~ DAVID ~
Shock stopped me in my tracks. I stood there, stunned.
Meanwhile, Erik stared at me like he didn't recognize me.
"I have spent my life serving you—serving your needs, your safety, your purposes."
"And I have been grateful," I answered tightly. "It's not my fault our parents chose this for us—or that I was born first."
"You're right, it's not," he said quietly, then stepped right up to me, meeting me eye to eye, nose to nose, toe-to-toe. It was like standing at a mirror. Except he wasn't dead in the eyes. "Thirty years, David. I've watched you do things I'd never have the courage or the self-restraint to do. I've watched you make choices I admired, even if I didn't enjoy them. I've seen why God chose you for this. Thirty years I have given up my life to serve yours and I have never regretted it. Never been ashamed to follow you. Until now."
