Page 54 of Inside the Sun

His tone is completely neutral, like he’s offering me a tissue or a glass of water. I take the bag, jaw clenched, and check my face in the mirror. The swelling’s mostly gone, but my right cheek is a mess of ugly colors. I cover it with foundation. No big deal. I’ve worn it before, so my dad probably won’t be surprised.

When we finally pull into the parking lot, Matteo turns to me.

"Lean forward," he says.

He removes my collar.

"You know there’s really nowhere for you to run," he says the obvious calmly, then holds up his tablet again. This time showing me a list of addresses. For a second, I don’t get what I’m looking at.

Then he explains, "Don’t recognize them? These are the home addresses of all your brothers. All seven of them. We even got River. There’s Snow and Bay, those two were easy, they live on your parents’ property. Skye moved back in with them after college, so they’re all there together. And here’s Rain’s address. And this one’s Storm’s. Just to be thorough, we also got the address of your foster brother slash cousin, Nathaniel. You grewup with him, didn’t you? And his older brother, Hunter, is here too. Just to round things out. Gotta do a proper job, right?"

I stare at the list in stunned silence. The lives of twelve people depend on me. And I'm not the most dependable person in my family.

Seeing my expression, Matteo grins.

"So, it’s up to you. You decide these guys’ fate. Think it over. Maybe it’s better to just let them live, what do you think?"

I don’t answer. I’m not lowering myself to this level. Fucking psychos.

We get out of the car in the parking lot.

"You go in first," Matteo says, tapping the screen where my room is shown on a live feed from the camera. "We’ll follow a few minutes later. You’re being watched the whole time."

My jaw tightens as I leave the garage and head toward the dorm entrance.

That two-faced beta is still sitting at his desk. He glances up at me but doesn’t react. Like it’s totally normal I didn’t come back last night.

I walk past him without a word and make it to my room. I’m numb. In my head, I’m trying to map out how I’m going to act.

I sit down at my desk and open my laptop.

Mindlessly, I scroll through some pictures from my last photo shoot two months ago. I pick two and post them on Instagram like nothing at all is wrong in my life.

Fifteen minutes later, I hear footsteps in the hallway.

When Dad walks in, something clenches in my stomach.

There's an aura around him, like the halo of the sun. He should have the name, not me.

He’s carrying a bag—food, probably. Poor guy doesn’t know I won’t be needing it right now.

"Sun!"

Earlier I didn’t feel like hugging him, but now I throw myself into his arms and hold him tight.

His body is much smaller than mine, he’s an omega, after all, but it’s warm and familiar. He representseverything goodin my life. Love. Softness. Carefree childhood memories. All those hours I spent time curled up on his lap while he read me picture books or purred to soothe me. Evenings I fell asleep to the sound of his voice singing. I used to love that voice, so melodic, so comforting.

I never appreciated thegoodhe gave me. And now I have to live with theevilI’ve brought on myself.

He pulls away just enough to look into my eyes.

"Sun, sweetheart… tell me what happened?"

His turquoise eyes bore into me like he’s trying to see straight through to my soul. But I can’t let him. I can’t tell him the truth, precisely because I love him too much.

"It’s nothing serious, Dad," I lie, my voice shaky. We sit on my bed, and he takes my hand.

"I can feel something’s wrong. I know you’re hurting."

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