"To the outside world, we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs, and joys. We live outside the touch of time."

—Clara Ortega

It was Thanksgiving break and I was still grounded. Lucky for me, I have a brother who would do anything to make me smile.

I used Wrenner's phone to keep in contact with my friends and Kellen. By then, my whole life had quickly become Kellen Riaz. Two weeks into dating, he had convinced me to stop taking my medication and go the holistic route.

Kellen didn't have a television. They weren't exclusive enough. My ex coveting items no one else had; like his ceiling projector that he said a tech savvy friend set up so he could stream content. We would lay together on his bed, watch shows, smoke weed and talking about everything on our minds, and I finally felt alive. Like the fog had suddenly lifted and my every thought was Kellen. I had just forgotten to tell Wren about it.

It was Black Friday. Mother nature taking the name literally because I woke up to black stormy skies. The condominium was empty. Walking through the sea of mute colors in search of my brother and, for the first time in years, realizing how bland our home was.

Everything was a shade of white outside our bedrooms and the home office. There was framed art on the walls but even those bursts of color lacked substance, life. It was a dollhouse.

"Good morning, Mai." I yawned, entering the kitchen. "Do you know where everyone is?" I asked, fixing myself a bowl of cereal.

"Good morning, Miss," she responded, before asking if I would rather her make breakfast.

Mai was the new Marta. A kind college student just trying to get by. She lasted almost ten months before she started asking the wrong questions.

"Rue, Mai, and no, cereal is good," I sighed.

My mother is a classist. Her short time slumming it with Cal gave her a bad taste towards the working class. She thought it was best her children never associate below their station, incorporating titles to remind everyone where they stood.

She called the staff servants and insisted they address everyone down to my three-year-old brother Akhil by Miss, Mistress, Master, and Sir.

I hated it.

Mai's smile was robotic. It lacked joy and the personality I adored. "The Mistress informed me she and the Master are taking your youngest brother upstate to escape the weather, and to remind you, you're not to leave the grounds," she explained.

"Mai, they're not here - you can talk like a person," I assured her, watching her deflate after a moment's hesitation.

Mai collapsed onto the island chair while I fought the urge to roll my eyes. She only had to put up an act for five hours a day. I did it every moment of my life.

"It's hard to turn it off once it's on. Anyway, um... I don't know where your other brother went. He left a few hours ago," she told me.

Along with the cleaning, it was Mai's job to tend to my brothers, the young caretaker visibly uncomfortable when it came to my brother Wrenner.

When Colleen came back for us, I told Wrenner "We do what they want. No matter what it is, it's better than what we came from. It's like Cinderella except now, there's a prince and a princess."

"What if it's like Hansel and Gretel?" he narrowed his eyes.

"Then we throw that bitch in an oven." I smiled pulling him into a hug.

Wrenner, took my words literally. When he overheard Colleen's plans to send me back to the boarding school where I had tried to take my life, he set her bed on fire with her in it. Wrenner promised Colleen he would set the world on fire to keep me with him.

He was ten.

Mai was studying human services. She loved children; immediately taking to Wren and Akhil. The problem was, besides me and people he could have sex with, Wren was deeply disinterested in the attention of women, specifically maternal figures.

One day, he got Mai alone and questioned if she heard the rumors about him from the other staff. From how I was given the story, Mai smiled and assured Wrenner she knew he was a good boy and not to mind adult gossip.

Wren informed her it wasn't gossip. Warning our nanny that, unlike our mother, her place in our life wasn't essential and he'd done worse - they just paid to make it go away. I apologized on my brother's behalf when I heard but Mai had been uncomfortable with him ever since.

"He's harmless, I swear," I laughed, placing a bowl on the counter.

"Of course he is." Mai's tight smile told me she was unconvinced.

"If they left for the day, why are you still here? You get paid a salary." I noted, pouring the milk first.

"That's weird," Mai commented.

"I'm weird." I flashed my snaggletooth fangs.

