8th May- Los Angeles, United States
Garage
Dom’s POV
With a slight groan I managed to lift my end of the workbench into place. I was still meant to be on ‘light duty’ but the shop needed was nearly finished and I needed something to do to take my mind of everything else. Hopefully Friday’s appointment would bring the all clear.
“All good?” Roman asked, watching as I winced as I moved.
“Just stiff.” I muttered as I nodded to the next workbench.
“On three ready? One, two, three.” Roman counted as we lifted the heavy plank into place. I groaned in relief as I dropped the weight, stepping back for Gisele to Screw the planks into place.
“Heard from Let?” Gisele asked carefully and I nodded.
“Yeah, I rang her last night. She couldn’t talk long, she needed to get back to Maria. I think I just hit number one on her mother’s shit list.” I sighed in acceptance.
“Ouch.” Roman muttered. I shrugged in response. I had nothing to really say about it, it was expected.
“Knew it would happen.” I shrugged.
“She may come around.” Gisele tried.
“I doubt it, but thanks for trying to cheer me up.” I smiled slightly while Gisele smiled in response.
“Everything alright today at Rosie’s?” Brian asked quietly as he sidled up beside me after Roman and Gisele left.
“Yeah, everything was good. She was glad that I showed up to the group session last night.”
“Yeah Leon told me you took off there. Help?”
“Yeah it did. It was an eye opener, it helped me realise a lot.” I admitted.
“Wanna talk about it?” He asked carefully.
“I just never talked about my time in jail you know? I didn’t want to. My nightmares were enough. I always felt like no one would understand so I just never talked about it. There were things I never asked them, things I should have told them but I didn’t.”
“It’s never too late.” He offered with a comforting smile. He wasn’t pushing or fishing for information and I was glad.
“I know. I’m starting to try to make it right.” I promised.
“You’re my brother Dom, and if you ever want to talk about it all you have to do is ask me.”
“Thanks Brian, means a lot.” I nodded emotionally and he patted me on the back before handing me a tin of paint and a brush.
I grinned and took the offered items, working beside Brian as we cut in the wall.
“Who the hell chose white?” I muttered as I cocked my head to the side, staring at the wall in confusion.
“Your sister, you tried telling her no? It doesn’t end well.” He grinned as he continued painting.
“Yeah I know. But white? In a garage? Come on Brian, where’s your fight?”
“In her handbag, along with his balls.” Roman cackled as he walked past us and I snorted in response. Brian’s glare moved from Roman to me and I turned away.
“I uh need more paint.” I muttered trying not to laugh.
“Uhuh.” He responded, clearly unamused.
Once my back was to Brian I couldn’t contain my grin any longer. Chuckling quietly to myself I made my way towards the tins of paint near the garage roller door.
I looked up intrigued as I heard door slam and hurried footsteps. I was almost to the tins when Mia came flying around the corner, head swinging side to side looking for someone. I frowned and took a nervous step back as she locked eyes with me.
“Mia whats- umph.” I groaned as Mia threw herself at me, her arm colliding with my sore shoulder.
“Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She whispered and I looked over to Brian confused. He shrugged looking just as confused as I felt. We also had an audience.
“What for?” I asked quietly back.
“Your letter.” Oh. Realisation dawned on me suddenly and I felt suddenly uncomfortable.
“I didn’t realise you would get it today…” I trailed off quietly as everyone else went back to work. I hugged tighter before letting her go, leading her outside so we could talk in private.
“Well I’m glad I did. I loved it. It was hard to stomach in parts and it brought back a lot of pain but I loved it.” She sniffed and I smiled slightly at her emotional response. It had been emotional writing it.
“You made a mistake, a huge one but you owned up to it. It wasn’t an easy thing to do but you did it. I respected you for it.” Mia started and I turned my face away as she continued speaking.
“Look at me. Please Dom look at me.” She begged and I reluctantly met her gaze.
“You and I both know you handled things badly. Very badly but you were hurting. You saw the man who we blamed for our father’s death. Honestly Dom I probably wouldn’t have handled that much differently. I know you think you failed me but you didn’t. For those first few days after Dad died you looked after me and made sure I was okay because that’s who you are Dom. You’re a caring and kind person who’s fallen off the wagon a couple of times and made some mistakes. I’ll be honest I don’t like some of the choices you’ve made, but I get them, most of them.” She amended.
“How can you stand there and say that? How can you say I didn’t fail you when I wasn’t there to look after you? I left you with Maria, I left you to cope on your own when I should have been there beside you. I should have listened to Maria when she told me to stay home that day but I didn’t because I-“ I vented before stopping myself. I took a deep breath and calmed down while Mia waited patiently for me.
“You should be furious with me, angry, anything. Anything except understanding.” I bit out as I leant heavily against the wall.
“Of course I was angry, I am still angry over some of the things you’ve done but you’re my brother. I love you and that will never change. Dom after dad died you were hurting as much as me, but while I had support to help me heal you had no one. I’ve always wondered what it was like for you. What you saw in there, what things happened that I didn’t know about but I know how much you hate talking about it so I never bring it up. I never blamed you for Dad’s death and I never hated you for getting sent to jail or for what you did. If I ever blamed you for anything it was for pushing me away, making me feel like I was losing you too. It hurt. It fucking hurt. I used to cry myself to sleep at night because I missed you and dad and mum and I couldn’t see any of you.” I closed my eyes and took in a sharp breath at her words. The pain that sliced through me was unbearable and had nothing to do with my shoulder.
“Everything I loved had been taken from me, from us. Then one day I realised it wasn’t just me hurting and you honestly thought keeping me away was the right thing to do so I accepted it. I hated it but I accepted it because I finally understood. You needed to be strong in there because you couldn’t afford to be weak, to feel useless. It’s why we kept so much from you because I knew, even though you didn’t say it, I knew you were doing it to protect yourself. Maria and Vince saw it too. Letty… I don’t know. She was hurting and at that time all she cared about was her own pain. But the rest of us saw it and we did everything we could from afar to help you. I love you, and I’m so happy you’ve finally started to open up but don’t ever think you failed me back then.” She spoke strongly as she knelt down in front of me. I don’t know when I had ended up on the ground with the wall to my back.
Looking into my little sister’s eyes and seeing the pain, the worry and the forgiveness in them made it hard to breathe. My eyes were burning with unshed tears as I tried really really hard to hold them in. I gave her a small watery smile and she returned it with one of her own before wrapping her arms around me, her head buried in my neck. Holding her close I sniffed slightly before letting the tears fall, the slight shake of Mia’s shoulders letting me know she too had joined me.