“After you left, I sent your toothbrush in for a DNA sample. You just looked too similar to my mother for me to let it go. The test result confirmed my suspicions, that we are related but even more shocking, turns out you aren’t just our half-sister, but our full-blooded sister…” Red hot rage pulses through my veins in an instant.
“So, wait… both of your parents are my parents? Which means…”
“Matteo was lying to you the whole time,” Xander says before I can. “You are not related to him.”
“Why would he lie to me?” I growl, asking no one in particular. “Not that I am disappointed about having no connection to him.” Matter of fact, I’m a little relieved.
“Because he’s a fucking prick,” Zane replies.
“Actually, he might not have known he was lying. I think our mother did have an affair with him, but she was pregnant at the time, so he doesn’t know you’re not his daughter. He assumed, and since our mother was trying to escape our father, it makes sense.”
I’m sinking in all the secrets I’ve been told, drowning a slow and painful death. I start to shiver, my thoughts swirl as I think of all the things I did, how I betrayed Zane. Yes, I did it to save him, but I didn’t have to butter up to Matteo. I didn’t have to… guilt makes my chest cave in. I can’t breathe. I try and suck air into my lungs, but it feels like I’m choking.
“This is a lot to take in,” I whisper just as the sound of a knock fills the room. Everyone looks up to the door, where a man with a stethoscope around his neck and a bag in his hand stands.
“Ah, Doc, please, come in,” Xander greets, and the doctor steps in. “I need you to check her out. Make sure she is fine,” he orders.
The doctor nods and approaches me. For the next few minutes, he gives me a good checkup. Feeling for breaks, taking my vitals, and asking me a bunch of questions, all under the watchful eyes of Zane and Xander.
At the end, he tells me what I expected. Besides a bump on my head and a few bruises on my body, I’m fine. He leaves a few minutes later, and I am once more alone with Zane and my brand new brother.
The doctor was a brief distraction, but now I’m hit with the reality of my new life once more.
“Can you give us a little bit,” Zane says, turning me in his arms.
Xander nods and walks out of the room. As soon as he’s gone, Zane pulls me onto his lap and wraps his arms around me. He holds all my broken pieces together, holds me together.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Zane,” I sob into his shirt, feeling so torn and tattered.
“Don’t be sorry, baby… You did what you thought was right, and that’s how we both made it out of that situation alive. Matteo will pay for deceiving us, pay for trying to rip us apart. Pay for hurting you. You’re mine, Dove. Mine to protect, to cherish, to keep. Mine until I breathe my last breath.”
“I’m just confused. I don’t know what to think, what to feel. First Matteo tells me I’m his daughter, now I’m suddenly Xander’s sister… I just don’t know how to take any of this.”
“Let’s go upstairs so we can talk.”
Pulling away, I look him in the eyes, those dark eyes of his still give nothing away, but I know deep in their depths there is love and adoration for me that can never be rivaled by another.
“I’m sorry I hurt you… I never meant to push you away. Matteo told me if I didn’t get you to leave, he would kill you, and I couldn’t let you die.” More tears fall, blurring my vision completely now, and I know I’m on the verge of a full-fledged panic attack.
“Shhh, you can make it up to me. Like I told you, Dove. I will never leave you. You could stab me in the heart, shoot me in the head, lie, or cheat, and I still wouldn’t leave. Your crazy matches my crazy, and I’m never going to give you up.”
His confession only makes me sob harder, and even if I wanted to, I couldn’t object as he picks me up like I weigh nothing and carries me back out into the foyer and up a grand staircase. My vision is too blurry to make anything out, but I tell myself I can check out my surroundings tomorrow.
Zane opens a door and walks inside, closing it behind him with his foot. He deposits me onto the bed and takes the spot beside me.
“Now, let me hold you. I miss the way you smell and the way you feel in my arms. I need you like an addict needs their next fix, Dove, and I’m not sure I’m strong enough to deny myself what I want from you right now. So, please, roll over and stop looking at me like I’m a knight when really I’m the devil waiting to crack you open and feast on your soul.”