"You're awesome, Kid, and... if I leave..." she hesitated.

"My mom just tells you guys there are cameras so you don't steal or invite friends over. She's not watching you. Trust me, if she knew what my brother and his girlfriends did while they were gone, she would freak." I cringed, placing the milk back into the fridge.

Mai bit down on her lip, silently reminding me I wasn't the only one who feared Colleen. "Go home, Mai. The young mistress commands it. I can't say it's a pretty day, but it's Friday so I'm sure you have something better to do," I said with a smile.

"Why do you want me gone so bad?" She narrowed her eyes.

"Hedonism," I admitted.

It was Kellen's first time visiting the condo. Before then, our interactions designated to his car, or the Millers project apartment.

I was desensitized to the place's extravagance. I had lived there for over five years and my closest friends were also heiresses quickly growing numb to the excess. Kellen looked awestruck. He spun around and took it all in as we made our way down the long entrance hall leading to the all-white main room a few feet ahead of the penthouse balcony.

"This is where you live?" he asked.

"No, just broke in so we can make out," I joked, standing on the tips of my toes and wrapping my arms around his neck.

His kisses felt distracted. Kellen slipped away, and questioned how many inches was the interactive system at the far end of the wall.

I didn't know why it mattered but at that moment I didn't know that every night I went to bed I was living Kellen Riaz's dream.

Kellen had always wanted to be rich. He never cared about fame; thinking it came with too much responsibility. He saw my home and saw the life he wanted. Unsatisfied until he got it and that's around the time he finally lost me.

"I don't know, seven feet? Wouldn't you rather be celebrating your win?" I smiled, wrapping my arms around his waist.

"How do you plan on doing that?" Wrenner implored, letting the door slam behind him.

I think it was the only time in my life my brother had scared me, ripping away from Kellen as my heart leaped into my throat. Wrenner didn't do well with other men. It was rare when I liked boys but when I did my brother made them go away. One way or another.

"What are you doing here?" I squeaked, watching Wren look at Kellen curiously.

"I live here. Who's he?" Wren smirked, leaving his umbrella in the holder as he removed his coat.

Kellen narrowed his eyes, informing Wrenner he was my boyfriend as I fought the urge to faint. Thinking about that moment I can't help but laugh especially since now I know that whereas he was my boyfriend, Kellen didn't see me as anything more than property.

To them, I was an object of affection. Both looking at the other boy as an unneeded complication.

"Weird," Wren smiled, "I never heard of you."

Present

A tall bearded man walks into the boutique. He is strong with dark russet-brown skin and happy deep-set brown eyes.

He isn't dressed like any of the shoppers here; wearing expensive fashion sneakers, black joggers, and a matching hoodie for the unseasonably cool August weather.

A woman looks at him as though he might rob the place, and I wonder how people like her still exist, especially since my brother is probably the most wealthy person in this room.

It took ten days after Winston's funeral for our two oldest aunts and our older cousin, Alpha to challenge my brother's claim to my grandfather's company. The trio filed several injunctions to fight my grandfather's will; a sexist company clause stating all control of Idris's assets belong to Winston's eldest male heir unless Yaran and I had a son before his death.

Alpha is a year older than our mother; born months after our uncle's death. As far as they were concerned, he was the rightful owner of our grandfather's conglomerate.

Wrenner enjoyed showing them how wrong they were. At just seventeen, my brother represented himself; wiping the floor with our relative's high-powered attorneys.

Not only did he validate his claim but proved in open court Alpha Idris was not the biological child of our late uncle Collin making the man an Idris only in name.

Within a year, Wren not only controlled the company but everything in Winston's name, including some of their cars, homes, and all proprietorship. My aunts were fine, Margo and Jacqueline have income outside the family, but Alpha was fucked. I don't even know where he is now.

My brother quickly became one of the world's top ten youngest billionaires. Business magazines wrote several fluff pieces saying the young man had the Idris touch. We both hated that.

