Page 242 of Swallow Your Sorries

My brother.

The wealthy uncle that never spoke to Jarett again.

My brother…

The man whom Madame must have been in love with but couldn’t have? Because aren’t Gant and Sylo cousins through their mothers?

…

The world spins as Mum sways before me.

“Jarett?”

“Mum,” I say, grabbing her fingers before they can curl around the lapel of the man’s, Sylo’s father’s jacket. “It’s not him.”

It’s not him, but it could be.

How hadn’t I noticed his resemblance to Jarettt sooner?

He was wearing a hat. You couldn’t see his blonde hair. Besides, Jarett’s eyes are pale blue, not grey…

But they look grey when it’s gloomy.

His face isn’t as chiselled. Jarett doesn’t have hollowed cheekbones…

Only because he’s always bloated with too much beer.

They’re not identical…It’s not like they’re twins…

But the resemblance is unmistakable.

So why hadn’t Gant noticed it? Why hadn’t his father, Bart Auclair?

If he stalked me for all these years, he must know what Jarett looks like. He must know what his uncle looks like.

It doesn’t make any sense.

I gaze at the man, who’s gazing at me. Only at me. Not at the bubbling woman before him.

“I’m sorry,” I say breathlessly as I try to hold her back. “She’s mistaken you for someone else.”

But I haven’t.

The man merely nods, but still, he’s just looking at me.

Watching me.

“Elle?” Sylo asks, gazing from Mum to me before he searches the pathway for who I know is Gant. “Is she okay? Do you need help?”

I’m about to refuse when Mum quite literally slumps to the ground, unable to hold up her own weight, like the thought of Jarett was the only thing keeping her upright.

“Can you help me get her to the infirmary?” I ask, still watching Jarett’s doppelgänger. “Maybe she can lay down until the play’s over then…I can figure it out.”

Figure it all out.

Before I can heft one of Mum’s arms over my shoulder, someone’s stumbling outside the theatre’s back entrance. No, not just someone, a bunch of someone’s all in costumes, all bent double, all flying toward the infirmary just a building away.

“Aria?” I ask and the moment she makes eye contact, she doubles over the rose bushes and sprays them in vomit.

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