The Blood Between Us (4 page)

“I don’t know what to say. I’m . . . I’m so sorry.” The final word cracked as it left my lips.

“Say you’ll come home, Adrien. I have maybe six months, perhaps a year on the outside. Come back to Wills. Let me spend time with you and Grace before my time is cut irrevocably short.” He was serious, but so calm. So eerily calm. How long had he known that he was dying? Clearly long enough to come to terms with it. Did he hurt? As he sat there, thousands of miles away on the other end of the phone call, was he in pain? Was he suffering? Were there
pills in labeled bottles all over his nightstand? Tubes in his nose and arms? Nurses watching him day and night? Why hadn’t he told me sooner?

“When am I supposed to come home? I mean, I want to see you, but—”

“There’s a red-eye flight that leaves at eleven tonight. If you think you can make it to the airport in time, we can send for the rest of your belongings later. I’ll speak to both headmasters this afternoon. I will sort out all the details. Just come home. For Grace. For me.”

There was no way. I loved Viktor, but I couldn’t face Grace again. Not right now, and definitely not for an entire year. He was asking too much. A few weeks, maybe a month, tops. That was all I could handle—if I could handle that. I knew I was being selfish. Viktor was dying, and I was fretting over seeing my sister. But I’d built a life in California—one I didn’t want to leave.

My eyes welled with tears that I refused to let fall. Swallowing them down, I said, “For you, Viktor. Not for Grace. But I want to get back here as soon as I can. It’s important.”

In true Viktor fashion, he didn’t argue. He merely said, “Thank you, Adrien. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow. See you then.” Hitting the button on my phone to end the call, I put my head back and closed my eyes. Viktor was dying. The closest thing I had left to a father
figure—the man who’d stepped in to care for Grace and me when we needed it—was dying.

I looked down at my phone. That’s when I realized—I’d been so blindsided by Viktor’s news that I’d forgotten about the texts. And now, not ten minutes after an unknown number had begged me to return to Wills, I would, in fact, be returning to Wills. What kind of messed-up coincidence was this?

The door opened once more and Connor stepped inside. The box he’d been holding before was now open, and half the brownies were already missing. When he caught sight of me, he said, “Dude. You look like your dog just died. What’s up?”

At this, I stood, grabbed my old military surplus duffel from the closet, and began cramming clothes inside it. “I’m going back east. Just for a month or so. I have some family stuff to deal with.”

Connor’s jaw dropped. “What? When?”

As I packed, I made sure not to make eye contact with Connor. We’d been best friends since my second year here. It would be hard to leave him. But it was important. “Tonight. I have to. I have no choice.”

Connor dropped the box of brownies on my desk in frustration. “You could have warned me sooner that I was going to need a new roommate this year.”

I grabbed my cell phone charger and shoved it in the bag. “I’ll be back in a month. We’re walking down that aisle with polyester dresses and cardboard hats together, dude. Don’t worry about it.”

But even as I told Connor not to worry, the fear that my plans would get derailed increased. One month. Long enough to say goodbye to Viktor—and to say good-bye to Grace for the rest of our lives. I hated to admit it, but there was a small part of me that was looking forward to the day when Grace and I would no longer have to pretend we were family.

Way too early the next morning, I walked out of security at the airport and pulled the buds from my ears, disconnecting from the mellow sound of a band called Blur. Viktor himself was standing there waiting for me. He was dressed in a three-piece navy suit and polished black shoes. No tubes. Nothing remotely sick-looking about him. The only difference in his appearance from when he’d come to visit last year was the slight hint of gray hair at his temples. He smiled as I approached. I nodded, unable to bend my lips in a way that would seem even remotely happy, and not just because I was totally exhausted. “Viktor.”

“Adrien.” He placed his hands on my shoulders and squeezed, his smile brightening. “It does my heart so good
to see you again. I trust your flight was pleasant enough?”

“Yeah. I slept through most of it.”

I looked around, trying to keep my movements cool and casual, even though inside I was feeling anything but. My heart wasn’t beating so much as vibrating in my chest because of my nerves. “Is Grace here?”