Wren smiles and it brings me peace. I haven't seen my brother in months - not since our Thanksgiving blow-up that ended in a shouting match over our older sister, Ever.

Things had been cold between us since then; Wrenner always rushing off when Brielle told him I was on the phone and only sending a text for each other's birthdays. Wren and I don't fight. We avoid each other until one gives in and it's usually him.

"Hey, stranger," he greets me.

"Wren," I sigh, rushing into his arms.

Wrenner is a giant. We went through twin growth spurts when I had been sent off to California. Wren shot up to six feet, a few inches shy of his adult height of six foot six, and I grew two inches developing my womanly curves.

"I heard my sister was around the way, but I didn't see her. It bothered me so much I figured it was a conversation better had in person." Wrenner gives me a light squeeze.

I furrow my brows. The Grand Sanctum Hotel prides itself on exclusivity and privacy. I guess that goes out the window for family friends.

"Fallon," Wren informs me, giving rise to the new mystery of how and when the two crossed paths.

Because of how we were raised and the new lifestyle he has become accustomed to, my brother isn't big on making new friends. Like me, Wren likes what's familiar. A routine.

Daegon Carpenter, Kellen Riaz, Jamal Miller, and Nao Ping, who we call Chucky, have been his go-to inner circle since we were teens and, though they were friends in the past, Fallon and my brother had always had a strenuous relationship. Wrenner unable to forgive Fallon for helping me run away from home.

"Is someone you speak to?" I twinge.

"Why not? I find his thoughts to be enlightening and I have a certain respect for him," Wren admits, pulling away to look around the shop.

That's kind of a big deal. Both Wrenner and Gage have IQs over two hundred and they rarely like to speak. When they do, their egos clash making it a very uncomfortable pissing contest. Bree and I always have to assure our petty girls that they're both pretty and smart.

"I'm hungry," Wrenner declares, more like an impatient child instead of a prodigy of twenty-four.

"I'm working," I remind him, looking around the shop.

"I took a train, two buses, and a car to get here," Wren tells me, my brother incredibly fond of public transportation.

"You need a car," I scold, terrified of the day someone tries to hold him up.

"In the city?" Wren laughs dismissively. "No, I don't. Come on, show me what's so special about this little place," he commands, and I realize Wrenner hasn't been to Athens since my wedding.

Something is wrong.

I tell Thatcher I'm taking a long break and we go to catch a bite at the diner up the street. Wren has always been a picky eater, never gaining Colleen's taste for the finer things in life. He prefers a burger or a shitty well-done steak over anything else.

"Who told you?" I ask when he insists on paying for our meals.

In a weird way I've been expecting him. Brielle is uncomfortably close to my mother and Lina. She is my oldest friend. She knows what they are and what they've done but ever since she had Adonis, she's become closer to the Idris women, the two doting over my brother's girlfriend as if she's the second coming.

I'm sure Lina has told her about Gage, I'm also sure Wrenner and Brielle tell each other everything, making our friendship a deep conflict of interest. For a second I thought I was in the clear since Wren didn't stand in the middle of main street calling for the head of the man who made his sister cry but him being here, insisting on caring for me, means he knows.

"I can't buy my only sister lunch?" Wren muses, looking over the menu.

He will get a burger. No cheese, no onions, no tomatoes, pickles on the side, and bacon, crispy. He always does, and yet Wrenner insists on reading the whole menu everywhere we go.

"I'm not your only sister," I remind him.

"I stand by my statement," he says, a dark cloud making its home at the top of my brother's head.

When they met, Wrenner shoved a cotton swab in Ever's mouth as she said hello. We both looked at our little brother like he was insane, Wrenner narrowing his eyes and looking down at the small young woman noting she had our father's eyes.

I was the lucky one. Aside from a few punches to the mouth for asking to fix the teeth he loved and that incident off the coast, I've never suffered the abuse my siblings had endured by our father's hand.

