They say to marry your best friend, but studies show that best friends are four times more likely to get divorced.
Sometimes it's better for parents to give up their child for adoption, and here's why.
Luca parked the car Ralph had loaned them in the empty spot in Noah's garage. Somehow he always ended up driving every time the Holt brothers were involved. He had nearly burst out laughing when Sario had tried to insist that he also knew how to drive and had averted the catastrophe by saying that Sario should stay in the back with Ezekiel to make sure he stayed cool enough to avoid a relapse into heat exhaustion.
Noah was standing at the door leading into the house when they pulled in and immediately hit the button to shut the garage. He held the door open for them to come inside and then shut and locked it the moment he stepped in. He was clearly on high alert, which Luca appreciated. "Come on in," he said quietly, his voice gentle as always. He made sure Ezekiel was set on his feet just as gently, his hands nearly invisible against the dark brown T-shirt the nurse had given Ezekiel to replace the torn and dirty shirt he had been wearing when they had found him in that basement. "We can go straight back to your room if you'd like," he told Ezekiel. "Camille has his friend Zay over, so they're chatting in the living room. If you don't want to talk to them, we'll just walk straight through. They'll respect it."
Ezekiel hesitated, but then he shrugged. "If I'm going to be staying in your house, I might as well meet your fiancé."
Noah seemed flustered all of a sudden. He might have even started blushing. "Yeah, um, well, he's my husband now."
Luca leaned forward, not believing his ears. "I'm sorry, what? Husband? Since when?"
Noah gave a tight smile. "We threw planning to the wind cause it was giving Camille anxiety and just went to Vegas."
"You got married in Vegas?" Sario sounded almost offended. "Why didn't you tell any of us?"
"It was literally two days ago," Noah replied defensively. "We got back last night, and Camille doesn't do well with a lot of people, even if they're being nice. So yeah, Zay's the first to know. But you know now too." He smiled awkwardly and opened a closet, pulling out a folded wheelchair and unfolding it with practiced ease. "If you're going to talk to Camille, you're sitting down. Sario isn't strong enough to hold you for twenty minutes or however long those little gremlins out there decide to hold you captive in conversation." He and Sario each took one of Ezekiel's arms and helped him sit. "He's a lot. Zay, I mean," Noah continued, "and Zay and Camille together is also a lot. They're really nice, but just ask to leave if you get overwhelmed. They're not going to be offended if you do."
Ezekiel nodded, eyes flicking over each surface in sight until they landed on Luca. Then he smiled faintly, lips barely curving. "I doubt they'll be able to scare me."
Luca caught the subtext immediately: they won't scare me after everything I've gone through. He tried to smile back without betraying the fact that he felt similarly. He could not really reassure Ezekiel regarding Camille and Zay. He had only met Camille once at Darius' wedding and he had never even heard of Zay before today.
But Noah was a gentle person and he loved Camille, so Camille, despite the fierceness Luca had experienced at the wedding, must also be gentle. And if Camille did not do well around most people, he must have picked his friends carefully.
The two people on the couch both sat up straight when the four of them entered the living room. Camille still looked like the angel who had terrified Luca with his sharp, hidden teeth when he had thought Luca was threatening his position as Noah's boyfriend. Well, now he had no reason to feel threatened, not when he had literally just married Noah. When he saw Luca, a smile came to his face. It reached up into his eyes, and he looked genuinely happy to have Luca there in his house. "Hi," he said, his voice soft but welcoming nonetheless. His eyes drifted down to Ezekiel, his smile tightened in a barely noticeable way, and he nodded slightly in acknowledgment.
The person next to him on the couch was sitting with his feet tucked under him, his tanned skin showing through the light linen shirt he wore. With his small frame, heart shaped face, and long hair that fell to mid-chest, he looked so feminine that Luca would have assumed he was a she without Noah's direct affirmation of Zay's gender. He had looked over his shoulder when Camille had perked up and greeted the visitors, and he had cataloged each one of them slowly until his gaze followed Camille's to Ezekiel. His whole being seemed to stop cold, lips frozen apart with breath paused between them. He pushed himself up into his knees, as if to get a better view, and called out in a broken whisper, "Kiel?"
Ezekiel had also frozen, eyes widening and wettening. "Jeremy?"