The truth was, I was feeling more than a little uneasy at the idea of seeing my adoptive sister again. We hadn’t laid eyes on each other since the day I’d left for California, and I didn’t really feel like I had changed all that much in four years. I was older now, yes. Taller, certainly. But now that I was here, the emotional shards that made up my being were still just as jagged and sharp as they had always been.

Over the years, Viktor had kept me apprised of Grace’s life. She was a shoo-in for valedictorian, had many friends, was in many clubs, and on and on and on. She was everything I wasn’t, and things had been so much better when we were apart. I didn’t know if Grace felt the same way, but it seemed like it. She hadn’t texted or called me even once in four years. Seemed like a mutual feeling to me.

Viktor took a moment before responding, as if gathering his words carefully. “She’s sleeping in. She thought you might want some time to talk with me before you saw her.”

I sighed, running a hand through my tousled hair. “Right. Which means you thought you should see me first so
you could lecture me on getting along with her.”

“Your sister isn’t exactly the uncaring monster you make her out to be.”

But Viktor didn’t know Grace like I did. She was very good at putting up a front when the right people were looking. The girl could have won an Oscar for her acting, if only it were on-screen instead of in her everyday life.

“Please. Grace only cares about Grace, Viktor. Always has. Always will.”

A silence hung between us—one full of both understanding and disagreement. The calm, patient smile had left Viktor’s face. “Do you have any more luggage to collect?”

I held up my duffel bag by the straps. “This is all I brought.”

Viktor nodded, and when he turned toward the glass doors, I followed. The awkwardness between us was unbearable, and I knew it was mostly my fault it was there. Viktor was very much a keep-the-peace kind of person, whereas I didn’t give a crap about rocking the boat. Better to speak the truth and upset someone than lie your way through life with a smile on your face. But still . . . I hated hurting Viktor.

As we stepped outside and crossed the street to the parking garage, I cleared my throat and said, “How are you feeling, anyway?”

Viktor withdrew his key fob from his pocket and pressed the unlock button on his silver Lexus. As he opened the driver’s side door, he said, “Tired, I suppose. But I’d wager that most of my weariness is from preparations for the new school year. I’m in no more pain than I usually am. To tell the truth, I don’t feel sick. Not really. Does that surprise you?”

“Honestly, yes.” I opened the passenger’s side door and tossed my bag in the backseat. “I half expected to see you attached to an oxygen tank.”

Laughter escaped Viktor, and he slid into the driver’s seat. I joined him inside the car, relieved to hear him laugh. He said, “It’s a good thing you’re not going into the medical field, my boy. It’s not always like you see in the movies. I swear to you, I feel quite fine, apart from a little underslept.”

I wasn’t sure whether this was entirely a good thing. It was honestly a little scarier that his illness bore no visible signs—that he could hardly feel it. Part of me worried that Viktor might drop dead right in front of me at any second.

I spent the drive back to Viktor’s house staring out the windows. Every once in a while, on either side of the road, there was a break in the trees. Sometimes the break held a house, sometimes an old barn or other abandoned building. There were only a few other cars and trucks on the road. I’d
almost forgotten what it looked like out here.

“How is Julian handling the news that you’re sick?”

“He doesn’t know. And I intend to keep it that way for as long as possible.” A semitruck passed us on the left, its engine roaring. Viktor’s sunglasses may have been able to hide his eyes, but they couldn’t hide the tension in his jaw.

Julian and Viktor had been together since Grace and I were in kindergarten. Julian felt as much a part of my family as Viktor did. “Don’t you think that’s a bit . . . I dunno . . . cruel? Not to tell him that he’s losing you?”

After an uncomfortably long beat, Viktor spoke at last, his words soft but certain. “If you’d known you were going to lose your parents, but had no idea what day it would happen, wouldn’t that have been a larger burden than just having it happen suddenly? I don’t want to draw out his pain.”

My chest felt heavy at the mention of my parents, but I understood why Viktor had brought them up. Even if I did disagree with not telling Julian about his illness. “He loves you, Viktor. You shouldn’t lie to him. Especially not about this. And withholding information is the same as lying.”

Viktor’s left hand moved slightly, pressing the blinker lever down. He turned and drove through the black iron gates at the front of his home. “Why don’t we agree that I will leave the topic of you and your sister alone, so long as you leave my business with Julian and my illness alone?”

