“Since you’re all at all times so good!” The phrases rip out of my soul with the pressure of a gunshot.

All three of my brothers jerk again in shock and blink at me.

My chest is all of the sudden heaving. Raking my fingers by way of my hair but once more, I pressure oxygen into my lungs. Then I’ve to pressure myself to let my fingers drop again down. I clench my fingers into fists.

“You’re precisely the sons that Dad wished,” I say, holding their shocked stares. “The legacy that Dad wished. And I… I didn’t even know if I wished to be a hitman. So I began self-destructing. With the fights and the alcohol and the intercourse. Something to take my thoughts off it. Which simply made him much more disenchanted in me. Made him see me much more as a failure. And also you…” I slash my hand by way of the air, motioning in any respect of them. Desperation leaks into my voice. “I didn’t need you to see me as a weak pathetic failure too.”

The silence that descends on the kitchen is so loud that I can hear it ringing in my ears.

Exterior the home windows, the solar has crested the rows of buildings alongside the road. Pale morning mild filters into the room, creating patterns on the darkish wood partitions.

My brothers simply stare at me for an additional three heartbeats.

Then Eli shatters the silence like a smashed mirror. “You fucking moron.”

Embarrassment crashes by way of me, and I begin to flip away. His hand shoots out. Grabbing me by the arm, he turns me again in the direction of them.

“I’m critical,” he says, anger and disbelief pulsing from each phrase. “How the fuck do you not know?”

All I can do is to only maintain his stare. Ready for no matter chopping comment is about to move his lips.

His eyes are lifeless critical as he stares me down. “We’ve by no means thought-about you a failure.”

“And we certain as hell have by no means thought you had been weak,” Rico provides.

I draw again, shocked, and look between the three of them. Eli lastly releases my arm and as an alternative rakes each fingers by way of his hair and shakes his head as if he can’t consider my stupidity. And Kaden has even stopped spinning his knife. It’s now again in its sheath as he holds my gaze from the opposite facet of the island.

“Why do you suppose we provide you with a lot shit on a regular basis?” Kaden asks, his eyes boring into mine.

“As a result of I’m your annoying little brother who’s at all times too loud and too careless and too stressed and an excessive amount of of a fucking screw-up?” I reply.

“Since you’re one of the best of us,” Kaden says, his voice lifeless critical.

“You at all times have been,” Eli provides.

Rico lets out a delicate chuckle. “We’re all fifty shades of fucked up. However you’ve by some means nonetheless managed to stay precisely who you’re. A fucking ball of sunshine who carries the remainder of us. After what occurred with my mother and father, you, together with your simple smiles and your insane capacity to make the world really feel lighter, had been generally the one factor that saved me respiration. That saved me from being crushed beneath the load of all of it.”

My throat begins to shut up, and I swallow, unsure what to say.

Rico offers me a small smile. “It’s the actual purpose we began calling you Golden.”

My coronary heart all of the sudden feels prefer it’s each bursting and squeezing laborious on the identical time. I drag in an unsteady breath, making an attempt but once more to swallow in opposition to the thickness in my throat.

“You’ve at all times had our backs,” Eli says, his gaze regular on mine. “And we’ve got yours. In opposition to everybody.”

Kaden offers me a faint smile that just about appears somewhat unhappy. “All you needed to do was say the phrase.”

Earlier than I could make my mind work correctly, Eli pulls up his cellphone and abruptly hits dial. The sound of the road ringing fills the silent room as he places the decision on speaker earlier than putting the cellphone on the kitchen island between the 4 of us.

After three indicators, somebody solutions.

“Eli, is one thing flawed?”

My coronary heart jerks in my chest as I acknowledge the voice. Jonathan Hunter. Our father.

“Yeah, one thing’s flawed,” Eli replies.

“Inform me.”

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