“Sit!” she ordered. “Alex, you over there.” She gestured to one end of the couch. “Tyler, you over there.” She nodded toward the other end. “This way, I know you won’t kill each other.”
Alexander and I quickly obeyed, both of us lowering ourselves onto opposite sides of an oversized cream-colored sectional set against a large window, the sunlight streaming in behind us.
“This has gone on long enough. You two are going to talk, and you’re going to talk now.” She ran her hand through her nearly white hair. Looking at the ceiling, she took a deep breath and returned her eyes to us, her expression softening. “We should have done this ages ago, but I thought you two would be mature enough to handle it on your own. Apparently, I was wrong.”
I crossed my arms in front of my chest and stared straight ahead, not wanting to be the first to speak. I wasn’t the one who had been acting unreasonably.
“Olivia, dear,” Mom called over her shoulder to the tall, slender brunette. “I think it’s best you join us, as well. You seem to make Alexander less of a stubborn ass and more of a rational person. Melanie, sweetie…” She directed her attention to the dark-haired little girl at Olivia’s side. “Can you go down to your playroom for a little while and play with your toys? Grandma will buy you a brand new doll if you do what I ask and don’t get into any trouble for the next twenty minutes. Can you do that?”
Grinning and showing a few missing teeth, she said, “Okay, Grandma.” She was about to head away before she ran toward me and flung her arms around my neck. “I missed you, Uncle Tyler,” she whispered softly.
I returned her hug and placed a kiss on her cheek. “I missed you, too, munchkin.”
Releasing herself from my grasp, she spun around and bounced toward the stairs leading to the basement, which had been modified into an extravagant playroom of which any child would be jealous.
“Now,” Mom said once younger ears were no longer present, “it’s time you boys stopped acting childish. Tyler, you’ve kept everything inside for a while now. Get it out.”
“What are you talking about, Ma?” I asked quietly. “I haven’t–”
“Bullshit, Tyler. You’re still carrying the guilt of what happened to Melanie and it’s strained your relationship with your brother…with everyone. I am the last one to ever demean someone for wanting to join the military, but I voiced my opinion with Alexander and I’m sure as hell going to voice it with you. Your reasons were fucking bullshit and cowardly. Instead of learning to cope with losing Melanie, you went into the service.” She took a deep breath before softening her expression. “I’m so proud of you.” She glanced from me to Alexander. “Of both my boys. Your father was never a great communicator and I fear you both inherited that trait from him. So, please, I’m getting old. I don’t want to feel like I’m walking on eggshells around you two.”
Alexander narrowed his gaze at me. “What’s going on, Ty?” he asked quietly, holding Olivia’s hand in his.
I shrugged, trying to ignore the tension building in the room. I had been angry for so long, I didn’t know what I was upset over anymore. I tried to go back in my mind to what started the break between my brother and me…losing Melanie. But I didn’t feel that pain anymore, and I struggled to find a reason to hold a grudge against him. He didn’t kill her. He was no more responsible for her death than I was. It all seemed so childish now.
“I know it probably feels like my words don’t mean anything,” Alexander continued when I didn’t respond, “but you have no idea how much losing Melanie hurt all of us. I know how much you loved her, Ty. I thought I had lost my one true love and the pain was excruciating.” He looked at Olivia, their eyes meeting. “I’m lucky enough that I didn’t lose her.” Standing up, he took carefully measured steps toward me and sat down. “But something tells me this isn’t all about Melanie…not anymore.”
I shook my head. “I loved Melanie, but that feeling is nothing compared to what I–”
“Then you need to go to her,” Olivia interrupted, standing up. Her heels clicked on the hardwood floor as she walked toward us, Alexander’s eyes wide. “Apologize for not going sooner, for having a bit of an overbearing ass for a brother, and for using her and keeping secrets from her in the first place. Trust me. I know exactly what’s going through that poor girl’s mind right now. She’s probably questioning everything in her life, wondering whom she can trust, wondering what’s real and what’s not. There are few things worth fighting for these days, but I can guarantee you that love is one of them.” She sat down next to Alexander and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. “And it’s a damn good thing your brother fought for me.”
“Olivia,” Alexander said, his tone somewhat harsh, “it’s not that easy. This woman was an asset, and our agency contact went missing. I didn’t know which way was up, so we had to do something to protect everyone involved.”
My eyes glued to Alexander, my heart raced in my chest. “What did you do?” I whispered.
He studied me for several long moments before finally speaking. “We gaslighted her.”
“What the hell does that even mean?” Mom interjected.
“It means we made her question her reality, made her question whether she had really met Tyler or not. We removed any and all traces of him from her life, even had a few of my agents move into his old house in the off chance she went over there. They were told to use any means necessary to convince her there never was a Tyler Burnham who lived there.”
An understanding look crossed my mom’s face, as if she had just received the missing piece of a puzzle. “Spies,” she mumbled under her breath.
“Why would you do something like that?” Olivia demanded, her temper rising.
“So she would think she never met him. His cover had been compromised, so we had to do something. Gaslighting is one of the most effective manipulation techniques there is to make the target or asset think what we want them to think…that they never met someone, in this case, Tyler. It’s a way to protect his blown cover, which can have drastic consequences to both parties, especially in this case.”
“This is absurd!” She raised herself from the couch and glowered at Alexander. “Do you really think she’d believe she never met him? For crying out loud, just let him go to her, regardless that you attempted to ‘gaslight’ her!” she sneered. “He needs closure! I’m sure Mackenzie does, too! Then you can all move on with your lives. He can stop moping around, you can stop trying to keep him away from home so he doesn’t go see her, and things can go back to normal…or as normal as they can be in this family.” She plopped back onto the couch and crossed her arms in front of her chest, annoyed.
Silence rang in the living room as we all absorbed Olivia’s words. My mom was right. She was the only person who could ever break through my brother’s thick skull and make him be the compassionate person we all knew was hiding beneath the layers of his tough exterior.
“Ty,” Alexander finally said, clearing his throat. “I hate to admit it, but maybe Olivia’s right.” He met my eyes and I knew it must have taken a lot for him to accept that. “If I were in your shoes and someone tried to keep me from the woman I loved, I’d be pissed.” Sighing, he ran his hand through his dark hair. “I’m sorry. About everything. About getting you into this mess, then trying to decide what’s best for you without asking what you wanted. I’ve been a shitty brother. I should be supporting you instead of trying to keep you down. If you love her like you say you do, I’m happy for you. If you want to be with her, I’m not going to fight you, but you need to be careful. I’ve spent months trying to track down our agency contact to see if there was some sort of trail and I’ve come up empty. I can’t help but think there’s something suspicious going on and that his disappearance has everything to do with this case. The timing is too perfect.”