CHAPTER 22

DRAGON

The woman beside me was quiet but had tears streaming down her cheeks and so much pain in her face that it physically hurt looking at her.

She was still just as beautiful today as she was all those years ago when she arrived as a new student in our year nine class. With Onyx and Draco being Irish twins, we had all been in the same year at school from the start. From the beginning, Milo and Rea had hit it off and had been inseparable. Where one was, the other wasn't far away.

They had their whole lives planned out by the time we graduated from school. She went to medical school, and he was going to join the military. They would get married when she finished medical school. They didn't take into account how much war can change a man.

It had been a bad tour, and Onyx wasn't handling it well. So instead of talking about it, he decided that he needed to cut Rea loose and let her live her life free and clear of all the shit he had stored in his head.

We had tried to caution him and told him it was a bad idea. He was a stubborn fuck and set about breaking them up in the only way, and with the only person he knew she would never forgive him for. He'd done it when the rest of us weren't around to stop him or talk him down.

"He didn't do it, you know," I said softly.

She turned to look at me, wiping her face on the sleeves of her cardigan.

"Do what?"

"Sleep with Rebecca."

"Yes, he did. They sent me pictures."

"He didn't. He couldn't do it. He paid Rebecca a grand to have her say he did and rub it in your face, but he didn't sleep with her."

She sucked in a deep breath at my news.

"Why?" she wailed, her voice breaking with sobs.

"You need to ask him. We told him he was an idiot and to speak to you, but he's stubborn. He thought he was doing the right thing. He timed it well. None of us were around to stop him."

"He broke me, Drake," she whispered.

I grabbed her hand and held it tight, "Ah baby, he didn't break you. You're stronger than that."

"No, Drake, he broke me. I was going to tell him I was pregnant when she confronted me. I went into early labour. Our baby didn't stand a chance. I was only twenty weeks. So not only did I lose my baby, I lost him and all of you. I was broken. I felt I had nothing to live for. I tried for a couple of months, but nothing seemed to work, not therapy, not keeping myself busy. I couldn't pull myself out of the hole and gave up. It was just too hard to carry on. My roommates found me lying in a pool of blood. They got me help and kept it quiet. I had to take a year off school while I recovered. What really pulled me out of my funk was my mum getting ill. I had to learn to function to help my dad. Spending that year with them helped us all."

My gut tightened as I listened to her, and my heart broke for both of them. Pulling over, I stopped so I could give her my full attention.

She pulled up her sleeves and removed the thick leather cuffs on her wrists, holding her wrists up to me to show me the scars.

"It's taken years and lots of therapy to get me to where I am today."

I cupped her cheek and wiped the tears away.

"Fuck, sweetheart, I'm sorry you had to go through that alone. If we'd known what he would do, we would have stopped it. You two are like peas in a pod."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Sighing, I wondered if I should say anything or just let sleeping dogs lie.

"Tell me, Drake, what do you mean two peas in a pod?"

I rubbed my hand over my mouth before turning to her and giving it to her straight.

"When we heard from Avy that you were getting married, Onyx lost it. He hadn't been with anyone else until then, but once he heard that, he went wild, fucking anything that looked his way, drinking hard and not being careful when we were out there.

"It was like he had a death wish. He took so many chances with his life. I still don't know how he wasn't killed. Nothing we said seemed to make a difference. It was like he gave up. Then we heard that your marriage had fallen apart and you were getting a divorce. It was like a switch flipped and stopped it all.

"He's never forgotten you, sweetheart, and I don't think he ever will. You dropping the bomb about your daughter is going to hurt him. Are you seeing someone?"

Her eyes wide at my revelations, she shook her head, "No, I'm not with anyone. I wanted a baby, and my clock was ticking. My parents left me a nice nest egg, so I had IVF. Mila is six months old and the light of my life."

"You named her Mila," I said softly.

She swallowed thickly before nodding, "Yeah. Do you want to see her?"

I smiled at her, "I do, sweetheart."

"Okay, well, take me home, and you can. I want you to know I don't go out. This was the first time I've been out for three years, and I was only there because of work."

"No judgement here, sweetheart. Who is looking after her tonight?"

"My neighbour I told her there was an emergency, so she slept the night. She looks after Mila when I have to work evenings."

I pulled into the drive of two semi-detached cottages with an abundance of plants and flowers growing in the front.

"Mary, my neighbour, loves gardening," Rea explained when I mentioned them.

I helped her out of the Land Rover and walked her to the door.

We entered quietly, and she took my hand to pull me down the small passage and into a bedroom just big enough for a cot, dresser, and changing table. All done in pink with a unicorn and rainbow mobile hanging over the cot.

I could hear soft cooing as I watched my brother's woman lean over her face, no longer showing any signs of the past hurts, just love, as she reached in to pick up her daughter.

The first thing I thought as I looked at the little girl was she was beautiful, and the next was that this could be Onyx's child.

Rea's eyelashes covered her eyes as she looked down and then back up at me.

"I know," she whispered, taking Mila to the changing table. "She could be his. I didn't expect it. When she was born, for some reason, I thought she would look like me. When they handed her to me, the first thing I noticed was her black hair, and then she looked up at me with these dark eyes, and my first thought was you look just like Milo. I subconsciously guessed I had chosen someone who looked like him when I made my choice. I don't regret it. She's my world."

Finishing up, she picked her up and plopped her on her hip, grabbing her little hand and waving it at me, smiling, "Say hi to Uncle Drake, Mila. He's one of the best men I know."

I snapped a quick picture before putting my phone back in my pocket.

"Do you want to hold her while I get a bottle for her?" Rea asked.

I held out my arms and took the little girl into my arms, hugging her and smelling her sweet baby scent. My heart was aching for my brother and all that he had missed. I knew this wasn't his biological daughter, but it felt like it was. I wasn't sure if he would be able to salvage this, but I would be this little girl"s best uncle. I knew Rea had no family now that her parents were gone.

I met Mary, who had come in just as Mila was fussing for her bottle. She headed home not long after, and I spent the rest of the morning with them until I got a text about Church.

We'd discussed the drugs in the area and what she had noticed at the hospital.

Before leaving, I made sure that Rea had all our numbers, including Onyx's, even if she never used them.

Standing, I hugged Rea tight and dropped a kiss on Mila's head.

"Call if you ever need anything, Rea. Is it okay if I come and visit again?"

She smiled at me, "You can visit whenever you want, Drake. Just drop me a text to make sure we're home."

Nodding, I got in the Land Rover, waving at the two of them standing in the doorway. Rea's white hair mingled with the black of Mila's. I took a quick picture for my brother before reversing out of the drive and headed home.

I'd help him fix this but not until after I laid some major hurt on him for what he did.