“Are you okay, baby?” Dylan asks low to me as Dad stalks toward the foyer.
Iblink at the island’s marble, the overhead lights becoming too bright. It feels like pins in my eyes, jabbing at me. Both of my parents have jogged to the door, waiting to see who could be interrupting our evening, but I’mtrapped.
I’m not in my body. Something isn’t right. There’s a tug deep in my gut, a feeling I haven’t experienced inyears. It’s making this all seem too real.
The door opens, and Mom gasps. A beat of silence passes. No one moves. I can’t turn around to see who they’re looking at. Ican’t.
“Kaden…” Dad whispers in disbelief.
For the first time in six years, a voice I haven’t heard touches my ears. It’s deep and masculine, edged with gravel and making my whole body shake. “Hey, Dad. I’m home.”
My glass falls to the ground, shattering sharply against the marble.
Chapter forty-one
Melody
“Fuck,baby,”Dylancurses,dropping to a crouch as he attempts to pick up the scattered fragments. I’m left staring at the glinting shards, a poorly timed replica of my own internal agony bleeding out in front of me.
Mom bursts into loud tears, and I hear clothes rustling. She’shugginghim. Dad stutters through his words, finally forcing out a full sentence. “I-Is it really you?”
“In the flesh,”hesays.
Dylan rises, unaware of how my whole world has just imploded right before my very eyes. “Is that the brother who disappeared?” He whispers.
I nod slowly, still not in my body.
My fiancé steps in front of me, taking my cold, still hands in his. “You’re in shock, Melody. Justbreathe.”
I haven’t been breathing this whole time. I’m starting to feel lightheaded as my face burns. I suck in, but it’s painful.
Behind me, wracked sobs of relief and pain burst like a punctured lung. Dad is talking a mile a minute, but I can’t hear a single word.
He’s here.
Kaden…
“Look at me, Melody,” Dylan instructs like he’s done a million times during my panic attacks. My eyes shift up, and his face slowly comes into view. “You’reokay. Everything is okay.”
The wetness tracks down my cheeks before I even realize that I’m crying. I can’t tell if my reaction is from the shock or thefear. That this was all a part of his plan.
“Hey, baby,” Dylan mutters as he wipes under my eyes. “I know it’s a lot, but he made it back to you.”
My fiancé’s words echo back at me, weaponized and haunting because he has no idea what Kaden and I’s relationship was like.No onedoes.
All the world knows is that I’m the poor, broken girl whose brother went missing and was overcome with my grief. That’s been the story for the last six years, and I’ve stuck to it.
“What happened?” Dad asks as his voice cracks, cutting through my haze. “Where have you been?”
“Here and there,” Kaden responds as if he hasn’t been missing forsix years.
There’s silence, and I can feel Dad’s anger radiating through my back before Mom stops him from lashing out. “It doesn’t matterwherehe was. All that matters is that he’s home now.”
“Here to stay, too,” Kaden sucks his teeth.
“Are you okay?” Dylan asks quietly.
I close my eyes, nodding.
