“Tell us about it,” Paige urged her. “Was it shock? Guilt?”
“Fear,” Kelsey said softly. “She looked absolutely terrified. She hadn’t thought any of us would pick up on the similarities, but Greg immediately got in her face. Asking stuff like ‘What’s going on?’ and ‘Who is he?’ and ‘He’s even got the same last name.’”
“It doesn’t appear you like this Greg very much,” Paige noted, just as she would have with one of her patients.
Kelsey shook her head, her hair falling across her face for a moment. “He’s horrible.”
“How long has she been seeing him?” Evan’s words were barely more than a growl.
“About a year.” His sister sagged back slightly in the chair. “When we were growing up, she never dated anyone. She didn’t start until after we graduated high school. And she’s only had maybe two or three boyfriends since then. But they’re always a little—” She made a face. “—off, I guess. Rougher kinds of guys. But Greg.” She narrowed her eyes. “He’s just plain mean.”
Evan’s expression turned stony. If they’d been alone, Paige would have talked him down from the ledge, helped him face the emotions assaulting him as he was forced to acknowledge the parallels to his own life with his mom and dad. Unfortunately, it would have to come later, when they were alone. Because she wasn’t leaving until they talked things through. Not about the kiss—that would have to wait for another day. But she wouldn’t let his emotions about his parents fester inside him, especially piling on top of Whitney’s betrayal. He must feel like he’d been hit by a tire iron right about now.
“So he was getting up in your mom’s face,” she pressed Kelsey. “And then?”
“She caved.” Kelsey’s eyes went soft with apology. “She admitted you were her son from before Tony and I were born. I swear she’d never talked about you before. All she’d ever said was that our father was a bad man and we were way better off without him.”
Evan’s nostrils flared. “He was a bad man.”
God, to hear his existence and his childhood written off so flatly. Maybe she’d been wrong to press for all the information. Maybe they should wait for a better time, a calmer moment.
But before she could hit the pause button, Evan asked, “Did Greg hit her?”
“No. But he grabbed her arm and held on really tight, saying she had to contact you. The dollar signs were flashing in his eyes.” Kelsey’s hands were the ones fisting now. “Tony kicked him out when we saw the red marks on her arm. They turned into bruises later. We told him not to come back.”
“Good for you,” Evan said softly, with something close to relish. He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. “What do you need from me? It sounds like you and Tony took care of the issue.”
“That’s the problem. He didn’t stay away.” Kelsey grimaced in disgust. “He told Mom how sorry he was for his behavior, blamed it on the fact that he’d just gotten laid off and he was having a hard time.”“Just a bunch of excuses.” Evan’s voice had an edge of steel sharp enough to slice.
“No one should ever get physical,” Paige agreed.
With a nod, Kelsey said, “Now that Tony and I are both living in San Francisco, we can’t be around all the time to protect her. We’ve been doing our best to try to deal with Greg and the situation, but we can’t help feeling we’re in over our heads.” Her eyes were beseeching. “She was terrified to come here. She thought you’d reject her. But I know how badly she wanted to see you, even though she was afraid.”
The air was so thick, the silence so profound, that Paige swore she could actually hear the beating of Evan’s heart.
Her heart tore open for him. Just as it hurt for Kelsey and Tony, who were desperate to save their mother. She ached to put her hand over his chest, to ease the furious throb of his pulse.
But despite the earth-shattering kiss they’d shared, for now she was merely his psychologist sister-in-law trying to get answers. And she wouldn’t fail him.
* * *
Evan was swept up in a maelstrom of memory. His father’s fists. The smell of his rancid whiskey breath. Hiding under the bed, making himself small so he wouldn’t be noticed. His mother’s cries. The bruises on her in the morning.
Once she was gone, all the bruises had become his.
Now his mother was at it again, choosing the wrong guy. Kelsey’s story took him back to that grimy neighborhood and stinking tenement, a place he never wanted to see again in his life.
Damn straight, Theresa had to believe he would reject her. Sure, his father had been the abusive asshole. But his mother had been the sober one who made the decision to leave.
Without her son.
Without her eldest son, anyway.
It would have been so much easier if Kelsey and Tony had simply asked for money. What they wanted—for him to watch over their mother—was exponentially worse.
Even as his emotion threatened to choke him, it was Paige who calmed his raging blood enough to quell the explosion. If not for the sweet feel of Paige beside him, he might have detonated like a bomb.
She was the only one who knew exactly what to say and how to say it, even during the worst of times. And she was the person he needed most on his side right now, warm, understanding, and nonjudgmental, despite the unbearable circumstances.