Page 121 of Chasing Hope

why aren’t any of my calls going through? I’ve had to use your fathers phone

I’m devastated you didn’t tell me you got a new one

can we please talk?

Blood pours from Matteo’s nose as he falls to the ground, unconscious.

I scream before dropping to my knees, my hands shaking as I reach for Matteo’s beautiful face. For once in my life, hatred fills my heart for my brother.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I roar at him.

Caleb’s wild eyes flit from Matteo to me, his chest still heaving like a bull’s. “With me?With me?” he repeats. “What the fuck is wrong withyou? Why are you kissing my best friend?”

“You don’t own him, you moron!”

He points an incredulous finger my way. “Don’t get fucking smart with me.”

“Clearly someone has to, because the tiny shred of logic that was left in your brain just flew out the window.”

And that’s when I see it.

I’m not the only Ellington in this elevator running on hatred.

The rage seems to leak out of my brother in one breath. “How long has this been going on?”

The kiss?“It only just happened, Caleb.”The feelings? Two decades.

His eyes, so similar to mine, narrow as he shakes his head. “I don’t believe you. You two were kissing like you’ve done this before.”

My face scrunches up in distaste. “How long were you watching?”

“Long enough to be disgusted.”

His words are like a physical blow, for all the reasons he will never understand.

I’ve despised being touched, have hated the sheer idea of a man coming close to me for months. Years, if I’m honest with myself.

I never did anything for myself.

Yet this moment with Matteo was the most beautiful, precious experience for me, and to have my brother stand here and say that the only touch that has ever made me feel safe disgusts him shatters something within me.

“How could you?” he asks.

“I didn’t do this with the intention to hurt you, Caleb. Not everything is about you.”

His head rears back. “You’re making out with my best friend and you don’t think it involves me?” Running his hands through his hair, he yells, “It involves me when my sister has been fucking lying to me for months! You know how that shit makes me feel, Evie?”

“It doesn’t involve you and it wasn’t months, Caleb. That was our first kiss.”

“You’re fucking naïve if you think it doesn’t involve me. He’s my best friend!”

“And you’rebeing selfish.”

Caleb shakes his head like he didn’t just throw the most catastrophic bomb in my lap and mutters, “Don’t fucking talk to me until you can tell me the truth. And when the traitor wakes up, tell him to go fuck himself.”

Blinking in shock, I barely have enough time to find my voice before Caleb turns, leaving the lobby of his own apartment building, and the elevator doors close again.

Maybe Matteo was right to be concerned. My brother has never spoken to me like that before. We’ve fought, of course, but never with such malice in our hearts.