Chapter 4 - Flying Monkeys and Hidden Truths
By the end of the week, the protective order was officially served. Gavin was prohibited from coming within five hundred feet of me, my daughter, my apartment, or Maisie’s daycare center.
Predictably, my mother didn’t accept the boundary quietly. Unable to contact me directly without risking arrest, she deployed the entire family tree as her personal army.
My phone became a battleground of calls and messages from distant aunts, uncles, and cousins I hadn't spoken to in years.
“Gemma, how could you put your own brother in danger of going to jail?”
“Family business stays within the family!”
“Your poor mother is sick with grief!”
“Maisie needs her family, don't be so selfish!”
I didn’t respond to a single one. Instead, I systematically screenshotted every message and forwarded them directly to Sarah Vance to build a harassment file.
Then, on a rainy Tuesday afternoon, a soft knock came at my apartment door.
I looked through the peephole and froze. Standing in the hallway, dripping wet in a rain jacket, was my younger brother, Luke—the nineteen-year-old whose birthday party had been the backdrop for the assault.
I cracked the door open, keeping the safety chain engaged. “Luke? What are you doing here?”
“Gemma, please,” Luke said, his voice raw and choked with emotion. “I’m alone. I swear I’m alone. I just need to talk to you.”
I looked into his eyes and saw no anger—only exhaustion and deep shame. I unlatched the chain and let him inside.
Luke stood in my entryway, wiping his wet face with his sleeve. He looked around the quiet, warm living room where Maisie was peacefully coloring at a small wooden table.
“How is she?” Luke asked softly, nodding toward his niece.
“She’s healing,” I replied guardedly. “She still flinches when people make fast movements around her, but she’s getting better.”
Luke sat down on the edge of the sofa, burying his head in his hands. “I’m so sorry, Gemma. I’m so damn sorry. It was my birthday party, and I was so paralyzed when it happened that I didn’t stand up to him. I just sat there like a coward.”
“You were shocked, Luke,” I said, sitting across from him. “Mom and Dad have conditioned all of us our entire lives to freeze whenever Gavin loses his mind.”
Luke lifted his head, his eyes red. “It’s worse than you think, Gemma. Much worse. The reason Mom and Dad are fighting so hard to protect Gavin isn’t just favoritism anymore. It’s panic.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
Luke pulled his phone from his pocket and unlocked a encrypted cloud folder. “Three nights ago, after you left the family meeting, Dad got drunk. He and Mom were screaming in the kitchen. I was upstairs listening through the vent. Gavin hasn’t just been taking money from Dad’s construction company—he’s been embezzling from Dad’s business partners using forged documents for over two years. Dad uncovered it six months ago, but instead of turning Gavin in, Dad took out a second mortgage on their house to cover Gavin’s debts so he wouldn't go to prison.”
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I stared at my brother in utter shock. “They bankrupting themselves to shield him?”
“They’re completely broke, Gemma,” Luke confessed, his voice shaking. “Gavin holds everything over their heads. He told them that if they don’t help him defeat your criminal charges, he’ll expose Dad’s accounting cover-ups to the IRS. Mom and Dad aren’t just enabling him anymore—they’re his hostages.”
