Love on the Sound by Ciara Knight

Author:Ciara Knight [Knight, Ciara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781939081919
Publisher: Defy the Dark Publishing LLC

Chapter Fourteen

Walter settled on a stump near the house. He took a deep breath, willing himself the strength to demand his brother free Francine from the job he’d tricked her into taking with him and allow her to work with him to start a mill and, in doing so, earn Francine’s respect so that she would ultimately marry him. Yes, it was crazy. Yes, it was a risk. Yes, he was going to do it.

With a passion he had not felt since before the war, he shoved open the front door of the cabin, ready to fight for what he wanted. Inside, he found Francine and Thomas in an embrace.

Fire erupted in his gut. A growl echoed up his chest and throat. “Doris isn’t enough for you?” Walter slammed the door behind him and marched forward to throttle his brother.

Francine screamed and shot up from beside Thomas, hands waving at Walter. All he saw was betrayal.

“Stop!” Francine jumped in the way, but her eyes looked beyond him. “Adam, help.”

Arms wrapped around Walter’s chest from behind, but Adam was no match for his rage. He flicked him away like an irritating fly. “Nothing is going to save you from this betrayal, dear brother.”

But when Thomas looked up at him with swollen eyes and a vacant stare. Walter froze. He’d never seen his brother so broken.

Adam’s arms wrapped around him again, squeezing his back tight against Adam’s chest.

“Let him go. I deserve whatever he gives me.” Thomas dropped his head into his hands and cried.

Cried.

Bone-gnawing, howling kind of cry.

“Release me. I’ll stand down.”

Walter shrugged Adam off and turned to face him with a raise of a brow, but Adam shook his head. He looked to Thomas and then to Francine.

She stooped and scooped up a piece of crumpled paper from the floor and folded it. “Doris passed away.”

A punch of truth doubled Walter over, and he collapsed onto the couch next to his brother. “I-I…” There were no words.

Adam joined them, and Francine faded out of view. They both surrounded Thomas, hugging him to them. The sound of his brother slashed at him, gutted him. In all the years, he’d never heard such anguish from his twin. It was so intense, Walter rubbed his own chest to relieve the pain.

“I’m sorry,” Walter whispered, not sure if Thomas would want to hear his condolences. Did he even have the right to comfort his brother after all the horrid things he’d said about his marriage? It had been a lie. He’d only done it to get back at Walter. But in this moment of unabashed grief, he realized one thing: he heard the truth. He’d loved Doris. If not then, he did now.

For several minutes, they all held tight to one another in the night. The darkness of loss surrounded them. When Thomas sniffed and wiped his face clean, Adam and Walter sat back to give him air.

Thomas—broken, grieving Thomas, wasn’t a brother Walter had ever seen. “What can we do?”

“Stay,” Thomas managed. “I know you want to leave, but I need you here.

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