Chapter Ten

Logan had just gotten through the door when Meera hit her with a worried gaze.

Dread hit the green-eyed woman as she let the full force of the older woman's silent warning hit her.

This was usually reserved for a family member visiting; Logan just had to figure out which one it was before she was confronted by them.

"Your brother is waiting in your office," Meena said cautiously.

Oh boy. Logan cursed silently, without her face showing any sign of emotion. There had been a time when she and Jackson were close; growing up, the only siblings it was natural they would be, but things had changed since their father's death.

Bracing herself, Logan headed for her office door, closing it behind her as the unmistakable towering figure of her elder brother stood to gaze out the window into the balcony.

"Enjoying the view, Jackson?" Logan asked as though she wasn't guilty of dodging his calls and messages.

Jackson turned around slowly; the sight of him made Logan wince. He was the spitting image of their father, so much so that Logan looked into his eyes sometimes, and she'd swear he was a ghost. Jackson was even gaining the silver touches on the sides of his short dark hair.

His tall and muscular body was imposing, just as their father had been. Logan and Jackson had only two things in common: their dark hair and their green eyes.

"Mom has been trying to call you," Jackson said simply.

"Mom should come to see me instead." Logan shrugged as she headed to the shelf that kept her few funko pops.

"I see you still collect those things," Jackson commented.

"Of course, this doctor is my most recent prized possession." Logan smiled proudly, tapping the small doctor who on the head.

Jackson took a deep breath and was growing tired of having to play peacemaker between his sister and everyone else in the world. "Logan, just call Mom and go to the wedding. She wants you to go to dinner with them."

Logan's eyes widened in disgust. "Dinner with them? And break bread with the man who fucked our mother while my father was being murdered? Yeah, I'd rather not, thanks, Jackson. I don't look forward to throwing up in public."

"That never happened, and you know it, just grow up and let sleeping dogs lie." Her brother pleaded softly, taking over his tone. He dealt with his mother's infidelity by realizing life was fragile and couldn't cut her out, not as Logan had so coldly done.

The woman pursed her lips in irritation, they'd had this conversation many times since their father's death, and each time Logan gave the same reply. Still, Jackson never backed down; he just looked as disappointed as he did now.

It was hard to face this from him; as a child, Logan had idolized her elder brother, but she was no longer under the foolish impressions of a child who looked at everyone she loved with tinted lenses.

Logan had grown up and learned that life was not going to bend for her; she would have to turn it and, in the case of her mother and her future husband, ignore them because her heart could not take it. She could not betray her father, as Naomi Luthor had done.

Logan swiftly moved towards her desk and fell back into her chair. "Was there anything else, big brother, because I just gave my answer."

"Is this the plan, then?" Jackson asked angrily. "To be as arrogant as you can and ignore us all."

"Well, it wasn't so much a plan as a natural course of action, but if you like yes." Logan shrugged her shoulders.

Logan knew what was coming; she'd become good at this over the years, telling someone what they didn't want to hear just to make them hate her, it was easy, far too easy, but it always did the trick.

Making someone hate her was something Logan had discovered by chance; she hadn't intended to do it, and yet it had cost her, her wife.

Jackson sneered at his sister, rage rolling through his entire being. "You keep on doing this, Logan, and you will end up all alone, just a dried-up old shell while we have everyone around us filled with love, you'll be alone, and you did it all to yourself."

Logan remained silent, sucked in her cheeks, and her lips pressed into a thin line as she held in her own anger towards her brother's words. "Have you finished?"

Jackson shook his head in disbelief. "She wants you to come to her wedding logan, you can do that one small thing."

"The wedding where she marries the man she cheated on our father with?" Logan scoffed, a sly mocking smirk dancing across the corner of her sullen lips. "No, thank you, I'd rather not toast that union, thank you."

"Logan, Dad, wouldn't want you to abandon her," Jackson said through clenched teeth.

Logan narrowed her eyes. "Dad wouldn't have wanted his wife fucking another man Jackson!"

"Let it go, Logan!" Jackson raised his voice, slamming his hands on the desk, his green eyes ablaze with fury as the vein in his temple protruded from his skull. "It's over, and our father is gone!"

Logan glared up at her brother, her nostrils flared as she took in a deep breath to steady herself. "I'm aware of that," Logan said through gritted teeth. "I found his body, dammit! Lying on the cold stone ground and I was trying to stop the bleeding Jackson, applying pressure to the wound doing everything I'd been taught, but it didn't work, did it?" Logan tried not to scream.

"You didn't shoot him, Logan, stop punishing yourself."

Logan's stomach turned in protest. "I'm still not going."

Jackson let out a tentative breath; dealing with his sister was exhausting these days. It seemed like a billion years ago since he had spoken with his little sister in a civil, relaxed way. He hated the woman Logan had become; she wasn't the sister he had known.

Jackson slowly backed away; it was pointless to press something that would only induce more pain and stress. "Just call her, Logan it won't cost you anything."

"Only one phone call." Logan quietly replied as she heard the door close.

Alone Logan buried her head in her hands and let the stubborn, annoying tears flow; what she'd discovered when developing her skill for making her loved ones hate her was the self-loathing and overwhelming pain that followed when they left, and she was all alone.

There was no audience to perform within her lonely tomb of tears.

And the only sound that filled the silent mausoleum was the pitter of tears as they landed on the surface of her desk.