"I wanted to make it on my own. I needed to make it on my own." I cross my arms over my chest in a defiant gesture. "My career success is because of me and no one else."
He wrings his hands together. "Mine is because of my family. Everything I have I owe to them."
"You work hard," I offer because I know it's a fact. Caleb normally puts more hours in at the office than even I do, which says a lot. "Your parents put the wheels in motion. You and your brothers took the business to the next level."
"Gabriel and I did," he subtly corrects me. "I don't think it was ever Asher's thing. He loved his music. We didn't support him in that."
Asher has been writing music since we were teenagers. I'd sometimes hear the soft sounds of his guitar floating through the open window of his bedroom and into mine during the warm months of the year. I'd often lie in my bed at night, with the gentle wind whipping my sheer curtains about while I drifted off listening to Asher's raspy voice singing the songs he'd written.
"He loves his music." I rub my fingers over my brow. "Maybe once he gets back, he can focus on that more."
"You have no doubt at all that he'll be back, do you?" His eyes plead with me to confirm that even though his voice is steady and unwavering.
"I trust that he'll find his way back here."
"I'm worried." He crosses his arms over his chest before reaching up to run his hand over his chin. "I'm worried I won't get another chance to make things right with him."
"Asher knows you love him." I take a step closer to him.
"He has secrets." His hands fall to his sides. "His life is filled with secrets."
"What?" I ask softly as a shiver runs through me. I don't want him to tell me that Asher has started using drugs again. I can't shoulder that right now after marching around for days telling everyone that he'd never use again. "What secrets?"
"That woman that just left," he begins as he waves his hand towards the closed door of the library. "That woman knows Asher."
I push myself back to the moment when I first barged into the library. I was too focused on asking Caleb what he'd been doing that I hadn't paid any attention to the woman other than the fact that she was obviously engaged or married. "How does she know him?"
"Asher is her brother-in-law."
***
"Asher is married?" I'm sitting next to Caleb on a small sofa that rests against the back wall of the library. "How is Asher married?"
"He's not," he clarifies with a deep sigh. "He was. It was annulled a few weeks after he got out of rehab."
"Who was he married to?" The question is as foreign as the thought of Asher being married.
"Someone he met in rehab. Her name was Karen. They got married the day he left the facility."
I hadn't wanted to crowd Asher after he'd been released so I had waited until he reached out to me. It was weeks later and by then he was immersed in his work with his brothers. I'd asked about rehab but he had only offered meager facts about the program and therapy.
"Why didn't he say anything?"
He looks directly at me. "I wish I knew the reason. I wish I knew what the hell he was thinking."
"Have you talked to the woman? Karen? Have you spoken to her about Asher?" It's an obvious question but it's one I have to ask.
"I've been trying to locate her all week." He pulls his smartphone from his pocket. "I've been on this thing day and night trying to track her down. I finally found her sister yesterday."
"That's the woman I saw when I came in?" I look at the screen of his phone. "Does she know where Asher is?"
"Her name is Sonia." He shakes his head slightly as he twirls the phone in his palm. "She lives in Vegas. She wouldn't tell me anything unless I flew her and her husband out here."
"What?" I twist towards him on the sofa. "I don't understand."
"She knows how much Asher is worth," he starts before he leans back. "She knows how much we're all worth. She wants money before she'll tell me anything about her sister."
I roll my eyes as I try to piece together what he just told me. "Do you think she actually knows anything about where he is?"