Page 38 of Bound By Obsession

I don’t know what happens next. I want to beg him to stay for the sake of the children, but how can I ask that knowing the truth? I made my choices, and now I have to live with them. All I can hope is that these babies will one day forgive me for the mistakes I’ve made.

Avery kisses my forehead, jarring me from staring into the distance and refocusing on the page. Cathy makes it sound so simple. An ignored wife, an accidental pregnancy. Except nothing about Cathy’s life was simple. She’s known worldwide, her reputation carefully crafted to seem warm, content and charitable. And all she cared about was if Nixon would stick around to continue that illusion.

“Freddie,” Avery shudders. “It makes me physically sick to know she actually fell for that psychopath.”

“Mmm,” I purse my lips. “And to know that psychopath is our dad.” A moment of dreaded silence falls, suddenly lifted by a small smile to Avery’s lips.

“Fuck me, you’re my sister Meg.” As if the notion has just hit her, Avery squeals and throws herself onto me. The diary hits the floor with a thud, instantly forgotten. I suspect it isn’t needed anymore, not when the past Avery has been chasing is right here. I’m right here. The other half of her soul, the sister she always wished she had.

Wrapping her arms around my neck, she peppers kisses in my hair. I can’t help but laugh, the sound muffled in Avery’s shoulder as she clings to me. Her excitement is infectious, even though the truth that has just been uncovered is still sinking in. The sister I never knew I had. The father we never wanted. The mother whose perfect life was anything but.

Avery pulls back just enough to cup my face, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “We’re in this together now, okay? No more secrets.”

I nod slowly, playing catch up on the implications of what ‘we’re in this together now’ really means. Avery’s expression is filled with joy and hope, and that’s how I know she hasn’t fully understood what this means for me. If my birthright becomes public knowledge, I’ll be in Fredrick’s firing line too. He’s been looking for me.

It feels like everything has shifted in an instant. The life I thought I knew, the family I thought I had—it’s all been rewritten by one man’s declaration and a few crumpled pages. But to Avery, she’s no longer alone in this. She has someone to share the burden with, someone who’s soon to be in the exact same position of being forced out of college and chased across country.

I don’t want that. I love my life.

Avery wipes a tear from my cheek with the pad of her thumb, mistaking it for the hollow realization that it actually is. Her voice is softer now. “I wish things were different. I wish Cathy had told us everything from the start, that we could’ve been with each other sooner.”

I lower my gaze, my heart heavy. Is it selfish of me to understand why Nixon wanted to keep us apart, to keep the attention off of me? Yeah, it really fucking is. “I know. But we’re here now.” My chest expands and falls but I feel nothing but hollowness inside.

We sit there in the artificial light of our bedroom, surrounded by the ghosts of a past we didn’t ask for. The air is thick with everything unsaid, my stomach knotting from the tension. My mind keeps drifting back to Nixon, though. The burdens he’s carried for twenty-one years and is still trying to run from.

“What do we do now?” I ask quietly, more to myself than Avery. The gravity of the situation presses down on me, and suddenly, I feel small again, like a child lost in someone else’s nightmare.

Avery takes a deep breath and shrugs, a familiar defiant smile flickering across her face. One I’ve seen in the mirror many times. “To be honest, I could eat.”

I laugh again, this time a little less hollow. As if I forgot how brave my twin is. How used to these turbulent twists and turns she’s become, that now it’s second nature. She’s still the exact same person she was this morning and will continue to be. Considering I’m normally the more confident one out of us, I really need to step back and take Avery’s lead on this.

“Okay, yeah. Let’s get food.” It feels good to shift the focus, even just for a minute. Avery hops off the bed, her infectious energy pulling me along as I follow her down both flights of stairs. We step into the kitchen, where the air still feels heavy and stale from our recent family meeting. The faint scent of old coffee lingers, toying with me. Except I can’t get to the machine because Wyatt is leaning on the counter in front of it, holding a cup in hand.

