Love Thy Brother

Going Back Home

Liam stayed with Tamryn. They kept her there for three days. He
phoned his secretary and cancelled all his appointments. He did not leave her sight. He was constantly monitoring her vitals and kept an eye
on her file. He didn’t say anything to her about the baby and she also
didn’t bring up the subject. They were like strangers. Just saying what
needed to be said.
She and Liam have never had this kind of relationship. They were so far
apart. There was this gap between them that seemed to be impossible
to close. She slept most of the time just to avoid any type of
conversation.
The day they told her that she could go home, she felt so relieved. Liam
would drop her at her apartment and she would just loose herself in her
own grief over the baby she lost.
Liam carried her bags to her bedroom and put them on her bed. He
came back and stood in the living room with his hands in his sides:
“Tammy, please reconsider and come home with me?” he asked
carefully. How could he just leave her on her own? She could stay with
him and he would keep a close eye on her.
“No Liam” she just said. She sat down on her couch and stared out of
the window. There was no expression on her face.
“Why not?” he asked frustrated. “You’ll have your own room and
everything!”
“And then we live like strangers like we did these last few days? No
thanks!” Her voice was flat and without any emotion.
“What do you mean?” he frowned at her, still standing in the middle of
the room unsure of what to do next.
“You blame me, Liam. You blame me for killing our baby.” Still no
emotion.
“Where’d you get that from?” Liam asked surprised.
She turned her head and looked at him. He was surprised by how
empty her eyes were. “You told me not to get on that ice. And you were
right. Now you are angry. And rightfully so. Hell, I would be angry at
me. I AM angry at myself!” She was working herself up.

“Tammy!” he sighed and started to walk towards her.
“No! Don’t ‘Tammy’ me!” she wanted to cry. “Don’t come near me!
Please just leave, Liam. I need you to leave. I need to be alone.”
He looked at her with such sadness in his eyes. He has never felt so
helpless in his life! “I’m not angry. I’m hurting just as you are” he said
and shrugged his shoulders.
He looked so lost she thought. But she could not concentrate on him
now. She had to work through her own feelings first.
“Liam, I need to do this on my own. I’m sorry.” She really felt sorry for
him.
He waited a few minutes more and said: “I’ll go. But don’t forget that I
love you.” Then he turned and walked slowly to the door and left.
Tamryn watched him leave and when she was certain he was far away,
she burst into tears and sobbed uncontrollably.
A few days later there was a knock on her door. When she opened it
was Allan, standing there with a bunch of pink roses and a box of her
favourite chocolates.
“Oh, I could get used to this!” she smiled and let him in.
He gave her a hug and a kiss. “How are you feeling, Sis?” he asked
sincerely.
“I’m getting better” she said and looked away. She went to sit in her
favourite spot near the window.
“I want to kill that man!” Allan said and went to sit next to her. He took
one of her hands in his.
“Who? Liam or Tristan?” she asked and gave a sad smile.
“Well! Both!” he said.
Tamryn laughed. “What is going on between you and Liam?” she looked
at him and begged with her eyes for him to talk to her. She cannot
stand this bickering between them any longer.

“Let’s just say he is a professional at keeping secrets.” He answered her
annoyed.
“What secrets?” She knew she was pushing but she wanted to know the
truth!
“Well, for starters the two of you and the baby” he pointed at her.
“It was both of us. In fact, Liam only found out about the baby the night
before the accident.” She was covering for him. It wasn’t right to put all
the blame on him.
Allan said nothing but you could see he was not letting Liam off the hook
so easily. “I told him not to hurt you” he warned her.
“He didn’t!” she assured him. “It takes two you know!” she blushed.
They sat in silence for a while. She could sense there was something
he didn’t tell her.
“Allan, talk to me!” she said urgently.
“They are keeping secrets from me again, Sis!” he said painfully.
“Who are they?” she was confused.
“Liam and Stephanie. There is something going on.”
“Between the two of them?” she was shocked that he could think that but
she knew he had it wrong. She knew Liam. He would never do that to
his brother. No matter how bad their relationship was.
“No! Not like that!” he said and waved his one hand.
“Wait!” Tamryn remembered: “You said ‘again’. What did you mean by
that?”
“Do you really want to know why Liam and I are not in a good place?” he
made sure she was ready for all he had to say. “I found out something
Stephanie never wanted me to know.”
He looked very sad. She didn’t know him like this. He was always
upbeat and laughing and making jokes. Not this serious, sad, beaten
down man. She just nodded.

“Remember that time when Louise had that infection?” Again Tamryn
nodded and he continued: “I overheard Stephanie and Liam talking. He
was confronting her about a blood test he had to do. We both had to
donate blood….” He couldn’t go on. He was getting too emotional.
Tamryn kept quiet. She tried to figure out what he was trying to tell her.
“Sis,” he said after a while, “Louise is not mine!” He looked away. “Liam
knew about this all this time. All this time he had a chance to tell me but
he kept it all to himself! That’s why I hate him!”
Tamryn couldn’t believe her ears. How is this possible? Whose child is
Louise then and why did Liam keep quiet about it?
“Are you sure? Maybe you misunderstood their conversation!” she tried
to unravel what was going on.
“No! I overheard everything they said to each other. Liam was
demanding Stephanie to tell him who the father is. Why did he want to
know so urgently?” Allan stood up and walked around her coffee table.
He was in a debate with himself, trying to work it out.
“Allan, I’m so sorry!” She walked over to him and held him in her arms.
“Did you talk to Steph about this?”
“No! I don’t want to know who the father is! What if it’s Liam? You
know he’s been dating every girl he could get. What if they had
something on before I got into the picture? You know we only dated for
six months before we got married.” He was trying to work it out by
himself again.
“Allan, you dated for six months! Do you really think Liam would have
something on with her while you were dating?” she frowned. She knew
Liam would never do such a thing. He might have had a lot of girls in
the past but he would never do that to his own brother.
“I don’t know! But then why not tell me? Why keep it a secret all this
time?” he asked.
He had a point, Tamryn thought. She had to talk to Liam! Something is
very wrong here. Then she remembered that he said ‘again’. “What
other secret is there?” she asked but was too afraid to hear the answer.

“I don’t know, but that weekend at the Charity Ball, you also saw them
having that heated argument! When I asked him about it, he wouldn’t
tell me.”
She remember how troubled he was that whole weekend. He told her
he couldn’t talk about it with her! Was he keeping secrets from her too?
“I just think there must be a reasonable explanation for all this,” she tried
to calm herself down more than she was doing it for him. “Just talk to
Stephanie! Or to Liam!”
Allan just laughed. “Liam? Really? Don’t you think I’ve tried?” he walked
away from her and dragged his hand through his hair. “He just closes
up! He refuses to talk to me!”
Tamryn knew what he was talking about. Once Liam decided he would
not talk about something, his mind was made up! “Do you want me to
try?” she tried to help.
“No!” he almost shouted, “I don’t want him to start lying to you as well.”
Tamryn felt a sting when he said that. Wasn’t Liam already lying to her?
She know he is keeping something from her. Something he never did
his entire life. They always talked about everything. But lately he
changed. There are a lot he is not telling her. She felt a sudden
sadness come over her. She and Liam were broken.
When Allan finally left, he looked so sad and vulnerable. She just knew
she had to figure this out for both their sakes. Liam called her regularly
but she did not tell him about Allan’s visit or their conversation. She
knew Liam. She would not get any information out of him over the
phone. It would just have to wait until they saw each other again.