Free SafetyInNumbers-Final by Jessie G Page A

convince Chris that he had nothing to fear and that was the only reason to ask the question. There was just one man to blame and he wasn’t standing in this room. He was dead, and if Liam could go back, he’d kill him all over again.
    So he took a deep breath and squared his shoulders, mimicking his brother’s defensive stance, and asked, “Do you know why he did it?”
    Chris opened his mouth and closed it. Right up until he asked it, Liam could see that Chris was prepared to answer. Then, all of a sudden, he wasn’t. Again Chris opened his mouth, but only a sob came out. When Chris tried to pull his hands away, Liam held tight. They’d come this far and they had to see it through together. He didn’t know where it came from, but suddenly he was confident that they would be stronger for it.
    “Chris, it’s okay. He didn’t win that day and we’re not going to let him win now.” Liam took the final step, closing the distance between them and taking his brother in his arms. “You’ve been carrying us for so long, the rock I always knew I could rely on. Now it’s your turn to rely on me. Tell me and trust me to do right by you.”
    Chris grabbed him up tight and buried his face in Liam’s shoulder. “You were so smart, so talented, and had such a bright future ahead of you, but he knew you missed your mother. So he got you a mother, but he didn’t want another son. Everything he had was invested in you and he refused to let anything take away from that. My being there took away from you.”
    “No, that’s crazy.” Liam leaned back and forced Chris to look at him. “Listen to me, I had everything. You coming into my life didn’t take away from it, it gave me a brother. That was the best gift ever.”
    Liam searched through the emotions on Chris’s face, trying to make sense of his explanation and the pain radiating from every inch of him. “Chris, is that what he told you? Did he tell you that you were somehow ruining my life?” The answer was right there for him to see, no words necessary. Chris curled into himself, clearly expecting the worst. “No, no, that’s not true. It’s not.”
    “Yes, it is. Maybe it wasn’t back then, but it happened anyway.” Chris tore himself away and kept going until several feet separated them. “You watched me kill your father. You lost your family, your future, and spent two years in jail because of me. I took away your whole life. That’s the truth. Even if it wasn’t always the truth, David knew I would ruin you and he was right.”
    It took every ounce of strength he had not to run across the room and shake Chris until he realized how wrong he was about everything. The only reason he didn’t was because he knew the next words out of his mouth were going to be the most important words ever said between them. If Chris continued to believe that it was his fault, David won. If Liam started to believe that it was his fault, David won. That bastard had been winning and making their lives miserable long enough. It would end here and he had to find the right words so Chris would believe it with as much conviction as he believed that he was to blame for everything.
    “I can’t fix everything, but I’ve been saving up money for you to go back to college. There’s enough for about four semesters right now. Will that be good enough to get you started?” Chris’s voice sounded distant and hollow, and Liam hated it more than he hated the silence. “I’ll keep saving, keep working extra jobs, until you’re done with law school.”
    “Wait, what do you mean you’ve been saving up for me to go back to college?” That couldn’t be right. Liam always believed Chris was living on a shoestring and often denied himself the things he wanted so he could send money to Martha. “Chris, I swear, if you tell me you’ve been living like a fucking pauper so you could pay for my college education, I will kick your ass all over this warehouse.”
    When Chris just shrugged,