Chapter 6

Dad roughly hauled me to my feet and pointed at Steve's battered face.

"Look at what you did to Steve's face! Were you trying to ruin him?" he roared. "Nathan, you're sick with jealousy! If you can beat your own brother like this, who's to say we're not next?"

Hearing him call Steve my brother made something inside me snap. All the hurt, anger, and resentment I'd been holding back exploded at once.

I ignored the wounds that had already split open and screamed at the top of my lungs, "He's not my brother! Aaron is my only brother, and he's already dead!"

My voice echoed through the house, raw and hysterical. "What right do you have to lecture me? The three of you are murderers! You're all responsible for Aaron's death!

"You're grown adults, yet you can't even tell right from wrong or see the truth! You don't deserve to be parents. I hate you!"

A suffocating silence fell over the living room.

Dad grabbed a mug from the table and hurled it to the floor, shattering it into pieces.

"The insane lies you tell just to avoid taking the blame!" he shouted, his body trembling with fury. "Once I'm done dealing with you, I'm going to drag Aaron back here myself! If you turned out this badly, he's probably just as useless!"

Seeing his chance, Steve quickly handed Dad his belt.

The belt lashed across my back, striking my surgical wounds again and again.

"I made a mistake!" Dad roared between strikes. "I shouldn't have sent you two to the countryside! I should've thrown you straight into juvenile hall instead! Stealing money, and now plotting to get our assets? Where is Aaron? Get him here now! I'll beat some sense into both of you!"

Blood seeped through my clothes from the reopened wounds, and I was suddenly grateful I was wearing a dark shirt. I refused to show any weakness in front of the people who had caused Aaron's death.

Swallowing the pain, I said, "Fine. I'll take you to him."

I got into the car and entered the location of Aaron's grave into the GPS.

The whole drive there, Mom and Dad kept complaining that we were heading the wrong way. Steve even accused me of deliberately taking them somewhere remote to rob and murder them.

I was too physically drained to bother arguing.

An hour later, the car stopped at the foot of a mountain.

"Aaron's here?" Dad asked, looking out the window.

I didn't answer. I just got out and started climbing.

By the time we reached halfway up the mountain, my face had gone deathly pale.

Dad lost his patience first. "If you dare try to pull something…"

"He's right there," I whispered, pointing to a small, fresh mound of earth beneath a tree. Tears welled up in my eyes again.

Mom and Dad froze. They exchanged an uneasy glance before turning back to me.

"Nathan, this isn't funny," Dad warned, his voice tight.

Mom looked too devastated to say another word to me. She turned away and called Aaron herself.

I let out a bitter laugh and said nothing.

When they sent us to the countryside, they only gave us two outdated, cheap phones that didn't even have GPS.

Because they'd been so tight-fisted with us, the police couldn't use Aaron's phone to track his location in time. They cost him his only chance of being rescued.

After three calls went straight to voicemail, Mom finally broke down. She looked at me. Her eyes held a skeptical gleam. "Nathan… where did you hide Aaron?"