Chapter 4

Leona's face changed the moment she heard it.

She tugged at my sleeve, worried.

"Elijah, let it go."

"I'm fine. There's no reason to fall out with your family over me."

I turned to look at her.

Half her face was still swollen, and yet all I could see in it was her worry for my name.

She was afraid people would talk behind my back.

Afraid I'd be branded an ungrateful son.

Afraid I'd ruin my own reputation for her sake.

Seeing her like that broke my heart.

I smoothed the hair from her forehead and said, steady and certain,

"Leona, you're my real family."

At that, my father jabbed a finger at my face, his voice shaking with rage.

"You've turned on us. You've completely turned on us!"

"We gave you life, we raised you for decades, and now we're the outsiders?"

My mother stared at me too, as if she couldn't understand any of it.

"Eli, how can your heart be this cold?"

"So your father and I favored Amos a little. Is that so wrong? The boy's had a hard life, no parents, so we helped him out more. What's the harm in that?"

"Why can't you be reasonable and give a little more?"

The same old lines.

My whole life, always the same.

My cousin had a hard life, so I was supposed to be the strong one, the one who backed down, the one who handed over everything I had.

I looked at them and said it out, word by word.

"A hard life?"

"Since we were kids he's eaten off me, used what was mine, taken everything I had."

"When he grew up, you bought him a house, a car, covered the whole wedding, raised his kids for over a decade. You gave him everything."

"And me?"

"Growing up, everything I ate and wore and used was his castoffs."

"I put myself through school on loans, gritted my teeth to get married, worked myself to the bone to support my family. When my wife couldn't so much as move during her recovery after childbirth, I begged you to come help take care of her, and you refused."

"His wife just gets a positive pregnancy test, and you're waiting on her hand and foot like she's royalty."

"Put your hands on your hearts and ask yourselves. Who's the one who ended up like an orphan with no parents?"

"And who's the one who went too far, walking in throwing your weight around as elders, hitting people over some petty, backward little rule?"

I finished, raised my hand and pointed at the door, my tone firm, leaving no room for argument.

"Now, get out. This is my home, and you're not welcome here."

My father glared at me, teeth clenched.

"Fine. You've got some nerve."

"Elijah, we'll see about this!"

With that, he pulled my mother out of my home.

As they took their luggage and left, my mother glanced back at me.

That look was complicated.

I couldn't read it.

And I didn't want to.

The moment the door shut, the tears Leona had held back so long finally fell.

I held her, aching for her, and said softly,

"Don't cry. From now on, it's just the two of us, and we'll live well."

"No one's going to hurt you, not in the slightest."

Leona buried her face in my chest and nodded hard.

Maybe because a weight I'd carried for years was finally gone, I slept unusually deep that night.

In the middle of the night, I was jolted awake by my phone ringing, sharp and urgent.

I picked it up and looked. It was Aunt Priscilla.

The second I answered, her heavy voice came through.

"Eli, I heard you threw your parents out?"

I gave a quiet "Mm."

She was silent for several seconds, then sighed.

"There's something I've kept bottled up inside for years. Today I have to tell you."

And the next second, she said the one thing that turned my blood to ice…