My Best Friends Brother

Chapter 198

"Do you want me to come in with you?" Jayce asks again for the third time, we've been sitting outside staring at this building now for forty minutes but I still can't bring myself to take a step inside. I just keep looking at it.

I don't know what I was expecting, I thought it would be this big domineering structure that was filled with people making life altering decisions, but it's not. It's just like any other office building. Not as nice as the one that Josh works in obviously but still, just a normal place filled with normal people.

Sitting here won't change things Milo...

"No, I have to do this by myself." Jayce opens his mouth to argue but I slip out of the car before I can change my mind.

Hannah told me that Liam is still with Josh, that alone made my heart beat keep pounding, but since the moment I stepped into the cells all I've been able to think about was that look that Stephanie gave me when I was leaving the hospital in handcuffs.

She almost looked... heartbroken.

Disappointment, she should've looked disappointed, or maybe even pissed off, but she didn't. She just looked like I'd ripped the rug out from under her, she was crushed and I already know why.

Stepping inside the building, the cool air conditioning smacks down on my face. There's a lot of hustle and bustle around me considering how many people must be on holiday leave, the Christmas decorations still poorly placed around the building a reminder of how only a few days ago my life was fucking perfect.

Remember when your biggest worry was giving Josh a ring and maybe having him freak out?

God what I wouldn't give to be back in my room with him right now... back to that day.

I approach the front desk to speak with the woman who looks like she'd rather be anywhere else in the world but here now. I feel that... I really do.

Normally, this would be the point where I turn on my charm and make everyone in the building fall in love with me, but I just don't have it in me today. I haven't had a shower in three days, my hair is all over the place and I know my face looks like I've been fighting my way out of the wilderness for the last week with how much it needs a shave, but I couldn't put this off. It's destroying me slowly.

I stand in front of her for a solid thirty seconds, the bored looking brunette not sparing me a glance as she clicks away on her screen. You'd think she's working with how much she's concentrating but I can see in the reflection of her glasses that she's just playing solitaire.

"Excuse me?" Fuck my voice sounds rough. The coffee this morning was practically like razor blades being thrown down my throat and it still hurts to even talk after not making a sound for days, lost in my own mind.

"Can I help you?" I get that this woman is overworked and underpaid but she can seriously drop her fucking attitude.

"Yeah, I was hoping to speak with Stephanie..." fuck, what's Stephanie's last name?

The woman stares up at me with amusement, not attempting to help in anyway as she crosses her arms over her chest and leans back on her seat just keeping her eyes firmly glued on my own... until they start to travel down me a bit.

A part of me just wants to run the fuck out of here, live in ignorant bliss and pretend that everything is going to be okay, but that's not reality. The image of Liam sobbing and tied to the chair in that basement begging to be saved floods my mind and I remember how much I love my little man, how much I want him safe.

"Milo?" I've never been more grateful to have someone call my name, turning to see Stephanie clutching way more folders than she should possibly be able to carry in one arm and almost dropping her coffee from the other as she looks at me with slight disbelief, multiple strands of hair auburn hair falling into her face from the bun that's slipping further and further from her hair's grasp.