Zay shot up off the couch and fell to his knees in front of Ezekiel, hands hovering over Ezekiel's body like he was scared to touch Ezekiel like Ezekiel would fall apart at the slightest bump. "You're alive. You're not dead. They said you were dead." Tears started forming in his dark eyes and then spilled out over the thick swoop of eyeliner tracing his waterline. "Aunt Leah and Uncle Chase told me as soon as I arrived in the city. They felt horrible about it. Do you know they've blamed themselves for your death ever since you disappeared?"
Tears streaked Ezekiel's face in silver lines. He brought shaking hands up from his lap and pressed them to Zay's face. These two had been something to each other before Ezekiel had been kidnapped. By the way Zay had been speaking, probably brothers.
"And no one at home even had a clue what happened! They still don't know!" Zay seemed to be on the brink of ugly crying with rapidly blinking eyes and trembling lips. "I don't think any of the cops even knew our parents were your parents. It was like you'd never existed! You just dropped off the face of the earth!" When Ezekiel opened his mouth as if to explain himself, Zay shook his head. "I know it wasn't your fault. I know. I know. But you left and then when I followed you, you were gone. I know it's not true, but I felt like you'd abandoned me."
Ezekiel was shaking, repressing the sobs that should have accompanied the rivers of tears flowing down his cheeks. "I'm sorry," he choked out. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." He yanked Zay forward into a brutal hug and held onto him. "I never thought you'd follow me," he murmured, the words barely audible. "I would've—"
Zay raised his head slightly. "What would you have done that you didn't do?"
Ezekiel's hands clenched in the fabric of Zay's shirt. "I would've fought harder to get back to you," he replied softly. "Even if it had killed me."
"But you're here and you're alive," Zay whispered. "Better late than never."
Ezekiel tried for a smile but ended up just looking heartbroken. "I guess so." He slowly released his grip on Zay with a sheepish glance at the spectators. "Sorry."
"Sorry?" Camille repeated disbelievingly. "Why are you sorry? You're siblings! You've been missing for more than a decade! You're the last person who should be sorry!" After a moment, he added quietly, "But you probably should apologize to Zay for using his deadname."
Ezekiel's eyebrows went up, but he nodded and spoke another sorry looking straight into Zay's eyes.
Zay gave a little smile that was halfway to a playful smirk. "You didn't know, so I'm not gonna blame you. And just to clear up any and all confusion, I haven't gone off the deep end. I'm just genderfluid. Some days, I'm more like the brother you knew before. Other days, well, I'm more like this," he said, gesturing to himself. "I'll let you know when I've changed pronouns. Camille says it's easy to tell when though, so take that as you will."
Ezekiel looked like he had just received a concussion. "So, um, what are you right now?"
Zay grinned. "Your brother. He/him."
"Got it." Exhaling heavily, Ezekiel smoothed his shirt over his stomach a few times. It seemed to be his grounding gesture, a reminder to himself of what was real. "I'm tired," he said, tone nervous all of a sudden.
Noah stepped in immediately. "Alright. Let's get you to bed." He gently pushed a concerned Zay away and took Ezekiel down a hallway, where the sound of a door closing could be heard a couple minutes later. Then Noah came back out into the living room, his eyes simply daring them to be loud.
Zay sat back down on the couch next to Camille, his leg bouncing in obvious anxiety. "He's okay, right?"
Luca finally spoke up, frustrated that Ezekiel's own brother did not seem to understand the gravity of the situation. "He was held captive and raped for thirteen years. Would you be okay?"
Zay paled at Luca's words and clenched his hands together tightly in his lap. "I'm sorry. That was insensitive. I didn't mean it like that. I know he's been through hell. I just don't want to lose him again right after I got him back." He lowered his eyes to his knees. "I know that must sound really stupid."
Camille carefully placed a hand on Zay's moving leg. "It's okay." His voice was calm and reassuring. "It's not stupid. You care about him. And he knows. He knows you care. He just needs some space. Space to heal, recover, recalibrate. He might be your older brother, but I can promise you he doesn't have it all together. He needs rest and time, and that's okay."
Zay nodded stiffly but made no other sign of acknowledgment.
Sario seemed to pick up on the off vibe and motioned to Luca that they should leave.
Luca nodded but walked over to give Camille a quick hug before following Sario out. Once they were back in Ralph's borrowed car, he started the engine and then said with all the courage his broken body had left, "I'm going to make sure Paolo dies."