The Heiress Who Kept My Brother

My little brother was being kept captive by the only daughter of an oldmoney Chicago family.

When I found out she'd taken his freedom away from him, I flew back overnight from overseas. I meant to sit down facetoface with her guardian, in the headmaster's office.

I hadn't even made it through the door when I heard the girl demand of her brother, through her tears, "You kept a girl captive once too, didn't you?

You locked her in a basement and begged her, eyes red, not to leave you. You got to do it. Why can't I?" My hand pushed the door open before I meant it to.

The man in the armchair looked over at me, unbothered, and said calmly, "That's why I regret it." Chapter 1 I was the last person to hear anything about my brother.

I'm out of the country all the time, running deals, and the time zones had wrecked whatever sleep schedule I had. I hadn't talked to him in months.

So when the academic advisor from Brantwood called, I didn't quite believe her. Torin goes to that private school on a full scholarship. I did too, back then.

She sighed. "Your brother hasn't… said anything to you about this?" "The girl comes from money, and she's spoiled and loud about it.

She transferred in and locked onto Torin right away.

Making him walk her through her homework, walking home with him after school, ordering him around, not letting him talk to other girls.

She even slipped a tracker tag into his backpack…" Her voice was thick with worry. "I mean, what kind of behavior is that?" "She's thrown him off.

He showed up late to his midterms." "And I only found out yesterday that she's been keeping him locked up at her house. He won't say a word about any of it." I frowned.

Torin and I are orphans, and we grew up with no one but each other. Both of us are coolheaded and practical, and both of us know what we're going to need later on.

I studied hard from the time I was small and ended up at Harvard. He'd been first in his class for years, no less than I ever was.

Something this big, and he'd never once brought it up. I turned it over for a while, then booked the earliest flight out. I meant to sit down with them and settle it properly.

Before we hung up, the advisor made a sound like she was sighing. "Sorry to drop this on you." "You and your brother were both my students, and there's nothing wrong with either of you.

You just keep running into this kind of person." "The way this girl operates is exactly the way Josiah Devereux did, back then…" My lowered lashes trembled.

I made a small sound of agreement and said nothing else. It was already late in the day when I got to the school.

I'd barely climbed out of the car when a girl with red eyes blocked my way in the dropoff lane at the front entrance. She wore a Miu Miu dress, pretty and expensive.

There was a thread of nerves in her voice. "You're Torin's sister, right?" "Are you here to break us up?

Because I'm telling you, I'd have to be dead before I'd leave him!" I looked at her for a moment and found I wasn't angry.

So this was the girl who had been hounding my brother — India, the Devereux daughter. Looking at the stubborn set of her eyes and brows, my mind slipped somewhere else for a second.

It was as if… six years ago, there had been a boy who looked at me with exactly that kind of obsession. Behind her, the headmaster wiped the sweat off his forehead.

He looked miserable about all of it. "Ms. Devereux, don't make a scene out here.

Your brother is going to be here any minute." "Let's go wait in my office." At the mention of her brother coming, the color dropped out of India's face.

She seemed genuinely afraid of him. "My brother… how does my brother know?" She had to let me go for the moment, and she went back inside.

The headmaster walked me through the basics, then tried to reassure me. "Ms. Abbott, you have nothing to worry about." Chapter 2 "Mr. Devereux is not an ordinary man.

Rational, levelheaded, always has been — nothing like that sister of his, who's out of her mind." "The two of you sit down and talk it through.

It shouldn't be much of a problem." There was nothing to do but walk to the office alone. Honestly, I didn't believe him.

India's brother was said to control half the commercial real estate in Chicago, and families like that are cold and out for themselves.

Why would they care about ordinary people like us? I was still worrying about it when a cool voice came through the door. "India. Look at yourself.

How much further are you planning to take this?" "Let him go. Now." I stopped short.

Then came India's crying, all hurt and grievance. "But you claimed and kept a girl once too, didn't you?" "She didn't love you either, back then, and you locked her in a basement and wouldn't let go of her for that long.

So what gives you the right to tell me what to do?" I went rigid, and my hand pushed the door open on its own.

The man sitting inside carried himself like old money, cold and untouchable.

He was as unhurried as ever. "That's why I regret it." "And I don't want you taking the same wrong road I took." The noise at the door broke off the argument between them.

He looked over at me, and when our eyes met he went visibly still. Then, very quickly, he was calm again. "So it's… Ms. Abbott." "Good timing.

