to defend my family's honor against that motherfucker."

I flinch at his coarse language. The way his tiny eyes shoot daggers in my direction as if my mere presence offends him so greatly that he would prefer for me to drop dead on the spot, makes me shiver. There haven't been many occasions in my life where I was confronted with such blatant hatred.

What has Will done to offend him so greatly?

A lot of things immediately spring to mind when this thought manifests itself in my brain. Will constantly does things to offend other people. It seems like this is his source of entertainment.