Lucky Stars (Ghosts and Reincarnation #5)(94)

Then his face grew hard and he said, “You’re my f**king brother.”

Jack’s patience slipped a sizeable notch. “You didn’t think of that when you were insulting the mother of my f**king child direct to her face.”

“I’m sorry about that,” Miles gritted through his teeth.

“I’m not the one you need to apologise to,” Jack returned.

“Like you’ll let me speak to Belle,” Miles snapped.

“No, I won’t,” Jack agreed remembering his brother’s taunting vows, during and after their fight, to make Jack pay. Vows that stated he’d do it through Belle.

Miles straightened and Jack watched him clench his teeth before he remarked, “It took a lot for me to come here.”

“Explain why I should care about that,” Jack suggested.

“What I’m saying is, I’ve made the first step. You should meet me halfway.”

“As I recall, you used the woman who would become important to me as a prize in a competition.” When Miles opened his mouth, Jack kept going, “I don’t give a f**k if you were dating her at the time. You had to know Belle. You’d been dating her for a f**king month. Therefore you had to know she wasn’t the type of person to jump into someone’s bed if that someone didn’t matter to her. And matter to her a great, f**king deal.”

Jack watched Miles’s mouth clamp shut, Jack knew he scored his point and he continued.

“Then you told her I wanted a crack at her, knowing Belle had made her choice and what that might mean to her and knowing how she would react to something like that. You didn’t take your loss like a man. You did what you did out of spite.”

Miles’s brows snapped together in confusion, “I didn’t tell her that. Where she heard that, I’ve no idea.”

Jack studied his brother and saw, to his surprise, he wasn’t lying.

Still, he carried on, “Regardless, when I caught you with her, you were physically abusing her. Then, months later, when you knew she was pregnant and I’d moved her into my home, which is something which should have given you a clue as to what she meant to me, another clue was the fact you walked in on us kissing, you didn’t duck out quietly. Instead you abused her verbally.” Jack watched his brother’s face go tight and he went on, “Therefore, Miles, I don’t think I need to meet you halfway.”

“We should have talked about this four months ago when it happened,” Miles told him, “I was angry. You must understand I was angry.”

“Anger doesn’t excuse physically abusing a woman. Nor verbally doing it,” Jack retorted.

“She f**ked my brother while she was dating me!” Miles clipped.

“No, I f**ked her. There’s a subtle difference Miles. You know me. You knew her. You had to know the way it happened. You can’t think I believe for one second you didn’t. You took your anger at me out on Belle. As a result, I nearly lost her and I’m finding it hard to forgive you for that.”

“And you can’t believe for one second that, if the same thing happened to you, and a woman you cared about spent the night with me, that you wouldn’t be livid,” Miles shot back and Jack’s patience slipped another considerable notch at his brother’s very selective memory.

“If a woman I cared about spent the night in your bed, my first thought would be that you could have her,” Jack returned with complete honesty and the look on Miles’s face showed he knew it. As he would. As it had happened before and, even though Jack didn’t need to remind him, he did, “For instance, when you f**ked Yasmin.”

Miles looked away and muttered, “That was a long time ago and you two weren’t exactly together.”

“It was a long time ago. That doesn’t change the fact that, years ago, you discovered Yasmin and I were having difficulties because of a ridiculous argument she blew out of proportion. We’d grown up with her. You knew the way Yasmin behaved. How she’d take any opportunity to screw up her life. You also knew how I felt about her. You purposefully got her pissed out of her skull and took her to your bed. When she admitted it to me, she was a f**king mess because she knew it was over. And it was, irrevocably. I shouldn’t have forgiven you, or Yasmin for that matter, but I did. That’s two women in my life you’ve toyed with because of this ridiculous compulsion to best me and, if I didn’t make it clear in the stables, I will now. I’m done, Miles. This is finished.”

Miles stared at Jack and Jack returned his stare.

This went on for quite some time.

Finally, and quietly, Miles said, “I’m done too, Jack.”

“I’m supposed to believe that?”

Miles nodded and repeated, “I’m done.”

Jack shook his head but Miles took a step forward, Jack pushed away from the desk and Miles stopped.

“This is my family we’re talking about,” Miles went on, still quietly and, when Jack didn’t speak, Miles continued, “Not just you, but Mum, even Yasmin isn’t talking to me and now Belle’s expecting. That’s my niece or nephew she’s carrying, Jack. And I’m banished from my own f**king house.”

“You brought it on yourself,” Jack retorted ruthlessly.

“I know!” Miles shouted, “God damn it, I know,” Jack watched his brother swallow and then he said, “Dad would be so pissed off, Jack, if he saw us now. He’d be furious.”