Come talk with us." For a moment I honestly didn't know what to say.

I had imagined the two of us meeting again more times than I could count, but never under circumstances like these. All I could do was nod.

He turned the coffee cup in his hand without looking at me and leaned back in his chair, tired. Like we had never met at all. It was a long time before he said anything. "Ms.

Abbott. How do you see this?" I met India's anxious eyes, and I paused, and I said it anyway. "I'm sorry. I don't want my brother entangled with Ms.

Devereux any further." "I'd ask Mr. Devereux to understand and have her moved to another section.

It's better for both of them." As though he had expected exactly that, Josiah lowered his eyes and let out a short laugh.

India burst out, so worked up that she wasn't making sense. "What gives you the right to say that? Who are you, even?

Why do the two of you get to decide what we feel…" "I don't agree to it! With the Devereux family behind me, he'll never get away from me.

Not for the rest of his life." Nothing showed on his face as he cut her off. "Enough." "Haven't you humiliated yourself enough?" The girl's eyes went red all at once. "I'm sorry, Ms.

Abbott. I didn't mean to talk to you like that. But I really do like him." "He's the only person I've ever liked like this in my whole life. I can't just accept it.

I keep thinking I have to find out whether there's any chance…" Josiah cut her off, his voice cold. "Have you asked him whether he likes you?" He handed her a tissue, and something complicated moved across his face. "Don't make yourself small like this.

You're a Devereux. You're my only sister." "All these days, has Torin given you one warm look? Has he ever come to you first?" "You could have any man you wanted.

Why lock yourself up next to that one?" India's crying wound down. She choked out, "But I can't forget him." "There's nothing you can't forget.

Give it long enough and you won't be able to remember him clearly." My head came up before I decided to move, and I looked at Josiah.

Once he'd said it, he put the cigarette he had never lit back into the pack and stood, unhurried. He was still all business. "The section change is already filed.

I had someone submit it." Chapter 3 "I'll have Torin released shortly.

As additional compensation, give my assistant your account information and he'll wire you five hundred thousand dollars." "Is Ms.

Abbott satisfied with that arrangement?" Satisfied or not didn't come into it. He ran all of it, from start to finish.

The same way he had six years ago, when he forced his way into my life. And in the end he was the one who got tired, the one who let go because he was worn out.

I could still remember what he said then. "Carolina, this really isn't much fun anymore." I nodded. I had no objection. That was how the two sides settled it.

He went to get the car and drove me and India out to the lake house where Torin was being kept. In the car, India cried herself out and fell asleep against the back seat.

Josiah and I didn't say a word to each other the whole way. The lights along the road were a dim yellow. Then my phone rang, and I picked up.

Wyatt's voice was as easy as ever. "Caro. I hear you're back?" "You've been out of the country long enough.

Want to get dinner?" He'd been a few years ahead of me in the same program in grad school, and the two of us had always gotten along. I thought about it. "Sure.

Tomorrow." After I hung up, I noticed that Josiah's eyes had settled on me. He asked, offhand, "Friend?" I said, "Yes." Neither of us said anything after that.

For a second I could almost believe the man next to me had been swapped out on the inside and left the same on the outside.

Six years ago he'd have been sick with jealousy and smashed my phone.

He'd have tied me to the bed with his eyes red and asked me over and over who I loved most, and he wouldn't have let me near another man at all.

Now the two of us could get through a few calm sentences. Sometimes I really do want to say something wise about it. Time really is the great teacher that cures every feeling.

At a red light, half asleep in the back, India said Torin's name out loud. I pressed my lips together.

As if he knew what I was thinking, Josiah kept one hand on the wheel and said, evenly, "There's really no need for Ms. Abbott to worry this much.

Neither of us wants a repeat of what happened back then." "I'll pick someone more suitable for her.

She'll let it go soon enough." I made a small sound and looked out the window. "Then I hope Mr. Devereux keeps his word." It wasn't long before we pulled up at a house on the lake.

Torin came to the door fast when we knocked. He was in ordinary house clothes, a plate of cut fruit on the table behind him, and he clearly hadn't expected it to be us.

His eyes stalled for a beat. "Sis. What are you doing here?" I gave him a smile. "You scared me half to death." "Come on. Let's go." He didn't ask a single question.

He just came with me. Outside, his eyes went to India, off to the side, before he could stop them. It lasted an instant. Then Torin turned his face away.

Something struggled in India's expression, and in the end she couldn't hold it in and called after him. "Torin!

