Puppet Master

Chapter Thirty Eight

“That’s everything,” Nate huffed out, throwing the screwdriver aside after reassembling every piece of furniture she owned.

Folding his thick arms behind his head, Tori watched him silently contemplate the ceiling – just lying there against the luxurious cream carpet on the floor in her new bedroom.

She didn’t have a clue what had happened between her brother and Shannon, who had rushed off to ‘buy a new bed’ almost the second that all of the heavy lifting was finished, but it didn’t seem to be good, Nate was in such an antagonistic mood – as if the slightest thing could touch a spark to his fuse and have anger pouring out of every pore of his body.

Just being in the same space as him was like dancing on top of a dormant volcano in a heat-wave.

“Do you hate me now?” he asked quietly, after a while in contemplative silence.

“I could never hate you,” she replied quietly, ashamed of her earlier outbursts – she knew she’d been unreasonable with him, Shannon was right, she was being childish, “You’ve done so much for me, how could I? I’m sorry for all those awful things I said to you about blood money, I was just ... hurt I guess, that you wouldn’t share it with me, but Shannon said ...”

His head jerked up from the cradle of his arms to stare at her penetratingly, “What did she say?”

“She said I was being ... childish,” nervously, she fiddled with her hands, “I can see that when it comes to you, I was. Everything you’ve done for me, after everything you’ve been to me since Mum and Dad died ... I just can’t believe I’d throw that back in your face like that, I’m sorry.” She dropped her head ashamed, and, as is often the case with the early stages of pregnancy, a woman cannot dance along the edges of her own hormones in the same way, and sobs started to break out from her throat in long, tormented wails as she pulled an old stuffed rabbit to her face to contain the salty tears that were running down her contorted face.

“Hey, hey,” Nate chuckled softly, pulling her into his arms as he came up next to her on the large bed, “Calm down, it’s fine! Look, of course you were angry, I would be too if you kept a secret that big from me ... hell I was! When I found you and Jay together, remember? I said some horrible things,” he quickly sobered, “To you and to Shannon.”

Sniffling quietly, she dropped the rabbit to her lap, watching the desolate expression in his eyes, “Nate, I ...”

“No, babe,” he soothed, not quite wiping the misery from his features, “There’ll never be enough apologies, there’s no making it up to her.”

Tori contemplated his words, she knew there probably would be a way, in fact she knew exactly what he could do, but she would not spill her best friend’s secrets, or interfere between them.

There were whirlpools in the water under the bridge between the two of them, she knew they’d barely even scratched the surface in what she knew about their relationship, and anything on that particular subject would always have to come from Shannon, she could never tell him, even if he was her brother.