“Ease down,” Daxton grumbles, eyes unwavering.
Anger radiates through me at his audacity to touch me. A strange emotion tightens my gut, indescribable and overwhelming. I release his throat, letting my hand fall to the side as I take a step backward, noticing the stiffness in his shoulders.
I don’t apologize for nearly hurting him. Why the fuck should I?
He scratches the back of his neck, looking at me with eyes that remind me too much of the past.
“Grey,” he says.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say there was a hint of emotion in his voice as he said my name, and I’m thrust into a memory so sudden, it makes me lose my breath.
“Grey!” A sing-song voice comes from somewhere inside the crusted walls of the orphanage.
A smile splits my lips as I hear my brother, making my way through the spaced hallways with no personal touches.
As I enter the living room, I see Cody sitting by one of the playtime tables, papers and crayons scattered around. There are a few other children in here, but most are outside playingin the sandbox or swinging at the swingset.
I approach him, ruffling his hair as I look down at the paper before him, and the yellow crayon in his hands. The smaller smile I previously had transforms into a wide one when I take in the details of the drawing he made.
“This is you and me,” he says, his voice soft, as one would expect from a nine-year-old child. He scratches his neck, as if uneasy and waiting for my approval.
Despite all that we have been through—being thrown out of our parent’s house when he was six years old and I nine, with them doing unspeakable things to us—there is still an innocent soul residing within him.
“It’s so pretty,” I tell him, making sure he looks into my eyes to notice the approval.
His eyes are wide-doe as he looks at me, blue orbs shining in the falling light from the lamp, with the other children playing in the background.
“It’s us against the world, right, Grey? You won’t ever leave me?”
An uncertain look crosses his eyes that has my heart squeezing, and I ruffle his hair again, making him smile up at me.
“Of course, I won’t ever leave you. I’ll be here by your side forever. Brothers, right?”
Thrown out of the memory, a tight knot forms in my chest until I look away from my brother, focusing on the trees surrounding the car instead.
Little did he know then that he would be the one to leave and betray me when he spilled my secrets to Emilio Ricci, making him catch enough interest in me to throw me into the dollhouse where worse horrors awaited.
Come to think of it, he never even explained his betrayal.
“Why, Cody?” I demand, my voice steady but unforgiving.
The look he gives me is puzzled, as if I’m a creature from another world, yet he cringes away at the sound of his old name. “That’s not my name anymore,” he replies, with an equally cold voice, hinting at no other emotions.
“I don’t care what your name is or isn’t. Why did you betray me?”
There’s no sadness in my voice, only a cold indifference that makes him observe me even closer. It’s as if he isn’t even blinking, seemingly in deep thought. Perhaps even crafting another lie.
“I did not betray you,” he insists carefully, looking back at the car a few meters behind us, where Naya sits on top of a thin blanket, giving us space.
“Yes, you did!” I shout. My heart squeezes like a lethal vise inside my chest despite not wanting it to.
Back at Dankworth Institute, I didn’t feel anything except rage running through my veins, but now,emotionsare all I can feel, and it’s driving me to the point of madness. It makes me want to claw out my own heart.
“Why the hell did you show those photos to Emilio Ricci, huh? Why did you expose the crime scene photos of our parents that I took the blame for? The photos of the drug dealer I killed to save our asses?!”
He recoils, taking a step back while dragging a hand down his face, unable to find the right words to speak.
“Not so fun to be screamed at, huh? To be humiliated, questioned, put on the spot,” I press, hatred burning inside me. Because yes, even if he’s my brother by blood, that meansnothing.
