Honestly, I was kind of convinced Luke did it.

I turn to the two scared boys. “Listen to me. It was an accident. It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t mean to hurt Greg. It’s the very definition of an accident.”

“You did a good thing telling us,” Aiden says, putting his hand on Jason’s shoulder. “I’m going to take care of everything, okay? You don’t need to worry about a thing, you’ll be just fine.”

“Are we going to jail?” Jason whimpers.

Not on my watch.

“You guys know that your brother will do everything he can to protect you. You’re not going to go to jail. We’ll figure everything out.”

Jason and Jackson say nothing, leaving me to stare at Aiden. What are we going to do?

“Let’s keep this between us for now, okay, guys?” Aiden says, his voice softer than before. “Don’t tell anyone else, got it?”

They nod, and Aiden continues. “Perfect. Why don’t you guys go grab some snacks or something, okay?”

They take off out of Aiden’s room, leaving Aiden and me to stare at each other. I don’t know what to say, what to think, how to process this.

“Fuck.” Aiden slums onto the bed beside me. “We are so fucked.”

“It was an accident,” I start. “The police will understand.” Right?

Aiden rubs his temples. “Yes, but a man is dead. They hid evidence, then ran away and kept quiet about it for a month after. I just started the process of filing for custody, and at a lucky minimum that’ll be denied.”

I try to think through our options but come up short. The one good thing to come out of this is that Luke really is innocent, which will make Annalisa extremely happy, but how do we tell our friends or the authorities without hurting the twins?

“We can’t tell anyone, at least not yet,” Aiden says, his spine rigid. “We have to think this through. I’m going to have to find a lawyer, someone who can handle this all quietly and discreetly. I know what it’s like to get death threats and comments from strangers on the internet. Can you imagine what’ll happen if the media finds out about this?”

I can imagine, and I don’t like it. Aiden’s already getting a bunch of media attention, and if it gets out that his brothers killed someone, even accidentally, it’ll be a media frenzy. Not just for Aiden, because Aiden can handle it, but for the twins. What kind of reputation would follow them around? Kids really are ruthless sometimes, and what would happen if their classmates found out about it? They may not actually be getting bullied right now, but after this got out?

“What about Brian’s friend? The lawyer who got you off Greg’s murder charge in the first place. Alan. We can call him, get him to help.”

Aiden suddenly looks tired, much more than he was moments ago. “That’s probably a good idea. I’m going to look into it first, see the best possible way to handle this without jeopardizing custody or their futures.”