Don't you have anything you want to say to me?" "Even — even one sentence?" I felt the person beside me break stride. He still didn't answer. The two of us called a car.

I asked, casually, "Torin, your advisor said you've been late in the mornings.

Sleeping through your alarm?" He pressed his lips together, and it was a long time before he said anything. "I wanted the cinnamon rolls from that place in Wicker Park, so I went out of my way to pick up breakfast there." Torin has never been picky about food.

I understood perfectly well who that breakfast was for.

I put my hand on his shoulder. "She won't come after you anymore." Chapter 4 "You can put it out of your mind." Nothing showed on his face. "Okay.

Sorry you had to go to all this trouble for me, Sis." He was a boy of seventeen or eighteen, and he was well practiced at hiding what he felt.

Our birth parents gave us up, and after years of being shuffled from place to place, both of us had to let go of some part of ourselves.

I asked quietly, "Have you fallen for her?" "The two of you aren't from the same world. India doesn't know you.

How long do you think a feeling like that lasts?" He understood what I meant. He took my hand, and his voice was low. "No." "Good." I let it go at that.

Because of all this, I took two weeks off and stayed in Chicago. India was moved into another section, her classroom in a different building.

Whether she went willingly or was made to, I couldn't say, but the two of them really did have trouble crossing paths after that. Torin is my brother, and I know him.

He never lets anything show. He went to class, stayed in the library after school to read on his own, and worked on his competitions.

He had a new partner in class, a softspoken girl in glasses who was supposed to be near the top of the year herself. India was not doing well.

She was low all day, lying with her head down on her desk, and she barely spoke at home. Josiah, from what I heard, was frantic.

His sister had been raised overseas since she was small, and though the two of them didn't see each other often, they were close.

Outside of this one thing, he let her have whatever she wanted. In the end he ran out of ways to fix it. Nobody understood how stubbornly she held on better than he did.

So he found someone who looked even more like Torin and turned him into a replacement. Over the next few days, Wyatt asked me out a few more times.

He smiled with those long, upturned eyes of his, the kind that always look like they're flirting a little. "You've seen Josiah?" "Mm." "As obsessive as that man is, I still can't believe he let you leave the country back then." He drew a breath through his teeth. "I was worried, you know.

About what would happen when the two of you were in a room again." I smiled. "You're overthinking it." "He and I have nothing to do with each other now." He could tell I didn't want to go further with it, so he dropped the subject and laced his hands behind his head. "Still, I never would have guessed the one locking your brother up was his own sister.

Runs in the family, huh?" "Those two. There isn't a rotten thing that pair won't do…" After we ate, we went by the school, and the conversation turned to the gallery.

His aunt sits on the Brantwood board, and his eyes lit up. "Caro, what if you did a show first?

Here at the school." We were still talking when we heard a scuffle behind the old building, the one that's been closed off.

Out past the planter in the courtyard, a thin, straightbacked boy had been backed into a corner by a few other guys.

His school blazer was old and washed pale, and his face stayed cool and level. "You need something?" The one in front sneered. "Doran, what's the act for?

The most popular girl in our grade asks you out in front of everybody, and you think you get to say no?" "You're lucky she even looked at you!" The boy didn't want to talk about it.

He started to go around them. "You're not going anywhere today until you apologize to her." The others got hold of his backpack.

Nobody could have said who swung first, but then they were all tangled up together, and his textbooks scattered across the ground. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

His expression didn't change. I started over to break it up. Wyatt had already seen something in it.

He smiled and pointed. "Wait." A little way off, India happened to be walking past with her backpack on.

She's blunt and headlong by nature, and the moment she saw it she stepped in without a second thought.

Chapter 5 She picked a brick up off the ground and frowned. "A whole group of you on one guy.

Do you have any shame?" India had been spoiled her entire life, and nobody dared cross her. The brick caught a couple of them, and that was that.

They backed off, swearing at her the whole way, with nothing to show for it. That should have been the end of it.

But from where I stood, at a distance, I watched the boy lower his head to thank her, and his profile looked exactly like someone.

India blanked out all at once and froze where she was. Wyatt laughed. "Nobody knows her like her own brother, huh? That's a cold move, Josiah.

Finding his sister a standin?" He raised his head and looked toward the secondfloor walkway of the building across from us. "After all… back when he couldn't have her, couldn't let go, couldn't forget, this was the move he used." I followed his eyes without thinking.

On the second floor across from us, a girl in a white dress with cool, fine features stood beside Josiah. His