Chapter 2

Emily whipped her head around at the sound of my voice. When she finally recognized me, her pupils dilated sharply.

None of the three seemed to expect me to be here.

The silence was suffocating.

Jake was the first to recover. "Nathan? When did you get back? Mom said your condition—"

I ignored him. My eyes stayed fixed on Emily.

"Why did you lie to me?"

I tried to keep my voice steady, but it still came out shaking.

Emily's gaze flickered. She looked away.

Her tone was flat. "What you're seeing is the truth. I'm pregnant with Jake's baby. My due date is next month. If I hadn't faked my death, and you found out about Jake and me, you would've lost it."

Every word she said drove another knife into my chest. I wanted to believe this was just another hallucination from the medication.

She faked her own death just to be with Jake. Orchestrated this whole elaborate lie to keep me in the dark. Left me to rot alone, barely human.

I took a deep breath, my eyes burning red as I looked at her. "If you wanted a divorce, you could have told me. You didn't have to fake your death."

Emily pressed her lips together, a flicker of shame crossing her face. She opened her mouth to say something, but Jake stepped in front of her and bowed deeply in front of me.

"Nathan, I'm sorry. This is my fault. Don't blame Emily. You never accepted me," he went on, his voice growing more wounded by the second. "If you'd found out about this, you wouldn't have been able to handle it. That's why Mom came up with this plan."

The more he talked, the more he sounded like the victim.

My mom grabbed Jake by the arm and yanked him to his feet. She turned to me with a deep frown.

"Nathan, this was my idea. I told them to keep it from you.

"Jake grew up alone out there. He's finally back now. After all the years of suffering he went through, can't you just let him have this?"

I'd heard that line so many times before.

A bitter smile pulled at my lips. "His suffering is your fault. He's your illegitimate son. That has nothing to do with me.

"No matter what I did growing up, you never looked twice at me. But the second Jake plays the victim, suddenly everything is my fault."

My voice cracked as every ounce of resentment and pain finally poured out.

Jake showed up the day after my father died. My mother brought him home and told me, "This is your brother." From that day on, everything I had was gone.

The burn scar on my forearm? I got that when I was fourteen. I accidentally broke Jake's piggy bank. He ran to Mom, and to punish me, she pressed a cigarette into my arm.

She always told me, "You've had everything your whole life. Why can't you just let your brother have something for once?"

So I let him have things. Over and over again. I let him have my inheritance. My share of the estate. My family. And finally, my wife.

"Mom," I said, "if Jake wants something, do you just give it to him every single time?"

Her face turned purple. Her chest heaved as she jabbed a finger at me and called me an ungrateful brat.

"Emily is carrying Jake's child now. What exactly do you want? If you want to come home, then behave yourself. If not, get back on a plane to that facility. I never said you could come back."

My body swayed. Exhaustion washed over me.

The facility was the worst hell I've ever lived through. I wanted to come home. But every time I called, my mother would tell the director not to let me leave. She said I was sick. That I wasn't better yet.

Now I realized—she just didn't want me coming back and ruining their happy life.

Jake tightened his grip on Emily's hand like I was about to snatch her away from him. His words, his face—everything about him made me sick.

I went pale and forced a smile. "I can forgive you. All it'll cost is your life."

Emily's face darkened. "Nathan, that's enough!"

But before she even finished speaking, Jake grabbed a vase off the table and smashed it against his own head.

Blood ran down his forehead. Emily and my mother both screamed.

A heavy slap landed across my face.

For a moment, my ears rang so loud I couldn't hear anything. All I could see was Emily's face—pure disgust and irritation.

"Nathan," she said coldly, "the person I love has always been Jake. I wouldn't have gone through the trouble of faking my death otherwise. If anything happens to him, I swear I will destroy you."