I mumbled a halfhearted but affirmative response.

I had always loved visiting Viktor when my parents were alive. He had one of the most beautiful homes I had ever seen. In the years that I’d been away, I’d forgotten just how beautiful.

The house sat at the end of a long, gravel driveway with a circle in front. Not at all like the gravel you might find on a dirt road in the country, but polished, white river rock. The grounds were well groomed, with flower beds placed throughout. Julian had quite the green thumb, I remembered now. My mom had often commented on how jealous she was about that. As a botanist, she felt like she should have the prettier garden, but Julian refused to let her. It had been a playful argument between them for years.

Viktor and Julian’s two-story redbrick home was huge—far bigger than two men alone required. But, as Viktor liked to brag, it was on the national registry of historic homes, and I think that’s what appealed to him most. It had been built in the seventeen hundreds and was used as a hospital during the Revolutionary War. As we approached the end of the drive, I could see Julian coming out the front door. The look in his eyes was happy, eager. It hurt to know that he’d lose his husband soon and had no idea it was coming.

“I still think you should tell him,” I said.

The car came to a stop in front of the house. Julian
opened his arms in greeting, a smile on his lips. I reached for the door handle, but was halted by Viktor’s hand on my shoulder.

“You should know that I asked Grace to join us for dinner tonight.” He was facing me now that the car had stopped. And the look in his eyes was almost pleading. Pleading with me to play nice with my sister. The one thing that I did not think it was possible to do.

“Awesome.” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, reminding myself that I was doing this for him.

“Adrien. You’ve gotten so tall.” As I stepped out of the car, Julian hugged me and then held me back by the shoulders, looking me over. “And still so resistant to the idea of ironing. I guess an overnight flight is a good excuse, at least.”

I forced a smile at his jab. Despite his criticism, I’d always liked Julian. Ever since Viktor had begun inviting him to dinner parties at my parents’ home, back when Viktor was still pretending that they were just colleagues and nothing more. It was Julian who’d shared their happy news when they became engaged, and everyone we knew accepted it with a smile. Who could fault them for finding happiness?

“It’s good to see you, Julian. How’ve you been?”

“Wonderful. Viktor may have already mentioned it,
but I’ve accepted a teaching position at Wills, starting this year. Mostly I’ll be teaching freshman English, but I’m also leading one of the new electives they’re offering for all years—one that focuses on communication. I’d love to have you in class, but I’m betting you’ll be more interested in the forensics elective.”

It’s true, the word
forensics
grabbed my attention far more than
communication
. But this was Julian’s first teaching job in years, and it’s not like I would be taking any classes here for longer than a month. “Sounds interesting. Maybe I’ll sign up for it.”

“I hope so. I could use a friendly face in the crowd.” He turned and kissed Viktor lightly on the cheek. “How was the drive?”

“Delightfully uneventful.” Viktor smiled at Julian, his eyes sparkling. As we walked into the house, Viktor tossed his car keys my way. “Would you mind hanging those up for me?”

“Sure thing.” A small wooden cabinet hung on the wall just inside the door, just as it had for years. As I opened the cabinet door, I saw several sets of keys hanging on the hooks inside. I moved my hand from set to set, examining them. On the last hook was a set of keys with a key ring labeled
Maggie
.

My heart skipped a beat as I slipped the key ring off the
hook and held the keys tightly in my hand. Memories of my dad, wearing dirty coveralls and covered in grease, a far cry from the lab coat and glasses that he usually wore, came flooding back to me.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Viktor watching me. “She’s in the garage under a tarp.” He smiled. “She needs a new set of tires and a tune-up, but I’m sure she could be ready to go in no time.”

Viktor looked pointedly into my eyes. “And of course, now that you’re here, she’s yours.”

His words entered my ears and flew through my body in a cascade of utter joy. Maggie was mine. After all this time.

“Thank you, Viktor. You have no idea what this means to me.” Initially, our agreement was that I could have Maggie at the age of sixteen if I remained at Wills, or after graduation if I left. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t already thought about what would happen to her now that I was back only temporarily. I guess I had my answer now. Or at least her keys.