It would make sense for them to be closer. To bond and try to heal from the past but, we are our father's children. We don't heal, we move on and pretend the past didn't happen. I think Wrenner resents Everly because unlike us she is always smiling.

I gnaw at my bottom lip. I love Ever, but I don't want to have another fight, deciding to keep my comments to myself.

After a moment of silence, Wren peeks up from the menu, sighing dramatically and it makes me smile seeing the silly boy I raised.

"Lina mentioned it to Bree, who is peeved because she thinks I kept it from her. She's having a hard time believing we're not as close as we used to be," he says, and it makes me sad.

I don't know why, my brother and I haven't been close in years.

"I'm sorry, Wren," I mumble, lacking an alternative response.

"For what? It's not like I tell you everything," he responds with a calculated expression.

I wish he did. Over the years it was like the closer I got to Ever, the further I drifted from Wren. I know Wren is my best friend but Ever doesn't judge me. She doesn't hear my problems and try to come up with quick-fix solutions; she just listens.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" he says, the concern on his face makes me feel guilty.

I take a deep breath. Looking down at my dark ice-filled drink the words slip from my mouth in the only way I know Wren could understand.

"I feel like I'm drowning."

We were six. That weird cusp in the year when Wren and I are the same age for a moment in time.

Wrenner had seen a movie that made him want to learn to sail, and in a rare moment of kindness, Callahan rented a boat. We had never seen the ocean before then. Wren loved it, helping our father dump large trash bags over the side before we found a spot to go for a swim.

I was petrified. I had never been in a pool, let alone open water, and unlike Wren, I don't learn things just by seeing it done once.

Cal jumped in and Wren followed, both splashing around and, for a moment, they looked like a real family.

Come on Wolf, jump in, Callahan called to me, but I refused to go. He called twice more before ordering Wren back onto the boat.

When I tell you to do something, you do it, our father scolded, lifting me by the arm.

I admitted I was scared, knowing it was a mistake when Callahan tossed me over the side. My father tried to instill the moral that fear was a weak emotion. He felt there was a world full of people who would hate us just for existing and because of that he wanted Wren and I to not even fear God themself.

As I struggled to keep my head above water, Wren became a rabid dog, clawing at Callahan to jump over the side and save me. My brother would jump into a pool of lava to save me, even if he knew there was no chance neither of us would survive.

Callahan scolded Wren for what he thought was a hero complex. He told Wrenner, he won't always be there to protect me. I had to sink or swim.

Our father held Wrenner in a headlock, looking over the side and telling me whether I lived or died that day was my choice.

You can sink or swim little girl, the choice is yours, he called distantly. That's how I learned how to swim. Or at least, tread water enough to keep myself alive.

Wren's jaw flexes, grinding his teeth. An old childhood tick that forces him to sleep with a mouth-guard.

"You asked," I force a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

"You want me to kill him?" he asks, Wren's face devoid of emotion.

It makes me laugh. My brother is a lot of things, but a killer isn't one of them. I think that's why he loves the law; his small attempt to be the complete opposite of the man who made us.

"Hey, I would," Wrenner chuckles. "I'm a lawyer. I would know how to get away with it too," he jokes.

I grin and shake my head. I couldn't imagine living in a world without Gage. If someone took him from me, I think I would hate them forever.

"I don't even know who I would be without him. How weak is that?" I say, avoiding eye contact.

Wren places his large hand over mine. "You'll always be you," he tells me.

"And who's that?" I ask with a wry smile.

My whole life has become Gage Medina. Who am I if I'm not his wife?

"The strongest person I know. While other kids were learning to cross the street, you were stealing so we didn't starve to death whenever Cal was off doing whatever the fuck he did for weeks at a time," Wren confides. "You put up with Colleen because you wanted me to be happy. You're always putting everyone first, especially me. That's who you are so if anyone can get through this, it's you, but I'm always a train, two buses, and a car ride away for the days you feel you can't," Wren assures me as our waitress arrives.