His sharp, unreadable eyes flick up as we enter, and the tension thickens instantly. The weight of his judgment settles over us like an invisible fog. I watch him intently as he moves like a predator, retrieving his bag and stopping in front of us. A vein protrudes from his temple, his jaw clenched tight enough to crack a tooth. Pure hatred is swirling in his green eyes, and it all seems to be directed solely at me.

Leaning close, Wyatt puts us nose to nose. “Don’t expect my protection to extend to you. I can only handle watching over one helpless fake sister at a time.”

I don’t know what Wyatt was expecting, maybe a curtsey or for me to scurry away in floods of tears, but the shock in hisface says it definitely wasn’t the full powered shove to his chest making him take a step back. Even Avery gasps and grabs for me, knowing I’d take a swing if I felt like it. I understand his world has been flipped upside down and he’s no longer sitting high up on his titanium pedestal, but I’m not meek and it’s best he realizes that from the start. Wyatt can’t intimidate me.

Dax materializes between us, holding Wyatt at bay as he tries to advance on me again. He rams his shoulder into his friend, those haunted irises glued to me the whole time. Something has changed within him. Avery and I have always known he’s a moody shitbag, but physical violence has never been one of his traits.

A hand wraps around my wrist, Axel gently tugging me away. Wyatt growls like an animal, practically frothing at the mouth as I allow myself to be removed from his firing line, pulling Avery with me. As soon as we are clear, Wyatt twists to throw his fist into the nearest wall before shoving past Dax and storming upstairs on thunderous feet.

“And here I was, thinking he’d be rolling out the welcome banner for his new sis,” I deadpan. Realizing Axel is still holding my wrist, I shake out of his grip and eye them all suspiciously. Dax has moved into the threshold between the two rooms, his hands clasped in front of him like a warden overseeing his prisoners. And then there’s Garrett, the polar opposite as usual, swinging his legs back and forth whilst sitting on the kitchen counter. A huge grin reaches from ear to ear, his dark eyes sparkling with excitement.

“Here,” Avery hands me a banana and ushers me into the living room. “Keep Huxley company while we make dinner for everyone.” I only now notice him sitting on the long sofa since he is unnervingly still, staring at the opposite wall. His pale cheeks are surprisingly hollow, no hint of the smile he used to permanently wear. Crossing the room, I take the armchair onthe far side so I can watch Avery and Dax’s dynamic. Looking over to my companion he doesn’t acknowledge me as I clear my throat.

“Rough couple of weeks, huh?” is all I can think to say. No response.Wow, someone is a barrel of laughs.Sitting back against the cushions, I unpeel my banana and turn my attention to Avery instead. She is currently washing lettuce while Dax’s biceps ripple in time with his vigorous cheese grating. He flicks a strand of cheese at her, landing in her hair as she giggles and flicks water onto his face.

A topless Axel hops down the stairs, only to find himself in the middle of a food fight. Grabbing her around the waist from behind, Avery squeals as Axel spins her in time for a handful of coriander to hit his bare back. Arming himself with a chopping board as a shield and a spatula as a sword, Axel advances on Dax who fails to dodge the spatula spank he receives on his backside.

Huffing at the sound of Avery’s giggles, Huxley pushes himself to his feet and leaves swiftly.

“It was nice talking to you,” I call after him, unable to resist. He doesn’t glance back, opening the front door and slamming it shut behind himself. “Well, fuck me I guess.” I mutter. Garrett jumps over the back of the sofa to land on his side, his hand beneath his head as he watches me take a bite of my banana.

“A few months ago, I would have taken that as an invitation,” he smirks.

“What changed?” I ask out of curiosity. His eyes slide to the group messing about in the kitchen, his attention pinpointed on Avery in the center and I have my answer. Drawing my legs beneath myself and covering them with a blanket, I settle in to watch as well. None of this evening’s revelations are evident in her sparkling blue eyes, in her wide smile. That’s what sets Avery apart from everyone else. Her whole world can be falling into chaos, but she’ll find happiness in the smallest of places. I trulybelieve it’s what pulled her through the horrific childhood I was seemingly spared.

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