The Quiet

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

*Nathan's Point of View*

I handed the papers that held the information to my English project to Roman. He was my partner whether he liked it or not. I feel like Roman has less hatred for me than his other brothers who glared at me every time they saw me. It seems that each month they hate me more and more, but I don't blame them. I did things that I shouldn't have, I should've kept my lips shut about Dean and Athena. Yet, they never seem to care about their little sister after that incident. None of them mentioned her except her twin who cared about her more than anything.

The two of us were talking about the project when Dean came up to her brothers, she was nowhere to be found. My ears perked up at his voice when he started speaking. "Where is Athena? I haven't seen her all day, I don't know what to do. I know you guys hate me,
but I need your help." Dean looked helpless like he had nowhere else to turn.

Viktor was the first one to respond to him. "Since you took our sister you also took the responsibility of dealing with her issues. There is no reason for us to help a freak like you, it's not going to happen." He glared at his sister's boyfriend while walking closer to him. "You can go away now."

Dean sighed before speaking again, "I understand that, but I am worried. She isn't answering my calls or texts-" Ivan spoke up and interrupted Dean's explanation with,

"We said for you to leave." Dean shook his head at the nonsense and proceeded to look for Athena. From the look on his face, there was something off about him. Dean didn't look like his cocky self, he wasn't in the mood to argue. I glanced away from the situation to pay attention to Roman.

My project partner stared at me, knowing that I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. I smiled awkwardly, hoping that it would make the conversation better which didn't work. "Athena is fine," he assured me. I let out a breath of relief. Before I was able to ask where she was, Roman answered my unspoken question. "She is at the cemetery near the library. She always goes there on this day, there is nothing to be worried about."

I gave him a confused look, why would she be at a cemetery on a cold day like this? "Why?" I asked.

"Today was the day that our grandfather killed himself. She goes there every year to talk to him and refuses to come to school. None of us were as close to him as she was. Clearly, it hurt her when she found out. Athena didn't hear about it from a phone call, she saw his dead body when she went to visit him that day. She used to visit him almost every day. That's when she stopped talking. From that day on, it went on for a year. Then, she finally started talking to us again but only to family." Roman explained the reason and my heart dropped. Ivan had told me the story, but it was a shorter version and he didn't say how serious it hit her. I pictured her as a little girl, walking into a house to only find horror. It brought a sick feeling to my stomach when I thought about it.

"Shouldn't you guys go check on her? To see if she is alright?" I questioned him. Roman and his brothers know how much it hurt their sister but refuse to see if she is okay. They seemed to lose interest in their sister, their own flesh, and blood. My heart throbbed when I told myself that it was my fault.

"She's fine. Nothing is going to happen to her, Nathan. Athena has done this before and nothing serious happened otherwise we would be with her."

"Why didn't Ivan and Viktor tell Dean where she was? I don't like him either, but he seemed genuinely worried about her."

"Dude, I am done with these questions. We hate Dean because he changed our sister. She chose him over us. There is no reason for us to help him whether he cares about her or not. Ivan and Viktor are hurting the most after what happened, but they are strong enough to hide it. She brought this on herself and she is the only one who can fix it." Roman spoke one last time before walking away from me.