CHAPTER622
Walking back in the house mid-morning when hunger and coldness call me back along the beach, I hear arguing when I close the front door behind me. Distant voices raised and echoing along the hall alarmingly.
Olivia my family housekeeper smiles nervously, takes my jacket when she greets me and tries not to look as though she is listening to the raised voices down the hall in a closed room. It’s hard not to hear it when two people are screaming at one another and I throw her a concerned look.
“Is that Rylanne?” I ask her, knowing my brothers voice and she nods nervously and scurries off to hang up my belongings. Olivia is a shy and quiet girl that is about my age and she never really speaks to anyone.
I take a deep breath and head for the kitchen instead. I do not want to get caught in another Rylanne and Bree showdown and have no intention of listening to them have another marital bust up. It’s not often you find them here when there is no family event going on, but this isn’t exactly new either. Rylanne is the family problem nowadays. He’s my second eldest after Ben and he has major long-term issues.
Okay so I know I have issues, but his are way more problematic to the family dynamic than mine ever were.
His real father was a drunk with gambling issues who used to beat him, and Rylanne has never really broken the cycle. My parents have spent years with him, trying to curb his addictive nature with sex and women, trying to calm the aggression within him. It all goes to shit when he drinks, and he does so frequently. He’s cheated on Bree more times than I can count and yet she’s still married to him. They only got married after Arrick and I moved in together, so in the same amount of time that we were getting our life sorted. Rylanne has screwed over his wife a half dozen times that I know of.
I know he’s hit her too. It’s a family sore that no one wants to pick at and he’s back in counselling for his rage and his sex addiction once more. I tend to keep away from Rylanne. I mean as a brother he has always been okay with me, but I have never trusted him the way I trust my other brothers. My issues and his, never gelled. He’s the only one I find it very hard to have a sibling bond with.
“Hey” I’m met with my Mom sitting in the kitchen looking tense and cradling a coffee and I realize she through here to stay out of the firing zone. I know her though, staying close enough to listen in case Rylanne loses his shit. He maybe only hit Bree once, but that was once enough for everyone in the family to never trust him when he is like this. Drink is his demon, and this is a big clue to him hitting the bottle again. He has been to rehab more times than I have had hot dinners and he has relapsed a million times more.
“Hi, darling.” She looks distracted, trying to act cool and pretend like he’s not on one again and I play along. This act we do when he’s on the start of another nosedive.
“I went for a walk along the beach. It’s good to be home.” I smile as I pass her, leaning to kiss her on the cheek and set about making myself a cocoa in a bid to make noise to cover the shouts. I need to warm my bones up and I’m starving too. I am trying to not care about what they could be arguing about but it’s making me tense and reminds me of so many stupid memories and emotions I am not in the mood for.
The yelling gets louder, and I stiffen. Not comfortable with the obvious aggressive tone in Rylanne’s voice and my mom gets up fast and scurries to the door to listen. She looks worried and I go rigid as something is smashed in the other room, ringing loudly in an unmistakable way which makes my stomach lurch in fright. My mom disappears in a flash and I know she has gone to intervene in case he lashes out at Bree again. My heart hammering with insta-nerves and I impulsively follow.
Not because I want to get involved, but because if Rylanne dared to hurt my momma in his rage I would tear his fucking head off. She is my momma after all, and I will fiercely protect her at all costs.
I follow her at speed, but she’s faster than me and already in the small cozy TV room we have under the marble stairway, when I run in behind her to the weirdly calm scene.
Rylanne is pacing like a madman, his blonde hair messily ruffled like he just rolled out of bed and his clothes are disheveled and dirty. He could have slept in the gutter for all I know.
Rylanne isn’t exactly intimidating. I mean he’s around five feet eleven and built sturdy like a footballer and he’s not exactly ugly or villainesque. All my mom’s kids got the good-looking genes. I guess a lot of money helped with that though as Rylanne had surgery to fix some obvious scarring and a broken cheek bone when he was first brought here. He doesn’t look like a guy who would beat you or abuse you. Soft bone structure, kind eyes and when he’s not a drunk, he can be sweet and almost loveable. Rylanne has two sides to him though and right now is the part I never want to be around.
Bree is standing beside a smashed vase sobbing her eyes out, a tiny curly haired brunette with small features and big eyes that reminds me of a kitten. Actually, reminds me of a certain Arry ex I never want to compare her too. She looks ravaged, like she threw on clothes from the floor and hightailed it over here without even looking in a mirror.
“What happened? What did you do?” My mom throws at Rylanne accusingly, the little feisty in her showing teeth because she thinks her boy has lost control again. I glare at my brother and go to Bree to try and console her, not sure what’s been going on or why they are here fighting but my mom obviously has some insider knowledge.
They live close by, their house practically a replica of this one and I guess they came over for a reason and got into it. My mom, as sweet and unassuming as she may appear has always been a lot like Sylvana. A momma any child can run to, even when they hit their thirties and I guess it’s partly why I wanted to come here and see her.
I needed her.
I sit Bree on the couch as she continues to sob and put a protective arm around her, silently watching him walking around like a caged animal and feel that detachment for him I’ve had for a while, when he’s this version.
“She knocked it over, not me!” He barks at my mom and I scowl furiously that he would dare talk to her like that. The woman who loved and raised him and saved him from a life that was destroying him. My mom takes a deep breath to calm herself and turns to him appealingly.
“Rylanne, you know what drinking does to you… She came here to see me. I think you should leave and let her do that.” My mom is trying for gentle and appealing to his better side, but Bree’s wailing and sobbing seems to be fueling him. He can’t stop glaring at her over my mom’s small height and red hair and it’s agitating everyone.
“So she can sob on about how shitty a husband I am and make me look like an asshole to my own family?” He’s ranting, stamping, and my anger is simmering only below the surface. I have to take breaths to cool myself before I throw something at his stubborn pig-headed face.
“You called her.” Bree sobs softly and then breaks into another pathetic sob and my mom turns on him angrily.
“You told me you cut ties with her, Rylanne? The affair was over. Why did you do that?” She’s losing her cool and I can see him bubbling up rather than backing down and know only too well all the signs are there. Rylanne has been drinking a lot. I can quickly summarize that Bree caught him calling his new side bitch or broke-off side bitch and came running to my mom to break her heart again. He followed in a rage and world war three broke out.
Nice, Rylanne, you complete asshole.
He can’t keep using the excuse of a shitty childhood to justify the shitty person he has become. Bree may be a doorstep, fragile and old-fashioned, but she deserves so much more. She won’t leave him though. She views his affairs as part of his addiction problem and refuses to acknowledge he can control it. He’s a cheating scumbag and she won’t divorce him."
