Chapter 3 The Dance Video

Serena acted like she couldn't care less and still tried to argue her way out of it.

I couldn't stop shaking.

Vincent's expression darkened. "Enough, Jasper. Stop with the snide remarks. Your mother cried whenever you were mentioned during the years you went missing. You have no right to blame anyone else. Also, I've officially adopted Cameron. He's part of this family now.

"Don't you dare bully him again."

I looked up at him, my heart tightening with every beat. So, they'd replaced me with Cameron a long time ago.

Whatever. It was just a room. I wasn't going to be alive much longer anyway.

"Fine. I'll stay in the guest room on the third floor."

When I finally gave in, Alina, who had been silent until then, shoved the camera in her hand at me. "It's supposed to snow heavily tonight. Film Cameron's dance video. It'll help you two bond as brothers."

I stared at her in disbelief. "Alina, my heart was damaged when I was a kid because I saved you. I can't be out in the cold. Did you forget that, too?"

"Stop lying. I just found out that you weren't the one who saved me back then. It was Cameron."

My breath caught. "What did you just say?"

Alina sneered. "Are you seriously still pretending? I already asked your parents about it. They told me it was Cameron who saved me, but you stole his credit."

I stared at my parents in disbelief.

They avoided my eyes.

"It was Cameron who saved Alina. We can't favor you just because you're our biological son."

The damage to my heart from all those years ago started to ache again.

I couldn't help but wonder now just what had all those stitches, all those times I'd been rushed back from the brink of death, been for?

"You're Cameron's brother, so I'll let the fact that you lied to me go. But as for the engagement, it should go to him instead."

There was contempt in Alina's eyes.

I was so disappointed that I wanted to laugh at their faces. If that was how things were, then there truly was nothing left to explain.

"Fine. Give it to him."

I saw the relief spread across my parents' faces.

The snow was coming down hard. Alina kept scooping it up with her hands and sprinkling it over Cameron.

She was a violinist, so her hands were the most important things to her. Yet, she was willing to let her fingers turn purple from the cold for Cameron, smiling so happily all the while.

Cameron kept complaining that my filming was awful.

…

In the end, I stood in the snow for two hours, my heart and leg aching to the bone.

I didn't know whether I was imagining it, but it definitely felt like my cancer was spreading faster.

He looked incredible dancing on camera.

Truthfully, I envied him a little. If I had never been kidnapped, if I'd grown up surrounded by love… Would I have turned out like him?

The heater in the third-floor guest room was broken. I curled up under the blankets that night, my leg throbbing with every passing breath. I didn't sleep a wink.

…

As soon as morning came, I went to a nearby dance studio and signed up for classes.

Although this was likely the last time I'd be able to experience what it was like to be in Cameron's shoes, it was still enough.

However, I had barely done the first move when someone slapped me hard enough to send me crashing to the floor.

My cheek went numb from the pain.

"I knew it. I wondered where you'd gone so early in the morning. Just because you didn't like your room, you ran off and decided to ruin Cameron's life."

Vincent grabbed me by the collar and hauled me to my feet.

"What are you talking about? I don't know what you mean."

I was dazed from the blow and covered my cheek with my hand.

"Don't play dumb!"

Serena rushed over, jabbing a finger so close to my eye that her nail scraped across my eyelid.

Pain shot through me.

"How could you still play the fool? One of Cameron's students was injured last week and ended up paralyzed. The parents were already making a scene. Yet, you dare show up here dancing with your bad leg?"