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Chapter Forty Raya St Claire
No. I thought. My brother can’t be alive. He just can’t.
“This can’t be true.” I breathe out, looking at Ezra through tear-filled eyes. “He died that night. I don’t—I don’t understand how he can be alive after eight years.” I pinch my arm, thinking that I’m just having a dream, and that the news I just received wasn’t true at all. “Am I dreaming? I must be dreaming right now. I—”
Ezra shakes his head before he sits down on the bed beside me, careful not to pull out any of the wires I had stuck in my arm. “This isn’t a dream, princess. Your brother is alive. He’s living in Florida with Archie’s mother. He’s alive, and well.”
I shake my head, feeling my lip quivering and my chin trembling.
More tears welled up inside my eyes, enough for them to start rolling down my cheeks again.
I shut my eyes, tightly, trying to make sense of the information Ezra was feeding me. Archie was there that night, with Winchester and someone else. Winchester was in the house, he killed my mom and my dad. I told my little brother to escape through the window, and he did, but Archie and another guy caught him after he climbed down the ladder. He was screaming until everything just went silent, and I assumed until this day that they’ve killed my little brother too.
But Ezra was telling me that Archie has managed to get my brother away from Winchester. Archie has managed to protect my brother somehow, and he helped him escape through it all…
Lady Agent didn’t lie to me. Archie did go to them, right after my parents’ murder.
He kept my brother a secret. To protect him.
A chokes sob escaped my lips when I voiced the next words. “I thought my little brother died.” I lick my lower lip, tasting the saltiness of them on my tongue. “I thought he died. If I knew he was alive back then, I would have gone back for him—” I stop mid-sentence when realisation struck me. “I never went back to check up on him. I thought he died, so I never went to check.”
No. I am a bad sister. I’ve never gone back to check if he was actually dead.
“I’m a bad sister. I assumed he was dead, so I never went back. I never went back for him.”
Ezra takes my hand into his, stroking his thumb over the skin there. “You are not a bad sister… You were fifteen years old, and you just witnessed your entire family get murdered right in front of you. You needed to get away from Winchester before he killed you too. It wasn’t your fault.”
