The Way We Almost Were ✓

54| ugly love

| Chapter 54 |

| ugly love |

Nick didn't get any sleep that night.

Should he tell Westlake?

But would that get Michael in trouble?

Was he supposed to even care if Michael got into trouble?

But what if alerting Westlake only backfired? Because while Michael seemed to be aware of the fact that Nick had escaped with their mother's help, he didn't seem to possess any knowledge of the deal that she'd cut with the law enforcement officers.

And if Westlake got to them based on Nick letting him know about Mike's visit, then wouldn't that make his father be extra cautious?

What if that made it impossible for his mother to get whatever she was supposed to in order to help build a case against Frank Crawford? What if all her sacrifices ended up being for nothing, then?

The questions spinned around and around in Nick's mind, kept him tossing and turning throughout the entire night. And what he hated most of all was that tiny bubble of warmth inside some godforsaken corner of his chest -- at the fact that he'd got to see Michael again, after what felt like an eternity.

And only then did it dawn on him that he'd be seeing his older brother yet again. Because Michael had told Nick he'd be paying him another visit -- when he would be in a much clearer state of mind.

Not that his state of mind would change anything. Because Nick was never going back, ever.

The only part of the interaction that brought some small sense of relief to Nick was that Michael had sworn that their father hadn't accompanied him here. So it was safe, for the time being at least, to believe that there was no real urgency to contact any of the emergency hotlines he'd been provided with.

Because risking the destruction of a case against his father and the entire cartel was not worth it, not when it was going to be over the fact that his brother had dropped by to pass along a message. After all, there had been no threats of violence involved, had there?

And, then, depending on what Nick learnt during Michael's second visit, he'd have to seriously consider speaking to Officer Westlake.

Because there was, in fact, still so much Nick had to learn -- so much that the shock of seeing his brother again hadn't allowed him to clarify. His mind had felt like explosives were being set off on the inside for him to have asked all the important questions, for him to have known what topics to prioritise speaking about and what didn't matter.

Earlier today, when he'd run into Michael, it had been Nick's emotions to take charge of the situation.

And he really needed to do something about that before they met again.